Injuries and Trad Folks

[boinky]

I really just got into shooting trad this year and have been shooting religiously for the past 5 months.......and getting pretty good at it!

I have two other trad guys (who are members on tradgang) who have been shooting longer than me and both have some serious shoulder and elbow problems from shooting, maybe they are just getting old.   :D

I have also been doing LOTS of reading and it seems that injuries to elbows/shoulders are common to trad hunters.  

Should I expect to encounter these issues?  Right now I am fine.

I would expect that if you have proper form and alignment, and keep yourself in good shape, there is no reason to expect injuries due to trad shooting! I have been shooting 20yrs, and never had a shooting related injury. I know several guys who have been shooting a lot longer than me with no injuries.

Bisch

[ChuckC]

I agree with Bisch, I think many of us hurt ourselves due to pulling and holding heavy weight the wrong way.  

I have been working on refining my form and I can tell you from experience that the old way, the only way I knew, was really not that great.  

The way I now line up, draw, etc not makes the same weight bows feel easy.  Holding them for a reasonable time. .  easy.

Take the time to learn to do it the right way.  It makes a difference.
ChuckC

[kevsuperg]

Don't over bow yourself, don't do marathon shooting sessions and use proper form and you should be good to go, however no one can predict the future.
 If you feel tired or strained , take some time off.

[Rudy Cariello]

If I had a buck for every fella that told me he had a shoulder problem at the last Trad shoot I went to, I'd be several dollars richer.
Lots of Greybeards with shoulder problems these days.
I'm thinking the average bow weight has gone down quite a bit from back in the 80's. Seems like back then everyone had to have a 60+ pound bow.

In a conversation with Terry Bannit from the Footed Shaft a couple of weeks ago at the Horicon Shoot, he mentioned that he has a pretty tough time selling bows over 60#'s these days.

Been shooting mid 40's to low 50's bows for years and see no reason to change.

[Pat B]

I've been shooting trad since the late 1980s and never had shoulder problems or any other injuries from it. I shoot 56#@26" normally but range from 45# to 60#. I shoot mostly selfbows now but also shoot glass recurves and long bows.

[MnFn]

I shoot low to mid fifty lb recurves and have since the 1990's, lighree weights before then.

At age 62,  I pay a lot more attention to pain than I used to, primarily because it takes longer to heal up than it used to.

No problems with shoulders, but I do develop elbow pain if  I shoot too many shots at one time.  It is easy to overdue it, especially if frustrated with my shooting.  Then it is best for me to put things away for another day.

[redfish]

I can't speak for others, but my injuries did not result from shooting bows.  Most were from things I did when I was young and stupid.  However, some resulted from things I did when old and stupid, such as my elbow injury that caused me to lose about 6 months of shooting time and the bow season last year, which was caused by me trying to lift and pull too much carpet out of the house at one time. My worst shoulder injury was from a collision in a softball game.

[boinky]

Thanks for the input!  It has been a few days since I last shot.  

I fell pretty confident that I have correct posture and stance!

I am in my 60s, I shoot 5 days a week for about two hours with 6 to 8 arrows a round.  Years ago when shooting a 96 pound bow and doing long holds, I felt something give in the base knuckle of my middle finger, it still flares up if I start working on things and doing to much hold time and blank draws when I shoot right handed.  Jamming and torquing joints under pressure is not good for them.  Two years ago I hurt my back between my shoulder blades when shooting a 32 pound target bow. The hold time was too long, the clicker was set up too long, I was having fun for too long.  Oddly, when I go on long shooting binges and just do the Hill swing draw anchor deep release thing, I never hurt myself.  I should have listened to John Schulz 44 years ago and got that 55 pound yew for my first custom longbow and then worked up to maybe just 65 pounds, but being young and dumb and strong as a bull, I started out heavy and went heavier.

[beachbowhunter]

Watch someone draw a compound with a release and ask yourself which motion looks more unnatural!

[old_goat2]

Mostly has to do with bow choice in my opinion and the rest is bad mechanics and like you said, old age, things we did to our body when we were young are biting us now .

[Paul Shirek]

I agree with all that has been said. Here's one more thing to consider. Try shooting only every other day. Give your muscles and joints a day to recover. Archery is basically weightlifting. Your body needs time to recover between workouts. Just my opinion but...

[Orion]

Lots of folks have shoulder and elbow problems. They're not necessarily caused by archery.  Age, occupation and other recreational activities have a lot to do with it.  

I've been shooting a stick for more than 50 years.  Used to shoot fairly heavy bows, 60#-70#, but now in the 50# range.  Shot almost daily for nearly 30 years.  Still shoot most days now, and usually a 3-D shoot or two on weekends.  Knock on wood, but I've never had shoulder or elbow problems, or any other physical problems that I can attribute to shooting a bow.

[M60gunner]

staying in some type of shape is important no doubt about that. I know guys that do warm up excerises with one of those tube things before shooting. Just like any athlete warms up before a game. i think it cuts down on those injuries that may not do more than hurt a few days when we are young. But those same injuries come back with a vengeance in later years.

[highlow]

M60x2. I'm 71 and shoot bows in the low to mid 40s. I second the importance of warmups. Watch any athletic event and warmups are an essential part of the preparation. I will warm up by gradually drawing the bow in ever increasing distances with pauses in between to allow my muscles or tendons or whatever to get used to the activity. Knock on wood, so far, so good. Unfortunately, sometimes, no matter what, injuries happen. Best to take steps to mitigate that possibility.

[Tajue17]

I never use proper back tension, the give away with me was I never could shoot over 60# without shaking,,, 35yrs later I'm starting to have shoulder problems not and recently dropped to 44# from 55#..

friend of mine who always had good back tension recently dropped in draw weight from 79# to 67# and he's 59yrs old and no shoulder problems at all.

[TRAP]

My poor shoulder has taken tons of abuse.

15 years of being a catcher, 8 years as a trim carpenter using an old style Senco nail gun, 1000's and 1000's of shotgun recoils to the front side.  

I once had a really nice buck right under my stand jump when my shoulder popped while drawing a 70# compound.  That was at least 25 years ago when I was a fairly young lad because Ive been hunting with recurves and longbows since the mid 80s.

Stay in shape and shoot often,  I shoot bows in the mid 50# range with no problems and no pain. Proper form is key. I shoot almost every day but never a lot of arrows at one time.

[2bird]

Originally posted by boinky:
I really just got into shooting trad this year and have been shooting religiously for the past 5 months.......and getting pretty good at it!

I have two other trad guys (who are members on tradgang) who have been shooting longer than me and both have some serious shoulder and elbow problems from shooting, maybe they are just getting old.    :D  

I have also been doing LOTS of reading and it seems that injuries to elbows/shoulders are common to trad hunters.  

Should I expect to encounter these issues?  Right now I am fine.

Most of those guys are over bowed, have poor form or shoot like 400+ arrows everyday like Jimmy Blackmon.

[longbowman]

Boinky,  If you shoot correctly and shoot regularly I don't know why you would have any more shoulder/elbow problems than anybody else who shoots any kind of bow.  I'm mid 60's and still shoot bows in the 70/80# range with no problems.  I'm not a big guy either, 5'8" 155#.  I too read on this site about guys having these problems and don't quite understand why.