Second attempt at form video

[Bladepeek]

I had my wife take a series of stills a few years ago and I wanted nobody to see them. Finally got around to taking a couple of videos (or asking her to take them). I'd appreciate your comments. I noticed I either seem to be "flinching"(?), or I'm snagging the corner of my mouth at release. Got some weird yells/grunts that I wasn't aware of.

Also, please ignore any loving comments between my wife and me. She's opposed to hunting and resents doing anything that might improve my odds of killing Bambi:-)

   

   

   

   

[Northwest_Bowhunter]

It will take someone with a better eye then mine to find something wrong with your form.  Are you hitting what you are shooting at?

[moebow]

Blade,   Over all you look pretty good.  It appears that your string arm elbow rides a little too low at full draw but it isn't horrible - just a little low.

Also, try to relax a little more and just let the shot happen.  See how your whole body kind of jerks when you release?  That's just holding too much tension in areas where you could be relaxed.  Do some shooting where you don't care about hitting anything and "explore" all areas of your body and try getting everything relaxed that you don't need.

Again, pretty darn good shot overall, just try not to force it quite so much.

Arne

[McDave]

I think you should try to slow down your shot a little.  Try to reach a position at full draw where you don't feel stressed, where you feel like you could hold all day if you wanted to.  This would be a position where you feel like you're holding with your bones rather than your muscles.  Although your back muscles will be involved, they are large muscles and usually don't feel stressed when you hold them for a while.  I notice in some of the shots that your bow arm/hand is moving around quite a bit after the shot.  At first, I thought about advising you to work on your follow-through.  But after several viewings, I think you are following through okay, and the movement I see is just a natural reaction of your body to unnatural forces during the shot.  Experiment around with slight changes in your alignment until you eliminate as much of this post-shot movement as possible.  Do you think you could be torqueing the string or your grip, and this could possibly be causing the post-shot movements?  Try raising your elbow some, as Arne suggests, and see if that helps.

[Bladepeek]

Thanks, both of you.

Arne, I would never have caught the string elbow being too low. The tenseness, comes through loud and clear, even to me. First time I ever saw myself on video.

McDave, I'm not sure what exactly my bow arm is doing, but it sure ain't good. The funny thing is that I center punched the spots in the video. I've been having trouble with consistency and I hate to think what my whole body is doing when the shots go wild. It must be all kinds of herky jerky.

If you guys want a good laugh, on a couple of occasions, the lower limb came back so far it was hitting me in the butt. I had a tip protector on the lower tip and found it in my back pocket after shooting.

I have some very specific things to look at and some general relaxing and "quieting down" to work on.

Thanks for your help.

Ron

[Bladepeek]

Took another set of videos today, trying to relax the bow arm (and everything else) a bit. Also got the string elbow up a bit.

first with a 33# longbow, to see if maybe I was struggling a bit with my hunting bow; then with the same 50# recurve I recorded yesterday. I think I see some improvement, but my release is still not consistent. Sometimes it's very fluid and other times nearly static.

Anyway, I have my goals set and at least I know what I want to accomplish. Now I'm going to move in really close and do some blind bale work until it feels right.

 

 

[moebow]

Vast improvement!!  I'd suggest sticking with the light bow for a while.  That will give you the chance to better "explore" your shot routine.  When you start blank/blind baling, really mentally study yourself, find every area and see where you can relax muscles that aren't really needed.  This is much easier on the lighter bow.

Also,  Your release right now looks really pretty good -- BUT it will take TIME and repetition to get it so it happens all the time.  Don't rush it, be patient and shoot each shot while THINKING about what you are doing.  After a period of time, you won't have to think about it all the time but in the beginning "THINK EXECUTION" NOT target. Let the shot happen -- don't make it happen.

Good improvement!

Arne

[Bladepeek]

Thanks Arne.

My plan is to keep working my back with my hunting bows - a lefty and a righty, but not shooting them. I will draw and hold; then let back down. Do an equal number of reps left and right. Seems that at my age you lose strength SO fast.

My shooting will be with the lighter bows and blank and sometimes blind bale until I get this burned in.

I checked the web site for NTS coaches you listed in another post and once I start feeling like I have a working routine, I will schedule some sessions with one of the coaches in my area (there are 3 or 4). I've been coaching youth skeet teams (SCTP) for a number of years and know how much easier it is for someone who knows what to look for to spot WHY something is going wrong than it is for the shooter himself to spot it.

Thanks for your help.

Ron

[ghoster808]

Originally posted by moebow:
"THINK EXECUTION" NOT target. Let the shot happen -- don't make it happen.

This is a real Pearl! Love it, it's my message of the day. Thanks for sharing!