I think I may have posted something about this before, but thought I would do so again, because it is VERY helpful to us bow shooters.
When I was taking lessons from Rick Welch he would tell me all the time to use as little muscle as possible. You only want to use the muscles that are necessary to complete the act of drawing, anchoring, and aiming. Any other muscle tension outside of those things will harm your accuracy.
The main reason I am posting this is because there is so much talk about back tension, squeeze the shoulders together, etc, that while attempting to do those things it is easy to tense up muscles that are not needed for the shot and in fact will hinder the shot. I'll even say this. If you are using as little muscle as possible to draw the bow, you WILL be using back tension. It really helps me to remember this. Might help some of you guys too!
Good post, and thanks for sharing.
jonsimoneau,
I know it is a lot to ask, but learning from Rick Welch, would you go through your step by step process to each shot? I have been trying to find some used video's or such of Ricks to use, but have not been able to yet.
Felt the same way when I tried a clicker. I was tensing up trying to get the clicker to go off. Too much muscle tension !
Great point. By using only the muscles that you need to make the shot, I have found that it really helps me to relax and just let the shot happen. This is real evident when I'm trying or introducing something new in my shot routine. Initially I'm all tight and use way too much energy.
I'm sure you're right, Jon. In fact, I think when one gets nervous and has a hard time drawing the bow to full draw, one reason is because opposing muscles are being contracted at the same time, in other words, working against each other. Many years ago, when I was learning to rock climb, we would do a lot of pull-ups (which incidentally, aren't a bad exercise for archery, either). Initially, I had a hard time doing 3 pull-ups, but within a year I was doing 20. I'm sure I didn't get 7 times as strong, or even twice as strong, during that year, but I did learn to use only those muscles needed to do a pull-up, and to relax the ones that weren't needed.
DanielB89, I have a shot routine. I learned it from Rick, but I changed it slightly. It does help. Just send me a PM and I'll tell you what I do. Going through an actual routine actually helps me in a hunting situation by calming my nerves. I go through it quickly if I have to, and slow if I can.
Jon, I sent you my shot routine. See how they compare.