Is This a Form Flaw?

Is this a form flaw (Depositphotos_107864868)?

What do you think?

Most people fixate on the unorthodox string grip, but that is not the essence of the problem. There is such a thing as a “palm out” string grip. The thing is that if you were to use one, you must shoot an opposite-handed bow. This gentleman needs a left-handed bow to shoot right-handed, palm out.

I collect “stock photos” of archers. They indicate to the photographer what archery is and many photographers have no idea what they are shooting. I especially abhor photographic re-enactments of Wilhelm Tell’s shot (apple on boy’s head, etc.) These photos abound on stock photography sites, and it will only take one such to suggest to an impressionable youth that “he could do that” and tragedy is the result (probably for his little brother).

We ran a two-part exploration of the “palm out” string grip in Archery Focus magazine (Issues 10-4, 10-5 by Brian Luke) and every such “innovation” has its pluses and minuses. For one, the palm out string grip does not allow plucking of the string. That’s a plus. But it does attract attention one doesn’t always appreciate (e.g. being mocked by fellow archers). It also may serve as a potential treatment of target panic, being enough of a change as to be considered by your subconscious mind as a new shot, and so old mental baggage may not be attached to it.

The necessity of the opposite-handed bow has to do with the finger string grip loose of the string. On an ordinary setup, the string slides toward the archer, placing an off center force on the nock of the arrow, causing the arrow shaft to flex, first in toward the bow, and then back and forth. Ordinarily when an arrow flexes into the bow, there is the bow to absorb that force (through a cushion plunger or a patch of leather on the bow, etc.). Since the fingers in the palm-out grip are pointed the opposite direction, the flex is in the opposite direction and rather than the bow/plunger being there to absorb the force of the flex, there is only air and the arrow can easily move away from the bow with nothing to stop it. This is why left-handed bows have risers the mirror image of right-handed bows, and why traditional archers using a thumb grip of the string, rest their arrows on the outboard side of their bows, rather than the inboard side.

Damn, we learn something new every day . . . if we are lucky!

25 and Done!

The final issue of Archery Focus magazine has been posted. Whew!

The final issue is immense! It is twice the size of regular issues because I didn’t want to turn away any author from a spot in the final issue.

Archery Focus magazine was launched by Rick McKinney, Yoshi Komatsu of Japan, and Denise Parker in 1997, stimulated by the success of the 1996 Olympic Games and the success of Yoshi’s magazine in Japan (Archery). Claudia and I took it over in mid-1999, so of the 149 published issues of AFm (only five issues were produced in Year One), we were responsible for 135 of those, so:

• 135 editorials written
• 135 covers designed
• 135 issues laid out
• 1513 articles published (out of 1647 total)
• I personally wrote 254 articles (excepting editorials and 21 of those articles had co-authors)
• 1513 articles edited
• a gazillion emails sent and received
• thousands and thousands of photos cropped and adjusted

Yeah, I am pooped and it was time to pull the plug.

I know, I know, what have I done for you lately?

Continuing On
We will continue on in a number of ways. We are striving to find ways to make the thousands of helpful AF articles available to people well into the future. We will have a presence on the Internet (https://archeryeducationresources.com , https://watchingarrowsfly.com ). I will continue posting on my coaching blog (https://archerycoach.wordpress.com) to which you can submit questions. I will continue to do remote coaching and advising those of you who want to get published.

And now I will shut up about it.

Okay, I’m Back

Sorry, I have been busy. We will be formally launching the Archery Coaches Guild web site this week and that has been a great deal of work. Do drop by and “join” (www.archerycoachesguild.org). There will be no dues charged until next July, so you can explore whether this new organization works for you at no cost.

I haven’t blogged much of late because of the ACG and I have been working to get a couple of new books out (see below) as well as launching the 20th year of Archery Focus magazine with what we think is a stellar issue (also see below).

If you have questions, fire away; I will do my best to answer them.

Steve

I Want Your Help

I apologize for the shameless plug but we are, once again, trying everything we can to spread good information about archery.

This post concerns our first archery publication: Archery Focus magazine. This magazine was created shortly after the 1996 Olympics by Rick McKinney of the U.S. and Yoshi Komatsu of Japan. I became the Editor in 1999 and Claudia and I took over the magazine shortly thereafter. What I need your help with is we need a broader base of support. I ask you to consider subscribing or, if you are already a subscriber, that you go out and convince two other people that they need to subscribe. Here’s why.

Archery Focus magazine is the only archery publication in the world that is solely focused on publishing articles that help archers and coaches get better at their crafts. All archers (compound, recurve, traditional), at all levels (beginner, intermediate, advanced, elite), and all aspects (physical training, mental game, form and execution, equipment, etc.). With a subscription you get six new issues as they are published and you get access to all of the back issues for no additional charge. This means that subscribers have at their fingertips the world’s largest collection of archery instruction materials in that archive. We have an educational mission and we do not want to put needed information behind a pay wall, except to make the money we need to keep the magazine going.

We aren’t going broke but we are barely breaking even (Claudia hates that when I say this to people, but it is true). I do not draw a salary. And we could use more than a few more subscribers, so I ask you to consider it if you have not already or, if you are a subscriber, if you would talk it up with people at your range, I will appreciate it.

Archery Focus magazine