How can I improve foot stance in the "field"

[the badger]

Hi
I have been reading and taking in lots of tips on this forum, in order to improve my form.
I am a little confused re the idea that if I was shooting a little to the left, then one of the possible problems was not standing properly and making sure the bow arm is far enough round.
taking the fact that most field courses are by design "awkward", then how can you apply this correction.
I am trying to improve by taking each part of the firing process and finding out if I'm doing something wrong.
I went to the club last night and spent some time on the practice butt on my own, and to be truthful, the best I could do at 30yds was a group about 18" dia.
That did slowly improve as I started to develop and use a "ritual" when aiming. ie 1. load arrow, 2. hold bow down and relax, 3. stare at where the arrow is to go, 4. come up to position and draw, 5. check anchor and release.

I am sure that one of my problems is the arm position in relation to the feet and therefore "plucking" the string, but how do I correct that if my leading foot is at the Peg and the trailing foot is positioned so that you can see the target around the bush.....if you see what I mean.

Not sure if I'm making sense, so please feel free to ask...

[bkupris]

IMHO the most important thing is that if you have to "bend" in any way do so from the waist (unit aiming). You do not want to alter your upper body alignment i.e. draw force line, shoulder height etc.. If you are on uneven ground sometimes you will have to bend one knee or the other in order to keep stance as solid as possible.

[the badger]

yes I do understand that, but if an archer (right handed) is standing feet apart, at 90 degrees to the firing line and lead foot touching the peg, and all he can see is a tree in front of him. and has to step either forward or back with the right foot in order to see the target, then his stance has changed from the norm as his lead foot (left) must touch the peg.

[bkupris]

badger

I don't see how your feet position has anything to do with "plucking" the string? It's my understanding that the release is a function of upper body alignment, back tension etc..

[the badger]

Its difficult to explain but.....As I said I was trying to get form right, starting at the practice butt (normal taget/flat ground etc.) and getting the stance right and thats OK. on the firing line 90 degrees etc. But if your having to side step/dip or stretch to see a target, form seems to go out of the window.....(figurativly speaking of course) I will of course look at other aspects of my form coz at the mo its all to pot.

[steve58]

Originally Posted by bkupris

badger

I don't see how your feet position has anything to do with "plucking" the string? It's my understanding that the release is a function of upper body alignment, back tension etc..

This sounds right to me (subject to those with greater knowledge and experience joining in and stting me straight!)

I only shoot target, so I'm not familiar with the problems you refer to on field courses. However, one exercise I did try in the back yard was to shoot with one foot or the other positioned on a brick (the trigger for this bout of odd behaviour was shooting on a ground with a really tricky right to left slope that felt very uncomfortable). Felt pretty odd at first, but after a while I could mentally isolate the upper body from the feet and get everything set up as usual. Not sure how long you've been shooting? Maybe worth getting the basic form settled before trying this sort of exercise? Are there coaches at your club? What do they advise?

[Murray]

Practice, practice, more practice. The unfamiliar will tend to throw out aspects of your form until your comfortable with the unusual stances required for field (e.g. you might actually end up shooting on one knee on some more extreme courses!)

The key, in my opinion, and as Brian has said is maintenance of the upper body alignment are reference checks.

[the badger]

You are of course all correct.....it is a case of the unfamiliar, as experienced by Steve and his "slope"

Brian is right without doubt, its the upper body stance that needs to be right to correct plucking but if anything else isn't quite right it throws me and I seem to forget the rest.

and Murray...........practice practice practice..............I have only been shooting just under 12 months and love the feild archery. As for the coach, he's an "old hand" and coaches all the beginers until they are proficient to qualify for membership of NFAS and can be let loose in "the woods"
I will have a word and see if I can get some one to one for a few weeks.

Thanks

[English Bowman]

I have a few tips for you, but I would ask one favour. I know that it's pedantic but please don't talk about "firing" a bow or an arrow unless you are so frustrated that you're thinking about burning your kit. It's one of my pet hates, there are no explosives involved in (most forms of) archery, so no firing. We shoot or loose, never fire. Sorry, but that's one of my pet hates.
Anyway back to the question. The important thing is to get your upper body, particularly the shoulders aligned. If you have to have your feet at 45 degrees to the line of the shot then you have to twist your body back 45 degrees the opposite way so that your shoulders are in line with the path that you want the arrow to take. Try to forget the arm, and aim with the shoulders, this is something that I am working on at the moment as I have the tendency to be too "open" in my stance which means that as I shoot the bow arm swings to the left sending the arrows left. If my shoulders are aligned before the shot then the arrow will fly straight.
A way to practice this is to stand in the shooting position, look directly forward (So away from the target) and raise the bow. Then turn your head to look at the bow and target. If you're on aim then you've got it right, if not then adjust your body to bring the bow into line.
Hope this is what you were looking for

Daniel

[the badger]

Daniel
Thank you for that, it seems I must learn to seperate upper body from lower body......(in terms of position) and my appologies for my terminology, (old habits die hard), I'm not really a bad shot, just inconsistant and I must really address any "bad habits" now, and that is the reason for my asking.
Thanks for everyones input and I will now take all suggestions to the "SHOOTING line" and try again.