back elbow

[pHz]

quite ignoring any of the other things wrong with my form for the minute - would i be right in thinking my back elbow is WAY too high ?



if it is high - should i be aiming to get grip contact point > nock > back elbow as close to in line as possible (red line is grip > nock and orange one is grip > elbow) ?









if in line isnt possible is it better to have the elbow above the red line or below it (does it matter ? )

if ive gone off at a total tangent - what SHOULD line up with what ?

slainte : rob

[buzz lite beer]

which one is you

[buzz lite beer]

it's high but i would have thought not unreasonable, shooting downward at short range can make the problem look much worse as your bow shoulder tends to appear lower,

[geoffretired]

Using the orange line, it looks as if the draw fingers are slightly below the line.
I would imagine that the string hand, when the forearm is relaxed, is being pulled upwards under your jaw. I would say that is better than having a tendency to drop away from the jaw; as it COULD if the elbow was too low.

The other pics, mostly, show orange above red, perhaps for that reason.(too low could be damaging to hand/ jaw contact.)
Lowering the elbow a little would line up the wrist more closely to the line of the forearm, that in turn could help with a slick release, if better relaxation resulted from the change.

[Bald Eagle]

IMO it's not too high and you can use it to your advantage to get through the clicker. Just come to reference, slowly drop the elbow and click, it goes off! High elbows can be good!!!

[ironmonkey]

many archers and coaches say the elbow should be in line. they invoke something called the draw force line.
in reality, this draw force line simply does not exist. it is a useful pseudo-physical parable or fable used by coaches. you dont pull the bow using a winch on the end of your elbow; if this was true, there would be a line of tension from the elbow to the string and the the arrow point, and the most efficient structure WOULD be for them all to be in line

as others have said, if you've put on back tension, and have a reference point that you like and that works, the height of the elbow wont be too important. (of course, a very high elbow may prevent you from putting on good back tension, but your elbow is not VERY high)

[ironmonkey]

nice bow by the way

[Murray]

IMO, FWIW, etc. Yes, your elbow is too high. The wrist is bent which is not a good idea and suggests too much tension in the hand and wrist - ideally you want this to be as relaxed as possible. If anything you'll notice the archers in the photos you show have the wrist bent *slightly* the opposite direction, but this is just a result of being pretty relaxed and pulling from the elbow/back (Dola Banerjee - the indian lady - is a bit excessive in this regard, but then she's not the best of archers - yes, she won the final in Dover, but IMO she was plain lucky and the ladies recurve scoring was pretty poor)

If you're going to keep this high and elbow, I believe you need to sort the wrist out as a priority. Here's an example of a successful archer who uses a high elbow. Note the wrist.



Just my 2 cents

p.s. more examples on CAM - COMPAGNIA ARCIERI MONICA - THE BESTS OF THE WORLD

Check out Seb Flute and Im Dong Hyun

[pHz]

Originally Posted by Murray

IMO, FWIW, etc. Yes, your elbow is too high. The wrist is bent which is not a good idea and suggests too much tension in the hand and wrist - ideally you want this to be as relaxed as possible. If anything you'll notice the archers in the photos you show have the wrist bent *slightly* the opposite direction, but this is just a result of being pretty relaxed and pulling from the elbow/back (Dola Banerjee - the indian lady - is a bit excessive in this regard, but then she's not the best of archers - yes, she won the final in Dover, but IMO she was plain lucky and the ladies recurve scoring was pretty poor)
If you're going to keep this high and elbow, I believe you need to sort the wrist out as a priority.
Just my 2 cents

thanks murray (and everyone else whos replied) - interesting you mention tension in the hand / wrist - presumably then you would agree (in principle - obviously not having seen me shoot) that dropping the elbow more into line with the red line might help ?

(thinking out loud - i suppose the other option might be to raise / straighten the wrist while keeping the elbow where it is - but would that then put too much (relative) weight on the indexfinger of the draw hand ? EDIT - i see the pictures youve added now so presumably this probably isnt necessarily an issue)

slainte : rob

[Murray]

No, it would put more weight on the 2nd/3rd fingers... but correct tillering can sort that out in any case.

There are many successful archers who shoot high elbow, and many who shoot level elbow, and many in-between. The key is to find a form which allows you to use your back muscles most effectively - none of us are built the same It's hard to say which is best for you without seeing you in person so why don't you try both (not at the same time ) and figure out what gives you most consistent expansion/release/consistency.

One clear message from the seminar I was at in Korea wass that the elbow should stay level through the expansion (contrary to what BE suggests) and that it should be slighly above the level of the arrow. See pages 47, 81 & 86 of the presentation below for Coach Kim's idea of a good elbow position. Note he uses the line of the arrow for his analysis reference.

http://www.archeryworldcup.org/UserF...esentation.pdf


Hope that helps rather than confuses.