Bow arm shoulder issues

[Vanya Goud]

I am after a little advice. I have real problems keeping my left shoulder seated at full draw, (right handed archer). It generally ends up somewhere around my ears and is worse when I am tired or cold. I have been shooting over five years and still not cracked this problem. Everything else is relaxed and OK execpt the shoulder. I have even dropped a few pounds from my draw weight, which is not excessive. I shoot 32lb at 28" and only draw 26", therefore holding around 28lb. Has anyone else overcome this problem? If so, how did you do it? Cheers.

[smog]

Have you tried rotating your bow arm clockwise slightly and giving a bit more bend at the elbow. Without watching, the problem could be another issue, get your club coach to stand behind you and see what is happening with your back muscles. It may be that you just need to strengthen your left should or.......

smog

[Murray]

Try to deliberately push up from underneath your arm and reach out as you draw, then make a concerted effort to keep reaching throughout the draw.

Practice this with a video camera or mirror.

[dino1300]

Have a look at http://www.kslinternationalarchery.com

Probably the best instruction on the net.

[Anna K]

Originally Posted by Murray

Try to deliberately push up from underneath your arm and reach out as you draw, then make a concerted effort to keep reaching throughout the draw.

Practice this with a video camera or mirror.

I agree with Murray. Making sure you keep pushing forward will keep your shoulder seated down.

[moo-mop]

I'm perpetually fighting this.
There are two main causes: the first is a tilt backward of the entire upper body resulting in high bow shoulder and low drawing elbow. You can correct this yourself with a bit of effort and a lot of looking at mirrors and drawing lines on pictures of yourself shooting.
The second is wrong scapula position and is very difficult to explain what to do about this one over the net. You will really need to see a good coach, but a simplistic explanation of what I was taught could be summed up as move the scapula *anticlockwise* and forward for a RH archer.
The bow shoulder will go lower if you bend your bow arm - but this is an artificial fix IMHO. I once tried it but I got no improvement in getting my technique towards what I describe as an 'optimal model'.

High bow shoulder is very very difficult to correct, took me well over a season and I still tend to let it go higher than I want far too often. It's worth the perserving though.

[geoffretired]

I find it easier to work with both arms to start with as they tend to work that way naturally. Raise both arms out to the side so hands are slightly higher than the shoulders. Shrug the shoulders and drop them. Repeat several times just to reinforce the "down" feeling.
Then, try that with the bow arm straight and the draw arm bent as if holding a bow at full draw. Turn the head to see what is happening as if looking down from an imaginary target.
Next, try the last exercise with a jelly bow in the hands and the string only half drawn. Repeatedly shrug both shoulders,or at least the bow arm shoulder, while there is a little tension on the string.( you might find that you can start with that exercise if it works for you)
The next stage needs to be done with care. You will be shrugging the bow shoulder up and down, now the focus is not the shrugging, but the way the bowarm feels when it is fully relaxed down;not forced down. Slowly draw the bow a little more each time, an inch perhaps at a time. You will be looking out for a situation where the bow feels weightless. It feels like the drawing arm is holding the bow up, rather than the bow arm. The bow arm feels like it is seated at the shoulder and simply holding the bow at arm's length, not preventing it from dropping. Make sure you can repeat that feeling and then try with your own bow. Don't put stabilisers on yet.
With a heavier bow, it will feel weightless when the draw is producing more tension, so make sure that the shoulder stays seated ,relaxed and down. Avoid pulling too hard too quickly as the whole idea is to succeed at every stage.Keep the bow hand higher than the bow shoulder(eye level is fairly useful) so the bow arm is being pressed down at the shoulder as the bow tension increases.
From that stage onwards, the aim is to maintain the low shoulder while drawing a little further each time.Try not to hinge at the shoulder as the draw increases.If you hinge, the chances are the shoulder will lift at the same time and you will be back to square one.
This sounds long winded but in reality it takes less than five minutes to go through every stage slowly. The key is to start low and stay low at the shoulder. If the shoulder lifts, go back one stage rather than getting it wrong again. After five years with a high shoulder, five minutes will be time well spent. When you start to succeed at full draw, you will know all about it. You won't believe how easy it is to repeat. It's like riding a bike. It may take weeks to find out how, but it feels so easy inside five minutes of the first ride.
I'll be up in Cockermouth to see how you got on, last week in March.

[Vanya Goud]

Many thanks Geoff, I will try my best to sort this out. We look forward to seeing you again, just to show off a low shoulder!

[geoffretired]

I suffered for several years with a high bow shoulder. Building up a routine gradually may seem slow but it does work. Once the feelings are established with a light bow, it is much easier to succeed with a normal bow.
It may sound strange, but if you can borrow a lightish compound, the low holding weight allows the bow shoulder to be "put" down at the end of the draw.
You can then pull slowly into the wall and as the shoulder is down, it stays down even under higher pressure. You then get the feeling of low shoulder under higher pressure and in the full draw posture. Some use this as their prefered method of teaching low shoulder.
The good thing is, once you can experience the feeling a few times, the problem rarely returns.

[Old Bloke]

If you view most archers (in the YewKay) they tend to have a hight bow shoulder as correct posture and control of this tendancy is not taught from day one. As a result the archer *developes* a high shoulder. The skeletal structure that causes this is basically a *ball and socket* joint and as such an archer can be shown how to control the rotation upwards of the shoulder when a bow is drawn. Simple practice exercises can be made to make the archer aware of what muscles are used and moving in the high shoulder movement. Sit in a low back chair and rotate the shoulders (together) in a circular movement as if you have a stiff neck or shoulder(s) from working at the computer. Knowing how this feels will then help you to identify what action needs to be taken to keep a low shoulder. Use this information to good effect by standing up and leaning with your bow arm outstretched onto the edge of an open door. Your body weight acts like the draw weight of the bow and you will be able to practice the movement of the shoulder which with a little time, will tend to stop the high shoulder draw as you will be aware of what muscles to use and keep the shoulder down. The act of exercising those muscles against the edge of the door will strengthen them so that you will be able to keep the shoulder down when at full draw which is a must when you start feeling tired in a tournament. High shoulder means a low arrow. By using your body weight against the door means you can do this exercise anywhere at any time, so long as you have a door to practice on!