Back Tension: AN EPIPHANY!

[Landlocked Pirate]

Hey y'all,

As mentioned in my one previous thread, I'm a fairly new shooter and a brand new forum member, and as such am the least qualified person here to be giving advice. BUT... as a result of reading through some of the threads here in the FORM forum about back tension, I've gotta share my experience because it might help other new shooters like myself. I apologize for the length.
My son and I recently bought identical Bear Grizzly 50# recurves (probably too much, I now know) and took up shooting, and have quite frankly been tickled at how quickly we became tolerably good, regularly hitting a 20 oz. soft drink bottle suspended in front of our backstop at a measured 27 yards. The only problem with me is that (1) my draw length is 29.5" by any measure, which means I have to overdraw my 28" draw bow slightly and it stacks, and (2) I'm 58, and usually after a long shooting session my shoulder feels like I have a knife wedged down between it for a few days afterward.
But after reading here on the subject of back tension I started examining my form in a mirror and I realized that I had developed what I believe to be a bad habit of, as I sort of rocked back and forth before drawing, my rear (string) shoulder was in a forward position and therefore when I drew it was all being done with my upper arm and shoulder. That was a pretty big strain on my muscles, made it difficult to fully reach my anchor point, and my elbow stuck out like a chicken wing. But then, as I started trying to implement some of what I had read, I realized that by keeping my rear shoulder back and not letting it slump forward before drawing, all the strain was off my arm and shoulder, and not only could I draw without pain (my shoulder was already hurting and I had planned about a week layoff to let it heal) but that I could hold it at full anchor as long as I felt I needed to. I then took my bow outside to put it to the test, and the results were astounding! No pain, could hold at full anchor with no difficulty, and hit where I wanted to. Man, I wish I had read some of this stuff earlier.
So my point is, for me, being able to use the back tensioning method effectively was as simple as starting my draw with my rear shoulder well back instead of slumped forward. I don't know that it would be that simple for everyone but it was for me. Thanks!

[Fishburglar]

you know the expansion part i was slaking on. just tonight i practiced. and WOWWW what a difference my groupsffrom 10 yards narrowed downthe tighest i  ever had. i began shooting only 1 arrowsas if a hunting shot. and for 1 hr and a half i was on point ranging from10- 40 yards i was dam shocked and extremely proud of myself. keeepworking on it!

[So-Mo Archer]

Pirate, I had the same thing happen to me in the last little while reading this forum. I have old injury issues in my right shoulder, and had the pain you speak of. I made a similar adjustment, and now can draw and hold without a grimace. My groups are starting to look better too!

[Echo62]

Pirate,thanks for the insight.

[ShinBone]

I just made a Hunger Game style back tension form vid.

However, it seems that I am using arm first and I transition smoothly (most of the time) into a back tension position.

Note the arrow tip . . . on most of them, it never creeps forward.  Rather, it continually moves back.  No creep--most shots.

However, I can't seem to get back to start.  I seem to use arm and transition smoothly into a back tension.  

For the life of me, I can't use back tension at the start of the pull.  My upper arm would get squished into my chest. And it feels very uncomfortable because my upper arm (the inside of the humerus) is squished hard into my chest--were I to commence with the back muscles.

I guess it is something I still have to figure out.  I don't know if I will figure it out or I will stick with arm first and the smooth transtion between arm and back tension, as seen in the video.

comments and critique welcome.  

It was a fun vid to make

:-)
The link to the video is here: It is clickable to the video below:

 

[Landlocked Pirate]

I must sheepily admit that after that burst of enthusiam following initial positive results, I went on and lapsed into bad form and actually injured hurt my shoulder even further. What has really made the difference since then is some very simple advice in Moebow's video on rotational drawing where he says to keep the biceps, forearm, and string wrist completely relaxed. I find that if I remember to do that, everything else falls into place. In fact, with the arm and wrist completely relaxed, there's not much way to draw except with the back muscles, seems to me. Here's that video:  

[Able]

I'm super new to traditional, but I think I might have had the same epiphany today. I wasn't sure what it was till it happened and it felt right. My hard part is re creating it. It kind of felt  like I was was rolling my elbow differently on the draw and I could feel it in my back. Instantly my groups tightened and became way more accurate. But now I'm thinking about it to much and jacking it up. Will try again tomorrow and see how it goes. Thanks for the post, I'll try some of the above mentioned ideas and see how it goes.

[Landlocked Pirate]

Able, what you said about recreating it was exactly the case with me. I thought I was doing the same thing when I shot again later but I wasn't and I did damage to my already injured shoulder. That's why I appreciate that video so much, it's a better method to remember for repeatability. In fact. Although I had planned to refrain from shooting for as long as it took to let my shoulder heal, I found that I could shoot using the relaxed wrist/arm method and it caused no strain on my shoulder at all.