Below are photos of people who are obviously new to archery (both kids and adults) who are all basically incompetent. I am going to go down the list and tell you what each one is doing wrong in the captions.
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| #1. She is using 4 fingers. The proper number for shooting that kind of bow is 3. #2. Keep your elbow and your arrow in a straight line when pulling the bowstring back. |
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| #3. The girl on the right is pulling the arrow too close to her eye. It should be closer to her mouth (North Anchor) or her chin (South Anchor). Always use an anchor spot and never deviate from your chosen anchor spot. |
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| #4. Again, another incompetent person using 4 fingers when he should only be using 3. #5. His legs facing forwards, they should be facing 90 degrees away from the target. #6. Don't laugh or make weird facial expressions while shooting. It changes your anchor spot. |
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| #7. This kid is leaning backwards, a form mistake that will cause his arrow to go higher than intended. #8. His bow arm elbow is noticeably bent sideways, this will cause his arm to shake during the release. He should be wearing a bracer on his arm and hold his arm straight. #9. His arrow is missing some fletching. He should not be using that arrow. |
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| #10. Again, another person pulling the arrow too close to their eye. North Anchor or South Anchor. Nothing above or below that. #11. She is using 1 finger to hold the arrow steady. This is a big newb mistake that will result in injured fingers as the fletching rips through the skin. #12. Her elbow is too high. It should be aligned straight with the arrow. #13. Bracer is on crooked. #14. Leaning back too much. #15. Aiming with both eyes open. Her left eye is only going to confuse her and mess up her horizontal aim. |
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| #16. Not pulling the full distance to her face (chin or mouth). #17. Holding the bow BELOW the actual handle. #18. Bow elbow is very crooked. #19. Using two fingers when she should be using 3. #20. Neck is leaning forward when it should be upright. #21. She should not be wearing a bulky vest like that, but it must be cold outside so whatever. |
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| #22. Holding the bowstring with 2 fingers instead of 3. #23. His right foot is angled towards the target too much. #24. Not pulling the full distance to chin or mouth. #25. Elbow is too high and not in line with arrow. This is probably due to inexperience at shooting downwards on an angle. |
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| #26. Using a compound bow without a mechanical release. A mechanical release is a huge benefit when using a compound bow and is basically a necessity. Without it the bowstring may be twisted off the cams and damage your bow. I realize it is only a children's bow, but they should still sell them with mechanical releases. #27. Elbow too high. #28. Bow arm elbow is bent upwards - this means the bow is too hard for him to be pulling. He should be using a lighter bow. (Children's compound bows often don't have any let off.) #29. Leaning backwards. #30. Using 4 fingers on the bowstring. Bad enough he isn't using a mechanical release, but he can't even get the fingers correct. |
INCOMPETENT MENTAL GAME
The other thing I want to talk about here is how many new archers have very bad mental games. They are easily distracted, they are all ego, they break under pressure easily. I wish I could show this in photos so instead I am going to just talk about this.
What I find horrible (and sometimes funny) is how many new archers are taking what they saw in movies (which is almost always WRONG) and then trying to replicate what they saw in a movie - which was wrong in the first place. This focus on replicating what they saw in a movie means that their head isn't in the right place in the first place. They are busy daydreaming that they are Katniss Everdeen (who puts her finger over the arrow when she is shooting, a great way to hurt herself).
Archery newbs are ever abundant and it is my job to take someone who is incompetent and turn them into a competent archer - and it doesn't help that their heads are filled with movie nonsense. It also doesn't help that there are incompetent archery instructors out there like that newb Colin Low (who thinks he can hunt with an olympic recurve bow) who are filling the heads of new archers with misinformation and bad advice. Colin Low has only been going to the Toronto archer range for 3 years and thinks he knows everything, but in reality he has never been in a single competition, he doesn't hunt, he doesn't have any kind of professional training or certification, he knows very little about the actual sport of archery (but likes to think he does), he shoots a wussy 26 lb bow and can't even shoot past 30 yards (he only shoots at the short ranges where his ego feels boosted).
Guys like Colin Low are the ruin of modern archery. They think that because they can shoot accurately at close range that they are a good archer. They brag, they like to show off, but in reality their mental game is BS. In a stressful situation - like a competition or hunting - he would break under the pressure and shoot like a beginner because his mental game is based purely on his ego.
In contrast I have been shooting crossbows since 1991 and compound bows since 1992 (and hunting with my dad since 1981). I first started competing in compound archery events in 1994. I have forgotten more things about archery than newbs like Colin Low will ever know.
To say nothing of his physical form. Both his physical and mental form has issues.
I don't have a photo of Colin Low so I cannot show you what he does wrong, but let me elaborate.
#1. His form causes him to shake when drawing back his bow. He puts too much emphasis on his back muscles and his arms end up shaking. (He is physically too weak for the bow he is using.)
#2. He wiggles his arrows when aiming. He uses a gadget called on a clicker on his bow which tells him when to shoot. Basically what is supposed to happen is that the clicker controls your draw length so it is always the same (within a mm or 2) each time you shoot. The problem with Colin however is that because his arm shakes (because he is a weakling) he doesn't stop to correct his shaking before releasing his arrow. He just shoots when the clicker tells him to even though he is wiggling his arrow on the arrowrest during his release. All this shaking and wiggling causes his arrows to be off by several inches even at close range.
What a real archer does is pull back to their anchor point (or in the case of a compound bow, back to full draw), and then steadies themselves for the shot. If you cannot steady yourself then your shots are always going to be off.
#3. Colin is easily distracted. A female archer walks by and he goes and tries to chat them up. As a father I wouldn't want a creep like that near my daughters. Creepy losers at the archery range need to mind their own business.
#4. Colin likes to brag and show off (and then fails because he is incompetent). This is back into the mental game, but I find this funny to watch the loser fail.
#5. He relies too much on gadgets. I once saw him try to shoot someone else's bow. He doesn't have a clue where to shoot without his gadgets. An experienced archer should be able to pick up virtually any bow (within their weight limits) and shoot it with a degree of accuracy.
Now I admit, I also use gadgets on my compound bows and also my crossbows. But I am also experienced enough that I can shoot WITHOUT my gadgets and still get pretty tight accuracy because my father taught me how to aim the traditional way back when I was shooting rifles - and I have since incorporated that into my own personal archery training.
What I do - routinely - is remove all the gadgets off a particular bow and practice shooting without any gadgets at all. This allows me to fix possible form mistakes that might be causing my arrows to drift. I highly recommend all archers practice shooting without all their gadgets on a regular basis so they can correct their form faster.
It is something I learned from my father who would routinely remove the scope from his hunting rifles and practice shooting for accuracy without the scope at long distances.
HOT TIP OF THE DAY
You learn faster by shooting longer distances. Why? Because your mistakes are more noticeable at longer distances. You then learn to correct your mistakes at a faster rate.
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