Continued From Part 1

I rotate using a TruBall Chappy Boss Talon release and a Stanislawski Back Tension release for my compouind shooting so I'm used to shooting a BT release. I've tried Grahame's release on my 50lbs compound and it works beautifully. Most experienced archers look at it and fall about laughing, until I ask them how much their release cost them and then they stop laughing and start to look interested and are usually impressed when they try it.

Anyway, back to our beginners. Their bows will already be fitted with fall away releases which have a high containment factor (ie, the arrow won't fall out of it easily). The nocking point will be fitted with a D loop and this is where the beginners will be engaging their releases. The bow strings will NOT have peeps fitted. They aren't necessary at this stage and it would be an exercise in futility in trying to get peeps to rotate correctly for everybody at this stage of their development. So, no peeps. And at this stage, no sights.

Show the group how to engage the release aid into the D loop and then draw the string back a couple of inches to let them see which fingers are used for the draw, then show them, still at a few inches draw, how to rotate the release so that the string releases. This will not hurt the bow in any way.

Get each beginner to try this several times using a draw of only a couple of inches (no arrows) until they feel confident that they understand how to draw safely and how to release the device.

Bring the begineers in to a distance of no more than 3 to 5 metres from the target butts (bare butts - no targets at this stage) and show them how to fit an arrow to the bow. Because the rest is a high containment fall away type, there is no problem with the arrow falling off during the draw cycle. Get them to nock and unnock an arrow several times until they are comfortable with the process.

Now, you demonstrate a full draw using the release with an arrow fitted and release into the butt. The drawing hand is to be taken back with the release aid held horizontally and brought back underneath the chin. Get them to nock an arrow and draw the bow to full draw. Tell them to hold for a few seconds to steady down and then rotate the release to let the arrow fly. Have them practice this several times emphasising a smooth continuous rotation of the relase aid at all times.

Do not raise issues of BT techniques at this stage as they will not understand what it means and will only confuse the issue. Remember we are trying to keep it all simple.

Now, when you are satisfied that they can draw the bow fully and release an arrow smoothly into the butt, explain to them that they are going to do the exercise again, only this time at full draw they are to move the bow until the blurred string lines up roughly on the left hand side of the bow. Get them to practice this for several arrows. Attend to any difficulties as they arise but no one should have any real problems with this. Just remind them that before they commence their release they should simply confirm that the string is roughly lined up with the left hand side of the bow.

Let the class rest regularly as you want to avoid them becoming tired. This has to be seen by all of them as a pleasant exercise that isn't wearing them out.

The next stage is to move them back to about 7 metres, still with no sights and repeat the shooting process. In the majority of cases most of them will in fact be trying to aim into the middle of the butt area using whatever technique they think will work and that is good. Still no targets at this stage.
Let them practice at this range until they and you are satisfied that most of the major problems have been dispensed with. By now they should be able to hold the bow fairly steaduily at full draw and achieve a smooth release.

Let them rest and during the break, fit their bows with the sights. Using large diagrams show them what a sight picture should look like. NOTE: The bow sights should have been set up at some stage before hand by the coach so that they are reasonably well aligned both vertically and horizontally, with the release aid under the chin and the string image running down the left hand side of the bow.

When they feel sufficiently rested get them to shoot some arrows, again on the blank butt but this time using their sights to aim at the middle of the butt. By now none of trhem should have any real difficulties in doing this although there may be some who, during the process of adopting the correct sight picture, will forget about the string alignment. This should be the only complex thing about this operation. When you are happy with the way the students are shooting, move every one back to 10 metres and repeat a couple of ends at this distance still on a blank butt. While they are doing this, go to each archer in turn and show them how to adjust their sights so that the arrow group lands approx in the middle of the butt. Once you are happy with this, fit a full sized target face to each butt, and have the class shoot some ends at the target face, encouraging them to try to get good tight groups in the centre. Correct sights again if this should prove necessary.

End the first day's instruction by having them shoot a small competition say one or two ends, depending on how they feel and record their scores. Usually at this range, on this size target face they will achieve reasonably good scores, so make a big thing of it. It is important to record their scores so that they can compare performances in the forthcoming weeks,

At the end of the class, issue each archer with a length of physiotherapy elasatic tape and ask them to practice drawing using the elastic tape during the week. Get them to try to hold for 10 seconds at a time, and start with 5 repeats and a 5 minute break in between sets. As they get fitter, the duration of hold can be extended and the number of repetitions increased. But during the first couple of weeks keep it fairly light.

From this point onwards, the class should warm up properly each time before they shoot and do some blank butt shooting before proceeding on to target faces. Increase distances to the targets in 5 metre increments on each succeeding day, stopping only if there is a drop off in performance - which shouldn't happen, if things are taken fairly easy from the beginning.

At the end of 1 month, which is the normal course duration, each archer should be able to shoot good groups at a range of 25 metres into a target face, and achieve good scores, without any sign of discomfort or any evidence of target panic.

Why do I make this last claim? It is because I believe that target panic, as I explained earlier, is a combination of excessive physical tension brought about by trying to draw a recurve bow, hold it steady on target, at FULL DRAW WEIGHT, using a finger release, which is both unnatural and unconfortable, and even painful for beginners.

This physical strain is accompanied by an equally uncomfortable mental strain and the combination of these factors leads the shooter to feel an uncontrollable desire to release the arrow and stop the tension. This whole process gains momentum as the class progresses and the beginner starts to tire. In my view it is and always has proven to be a recipe for failure.

It is my earnest belief that no new archer should consider trying to use a recurve bow until a full six months has passed using a compound bow. This to me is the Western equivalent to what the Koreans do and I believe coaches should try this method themselves and make up their own minds based on actual results.

Your comments, thoughts etc will be appreciated.