Coaching Corner
Techniques and advice to help improve your shooting - to any level
This first article is aimed at recurve shooting and the importance of correct clicker execution - something that most archers don't do!
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Recurve Continuous motion through the clicker There are basically two options to get the clicker to go off. The first is the easiest to learn but the most difficult to be cosistent. Stopping and starting is the one that the largest majority of archers use. Unfortunately this is the method taught all too often. What happens is that an archer is taught each step of shooting as an individual move. A lot of start and stop proceedures. Basically when an archer draws the bow back the muscles are activated automatically the amount required to do the skill. When the archer stops, the muscles start to fatigue and more muscles are called upon to maintain the amount of energy equal to the amount of bow poundage that is held. Eventually the archer has recruited too many muscles to get the arrow off. This causes the archer to let go of the arrow with little control. Much like an explosion. Stopping and starting requires a lot of energy to get the shot off and most of the time the outcome is less than successful. Also, when an archer is aiming they will stop the draw when the pin leaves the gold. This becomes a never ending battle because each time they start to draw the arrow through the clicker the pin will move and then they stop again to get it back on. Finally the archer is so tired they don't mind moving a little bit and they explode off the shot. Sometimes they hit what they aim at and sometimes they do not. We call it gambling. The continuous method is the most successful skill an archer can acquire. What happens is that when they start to draw or motion, they continue to keep drawing until the clicker clicks and then let go. This does not mean that the archer has to keep moving at the same speed. Actually it looks like once they start to focus on the target they stop, but the archer is still moving at a much slower pace. When one keeps moving they have activated only the muscles necessary to get the bow back and since they are still moving they are not working any harder and thus not fatiguing very fast. Once the clicker clicks, generally the archer has not activated much more muscle and since they are using a very limited amount of muscle they are able to control the shot and the execution comes off so much cleaner. There are some very important elements to remember in order to do this this correctly. First, the bow shoulder needs to be kept down. If it starts to rise than all the pulling that is done only equals the rise of the shoulder. This means that the arrow is not moving at all. Also, the head needs to stay relaxed and let it float back with the draw. If these two things are done right, getting through the clicker will be very easy. If the motion is continuous, it will be suprising how accurate the archer becomes. Do not worry about the aiming too much. That becomes automatic. Even if the sight moves slighty off the gold, if you continue the motion the arrow will still group. Yellowbow Pete! Based on information taken from 'The Simple Art of Winning' by Rick McKinney |
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