Position Training for Archery | Go from beginner to pro!

There are four key steps that you need to master throughout the shot process. Now, if you're not familiar with all of the steps in the shot process, I've already released a video on this and I'll also put a link in the description box below this video where you can download a free copy of the shot process. Do that and then come back here because in this video, I'm going to introduce you into a foundational training drill which is just as relevant whether you're a beginner looking to learn the shot process for the first time or if you're an advanced archer looking to refine your technique. Stay tuned. Now, in order to do this drill, you're going to need some specialist equipment. Now, if you're an archer, you should already have one of these. This is just a simple, stretchy band. You can use a TheraBand, you can use whatever you want. This is a simple, stretchy tie-down strap I got from the hardware store for $2. And the benefit of this is that it is light, so it's easy. You're not under a lot of strain when you're doing the drill so you can make corrections to your position and to your technique without being under a lot of muscular strain. The drill itself is relatively simple. Throughout the shot process, we have 10 steps. See if you can name them for me. Stance, posture, setup, raise, pre-drill, loading, anchor, expansion, release, and follow-through. Now, shame on you if you didn't already know that, but essentially, that's a lot of stuff to do all at once, particularly if you're just learning the shot process for the first time, there's a lot going on. So the way that we introduce archers at Rogue Archery to this concept as beginners transitioning into rookies is through this drill called position drills. And we break down those 10 steps into four key positions. Position one, position two, position three, position four. The first position is stance, posture, setup, position one. And in setup position, you've already set your stance and your posture, you've set your hook onto the string, the thera-band in this case, and your pressure point into the grip. You apply a little bit of tension just to settle that in place. You look at the target, and you've set your head position. In this position, we wanna make sure that our posture is set, the chest down position. We wanna make sure our shoulders are square, and that we've got the correct hook and head position. If your setup position has tension in the wrist, or if your head position is off-center, or if your shoulders are skewed, you lost your posture in any way, then that is gonna translate into a lot of inconsistency in your shot process. So, position one is setup. From position number one, we raise the bow, we set our front shoulder, we rotate our shoulders into shoulder alignment, and we achieve position two, which is pre-draw position. We've done stance, posture, setup, position one, raise, pre-draw, position two. And in position two, the pre-draw position, we maintain our posture, very important, very important that you do not arch your back as you do that shoulder alignment throughout the shot process, and very important that you also don't lose your T posture through this thoracic rotation. We also set and internally rotate your bow arm. That's why we raise above the target, and we have this downward intention of setting the front shoulder like so. And by pre-draw position, that front shoulder is set and internally rotated. And we also, key position of pre-draw, we, through the thoracic rotation, we align our shoulders like so to achieve shoulder alignment. That is position two. For position number three, we proceed from pre-draw to complete, loading, anchor, and we achieve our full-draw position. Now in the full-draw position, just like every position, we maintain our posture. We don't want to lose our T posture, or we don't want to arch our back as we do a pre-draw. We're drawing into full-draw position. We want to maintain the front shoulder set and our shoulder alignment, but we achieve this position through a retraction of the drawing side scapula, and also through drawing the drawing side elbow around into full alignment. We achieve our anchor with a tight connection to the face, upwards pressure into the jawline, and that is position three. From position three, we now transition into shot execution, and we now complete expansion, release, and follow through. Let's recap. Stance, posture, setup. Position one, raise, pre-draw. Shoulders are in a line, front shoulder is set, posture is maintained. Position two, loading, anchor. Full-draw position, we now have full alignment achieved, and we have an anchor with a strong connection to the face. We now complete expansion, release, and follow through. Follow through is position number four, and what we should achieve is you should have the intention of maintaining your shoulder alignment and your front shoulder set through the follow through. Be careful not to collapse the arm like so. Be careful not to distort your hips or your posture through the follow through as a form of recoil, and also be careful not to collapse the arm inwards like this. The next thing we wanna do with the drawing side reaction is we wanna make sure that this drawing side scapula retracts fully to 100% of its range of motion, and the elbow retracts to the completion of its range. The elbow should finish about the same height as the shoulder. You don't want to drop your elbow like this. Now, it's very important. This is why we simplify it down. We dumb it down for you onto the TheraBand, first of all, because guess what? If you can't achieve these four positions with mastery on a five-pound TheraBand or stretchy band, what are the chances that you're gonna master this on a bow? Zero, absolutely zero chance that you're gonna be able to do it, so that is why we simplify it down. We remove the complexity. We take away the arrow. We take away the bow. We take away the target, and we give you a simple TheraBand in which to master it at the lowest possible denominator before progressing up in complexity to your full bow setup. Now, a key factor of using this style of TheraBands throughout training drills is, like I said, it takes away the load. It takes away the complexity and allows you to master the drills in isolation without the complexity of the bow, arrows, target, scoring, all that jazz. It's also fantastic when you're working with your coach to allow your coach to come in and make hands-on corrections and coaching interventions to correct the position. Because you're not under a heavy load, you can hold the position for a period of time and make those small corrections either yourself or with your coach's assistance. That's very, very valuable. It also allows you, by spending a longer period of time in each position, really being a perfectionist and really dialing it down to a high level, it allows your body to learn those positions. It's very important to understand that archery is not a purely academic exercise. I know you already understand the principles of it, but does your body understand? You need to train your body to know those key positions, know and train through repetition how to feel what's correct and incorrect. And that's only done through high repetitions and through spending time in those key positions. Now, the other reason why training on these style of TheraBands is so important is about efficiency and technique. Now, when you're first learning archery technique, it's not uncommon for me to train someone who's maybe a beginner learning the shot process for the first time, and after maybe five or 10 repetitions on just a five pound stretchy band, they are cooked, they are neurally and muscularly exhausted, and they can't maintain that form anymore. Now, why is this? It's not because they're not strong enough, it's because they are inefficient at those movements. Let me demonstrate. So, do a little exercise with me now. If you take your bicep and hold it at 90 degrees like this, your arm, tense your bicep as much as you can, but keep your arm still. Now, how is this possible? Because the bicep actually does, when you use your bicep and activate it, it does this kind of motion, right? But you're able to tense the bicep to 100% power without moving it because you're tensing the antagonistic muscle group, the tricep is tensing to counteract that force. Now, when you're going through the shot process as a beginner, especially if you're overbowed and learning it for the first time, you'll do the same thing. Whether you know it or not, you'll be inefficient in the movement, you'll be activating muscle groups and tensing things up that don't need to be activated. And this means you become very rigid and tense through the shot process. You lose the fluidity and the flow through the shot. It means that you get fatigued through the round, you're gonna make mistakes and your form's gonna deteriorate through the competition or through the round that you're doing. Bringing it back to this position training. By spending time drilling these key positions and spending time in those positions, your body actually learns how to be efficient. Your body learns which muscles it can activate and which ones it can relax. And in this way, through repetition and through gaining efficiency in those movements, in those positions, it actually translates surprisingly well to your proper bow. And so drilling this, the importance of this cannot be overstated. So are you going to do position drills? Let me know in the comment section below. In fact, what you should do is take out your phone, your camera, whatever, film yourself doing the drill. Post it on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, send me a link, tag me in it, whatever you wanna do. I love seeing that stuff, guys. I love when you ask really great questions below these videos, I read them all. And I love interacting with you guys and hearing about the progress. You never know, if you do a good job, maybe I'll hit you up and hook you up with a discount to the full coaching program. Super proud of the results we're getting over there with the students in the Rogue Archery Masterclass. We've got students all around the world from Germany to the United States to Philippines to Australia and New Zealand to Spain to the United Kingdom, all over the world. And those guys are absolutely crushing it. So I'll link that down below if you're keen. But you should be because quite frankly, it's excellent value for money and it's gonna accelerate your learning curve through your archery technique, pretty much guaranteed. Anyway guys, hope you enjoyed this video and I will see you in the next one. Thank you.