Nearly everyone can relate to this experience.
String slap.
Happens to newbies and pro shooters alike.
Fortunately it's rarely serious and for most people it's a nice souvenir
or a battle scar from your archery experience.
Now, your first reaction might be
Oh man, what am I doing wrong?
In fact, there are several causes to string slap.
This video will look at some of the common causes and how to fix them.
When you're looking up how to address this problem
you often hear the phrase "rotate the elbow".
Before I go onto string slap, let's clarify what this means.
When you are holding the bow, there are a couple of things you need to check.
The first one is your bow grip.
For target archers, what most of them will do is to use a V shape
and focus the pressure on the fleshy pad between the thumb and the forefinger
so right here
So you place that grip onto the bow grip
and you can feel, as you can see here, you can feel
that it's nicely square on the fleshy part of the hand.
For the fingers, target archers will often keep the fingers off the riser.
If you're not using a sling, what you need to do is to put your fingers
very loosely around the riser.
Some people recommend just placing your forefinger and thumb.
You can use all your fingers around the riser if you like to.
The key is don't hold the bow in a death grip.
Keep the pressure nice and loose.
Keep your fingers relaxed.
Don't overly grip the bow.
Also make sure that your fingers aren't going too far around the bow
or the other way.
This is actually quite important for reasons I'll discuss later.
The second thing that's really important and very confusing for new archers
is how to rotate your elbow.
The correct position is to have your arm extended and rotate your elbow outwards
without rotating your shoulder or your wrist.
When you're holding the bow, it looks like this.
So I've got the bow, I'm in position and you see I'm rotating my elbow slightly outwards.
It's really tricky, but with some practice, you can get the hang of this.
One of the exercises you can do to practice this is to push against a wall
and practice turning the elbow without turning your shoulder or your wrist.
Some people recommend putting a bend in the elbow when you're shooting.
This isn't a universally taught technique.
It is common in some places more than others.
The problem with doing this is that it's hard to be consistent
with bending the elbow and keeping the same draw length.
And it's also a bit less stable.
The key is even though you might shoot with a straight arm or bent arm
is to make sure that the elbow joint is relaxed
so you're not feeling any pressure on the joint itself.
In learning this, there are a couple of things you are trying to achieve.
The first one is correct bone alignment.
Your bones and your skeletal structure is what takes the weight of the bow.
It's not your muscles that take the weight.
Your muscles are not as strong as your skeletal structure.
So by correctly gripping the bow and correctly aligning the elbow
you are putting the weight along your bones in your arm
through your elbow, through your shoulder, through your back.
That is a stronger position that trying to use your muscles to hold it in place.
The second thing you are trying to achieve is having a clear path for the string to come
across your arm.
Something else to keep in mind is that there is a huge variation in elbows.
Different people have different elbows.
This varies based on race and gender and individuals.
Some people have really awkward double-jointed elbows.
Others have naturally straight arms.
Basically, some people are more inclined to hit themselves than others.
That's a normal thing.
Let's go through some hit locations.
The most common place to be hit by the string is right across the forearm.
Everyone does this.
Beginners will often do this, and even experienced shooters will occasionally tap their arm guard.
As you can see from my arm guard, there are streaks of black from the serving material
on the string.
It's not abnormal to hit yourself on the forearm.
If you're not wearing an arm guard, you will often see red marks on your arm.
If it's a particularly nice lash, it'll pop up like a jellyfish sting.
If you hit yourself repeatedly, you might see some bruising.
Fortunately, it's hardly ever serious and it will heal over time as with any bruise.
There are several causes for this particular kind of string slap.
For beginners, it's often because of incorrect bow grip.
I've mentioned earlier that the bow should be held in a way that the string doesn't cut
across the forearm.
You see some people hold the bow with a very weak grip.
The fingertips are on the riser, you're kind of scared of the bow
and the wrist is bent over here.
So when they hold the bow, it looks like this.
The fingers are out there.
it's a very fragile grip.
The thumb is actually very far across on the left side as a right-handed archer.
And that brings the string right onto the forearm.
Same if you hold it the other way.
If you put the thumb too far across, you put a break in the wrist and again, you hold the
string right against your forearm.
If you shoot this, it's going to hit right on the forearm.
Of course, we mentioned before the incorrect elbow rotation will bring the forearm closer
to the string.
So keeping the elbow turned outwards will keep that clear.
If you're an experienced archer and this happening to you it probably is because of the same
reasons.
Especially if you're tired and fatigued and you're letting bad habits creep in
you might find that your grip is slipping
you might find your elbow slipping back in
so check the same things: bow grip, elbow.
Apart from rectifying these faults, another way to improve your clearance is to open your
stance.
Most beginners are taught to shoot using a square stance
so they are perpendicular, lined up with the target.
What happens is that the string is very close to the chest and to the arm.
So it's more likely for someone to accidentally hit themselves.
By opening your stance, not only do you create a more stable shooting platform
you increase the space in which the string can pass.
The second most common hit location is the inside of the elbow right on that bony part.
It's actually a more serious hit to most people because it does bruise very heavily as you're
hitting the bone rather than the flesh.
If you keep on hitting yourself, you may find light lacerations.
Again, nothing too serious but because it looks really bad, especially with all the
bruising, a lot of people may call it quits after getting hit a few times.
A lot of beginners are most worried about this kind of hit because the arm guard doesn't
cover this particular area.
Again, cheap bow grip and elbow rotation.
But there is a more sophisticated cause for this.
It's probably for this reason: doing this.
As you can see, the shoulder pops up and the arm turns inwards.
If you shoot like this, you are guaranteed to hit yourself almost every single shot.
For beginners, this happens usually because your body isn't used to holding the weight
of the bow.
It is a bit of an effort to pull the bow back and because your body's not used to it, it
will use different muscles to try to compensate for the extra weight.
This is actually a really really bad thing.
By contorting your body and using different muscles to pull it back, you're using weaker
muscles that can't handle the weight and thus you're increasing your chances of injury.
And of course, string slap.
Remember, the key is to put the weight on your skeletal structure.
Use your bones to hold the weight, not your muscles.
By using your bones, you can hold the weight far easier than by trying to use your whole
body.
Unfortunately, it's not a natural motion for most people.
And you're more likely to fall back into this as you become more fatigued.
Another cause for this problem is your bow weight.
Some people simply lack the upper body strength to handle drawing the bow back.
Now don't laugh.
I've seen plenty of people with the skin and bones body structure.
Noodle arms.
Adults, not kids, but adults who can barely handle 20 pound bows.
That's a very light beginner draw weight.
This is especially a problem if you're nervous and tense and you're really twitchy.
You're not holding the bow correctly and that can be a big problem.
If you have your own bow, and this is a problem, you either need to increase your upper body
strength or use a lighter bow.
Again, it's critical that you shoot from the correct position.
So you're standing straight, your head's above the middle of your body.
Your shoulders are level and relaxed.
Your arm is correctly rotated.
By doing this, you load the weight of the bow on the correct muscles in your body.
If you shoot like this, it will cause injury.
The third common hit location is on the wrist between the forearm and base of the thumb.
The incorrect grip can also cause this.
But more often than not, this is caused because of a low brace height.
The brace height is the distance between the base or the throat of the grip and the string.
Every bow has a slightly different brace height.
People will twist the string or adjust the tiller to suit their particular bow.
But for most bows, it looks something like this.
If it's less than this, it's likely that your bow is understrung.
Apart from causing problems such as having to pull back more and having different velocities
when you release the arrow, for you as the archer, it actually causes problems because
the string is much closer to your wrist.
So when you let go of the string, it will snap back to this position and hit you right
here.
Also remember that the path of the string also carries forward.
So even if it's not on your wrist itself, when it releases, it snaps forward, it will
strike you right on the hand.
If you're hitting yourself there, it's almost a certainty that your brace height is the
cause.
If this is the case, you can change the brace height by adding twists to the string.
Twisting the string will make the string shorter.
But if you can't add more than an inch by twisting the string twenty or so times, then
you need a shorter string.
If you're using one of these Olympic style target recurves, you can adjust the brace
height by adjusting these tiller bolts on the limb pocket.
Apart from arm alignment, there are a couple of ways people address the problem of string
slap.
One of them is to buy an extra large arm guard.
Most arm guards only cover the forearm.
In fact, many target archers prefer the smallest possible arm guard like this Beiter arm guard
because all you need is to cover the most common hit zone.
You can buy arm guards that cover the entire arm, which go from the forearm to the upper
arm, but I personally believe that if you need the arm guard to cover yourself in case
you get hit, you're doing something wrong with your form.
If you're not doing the right thing in your form, you're also not shooting very well.
So I would say avoid putting armour plats on your arm and correct your posture and your
form.
The other extreme is to shoot without an arm guard.
Some people have this mentality of "If I hit myself, I'm going to learn from my mistakes".
There is some merit to that but remember that not all string slaps are due to what you did.
It can be an equipment problem, it can be a release problem, and it's not always the
idea of "my arm has to be rotated".
That is important, but it's not the only cause of string slaps.
I don't suggest removing your arm guard.
It is a piece of safety equipment.
It is required in many venues.
Unless you have a particular pleasure you get from receiving pain, I suggest keeping
your arm guard on.
Anyway, hope you found these tips helpful.
Safe shooting.
This is NUSensei, and I'll see you next time.