# How to strengthen your draw hold muscles?



## highlander4

I'm having trouble holding on target. Draw weight is 55lb. and hold weight is 12lb. Do I just need to find some bands that simulates like 15lb. Then exercise with it daily and not counting shooting my bow every day?


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## da white shoe

Many things could be causing this and there are as many things that could help... hard to tell what's what here.

Muscle strength training could help, but the bow should be held at full draw, (almost exclusively)... with the muscles of the back.
The hands, arms and shoulders should be as near to 100% relaxed as you can make them. If they aren't, there will be tension and, therefore the pins will not be steady.
To do this, the draw length has to be nearly perfect. Too long and it will be very tough to steady the sight picture. It can make alignment with target less than comfortable too.
Too short isn't good either, but it typically doesn't effect the sight picture nearly as much as being too long does. 

Peep height should be natural. The head and neck should be held erect with no lean in any direction. Draw the bow, eyes closed and then open them... peep should be right there.
Controlled breathing isn't just for guys shooting a scoped rifle. It differs a little with a bow. A few deep breaths to oxygenate the blood and then holding 80% of the last one in... to make your body core ridged.
Stance at shoulder width will be more solid than feet together.
The bows physical mass weight can play a part. Heavier is generally steadier... up to a point. Everyone has their preference... it's best to experiment with this a little.

Just know that the pins do not have to be rock steady for you to shoot a bow... and very accurately to boot. 
Concentrating on the pin is a big mistake. Total focus should be on the spot you want to hit.
Trusting the "float" of the sight pin takes some work, but it is worth the effort to learn.


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## archerdad

shoot a lot!


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## da white shoe

Shooting a lot won't do much good if your bow doesn't fit in the first place.

Shooting a lot won't help if you are in the early stages of target panic... trying to control the bow, the sight pin and the moment of release, all at the same time.

I don't know if that is the case here... just sayin'.


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## archerdad

honestly my reply was pretty much toungue in cheek...:embara:


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## da white shoe

archerdad said:


> honestly my reply was pretty much toungue in cheek...:embara:


Sorry... a guy can't take anything for granted around here!

It would help if the guys posting these questions would give just a little more detail.

Wouldn't have to type a 500 word answer... that might not have anything to do with the problem.


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## highlander4

I was leaning down to see through my peep is part of it. I fixed that now I need to just shoot more. I only started shooting seriously about 6 weeks ago and I'm still trying to get everything together.


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## highlander4

da white shoe said:


> Many things could be causing this and there are as many things that could help... hard to tell what's what here.
> 
> Muscle strength training could help, but the bow should be held at full draw, (almost exclusively)... with the muscles of the back.
> The hands, arms and shoulders should be as near to 100% relaxed as you can make them. If they aren't, there will be tension and, therefore the pins will not be steady.
> To do this, the draw length has to be nearly perfect. Too long and it will be very tough to steady the sight picture. It can make alignment with target less than comfortable too.
> Too short isn't good either, but it typically doesn't effect the sight picture nearly as much as being too long does.
> 
> Peep height should be natural. The head and neck should be held erect with no lean in any direction. Draw the bow, eyes closed and then open them... peep should be right there.
> Controlled breathing isn't just for guys shooting a scoped rifle. It differs a little with a bow. A few deep breaths to oxygenate the blood and then holding 80% of the last one in... to make your body core ridged.
> Stance at shoulder width will be more solid than feet together.
> The bows physical mass weight can play a part. Heavier is generally steadier... up to a point. Everyone has their preference... it's best to experiment with this a little.
> 
> Just know that the pins do not have to be rock steady for you to shoot a bow... and very accurately to boot.
> Concentrating on the pin is a big mistake. Total focus should be on the spot you want to hit.
> Trusting the "float" of the sight pin takes some work, but it is worth the effort to learn.


Thanks! Just what I needed.


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## da white shoe

I'm glad to help. If you're just starting out with a bow, this might be something for you to consider.

...........................................LEARNING TO SHOOT WITH BACK TENSION AND A SURPRISE RELEASE..............................................

The natural inclination for everyone that first picks up a bow is to use every muscle they have to draw and hold it back. Then, they will invariably try to watch the sight pin and the target at the same time... impossible to do. It feels athletic to try to control the bow, but that is the wrong approach. I know that when I first started shooting, I felt that I needed to "shoot the bow." After a lot of inconsistency, I came to the conclusion that I needed to let the bow shoot itself! I had found a new philosophy in archery. To be static. Like a bow shooting machine. To just stay out of the way and allow the arrow to leave the bow with no outside influences working against it... namely me! After all, if my bow was being shot out of a shooting machine the arrows would all be going in the same hole! 

Your muscles have to be relaxed at full draw... and remain relaxed... in order for your sight pins to be steady. At full draw, your release hand as well as your bow hand, should be completely relaxed. You don't want to be grasping or squeezing the barrel of the release or the grip of your bow handle. Also, do not force either of your hands open. Your fingers should be hanging limp and relaxed. I lightly touch my first finger and my thumb together around the bow handle, but some like to use a wrist sling. Use the bones in your arms and the muscles in your back to draw the bow. Use the same bones and back-muscles to hold as much of the weight of the bow at full draw as you can and I would recommend drawing the string straight back to your anchor point. Hold the bow out, pointed at the target, draw it straight back using your back muscles and without lifting it any higher. Once at full draw, relax every muscle in your arms that you don't need to use to stay at full draw. That goes for the muscles in your shoulders, torso and legs, too. Always remember; it's the tension in your muscles that causes your sights to wobble and jump around. If you can learn to relax everything that isn't needed to hold at full draw, your sight pins will barely even move. Almost like a bench rested rifle! It is very important that your bow is set at the correct draw length. If it is too long... or too short, you will have a very hard time relaxing fully.

There is a lot more to shooting a bow than relaxing muscles however. You can bet that someone shooting a bench rested rifle at 300 yards won't pull the trigger... he will just keep putting more and more pressure on that trigger until the rifle goes off. There is a way to shoot a bow using that same concept. It is highly accurate and, really, it's the best way to shoot a compound bow with sights... whether for targets or hunting. If you want to learn it, I've outlined the process below. If you don't want to shoot this way... if nothing else, these are some good tips for a new archer to know.

.............................. .........THE GRIP.......................... ........................
Before drawing the bow, position your hand on the grip and start pulling with your release hand to put pressure on the string. You are trying to find the exact position for your bow hand to be in. You want to feel all of the pressure from the bow handle on one point of your palm... right from the start of your draw. I have always remembered Randy Ulmer’s description of it. He said to pretend that there is a steel rod running parallel and exactly between the two bones inside your forearm. Where that rod would exit your palm is where this point is. If you find this spot, it will help keep you from torqueing the bow handle. 
Also, if you will rotate the bottom of your bow hand away from the bow a few degrees for your grip, you will clear a path for the bowstring and negate torque at the same time. Learn to find your grip before you draw the bow on every shot, but once you start your draw, do not move your bow hand AT ALL.

.............................. .............................. ...............ANCHOR......... .............................. ..............
There is no universal anchor point that will work for everyone, but there are some things that make a great anchor point. Having at least two solid, easy-to-repeat points of contact with your face is recommended. For instance, the string just touching the end of the nose.. with a knuckle of the release hand dug in behind the jaw bone. The perfect one would have your head held straight with the rest of your spine, shoulders level, release-side forearm in a straight line with the arrow at full draw and no part of the string in heavy contact with any part of the face or chest.

As long as these things are kept in mind, whatever feels comfortable will be OK, but remember that the higher your anchor is, the lower the peep is in the string. The closer you have the peep to your nock on the string, the lower your sights will have to be. At some point that can make it impossible to shoot at a decent distance... what that distance ends up being depends on the bow and the arrow used.
The main thing to remember is, your anchor is like the rear sight on a rifle... if it's not consistent, you're probably going to miss a lot. 

.............................. .............................. ............BACK TENSION....................... .....................
Using a conscious movement of a finger to trigger the shot is what we’re trying to get away from here. Your finger is loaded with nerve endings. It is much too sensitive and closely tied to your brain. Your mind recognizes a certain sight picture and screams, “NOW!” Your brain is always faster than your reflexes and this method of shooting can be inconsistent... and it can go south in a hurry!

Flexing a large muscle group to trigger the shot is the answer. In order to use back tension to achieve a surprise release, you must trust the bow, your form and the arrow. In order to become that trusting, your form, concentration and execution have to be very consistent. That takes a lot of work... and enough time and repetition to make it stick! You have to be able to completely focus on the spot you want to hit and let go of control... control of the bow, the sight pin and the moment of release. You’re brain isn’t going to be able to do that without a lot of re-programming! You have to do it in steps and you can’t take any shortcuts.

Learning to give up control is far easier using a back tension release aid. I'm not saying you can't use a trigger release to get a surprise release, but it is a lot easier to cheat with a finger-triggered release. After you have mastered this technique, it will be fairly easy to learn to do the same thing with your hunting release. 

With an index-finger triggered release, you will contact the trigger with the pad between the first and second knuckle. Hooking the finger deep over the trigger will keep the sensitive fingertip from taking over. This way, the arm from your elbow forward to that 
"dead hook" of a trigger finger is frozen as you pull through the shot. Nothing moves, nothing flexes... except back muscles.

With a thumb release, you can anchor with the thumb against the side of your face and as you pull through the shot it will naturally increase pressure on it until it goes off. Or you may just rotate the release until it goes off.

To shoot using back tension, you flex or squeeze the release-side muscles of your back... sort of like you are trying to make one shoulder blade touch the other one. To find these muscles, have someone stand facing you while you pretend to hold a bow at full draw. Have them grasp your elbows and try to gently force you to give them a hug while you resist, all the while keeping your arms relaxed. The back muscles you feel resisting are the ones you need to flex to trigger the shot.

............................ ..............THE FOLLOW THROUGH....................... ...............
When you "follow through" after the bow goes off, people say you should try to keep the pin on the target or keep aiming until the arrow hits. I've always felt that that was a bad way to describe it. You can't keep aiming or even see the pin once you shoot. 

What I would say is... keep your T form until you hear the arrow hit, do not drop your bow arm or move your head, stay relaxed and let the bow go where it wants to go without grabbing for it. Good follow through takes practice.


.............................. ..............THE FIRST STEP.......................... ...................
It's tempting to just go right out and try all of this on a target at 20 yards, but DON'T DO IT! When you start trying all of this for the first time, it is very important, and it will speed up the learning process... if you completely eliminate the aiming part of shooting the bow. Work on relaxation and a surprise release before you ever have to worry about aiming. You need to ingrain the feel of the shot process so that it becomes automatic... as in the term, "muscle memory." You do this with your eyes closed at first. 

To get a feel for this, your target needs to be at the same height as your arrow at first. I hang my target from a rafter and stand close, so that the tip of my arrow is about 3 1/2 feet away from the target at full draw. After you reach full draw and have lined everything up, close your eyes, relax and think through every step of the shot. 

.............................. ...............THE FOUNDATION.................... .....................
When that feels VERY comfortable, move to a blank target that is 3 yards away and start shooting with your eyes open, but use no spot and try not to aim for a spot on the target... in fact, it would be better to just take the sight off your bow for this step. When you are so tired of doing this drill every day that you are ready to die of boredom, (something like 3 weeks later... at least 1000 arrows), only then is it time to learn to do it while aiming.

.............................. ..............AIMING.......... .............................. ..............
To aim, reach full draw with a perfect T form, line up your bubble level, pick the right pin and center it all in the peep. Next, move your whole upper body to get on target. You don't want to just move your arm up and down or side to side. That introduces torque. Your upper body and arms should at all times form a perfect T shape at full draw.
When everything is lined up, start consciously relaxing muscles. Hold the bow back with your back muscles. Start with relaxing your hands and work your way up your arms and through the shoulders. When you've shot this way long enough, you won't have to even think about this step. 
Then go into aiming mode. Your full concentration switches to the spot and only the spot. The pin is blurry and it will still seem to float around the spot, but you need to forget about the pin. You will naturally try to keep it on the spot without even thinking about it. You should be focusing on the spot and nothing else. Keep your concentration while slowly squeezing through the shot, making sure to follow through after the release. 
The first few times the bow goes off, it will scare the heck out of you. Keep at it! You will get used to it... and at the point that you start breaking arrows because they're hitting each other at 30 yards... you'll begin to crave that feeling! Just remember that it's important to never be able to anticipate exactly when the shot will break. You need the surprise... just like a benched down rifle shooter does. No cheating! Focus... concentrate on the spot you want to hit and just squeeze through until the shot breaks.
It defies logic, really, but at some point in all of this learning process you will definitely know you are doing it right. How? Because arrow after arrow will keep going dead center of the bull's-eye... even when you know the pin was not on the spot at the time your release triggered. 


.............................. ....................THE BRIDGE........................ .............................. ..........
At this point, you’ve learned how to trigger the shot with back tension and a surprise release.

Only now, with this last step... will you tie your new shooting process in with the aiming process. Move to 5 yards with a target that has several big spots to aim at... no sense ruining arrows shooting at the same spot. Six inch squares of duct tape, or even paper plates will work nicely. 

Begin shooting. Let the shooting process you've instilled run on auto-pilot... all you should have in your head is that spot. Nothing else matters. Trust the bow to do it’s job. Keep in mind that at this stage, where the arrow ends up in the target isn't important. What you are trying to do is capture the feeling of the perfect execution of the shot... while aiming at the same time. 



At some point, all of your arrows will start to find the center of the spots. When that happens... and you feel like you are consistent in your form, aiming, release and follow through... move back to 10 yards and do it all again. When it all comes together at 10 yards, use a smaller spot to aim at. 

Repeat the process out to a good distance, but don't be in a hurry to get there! Take your time and make sure it is all working before you move back. If it isn't, move closer again. It is a good idea to begin each practice session at the hanging target with your eyes closed. As always, it is very important to quit shooting when you start to loose your focus... that's when bad things happen. 

You may be able to recognize a good arrow from a bad one by now, but to learn this technique all by yourself, you have to be a thinking archer... meaning, you have to be able to analyze and trouble-shoot your shot sequence from the inside... you have to feel what you're doing. This can be very tough to do. Finding a good coach is a true gold mine and it could save you a lot of headaches. Sometimes though, for whatever reason, coaching isn’t possible. A video camera can help, but only if you know what you're looking at. If you’re doing it by yourself and you ever hit a snag that you can’t figure out, all you can do is go back to a blank target, get close and work on the basics. This helps me every time.

In any case, this method of shooting a bow is well worth whatever effort it takes to learn it. 

Good luck and I hope this helps you in some way.
Zane


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## crowinghen

tagged


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## jerkeife

tag


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## kootcha

Tagged


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## WEEGEE

da white shoe,
not bad advice from a boy from the black hills!
more need to read this!

good post,for sure.


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## Tryin'

Tag


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## ArcherXXX300

I personally think it takes more than 6 weeks to become a seriously steady aimer...archery is a lot of work and study if you want to be really good. In the first year or so you're absorbing a ton of info about form, hand placement, the draw, anchor points, aiming, aligning the peep and the scope housing etc. and you have a lot of things that you need to remind yourself of until it becomes subconscious. But I'd say draw length and draw weight/holding weight are the most critical starting points to beginning to hold better.


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## cableguy

Tagged


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## wpod

Something that is working for me is to draw the bow straight back (no sky draw or drawing low, too much draw weight then) to mid point (full poundage). Hold there for a 10 count, then the rest of the way to anchor point.
When letting down, again stop and hold at mid draw for a 10 count. Then let down the rest of the way.
Repeat

55# DW / 28" DL
2011 Hoyt Carbon Element 
2013 PSE Stinger 3G
199? PSE Fire Flight
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## b0mb3r

hope you dont mind but i just did a copy paste to word and saved on me puter
cheers


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