Ladies - Chest Guard or No Chest Guard?

[Witchie Poo Cat]

Hiya

Ok, yet another question from me. I just had my 3rd archery lesson last night. Apart from the 3 x 1.5hr lessons I spent two whole days in Kent shooting arrows for fun. All of that time I have not once hit myself in the chest with the bow string (despite being a very likely candidate for this injury if you know what I mean! haha).

Last night I turn up for me lesson and one of the men (Paul or Geoff if you read this not sure of the guys name but he's the older chap that usually has a metal detector on hand!) said to me "no chest guard?" while looking up and down from my face to my liabilities!! Im like "um...no...not had any need since Ive not hit myself there" which was followed by a total look of disbelief (all in good humour of course )

Anyway, whilst Ive been learning, Tony our coach, said to me from the off not to draw the string past the chest and to use the feeling of the string touching against the side as just another reference point, not only to keep things the same from shot to shot but also to avoid injury.

My question is this, if Im drawing in this manner (which is ok so far) am I going to be at a disadvantage than if I drew across the chest (which would throw my form out believe me! ) ? How do the other women draw and do you girls use chest guards?

Im getting a bit of a complex that Im a nasty injury waiting to happen. Any thoughts?

Thanks

Witchie Poo Cat

[GreenSteve]

gotta say this post gave me a chuickle sorry but i don`t really have any useful advice on this subject,
i have recently purchased a chest guard for myself because my draw has closed down from being very open to quite closed and i`ve been drawing into my body more and i noticed my t shirt catching
on the other hand i havent got one for my daughter yet although it has crossed my mind as she is 11 and is developing so perhaps i should get one for her too, even though she only shoots every other weekend

[Thunk]

A chest guard doesn't really protect your chest! It's primary purpose is to hold loose clothing against the body to stop it catching on the string when you loose.

If you're 'large' in that area, it might be a help. In my experience, most ladies do not draw so far as to place the string between the breasts; it merely presses against the side nearest the bow. You'll probably acquire one at some stage, but in my opinion as a beginner you'll find many other things that will make a bigger difference to your shooting before getting a chest guard.

[clickerati]

Hi Witchie,

This topic has been discussed at length before. Personally, I have a chest guard, but I haven't needed to wear it much (although I'll rue the day when I'm not wearing and need to!).

I'll point you in the direction of the threads it's been discussed in and maybe you can glean some information from them.

Here and here

[Radar_UK]

The best advice I saw on this forum was simply that by wearing a chest guard you take one more thing out of the equation that might cause problems that being getting snagged on loose clothing.

I've always worn a chest guard and never had issues with anything snagging so would recommend one - but that's just my opinion

[geoffretired]

It has already been said by Thunk that the chest guard is not simply to protect from injury. Shoot in wet weather gear or on a windy day and its uses become more apparent. There is another issue too. If you draw the string to the clothing and you wear different clothing from event to event, the string can react differently to whatever is being worn.The chest guard becomes the "same piece of clothing" with respect to the string. I am too thin to have a chest, no need for a chest guard. I always wear one at competitions just to make sure nothing unusual happens.) Yes, they even prevent streakers if worn properly

[Jenny]

I don't wear a chest guard and had never thought about it until someone posted a thread about it in the past.

Since then I have noticed that I don't draw back past my chest anyway and when I'm at full draw I have the string touching against the side (just the same as you).


~Jenny~

[napolienne]

I don't wear a chestguard, because I find they feel restrictive, and the scratchy noise the string makes when it touches the guard really annoys me (yeah, yeah, I know it shouldn't. Believe me, I have tried wearing one and getting over it. I couldn't).

Personally, I had no problems with clothing getting in the way in the absence of a guard. No matter what the weather, I shoot wearing a polo shirt, with possibly one thin layer underneath in really bad weather.

DO NOT attempt to draw past your chest unless you are an amazon warrior/ a picasso painting of a woman. Drawing to your chest is no disadvantage (we can still beat the lads), drawing past it and then releasing WILL HURT LIKE HELL.

[cestria]

I must say before I start that my missus does bruise easily. I thought of archery as a sport that we could do together. We enrolled on a beginner’s course and my wife realised quite quickly that she was having a "clearance problem" after a couple of hours she was feeling uncomfortable. When we got home she had one heck of a bruise. Chest guard for her.

Whilst discussing this at the club the next week, an old sage explained that women bowmen of old would have a partial mastectomy to improve their archery technique, sounds extreme but probably true

[Kellog]

One important role of the chest gaurd, as mentioned it to hold your clothes, and give you a nice consistant base for the string to rest against.

However, whatever people may say it DOES protect your chest....Sorry Thunk, I completely disagree with you... and have had bruises to prove that not wearing a gaurd you get injured! And its not necessarily because the string is drawn between the breasts, if the string is drawn hard against the breast it can scrape, and hit on the way past.

I'm also "larger", and I was taught a side of breast reference in addition to the normal ones, and found it really useful initally. However, my current coach has changed my stance so much, and changed the way I shoot completely, so I no longer have the option of it.