Good Groups, but what about my form and release?

[Terry Green]

Doug....all looks good but you rear alignment as stated before.  You head is right were it needs to be making you a perfect "T" from that angle.  Also, you head being in that position is natural and will be easily repeatable on more awkward shots. If you took an over head clip, you would find your drawing elbow at about 5 O'clock and it needs to be closer to 6 to get more bone on bone and back tension.

Looks like you are a good shot 'as is', but where you will run into trouble, again, is in the field when you are muscling the bow and have to contort those muscles from an unorthodox position.  

If you can incorporate a double anchor, and groove that in, I think your groups will tighten up more and give you the repeatable consistent back tension.

Of course, when you change anything it will feel weird at 1st, but will become natural and feel normal with repetition.

[ishoot4thrills]

Thanks again, Terry. I've been tryin' the double anchor thing some, but these limbs are just too much draw weight for me. Plus I can't keep from hitting my nose and my lip when I draw farther back at this point. And, of course, I'm spraying my arrows all over the place. Maybe because it's just too hard to hold the weight when I draw farther. I might better keep things the way they are for now until I can get a set of 50-55# limbs.

Do you have any video clips of you shooting a bow that I could see? I would like to see your anchor point, especially. Plus, the position of your bow at full draw. Do you cant the bow?

[Terry Green]

Broadside profile with wife\\'s commentary   2.0 MEG  wmv file

  Isolation repeat & slo-mo  

  Broadside close up silent

  View from the rear

 Extreme Cant Angles

  Over the Pond......

[ishoot4thrills]

Terry, I only got to watch 2 of the vids. I think it was the 3rd and 4th ones. The others, I just got a blank window for some reason. Anyway, I see that you cant the bow somewhat more than I do. I also notice that you bend more than me, too. I will try doing that on my next session. Thanks a bunch, man!

[Terry Green]

Sorry you couldn't see them all...I got Tom Mussatto on the case to see what's up.

BTW, you don't have to bend as much as me...all you need to do is try and get that elbow back a bit more.

Hard to tell in the clips as I'm a snap shooter, but I do have a double anchor...the arrow don't go till my thumb base knuckle slides behind my jaw under my ear.

[ishoot4thrills]

I think I might like bending as much as you, though. That way I think I can keep the arrow under my eye better as I try to draw the bow farther. I think that's one of the main reasons I anchor where I do is because the "eye over the arrow" thingy.

I use Mozilla Firefox web browser, which might be the problem with the video links, I don't know. What browser are you using and what happens when you click on the links?

[Terry Green]

Same Browser....and they all come up fine.

Lets see what Tom says....

[longbowguy]

I still think it looks good for your build. From this angle I don't see much room to increase your draw length without messing you up. And no you don't look overbowed from the pix. But I suspect if you were to shoot 80 to 100 arrows a day for 5 or 6 days a week as many of us do in season you might find you are overbowed for that. But I think you could handle this weight in hunting camp. But there isn't much game on this continent that needs more than 50 pounds.

I do think you can get more out of your stroke. On the first shot in the video your elbow came back and around toward your back very nicely. That is what back tension can do. Your hand came fairly straight back but did not end up relaxed as I like to see. The next several shots looked tighter and shorter and your hand went out more. On the last shot your string fingers appeared to flip forward on release and the shot looked the weakest.

I would work on backtension, contracting the lower rhomboid muscle just inside and below your right shoulder blade. It is a rotational movement; your elbow should rotate toward your back, not just pull straight away from the target. Also note the feel in your chest at follow through. The back contracts, the chest expands until everthing reaches your limit and you feel a thump. It can actually hurt a bit in the chest if you get a really full follow-through.

This will also help get your elbow around more fully in line with the arrow and target line, and your string hand moving straight back. - lbg

[Tom Mussatto]

Douglas, clip 3 and 4 are in a streaming format and the rest are wmv Format. Are you using Windows Media Player as your viewer? If so you should be able to view them all. If not, make sure you have the most current version of Windows Media Player installed, free download from Microsoft site. You might also try right clicking the files and downloading them to you computer before opening them up.

Firefox should not be the problem.

[ishoot4thrills]

Wow, this is great stuff, guys! Thanks for all the tips.

Yes, Tom, the ones that I can view are defaulted to Windows MP.

Thanks again guys!

Doug

[Terry Green]

Yes..that's what I meant getting your elbow back closer to 6, it will rotate more like in my clips than just pulling straight back like suggested earlier to simply move your head back or leaning back...And you will gain draw length in the process.  Moving your head back or leaning back might give you more draw length, but will not give you back tension as the direction will be to pull farther back than around.  Your drawing elbow will make more of a 'J' shape with the curve at the end as you acquire back tension.

You have already proven this on your clip with one shot when you got our elbow around more, so you can do it again.  

Geezzz...I need to slow down..sorry for the butchered spelling!