Hello every one. I am 14 and am thrilled to be a new member of TG.
My question here as follows. I have a Montana Longbow(45# @ 28 - I draw 26). Arrow groups are starting to develope however the bow string contacts my chest at full draw.
Ohter TG members, including my dad, suggested trying a more open stance. Even with an open stance, the bow string still contacts my chest.
TG members from a previous post on Pow Wow suggested that I attach photos and transfer it to the Shooters forum. I failed to attach the photos before transferring so I had to open a new topic.
Does anyone have any recommondations?
(http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad271/HyruleSanders/Huntersshootingform07032010.jpg)
(http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad271/HyruleSanders/Huntersshootingform07032010008.jpg)
Hyrule,
They will want you to resize your pictures, I think they're too big.
It's really hard to tell from what I can see in your pictures but you appear to have most of your weight on your right foot and are tending to lean back away from the target. Get your weight evenly distributed and don't lean away from the target.
You have some good form features keep at it and work on your body posture. Then post more pictures. If you can get some showing all of you from feet to head at full draw, it'll help.
If you mean the string is contacting your chest when at full draw... well... a lot of folks let the string rest on their chest.
If you mean it's hitting your chest when you shoot, you'll probably need to address that one.
Thank you for the informative feedback.
I will resize pics and repost.
My dad believes that the longer bow coupled with my shorter draw contributes to the problem.
He feels that extending and/or tilting my head along with properly aligning my shoulders will help.
I will try the suggestions given and provide my findings. Thank you for your help.
I will delete and repost my pics.
front and side views would be helpfull
Hunter, there's a couple things you can do. One, open up your stance but also bring in your bow arm a bit. Imagine forming a T with your body, arms out at your sides, and looking at yourself from above. Let's say your bow arm points at 3 o'clock, your other arm at 9. Instead of 3 o'clock, try pointing at 4 o'clock or in between 3 and 4 instead. Creating more of an angle at your shoulder should give you more clearance. Don't change your arm position so much as to come out of alignment though.
Two, flatten out your back a bit...it should almost feel like you're slightly hunched over. Tighten your ab muscles and tuck your shoulders down. This should also tuck in your chest a bit and away from the string. Lean slightly forward for more clearance.
Hunter,
Give all this good advice a try. If your still having some trouble, try tilting the bow a little more (top limb to the right). When I started teaching my wife to shoot trad bows she had trouble with the string... uh, with a similar problem to yours, unique to women archers. She also has a fairly short draw lenth at 26".
She found that by canting the bow a little more the string would tuck under her arm-pit and not catch... uh, her shirt.
It took her a while to figure out how to pull her shoulders slightly back and get good back tension without sticking out her...uh, chest, causing the problem again.
Cant a little more and get good back tension without sticking your chest out. The bow isn't a little heavy for you is it? I have worked with a few young archers that were "over bowed" and they tended to push their chest out in an effort to draw a too strong bow. This would cause the string to graze their chests and then slap the snot out of their arms. We got them with some lighter gear and they didn't have any more trouble.
Stick with it. You will get it.
OkKeith
To all resent reply's,
Thank you for all the advice. I will do them. The bow is not heavy to me. I have shot some people's 55 pound bows and have not strugled much.
Note: i had side pics but they were to big. i reposted them smaller but some how they were still to big sorry. I will try to fix it.
And again thank you for your advice Im going to try it when it is not so HOT out side.
Hyrule, by looking at the pic of your feet try this; imagine a line from the center of the targetto you, spead legs about shoulder width, now place left foot on the left side of line with toes turned more to the target(comfortable), place right heel about 1"(can vary to find balance) to the right of the line,slightly bend knees and lean just a scoosh forward and try shooting. If your going to keep shooting LB's get a copy of Become the Arrow by Byron Ferguson. Helped me a great deal! :archer:
I don't know how long the bow you are shooting is, but when you get to a certain bow length for your body size you will have problems with the string getting into your chest at full draw if you cant the bow. A shorter bow, with its sharper string angle, can eliminate this problem. Since you probably don't want to get another bow, you might try shooting with the bow vertical (classic target archer form); this will eliminate the string coming into your chest when you hit full draw.
Might be interesting to watch one of the worlds best archers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIeBGcaETYw