[Hank D Thoreau]

Things are changing rapidly as I start to work toward transitioning from a FITA barebow to a field/3D shooter. Today, my coach had me work on a higher anchor, which had always been difficult for me. I am putting my finger in front of my eye tooth. I finally got it. Now I just need to practice it until the muscle memory is there. I am working on keeping the other elements of my draw working correctly while incorporating the changes. That is the hard part. Focusing on the anchor causes me to lose focus on back tension and expansion. I plan to use the high anchor at the upcoming IBO shoot since I will need it for the short shots. I am using the high anchor to shorten my crawls with my recurve, and to shorten my point-on with my longbow.

My coach also got his first look at me shooting a longbow and picked out an immediate issue that was causing my arrows to fly to the stiff side. I was not getting my front should all the way square, probably because of the harder wall that I hit with the longbow. I squared the shoulder and the arrows were on the center line, with a vertical bow. This, along with the high anchor, will really help me with this new format of shooting.

 

[rusty craine]

Your anchor has been serving me well. I have got most of the bugs worked out.

 

[hammer08]

Could you explain more about squaring your shoulder. I'm not following but am interested in learning.

Thanks.

 

[Hank D Thoreau]

Could you explain more about squaring your shoulder. I'm not following but am interested in learning.

Thanks.

I start with my feet, hips and shoulders open to the target. I then use a rotation of my core and shoulders to help power the draw, with shoulders rotating more than the hips. This creates tension in the core and connects your feet, legs, hips, core, and shoulders. Not getting square means that I did not complete my shoulder rotation so that my front shoulder is not in line with the target. That will disconnect the power of the core from the upper body since my arm has to swing into position to make up for the short shoulder rotation. There is a lot going on and I am still working on it.

 

[hammer08]

Thank you. Always looking to learn new things.

 

[markliep]

I had some simlar issues with back tension after coming to full rear anchor then finding the eye tooth for front anchor point/ nock under eye as I'd end up with some degree of collapse or pluck after setting the aim - have been forced to come to the eyetooth & then pull back from there into full back tension as a way of getting more consistency prior to release ... as one of my teens would say: the struggle is real -M

 

[UrbanDeerSlayer]

Hank,

Squaring the shoulder has been one of my biggest problems, and for some reason shooting the longbow magnifies it. I don't think the shorter draw longbow shooters (28" or less) experience this as much, but you are correct in that the end of the draw cycle for a long draw longbow guy like yourself (I'm around 29 to 29.5") gets stacky and keeping that bow arm shoulder squared up can be difficult. In the past, I tended to close the draw, and cant the bow (didn't Howard Hill do this? He was a big guy), but this is difficult to duplicate shot after shot and just makes a mess. I know all about shooting to the left of the mark, I could make the weakest arrows shoot left. I have currently solved the problem by switching to ILF to clean up my shot. I am hoping to transition back to longbow at some point.

You will find a high anchor to be extremely advantageous to short distance longbow shooting like the IBO at 25 yds and under. I usually achieve a 20 to 30 yd point on depending on my set up. Not good for shooting field, but it's the bomb for shooting IBO 3D.

Good luck.

 

[longrifle346]

I'm certainly not on the level of you big guns but I have a long draw length as well and switched to the higher anchor about a year ago for 3D. It took some getting use to but once I learned how to keep my back engaged it really seemed to boost my accuracy. A couple of observations: First I found that drawing to my normal lower anchor and then raising to the high one helped...a lot. Second, I took a tip from Rick Welch...I keep an ever-so-slight bend in my bow arm. Acts as sort of a shock absorber and really reduced those errant shots to the left for me.

 

[Humdinger]

Bob tried to get me to switch to the high anchor the other day which is where i started.. But i had to hard of a time getting my string alignment correct.. For indoor im going to keep my anchor the same.. For outdoor i may play with the high anchor a bit more for stringwalking.. I need to try and get my crawl reduced at the 5-10 yarders... Right now im WAY down the string.. But besides the bow being loud it shoots straight.

 

[kenn1320]

Good luck with that rotational draw Hank. I dabbled with it for awhile, but as your finding it adds another variable that I didn't like.

 

[Hank D Thoreau]

Good luck with that rotational draw Hank. I dabbled with it for awhile, but as your finding it adds another variable that I didn't like.

I have been doing the rotational draw for some time with my FITA recurve. I was running into issue with the longbow because of the weight I was hitting at the end of draw, and possibly, the different feel of the grip. Now that I know what I am doing wrong, I can work on fixing it in a sustainable way. It pays to have a knowledgeable person watch you.

 

[kenn1320]

I have been doing the rotational draw for some time with my FITA recurve. I was running into issue with the longbow because of the weight I was hitting at the end of draw, and possibly, the different feel of the grip. Now that I know what I am doing wrong, I can work on fixing it in a sustainable way. It pays to have a knowledgeable person watch you.

I finally found somebody that has interest in helping me. She trained at the Olympic facility shooting recurve, so I'm excited. I hope I don't find I've been doing everything wrong. :lol:

 

[Hank D Thoreau]

I finally found somebody that has interest in helping me. She trained at the Olympic facility shooting recurve, so I'm excited. I hope I don't find I've been doing everything wrong. :lol:

On the contrary, it is great to find out you are doing everything wrong, well, maybe not everything, but most things. That means you have lots of room for improvement, which will translate to improved performance. When my coach agreed to coach me about four years ago, the first thing he told me was that I was a mess. He said he had not told me earlier because he did not feel it was his place as a fellow archer and not my coach. It was good to hear. I knew I was a mess. That is why I sought out help. It has been a long road. The reason I finally decided to work on a high anchor now, is because I wanted to be confident in my form before I started deviating, like this. I did not want to impact my FITA shooting by allowing these changes to creep in. I feel pretty good now, even though, I expect it will take some time to get used to the high anchor, or any other new element I incorporate into my shooting form.

 

[Dave Holquist]

I know just what you mean, Hank. I watched some Masters of the Barebow and have since been experimenting trying to find a more solid anchor point rather than the corner of my mouth. Definitely will take a little time to adapt to a new anchor point.

 

[Hank D Thoreau]

The anchor point, more than anything else is the "feel" of the shot. I remember when I was first learning to shoot, I would be doing great and then I would suddenly lose my anchor point. I could not find it. Eventually, it becomes natural for us. I think we forget the effort that it took to develop the muscle memory needed for a consistent anchor. Then we change, and the memories come flooding back, only now we have the experience to deal with it.