Each month in 2024, we will be posting a new article in our Fundamentals of Shooting Archery series. These articles are intended to supplement and further explain any instructions given or terminology used by the instructors and assistants.

Set-Up:

I prefer to think of this step more as set-up rather than raise the bow to encompass a variety of bow arm motions – raise, lower, tilt.  The style most likely to be seen at Enso Center is raise the bow but the instructors can talk with you about the other styles.

Raise the Bow:

To start, the bow is in a lowered position in front of the archer for nocking the arrow. Once the arrow is nocked onto the string and the grip & hook are set, the bow needs to be brought into shooting position. Since we can’t shoot with the arrow pointing at the ground, well we can, but we’re unlikely to hit our target, we need to raise the bow into position.

To start, make sure the stance and posture are correct, relax and don’t tense up your muscles. While maintaining our hook on the string, raise the bow arm to be at shoulder level, parallel to the ground, and pointing at the target.

Issues:

Keep the bow arm straight(ish), not locked straight but not overly bent either.

Fully extending the arm and locking the elbow will rotate the lower edge of the joint towards the bow and arrow and into the path of the string. Relax the arm muscles a bit and rotate the inside of the elbow joint to be vertical, this will help keep the forearm from being hit by the string during release.

Overly bending the elbow has its own problems.  There is a potential for muscle strain trying to hold the bend over the course of the class or event, especially with higher poundage bows. Also, overly bending the bow arm can lead to rounding the shoulders forward or hunching the body, both of which will shorten the draw length and pull the body further out of good posture. Also, any bending or hunching is difficult to reproduce exactly for the duration of the class and will affect the archer’s consistency.

Alternate Set-Up Positions:

Now that we’ve looked at this set-up, let’s look at a couple others, which differ relative to the archer’s drawing and aiming style.

Some archers prefer to keep the bow arm more bent during this stage, preparing for more of a push & pull during the draw (see next month’s article). This will balance the draw weight between both shoulders a little more and may make drawing heavier bows a bit easier.  One issue would be that the archer needs to pay more attention to their bow arm position during the draw (but we can look at that more next month…)

Some archers prefer to nock the arrow and bring the bow above the head before dropping it down into shooting position. Some archers find that this helps with shoulder positioning and makes drawing heavier bows a bit easier.

In traditional Japanese archery or Kyudo, the archer sets-up by raising the bow above the head after nocking in preparation for the draw.  The bow is held such that the arrow is parallel to the ground, the arms are bent, shoulders are flat.

Alternately, some archers prefer to simply tilt the bow towards horizontal in front of them in order to place the next arrow in position. This method keeps the bow arm raised and the shoulders in a set-up position and is most often used when the archer intends to keep shooting from a horizontal position. The horizontal bow may also be lowered in front of the archer for nocking and brought back up. Archers need to watch for adequate space around them, so that their bow does not interfere with the other archers on the line.

For archers having issues moving the lower edge of their elbow joint out of the string path, the motion of tilting the bow arm (not just the wrist) to horizontal will rotate the elbow joint into the vertical and out of the string path position.  From here, the wrist can be rotated back to vertical while not moving the elbow.

Your instructor(s) can talk you through any of these options and find the one that works best for you. Don’t hesitate to ask questions, the instructors love to talk about archery, they have years of experience and book-loads of knowledge.

Having said all this, if something feels wrong or difficult or hurts while shooting, talk with your instructor. Sometimes accommodations (alternatives) need to be used.

Next month, we’ll look at drawing the arrow. Many times, the movement of the set-up is combined with the movement of the draw, rather than as 2 separate motions.  Dividing them into discrete ideas for discussion allows us to look at fine tuning both motions and fix issues with either one.

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