# New bow adjustment please help



## Pse slinger (Dec 27, 2012)

I got a new bow for Christmas and when I have it in full draw it I hard to hold back while I aim I. Want it to be like there's no tension when it is in full draw where it's easy to hold


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## da white shoe (Mar 10, 2009)

The first thing to do is to make sure your bows' draw length is correct. It will feel very heavy at full draw if it's too long and it will be a struggle to hold back. 
If that's not the case, you might be using the wrong technique... 

Don't feel bad though... 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 Ulmers' discription 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 torquing 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. 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 the same every time... you're probably going to miss a lot. 

.............................. .............................. ............BACK TENSION....................... .....................
I would highly recommend learning to use back tension to achieve a surprise release. Learning this correctly is far easier using a back tension release aid. I'm not saying you can't learn it with a trigger release, but it is a lot easier to cheat with an index finger release. After you have mastered this technique, it will be fairly easy to learn to do it with your hunting release. 

To make a back tension release fire, 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 back tension release. 

............................ ..............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 with out grabbing 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 bored with 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 aim.

.............................. ..............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 when 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 the shot. 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 definately 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................................................................
This step will tie what you've learned to do 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 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. At first, where the arrow ends up in the target isn't nearly as important as capturing the feeling of the perfect execution of the shot.

As always, it is very important to quit shooting when you start to loose your focus... that's when bad things happen. When you feel like you are consistent in your form, aiming, release and follow through... move to 10 yards and do it all again. Repeat the process out to distance, but don't be in a hurry! Take your time and make sure it is all working before you move back. If it isn't, move closer again. It doesn't hurt to begin each session at the hanging target with your eyes closed.

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. A good coach is gold, but sometimes, for whatever reason, they aren't an option. A video camera can help, but only if you know what you're looking at. 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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## slicer (Dec 18, 2008)

:rock: ^^^^^

Good stuff up there Shoe. I remember the first time my bow starting spitting arrows out all by itself. You become an observer, just stay out of the way. It may take you a solid year to get there, but it's worth it to shoot in the manner described above.


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