Hello people, this is NUSensei.
I often get this question: why do Olympic archers drop their bows?
Firstly it's not just the Olympic target style recurve archers
that drop their bows. Barebow target archers also drop their bows and some
compound archers will do the same. Why do they do that?
There's a very simple explanation: they don't actually grip their bow.
You might be wondering: why would you not want to hold the bow?
Don't you want to control it? And that's actually the point. Gripping the bow
causes a loss of control and I'll show you why.
This is more apparent in a light barebow.
Many beginners who do archery
have a habit called the death grip. They'll grip the bow really really tight
like choking the life out of the bow tight and you see this a lot on the line.
It's quite a normal thing. You see some pull back at full draw and the hands are like
white knuckles showing. It's really tense and what happens when someone does that
is that the shot becomes very shaky. The tendons in the fingers and the hand
counteract each other and you have shake, you have torque. It's quite unstable.
The complete opposite of that is not holding a bow at all, so what you find is
the Olympic style archers will do this. They'll pull the string back and they're
not holding the grip at all. The fingers are in fact off the riser.
With no uneven pressure on the grip what should happen is that the bow should sit naturally in
the hand. There is a problem if I let go. The bow is going to come flying out of
my hand. That is why people use slings. They can be finger slings or wrist
slings and the point of the sling is to wrap around the riser so it catches
the bow when it drops. The bow is meant to drop. That shows us that you're
not applying any pressure on the bow. This is important because for an archer,
there are only two physical contact points: the bow grip and the drawing hand.
Most of the mistakes that happen are due to one of these factors. When people
start shooting freestyle they might get a little nervous. So, you often see people,
even with the finger sling on, still hold onto the grip and they'll shoot
like this, fingers still on the grip and they'll hold onto it like that.
That's a fairly normal thing and it's kind of hard to train out the habit of hanging
on to the bow because there is no way you can shoot with the same consistency
if you're still gripping the bow. If you're shooting like this and especially
shooting target you really should be teaching yourself to let go and let it
drop. As long as your sling is correctly applied the bow will not fall down and
if it does fall down then you're doing it right. Unfortunately, the bow might not
like you for it. So, a proper shot process and release and follow-through should
look something like this.
There are several different ways people let the bow drop. Most archers
will let the bow drop in front of them so it swings out this way. Other archers
will let the bow swing outwards or let the bow hit their leg. It largely depends
on several factors such as your preference or the way you were trained.
Again, some people naturally expand and swing outwards others prefer to keep it
in line and swing it inwards. The important thing is that the
follow-through and the bow drop should not be a conscious action. It's not a
flair. The archers are not intentionally doing this for the camera. They're doing
it because when they don't grip the bow, that's what naturally happens. Also note
that if you're shooting barebow, the bow might actually tilt backwards
rather swing forwards. Most barebows tend to be back heavy unless you put on
a lot of front weight. The only way to get that majestic swing is if you're
using a full stabilizer setup with the Olympic recurves.
Also note that the follow-through doesn't affect the shot itself.
It doesn't matter if you twirl it twice, do a 360 spin and brush your hair back. The
arrow has already left the bow so it's going to hit where you pointed the bow
at, not what you do after the shot. For that reason, you may see some archers
deviate from their normal follow-through. For someone who is a top-level shooter
who might be always swinging inwards and twirling around, some shots might involve
them actually popping out this way suddenly, and it may be because of a
different level of tension in their back. They might be forcing a shot through a
certain way. They might be counteracting wind, but their shot is still on target.
The follow-through doesn't matter for the archer. They may have recognize that they have
done something different and they will internally reflect on that shot process,
but the shot already happened. What they do here doesn't matter. The lack of
follow-through is more evident with compound shooters. You will find
that many club level compound shooters will make use of a wrist sling. Some target
compound shooters will use a finger sling but many compound shooters don't bother
with sling at all. The arrow will leave the bow far before you actually do
something with the bow itself. You won't see many compound shooters
with that swing. That's why many people recognize it as more of an Olympic recurve
technique, even though it technically isn't a technique. it's just a
consequence of the shot process. If you're not shooting Olympic recurve
there's no need to replicate the twirl. It doesn't add anything. It's really just
superficial. For those shooting other styles, what you should keep in mind is
to make sure your grip is as relaxed as possible. For those who are starting out
shooting and wanting to learn good form and good grip, often they just use two
fingers around the grip so that way they don't grip the entire bow, but they still
retain it without using a finger sling. Many archers will be told to
use the sling to get them used to the correct grip. If you're shooting barebow
and you're not competing you still might want to give a finger sling a try.
Many of your form faults may be caused by the bow grip and you might not realize it.
Anyway, I hope that answers your question. Thank you for watching.
This is NUSensei.
I'll see you next time.