Form Techniques for Avoiding String Burn

Q

"I see a lot of folks get bow arm sometimes. A lot of huge bruises in some cases. It even happens to me sometimes. I also see a LOT of plucking. What are some ways to prevent bow arm from happening?"

- M.T.

A

I don't call it "bow arm", I prefer to call it "string burn" - similar to rope burn. String burn occurs when people accidentally hit their arm with the bow string while doing archery and it can leave a bruise, welt or even rip the skin off your arm if you are using a higher poundage bow (like a powerful compound bow).

Form Techniques for Avoiding String Burn

#1. Relax your arm and shoulder. (This is also better for increased accuracy.)

#2. Elbow should be facing sideways and not locked.

#3. Lean slightly into the shot for better shoulder alignment if you have difficulty relaxing your bow shoulder.

#4. Use a lightweight bow. Avoid any bow that causes you to over tense your bow arm.

#5. Plucking the string could still cause the string to oscillate and hit your arm, so for best results practice doing a "dead release". A dead release doesn't move, a live release does. Keep your thumb/hand on your face as you practice dead releases and keep track of any shot where your hand plucked to the side, backwards, forwards, up or down. If it keeps happening you may need to consult an archery instructor familiar with dead releases.

Brace Height

#6. If the bow string is hitting your wrist or hitting near your wrist, that is because your brace height is too low. Unstring the bow using a bowstringer, twist the string 10 or more times to make it tighter and then restring the bow. Check the brace height using the 'rule of thumb' to see if the string is touching your thumb. If it is not touching you should be fine, but if the string is still touching your thumb then you need to unstring your bow tighten another 10+ rotations and then restring your bow. Keep doing this until the string is no longer touching your thumb when you check using the 'rule of thumb' method.

Rule of Thumb

If you want to learn more on this topic or similar topics sign up archery lessons in Toronto from CardioTrek.ca. Have a great day and stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself.

;)

Triple Senior's Discount for Archery Lessons during September and October 2015

For archery lessons I normally offer a Senior's Discount of 5% for people over the age of 65 (with proof of age), however for a limited time I am offering a 15% discount for seniors over the age of 65. This offer is only good for people booking their lessons in September or October 2015.

My Weekday Rates

1 Student
$60 for 90 minutes; 3 Lessons - $170; 5 Lessons - $270; 10 Lessons - $520.

So if you live in Toronto, you were born in 1950 or earlier, and you want to learn archery now is your chance to get archery lessons in Toronto. For more info email cardiotrek@gmail.com with any questions.

Have a great day!

Have Some Apple Pie = Hand, Shoulder, Anchor/Aim, Power

"Have Some Apple Pie" is an old school archery saying from the 1950s. It is meant to help beginner students remember most of the things they should be doing when practicing their archery form: Hand, Shoulder, Anchor/Aim, Power.

Hand - Should be centred on the bow handle and relaxed.

Shoulder - Should be relaxed and aligned with the bow arm.

Anchor/Aim - Anchor spot should be firmly planted beneath the dominant eye on the mouth in the Traditional Anchor Spot (aka North Anchor) in order for the archer to be able to aim properly. Take your time aiming. Adjust your aim gradually from round to round, not from shot to shot unless your aim is obviously off dramatically.

Power - Muscles on the upper back (the rhomboids) should be clenched together tightly so the archer's back muscles are doing most of the work, reducing the amount of work done by the archer's arms and shoulders.

There are other factors as well that goes into good quality archery form - issues like standing up straight, not angling your neck in weird positions, learning how to use the same amount of power every shot, fine tuning your anchor spot, relaxing your bow hand completely (aka "dead hand"), and many other issues.

If you want help with perfecting your archery form you can sign up for archery lessons or you can email me to get your name on the waiting list for my forthcoming book.

Frugal Archery Equipment, Part Two

Some of you may have read my old post titled "DIY Archery Equipment on a Frugal Budget" which follows the logic of making your own archery equipment in order to be able to practice archery / exercise cheaply.

However there is a second way to get into archery cheaply - and that is to buy used equipment.

The problem with buying used equipment is that there are some pros and cons...

Pro - It is a lot cheaper than buying brand new equipment. Seriously, this is really the only benefit. However if you learn from Cons below, you can still navigate the dangerous waters of buying used equipment without getting yourself burned.

Con - The equipment you are buying might be in poor condition, so you need to look for the following: Cracked, split, warped bow limbs; cracked or broken bow tips; bow strings that should be replaced; bow risers that are cracked. Ideally you want to buy a bow that is practically new (excellent condition), but the owner has simply moved on and purchased a more expensive bow and now wants to get rid of their old cheap bow that is still in excellent condition, but they just don't like it any more.

Con - The equipment you are purchasing might not suit you physically - this is a very common problem with beginners buying used bows. They buy a bow that is too powerful for them and then they cannot use it properly. Other common problems is beginners buying a bow that is either too big or too small for them, like an adult trying to use a children's bow.

Con - The person you are purchasing from might be an idiot and give you lots of misinformation. They might feed you the wrong information on things like: How to string the bow properly; How to aim properly; What proper archery form looks like; How to pull back a bow properly (without causing various sports injuries); Etc. Clearly this is a very good argument for getting archery lessons BEFORE buying your first bow, just so you have a better idea of how to all of these properly.

Con - The person you are purchasing from might simply be a liar. I will give you an example, earlier today I was browsing bows on eBay and an American was selling a PVC bow he made himself, claiming it was 130 lbs of draw weight. This guy was clearly lying. There is no way a PVC (poly vinyl chloride is basically a kind of thick plastic) bow could have a draw weight of 130 lbs without breaking. More likely the bows he was making was in the 40 to 60 lb draw weight range, and he was either lying - or just plain ignorant about how to measure draw weight properly.

However lets assume that you take precautions as you browse listings for used equipment. Let us assume that you purchase equipment that is "practically new", that you limit yourself to bows that suit you physically, and that you avoid people who sound like either idiots and/or liars. Well, then you might be able to purchase an used bow (and arrows) for comparatively less and get into archery on a pretty frugal budget.

A few purchasing tips:

Tip #1. Buy something with a lower poundage. 25 lbs or less is ideal for a male, or 20 lbs or less if you are female. Why? So you can learn proper form. Trying to pull a 30 to 60 lb bow that is too powerful for you is not going to afford you the endurance to be able to learn proper form. (Writing this, I know immediately there will be people [usually men] who ignore this advice and then go and buy a ridiculously powerful bow that they can't even pull properly, will get a shoulder injury or some other kind of sports injury, and will berate themselves for not listening to my dire warnings. Sports injuries are common [especially for beginners], so why not learn proper form and avoid the injuries?)

Tip #2. Buy a bow that is the correct size for you. Examples: No buying a children's bow if you are over 5'2" tall; Avoid buying a shortbow if you are super tall (like 6'4" or taller) because you will probably break it with your super long arms.

Tip #3. Buy arrows that fit the length of your arm / draw length. If you are not sure what your draw length is, find out before you start purchasing arrows.

Tip #4. Buy arrows that suit the type of bow you are shooting. The type of arrows used on a compound bow for example are very different from the kind of arrows you should be using on a recurve or a longbow.

Tip #5. Buying archery equipment off Toronto Craigslist or Toronto Kijiji might seem like a good idea because you can pick the equipment up in person, but you need to be careful all the same as some of the sellers on those websites are pretty sketchy.

Tip #6. Buying archery equipment off eBay is more expensive due to the extra cost of shipping, but you can look at the seller's reputation score on eBay to see how reputable the seller is. They also typically post lots of photos of the equipment they are selling, so you can get a clear idea of how good of condition the archery equipment is in.

Tip #7. Buying archery equipment off a friend who does archery is arguably one of the best ways to purchase equipment, because in theory your friend isn't going to lie to you about the quality of the equipment. Or if they do lie, I guess they weren't that good of a friend, were they?

Speaking for myself I like buying antique bows for my own personal collection. Recently I purchased two "vintage" longbows on eBay: #1. A Roy Rogers longbow from the 1950s (Roy Rogers was a TV show from 1951 to 1957, and various longbows were made circa 1952 with the logo on it) that is a collectors item. #2. A Ben Pearson lemonwood longbow with linen backing, circa 1945. (I am also currently bidding on a vintage recurve bow as well, rounding out my recent acquisitions.)

From which you might conclude "Wow, those are really old bows!" and I would agree. They are the kind of bows you don't shoot that often because they ultimately end up decorating your wall instead. So the last tip, if you are buying your bow for the purpose of doing archery as a sport / exercise, then do NOT buy a vintage bow. Vintage bows need to be treated with respect and care as they could break easily in the hands of someone who overdraws its, strings it incorrectly, dry fires it, etc. Therefore...

Tip #8. Buy a bow that is relatively new. Avoid vintage archery equipment that are more for show. There are a lot of old vintage bows from the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s - largely due to a long lasting archery fad during those decades, and thus many bows from that era still exist and are shoot-able, but they are not necessarily a good bow for a beginner as they could easily snap on the 1st or 2nd shot. (You can thank the Errol Flynn film "The Adventures of Robin Hood" for the enduring success of archery during those decades.)

If you have questions about buying your first bow or buying an used bow please feel free to post your questions in the comments section below.

Kicking Exercises and Tips

Kicking Exercises are just what they sound like - fast paced kicks in an effort to build fast twitch muscle fibres in your legs. However done improperly they hold the potential to injure yourself.

I should also note that the primary purpose of these kicking exercises are for EXERCISE, not for self-defense or fighting. I will note the various uses of some kicks, but please remember the primary goal here is to promote kicking as a form of exercise.

With that in mind I am going to be teaching 3 different styles of kicks you can try at home. Shin Kicks, Side Kicks and Back Kicks.

#1.

Use a large open space that has no obstacles or walls nearby. Accidentally kicking a wall and hurting your foot would be counter-productive.

#2.

Next you should be doing some stretches. Because you are going to be doing an exercise that explores the limits of your flexibility I want people reading this to make an effort to stretch before you begin any workout that contains kicking.

Start by sitting on the ground and doing a variety of poses that explore the limits of your flexibility, similar to the poses mentioned in the How to do the Splits post.

#3.

Warm up your leg muscles by doing about 30 to 60 seconds worth of jumping jacks and another 30 to 60 seconds worth of squats (or jump squats if you want more of a challenge).

#4.

Don't worry about height when you kicking. Stand upright and start by doing low kicks in the air aimed at an imaginary target about 1 foot off the ground. This is known as a Shin Kick. It may not look like much, but aimed at someone's leg it would be difficult to block and successful contact means the other person will be in pain and possibly have difficulty walking.

When doing Shin Kicks your legs should be spread further apart with your leading foot pointed towards the imaginary target. Your kicking foot will be spaced further back and the foot should be angled off to the side for extra stability.

Every few minutes you should switch sides and practice kicking with the other foot. Try to focus on the quality of your form and accuracy, not your speed.

Shin Kicking can also be used for tripping an opponent, except instead of kicking the person with the toe or the base of the foot you are instead angling your foot in from the side in an effort to knock them down / make them lose their balance. This is demonstrated in the graphic below.

In a situation where you feel threatened, kicking someone in the shins and then running away is a fairly effective means of self-defense. The other person could be potentially prone if you tripped them, or they might simply be unable to run quickly due to the sudden pain. The pain would be temporary however, so if your plan is to run do so quickly.

#5.

This is not the impressive Side Kick you may have seen in the movies. You need to work up to that.

Instead your goal here is to kick sideways and hit something that is approximately at groin level. eg. An opponent's family jewels.

To do this kick you first need to be facing towards your target, your feet slightly spaced apart and your leading foot slightly off to the side for extra balance. During the kick you will first raise your knee up towards the target, and then in one motion you will kick outwards while rotating your body. Use your arms to maintain your balance (potentially you could use one arm to perform a simultaneous punch like in the image below, but your primary goal should be to maintain your balance).

Done properly a sidekick should be both accurate, fast and with minimal loss of balance. These three things are important because:

• You actually want to hit the target properly so it does more damage.
• Your kick should be fast enough that your opponent cannot catch and twist your foot, leaving you at a disadvantage.
• You don't want to lose your balance. If you fall the fight is practically over.

My tae kwon do instructor in South Korea taught that you never want to kick an opponent unless you either already have the advantage or if you can be absolutely certain of your success. He argued that kicking an opponent too aggressively and without a degree of caution was too risky, especially against any experienced opponent who knows how to counter such a kick and turn it against you.

For our purposes however side kicks still make for great exercise - both for muscle speed and strength, but also as a balance exercise.

#6.

The third and final kick I am going to teach today is the Back Kick.

Similar to the Side Kick, you start by raising your knee up in front of you and then kick backwards at an imaginary target at roughly groin level. Your primary goal during this kick is to learn how to maintain your balance, so note how your arms stay tucked close to your body and most of your balance is achieved not with your arms, but with your torso / core muscles.

7.

Don't over do it with any of the above kicking exercises. Focus on form and balance, not speed. There is no point hurting yourself by trying to kick superfast. Speed will come with practice.

After completing your kicking exercises for the day I also recommend doing a series of exercises such as:

Lunges
Sit Ups
Push Ups
Squats
Jump Squats
Jumping Jacks
Skip Rope or Skipping
Yoga
Etc

The goal here is to build up your leg muscles and also your core muscles (abs, lower back, etc). That way the next time you practice kicking exercises the muscles in question will be stronger and you will have better balance.

Happy Exercising!