Understanding Archery Basics

The basic steps of archery execution according to Hide-out Archery Shop Cape Town are stance, arrow nock-in, set-up, draw, anchor, aim, release and follow through. The way you stand when shooting your bow is as important as shooting the bow itself, you need be comfortable, standing feet apart, upright and with your body in line with the target, not facing the target. Then nock-in your arrow on the string below the nocking point and place the arrow on the arrow rest. Setting-up the bow to draw is basically making sure your fingers on the string are one on top and two below the arrow in its nocking position, your bow hand is holding the riser of the bow correctly, getting ready to draw the bow.

Before drawing the bow make sure the draw weight is comfortable for you and it’s not a huge struggle to pull. You must be able to do it comfortably and get 30-40 shots of without killing yourself. Now draw the bow with your front arm extended, leaning over slightly and using your draw hand pull back as you lift up your elbow and rotating your shoulder back and down, the movement is across your chest and as you come to 70% full draw start lifting your elbow. Anchor your fingers against your face with your nose touching the string; put your thumb knuckle under your chin. Make sure your shoulder is rotated back and down. On your bow arm the elbow should be parallel to the riser of the bow. Here at Hide-out Archery Shop Cape Town we believe the anchor point should be consistent in order to be accurate.

Aiming the bow completely depends on the style of shooting, if you learning to shoot instinctively, you not going to use any part of the bow as a reference point to aim, obviously the first couple of shots will be a shot in the dark but start off close, focus on the spot you want the arrow to hit and release slowly while expanding the chest and pulling the back muscles closer to the spine and just let the string slide of your fingertips. Follow through keeping your body position until the arrow hits the mark; let your draw hand stop just behind your ear and keep squeezing your back muscles. For any archery tips or equipment please visit Hide-out archery shop Cape Town.