Is my shooting hurting me?

[martin]

I shot my best scores with 50lbs on my fingers and had a similar shoulder injury. I had to stop shooting for 12 months. The only way I could shoot again was to drop my bow weight to something that didn't aggravate my shoulder and also lighten the physical weight of my bow.

This caused a number of issues such as learning to let go of the string properly (at 50lbs, poorer releases didn't have much impact on group size) as well as learning to shoot a lighter in the hand bow. Three seasons later and I'm still learning to get used to it but shooting more now than ever and am coping with the injury.

The 12 months off was frustrating but ultimately worth it as I can shoot again now.

[pHz]

Originally Posted by Schme1440

Google Fight : Make this fight with googleFight michele frangilli VS Neil Smith
This makes no sense?

'push' with bow arm versus dont 'push' with bow arm

slainte rob

[slartibartfast]

I found that the pain in my bow shoulder was so bad that I couldn't shoot my Helix earlier this year and it was'nt until I changed to the FiberBow that I could shoot again. I am still having treatment on my shoulder but I am still able to train.

[Erika]

It is a worry how many of you are mentioning recurring injuries. If you are getting shoulder injuries from shooting, your technique is bad. Dropping the poundage is a good idea, but it doesn't actually fix the cause of the problem.

If you have a coach, get a new one. There should be no pain or discomfort or injury in and around either shoulder, if you are doing it properly, and it doesn't take a phd in biomech to get it right.

The first injury is unfortunate, the second...sounds like carelessness to me.

[TWIW]

Originally Posted by Erika

It is a worry how many of you are mentioning recurring injuries. If you are getting shoulder injuries from shooting, your technique is bad. Dropping the poundage is a good idea, but it doesn't actually fix the cause of the problem.

If you have a coach, get a new one. There should be no pain or discomfort or injury in and around either shoulder, if you are doing it properly, and it doesn't take a phd in biomech to get it right.

The first injury is unfortunate, the second...sounds like carelessness to me.

Couldn't agree more Erika. I was taught bio mechanics on my County course and the benefits of bone alignment to reduce tension and potential injury.

[Murray]

Part of the problem in the UK is archers shooting a bow too heavy for the amount of shooting they do, plus the incidence of poor form that results exacerbating the issue. There seems to be a real culture of "must get a heavier bow". Look along the line of any tournament and you will see many people who simply can't control their bow, but hey the arrows go down there fast!

[WhitehartFB]

Just found this it has been published in The Glade and Bow Int in the past and yes it is used by OK Archery in their advertising. But I think the underlying consideration here is overall bow weight as others have mentioned on this thread.

Correlation between stabilizer weight and shoulder pain with archers. By Hans Pfefferoctor, specialized in chiropractic and sports medicine,
Compound bow archer and German national champion 2002.

Within the last few years, I have treated more and more archers due to pain in the shoulder of the shooting arm. The pain seems to stem from the pause phase that comes directly after release. The discomfort seems not to be related to the stress on the arm resulting from high draw weight, which could arguably result in shoulder pain.
I think it can expected, that a heavy draw weight or an improper string length (or a combination) would result in pain in the forearm rather then in the shoulder.
Still, it is important not only to treat the injury, but rather to get to the root of the problem which lies in the choice of equipment.
After checking with the patients, it has been determined that without exception, they all use heavy stabilizer systems. Systems such as Mono-stabilizers without V-BAR with side stabilizer on compound bows, as well as complete systems with Mono-stabilizers, V-BAR and Extender are being used. The lengths are generally between 37 and 40 inches. The mono stabilizers were equipped with either 2,3 or 4 tuners.
From personal experience, I know what such systems weigh because I used these heavy systems myself. At that time, I also experienced pain in my bow shoulder. I was shooting at the time between 900-1000 shots per week.
Fortunately I was able to find at least a part of the solution: I used only one tuner on my stabilizer in order to reduce the weight and the amount of strength needed to hold the bow.
The results were not really surprising. With a reduction in stabilizer weight, the shoulder pain also decreased.
By reducing the amount of tuners however, the bow vibration also increased and this is naturally not the hoped for result.
At this time I had the opportunity to test several of the extremely light
“THE BETTER ONE” stabilizer systems from OK-Archery. This had the advantage that I could let other archers test these systems also.
I could determine that the strength needed to hold the bow was indeed reduced. In the meantime many of my patients have switched to the “THE BETTER ONE” from OK-Archery and since that time, shoulder pain has been eliminated.
To sum it all up, I am of the opinion that a light stabilizer system can reduce pain in the bow shoulder or even completely eliminate it.

Bild: A small weight on the end of the stabilizer ensures a clean follow through of the bow after the shot without dramatically increasing the total weight of the system.

Hans Pfeffer

[Schme1440]

Well I was able to shoot on Saturday but all the additional movement did cause a bit more pain but gained some more movement and now it feels alot better. It wasnt the pressure into the joint it was all the movements that agrivated it. Yesterday was total rest and this morning it feels better. Maybe I should not have shot but I needed to know if the pressure on the joint would cause discomfort. It did not.