# back tention relese



## da white shoe (Mar 10, 2009)

This could get you started. 


...........................................RELAXATION............................................
Relaxation is the key to a back tension/surprise release. Without it, your pin won't be still enough. 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 people use a wrist sling. Use the bones in your arms and the muscles in your back to hold as much of the weight of the bow at full draw as you can. 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. Remember; tension in your muscles is what 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. 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.

..........................................BACK TENSION............................................
Next thing to work on is getting a surprise release. To make a BTR fire, you flex or squeeze the muscles of your back... the right side flexes the most for a right-handed shooter. 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 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 make the BTR fire. 

............................................AIMING......................................................
There is only one way to aim with a BT release. You can't time the shot to the pin being on the target, so you have to trust the arrow. When everything is lined up at full draw, 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 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 it's important to never be able to anticipate the shot. 


............................................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. Your target needs to be at the same height as your arrow. 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. One word of caution... if your BT release doesn't have a safty, you will have to very careful that the bow doesn't fire prematurely when practicing in your basement or garage!


..............................................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 very comfortable doing it at this range, move to 5 yards with a big spot and try it all while aiming. Over the next few weeks, use a smaller and smaller spot to aim at. Then work your way out to longer and longer distances, starting every session at the hanging target with your eyes closed. If you ever feel like your backsliding... anticipating the shot or doing something else wrong, don't be afraid to get close again. Don't cheat here! Any shortcuts you take right now will come back to haunt you! Guaranteed!


.....................................................THE MIND SET..................................................
To do this right, you'll have to approuch shooting the bow in a different way than you're probably used to. I had always felt that I needed to "shoot the bow." Instead, you have to let the bow shoot itself! It's a better philosophy for shooting in archery anyway, but it is manditory for shooting a BT surprise release. You have to be static, like a bow shooting machine. Just stay out of the way and allow the arrow to leave the bow with no outside influences working against it. After all, if the bow was being shot out of a shooting machine... the arrows would all be going in the same hole! Trust in the force, Luke! At some point in all of this process, you will know you are doing it right because your arrows 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 bow went off. 

Hope some of this helps!


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## aread (Dec 25, 2009)

As usual, a great post by Zane!!

Only a couple of things to add. One is that you have to get your bow's draw length set so that you can tuse your back muscles like Zane described. If it's too long or too short, it's difficult to avoid getting other muscles involved.

The second is that you should make yourself a string bow. This is simply a loop of string that you can "shoot" and learn to execute your release. This will avoid punching yourself in the face when the release goes off during the draw. I was amazed at how hard I could punch back handed.  I've heard of guys knocking themselve out, but have never seen it. 

Allen


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## mike 66 (Jan 21, 2010)

sounds like the guy had a inside-out......by truball


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