"on yer back"
How many times have you been shooting and someone has said to you
"it's not on your back" or "put it on your back".
What do they mean? Simply that they are well meaning helpers that
do not know what they mean or do not know how to communicate well.
There is some valid reasoning
behind what they are trying to say, however. Let me try to explain.
When you draw the bow you have
several options, one is to use fingers and arm muscles, but this
makes for a very tiring shoot. Another is to use the front shoulder
hunched in towards your ear and pull the bow by arm muscle and levering
against the shoulder in your ear, end result - a wonderful bruise
on your arm. Their are some strange variations on this theme but
they all use arm muscles which will be tiring, especially over a
two day competition. The best results will be when you learn to
use the two large muscle groups that are in your back, either side
of the spine under your shoulder blades. Hence 'get it on your back'.
But how do you achieve this.
First you need a blank boss,
indoors preferably (garage, hallway or sports hall) at 12 inches
from the end of your long rod. Then shoot into it with your eyes
shut, you will not miss with it at the end of your long rod. See
if you can feel which muscles that you are using. It will be difficult
and will take time. If you cannot feel anything then you are dead!
Clear your mind and try this. Raise your bow, draw it back and then
heel the grip keeping your shoulder low. You are trying to feel
the long muscle tense down your rib cage and under your bow shoulder
blade. Try doing this until you feel the muscle hold down the shoulder
and you can allow the hand to relax and move forward in the correct
position in the grip (i.e. not heeling the grip).
Then move on to the drawing
arm. Before drawing back ensure you put your fingers on the string
evenly using the same amount of pressure on each finger and the
back of the hand is flat and relaxed as much as possible. Then raise
the bow with the drawing elbow higher than the hand so much so that
your forearm touches your forehead. Push your elbow backwards in
an arch keeping it as close to the face as possible whilst drawing
the bow. This should cause you to draw the bow back further than
you have before with your elbow being around behind your head and
you should feel the shoulder blade come hard up against the tense
muscle holding down the bow shoulder.
Practice this until you can
do both movements together and you will have learnt to 'shoot off
your back'. The effect will be to ensure that you are using the
correct muscle groups, it will produce a much cleaner shot, your
groups will improve, you will feel less fatigued and you will have
learned to feel the shot. This in turn makes the shot easy to reproduce,
you are quick to notice if something has gone wrong and should be
able to put it right by feeling your way through a few shots. But
as always it will not happen overnight; both Jan and Lorna took
all of one winter season to get it sorted. Now you will always hear
them talking about whether something feels right or giving feelings
to what they want to describe within their shooting routine.
Good Luck and remember to ask if you need some help.
Barry Eley
Barry wrote this
for InSight, the Stortford Archery Club newsletter, Issue
6, Autumn 1995 while he was the Club Coach. He is currently the
GNAS Performance Director.
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Stortford Archery Club