Bow Shoulder Alignment

General discussions. Politics, scuttlebutt, whatever: you're getting married, changing jobs, got a gripe or a compliment, dying to get out with the bow etc.....

Moderator: Moderators

Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
Kendaric
Posts: 247
Joined: Fri Feb 17, 2012 10:01 pm

Bow Shoulder Alignment

#1 Post by Kendaric » Fri Dec 24, 2021 4:09 pm

When I started shooting some 40 years ago, I did archery lessons at a club. As part of the shooting sequence, the general consensus then was that the bow shoulder should remain pulled down and out.

To this day, the ABA still includes this in their FAI Training Programme “Make sure the bow shoulder stays low and back. Do not allow it to roll forward”

I believe this to be outdated and simply incorrect. Here is why -

Many years ago I had to give away archery for a time due to a bad case of Bursitis in my bow shoulder. Then someone showed me a technique that apparently had come from out of bio-mechanics. The method was to roll the shoulders slightly forward (almost as if slouching) before raising the arm and drawing. The idea was that it would reduce the amount that the muscle would roller over the shoulder when lifting the arm, reducing the load on the bursa.

This, coupled with strengthening and stretching exercises got me shooting again.

This technique seems show some validity when it can be found mentioned in other archery coaching manuals, whilst explained in slightly different terms.

The AA Coaches Manual states “The bow arm and drawing arm are raised together leaving the bow arm shoulder sitting down in its natural position. The bow shoulder is raised up and rolled over”. Further more it goes on to say, in relation to posture “This is also as the chest-down technique. It is using the abdominal muscles to pull the chest down to the hips.” (Almost as if slouching?)

KSL International Archery states “The sternum should be tucked in and the abdominal muscles tightened.” Ki Sik Lee was the Korean archery coach that worked at the Australian Institute of Sport, coaching Simon Fairweather to Olympic gold for Australia.

Just food for thought.

Luckily perhaps for a lot of traditional archers, they do this naturally, when sloughing over trying to get the eye over the top of the arrow.

Post Reply