Problems With Stance??

Hi All

Does anyone else share my problem?? I know what all the real experts say about correct stance, in particular what the top Korean coaches say and I have tried to do what they suggest, but without success.

They recommend adopting an open stance (quite open in fact), and then keeping the hips still, rotate the upper body at the waist to a closed position to bring the bow arm into alignment with the target. Ki Sik Lee, the great Korean coach has a lengthy article on his system in the Total Archery website, describing in detail, his methods. For those of you that aren't familiar with his writings, the following is the URL of that site:
http://www.kslinternationalarchery.com/

Maybe it's my old age and tired limbs but I just cannot do it this way. In fact the only way I can shoot with any degree of success with both a compound and a recurve is to adopt a very closed stance, with my left foot (I'm right handed) well forward of line between me and the target and then turn my upper body slightly left to come into alignment.

Sounds all wrong doesn't it, but I simply can't do it any other way. Is this a major problem? I seem to shoot OK but I don't know if I am disadvantaging myself by persisting with my "curious" style.

Any suggestions and advice most welcome.

[Woodie]

I have always tried to follow the "natural" position.
Come to full draw aiming at the gold then close your eyes for a second. Check where the sight is aiming when you open your eyes again. Adjust your stance and repeat until the sight stays on the gold when you open your eyes.
Theory is that your body will try to go to natural position as you release.

That's sound sensible to me, Woodie. Thanks for the suggestion. I'll give it a try. I'm getting tired of punishing my body.

[Big Boy Blue]

The natrual technique was explained to me in my first coaching session. When I tried it for the first time standing straight on, my sight was way off to the left. Now I stand with quite an open stance and it does feel much more comfortable.

[geoffretired]

The blind draw is something I teach, too. The people who take it on board say it helps them. At the same time,I do like to have the backing of the sports scientists and bio-mechanics, their input is difficult to ignore,I find.
However, above all that is the archer. Their archery belongs to them not the coach. It may be unwise for a coach to keep quiet if a student is likely to injure themselves by shooting in a certain way, but excluding that, the archer is in the driving seat.

[pwiles1968]

Nice Link, Good Photographs showing form, anyone know of any links that show Compound Shooters , There was a link a while ago to photographs of International comps but can not find it now, I realise there are a lot of similarities in form but I am particularly interested in Release (aid) hand and anchor point.

[Rik]

I don't know if this is the sort of thing you mean, but Vittorio has a fair collection of photos of archers shooting:
'the best in the world'

[Merlin83b]

Both links prove interesting. The first advocates an open stance, and the pictures show all the people using an open foot position at least. I wonder why the straight on foot position is taught if this is the case?

[Rik]

Originally Posted by Merlin83b

Both links prove interesting. The first advocates an open stance, and the pictures show all the people using an open foot position at least. I wonder why the straight on foot position is taught if this is the case?

Which pictures? If you mean the Italian ones, then no they don't. Where you can see the compounders feet, they mostly seem to use a square stance... An open stance is more common among the recurves, but a long way from universal. Roughly 50%?

At basis it's about reproducing the same shot sequence. Some people find that easiest to do with an open stance, some people find it easier to do with a square stance. A few even get good results with a closed stance. I suspect that the square stance is mostly taught at the beginning because it's less stressful on the archer and easier to explain.

[Merlin83b]

Thanks for that, Rik. I'll admit I didn't look at all the pictures, but I looked at most of the recurve men, should have made that clear.