You’ve started getting serious in archery. You’ve taken lessons or better yet, you’ve invested in your own equipment. Congratulations. You are well on your way to being the best archer you can be. Or maybe you have been shooting for some time now and you feel you are not improving enough.
Here are a few things to avoid in your archery journey:
Getting good at archery is about slowly building up, developing proper form first. The first thing to avoid in archery is over bowing. To be over bowed is using a bow that either has too much draw weight or mass weight for the archer to handle. The muscles used in archery are not commonly used in most other sports or activities for that matter. Start with lighter limbs and slowly build up.
Here's an extreme example of overbowing from youtuber DannyJGammon
The next thing to avoid, which is still related to the previous item is draw weight ego. This can be more common with intermediate archers. You sometimes see archers asking each other how heavy their poundages are. Some archers become proud that they use really high poundage bows but in reality, these really don’t matter. What matters more is being able to control the bow with proper form.
When you are still starting out in archery avoid buying expensive limbs. It’s a better idea invest in the best riser you can afford and get the cheapest limbs to go with it. Don’t waste your hard-earned cash on limbs that you will probably be replacing in a few months’ time.
Don’t be too brand conscious. A properly tuned Junxing will still outshoot an out of tune Hoyt Formula XI. The bow is only a part of the equation. The archer will still be more important.
Check out this video from Triple Trouble.
Avoid starting cold. Warm up and do some stretching before you start shooting. You’ll perform better and avoid injury when you warm up first.
Here's a good video from World Archery
Avoid the mindset of “whatever works”. Archery form is fluid and adaptable. Not everyone has the same body structure and flexibility, so we need to adapt. There are however fundamentals that need to be applied regardless of our unique physiques. These fundamentals will be the foundation of the form that you will adopt.
Avoid pushing yourself too far when training. Build up your endurance with consistent training. When you start feeling too tired, take a break before shooting some more. You might develop bad habits when you shoot while you are fatigued and ruin your form.
Avoid aiming too much. As counter intuitive as it may sound, aiming is just a small part of the shot process in archery. Focus more on form and alignment. The arrows will hit the target when you get those down first.
Don’t force the shot. In archery, the winning shot may be the one you did not take. When something doesn’t feel right in your shot process, let down your bow and start again.
There are many more things to avoid specially when starting out in archery. What else can you think of?
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