Light bulb moment.

[Buranurra]

I have been mucking around learning the trad bow and "instinctive" shooting with some small successes but many inconsistencies as I suppose is normal for beginners.

Anyway, I slightly widened my stance, bent my knees a bit and did a slight forward lean and relaxed my hands - bullseye - three in a row!

The interesting thing is that I am actually a 4th Dan (4th degree black belt) martial artist in Japanese sword and staff. There seems to be many similarities in the "martial art" or jutsu (art) of the bow to that of the sword. Relaxing, stance, follow through, breathing etc are mirrors of what I teach my students of the sword.

In Japanese martial arts you must learn the Jutsu or action of the art, before you can learn or begin on the "do" (doh) which is the way.Way of the sword or way of the bow.

The challenge like the sword art is to remember to do all of these things each time - which is not so easy for a beginner

Anyway, I have no doubt that the technical aspects I discovered are all common and obvious to the people here, but just thought I would share this part of my journey.

Cheers

Jase

[alaninoz]

Spot on. Getting yourself centered is an important part of getting your stance right. If I could remember all the things from tai chi as well as all the for archery then I'm sure that my form would improve.

[Stickbow Hunter]

Anyway, I slightly widened my stance, bent my knees a bit and did a slight forward lean and relaxed my hands - bullseye - three in a row!

That sounds fine and I would think that you would have your bow canted also.

Jeff

[Buranurra]

Anyway, I slightly widened my stance, bent my knees a bit and did a slight forward lean and relaxed my hands - bullseye - three in a row!

That sounds fine and I would think that you would have your bow canted also.

Jeff

yup defo canted.

[Buranurra]

Spot on. Getting yourself centered is an important part of getting your stance right. If I could remember all the things from tai chi as well as all the for archery then I'm sure that my form would improve.

You probably subconsciously use many of the things from tai chi.

[perry]

Nice to read this, having correct weight distribution / Balance is vital to consistency. The stance I see so many Trad Archers using where their weight is on their front foot is unbalanced

I have often said Archery is a Martial Art and to this day have Ah Ha !! moments as I strive to improve my shot sequence and form. A repeatable shot sequence is to Archery what the Carta is to Karate

regards Jacko

[Buranurra]

Nice to read this, having correct weight distribution / Balance is vital to consistency. The stance I see so many Trad Archers using where their weight is on their front foot is unbalanced

I have often said Archery is a Martial Art and to this day have Ah Ha !! moments as I strive to improve my shot sequence and form. A repeatable shot sequence is to Archery what the Carta is to Karate

regards Jacko

Cheers mate,

I was watching one of the vids of Ivstan Toth horse archery and they performed something that could only be described as Bow Kata where they have a wide stance and then draw an imaginary bow and arrow and then swap sides to left and so on. I have no doubt that this is indeed a martial art.

Jase