# Putting torso twist into open stance?



## mprus (Oct 11, 2009)

My compound archery stance is open since I've found it gives me by far the most stability. An olympic recurve coach was watching me shoot yesterday and recommended I twist my upper torso when drawing so as to better align my shoulders. I am a little leery of trying this since it seems to me that my open stance by design removed twist and that I would simply be adding it back and maybe messing up my form and stability. I know one of the consequences of an open stance is that the shoulders do not align perfectly but I am not sure that that is such a big deal. Just wondering what everyone else thinks?

Martin


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## Fury90flier (Jun 27, 2012)

listen to your coach...sounds like (s)he knows what their talking about.

I've tried a more open stance as you describe- still trying to figure out what is going to be a good match for me stance wise- What I found is that getting proper alignment can be more difficult with a more open stance; for me, recurve and compound are different. I'm not sure, without talking to your coach, if how I draw is what is being described but I found that I had to draw differently in a more open stance.

with a more open stance, I twist more at my waist- shoulder angling more aligned with my feet--> I start with a low bow hand--> set grip--> Extend bow arm (not straight to the target but at about a 45deg angle down)-->tension the string, release-->verify grip-> start my drawing process-> imagine trying to take something out of your left rear pocket with your right hand and pulling it to your right shoulder...hard to give an accurate visual.--> So, I'm drawing and bringing my bow up and rotating all in the same motion...when I hit anchor, I'm pointed at the target-->then I drop my shoulders, squeeze the blades together-->when ready to fire, I move my left blade away from my spine.

Maybe someone else can better describe this shot building sequence better than I can...


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## mprus (Oct 11, 2009)

Yeah, I'm going to try it...I guess that's the ultimate test, if it works and it improves my scoring, then it must be the right thing to do. It still seems counter-intuitive though to be putting twist back in when my open stance by design takes it out.

Martin


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