Don't Lock Out - Perfecting Elbow Position

I want to talk with you about the front arm position. This is such a common question and people want to know should I lock my arm out so that I'm steadier or do I need a bent arm? What is the front arm position? Such an important question because the front arm really decides several things. It's going to decide clearance of the string. So if you think of this front arm, if it's hyper extended and locked out, look how much little clearance I have of the string path. Whereas if the shoulder is seated, the elbow is soft, now I have so much more clearance. But the other thing is if you've ever dealt with pain, pain comes from impingement a lot of times and if you have tennis elbow, if you have pitcher's elbow, those are all results of the elbow position. So I want to talk with you about what I'm looking for and what really decides this is the position of the thumb because the thumb also has an immediate effect on the elbow. So a lot of times with students I'll say okay imagine if I took this arrow put it right through that IV vein that everyone draws from and I pushed it through until it came out the tip of the elbow. If you imagine that, I want the tip of the elbow pointing to eight o'clock and the thumb is going to be at two o'clock. As soon as the thumb comes up, you start putting pressure on the riser, the elbow then comes into the path of the string and your ability to lock out gets so much higher and as you lock out two problems are going to happen. The first problem is going to be that you eliminate the clearance but then as that happens and as you start to lock out this humerus comes up and now there's nothing holding it down so the harder you pull against your wall this elbow is just or the shoulder is just going to keep creeping back. So if you lock out like this as you pull that's going to move with you too and this starts to create so much impingement and pain on the neck and in the shoulder and then again as that elbow is already locked out and the bow is jolting jolting jolting it's like a boxer that is hitting past his punch and hyper extending and all the time rather than having a little bit of give left in that shock when the bow goes off so that you can absorb that. It's no different than shocks that are you know totally fully extended to where they're not actually compressing or if you start to choke down on this elbow then what happens is this again the humerus starts to come up and that scapula is going to come up. If you have a growing archer any youth any female that has more delicate tendons and joints locking this out is going to create this wild rainbow over time. If you're double jointed it is so easy to lock out but it's problematic. You want the elbow soft so that as the bow releases that arrow you have that give to play with. So how do you do that? Well I focus on when I raise my bow to the target this arm is really already in the position that I want it to be at. I'm not trying to get it there after I've pulled this bow back and I have all this tension on me. If you're pushing and pulling then a lot of times that humerus ends up high and against the neck and inside so you've eliminated clearance more problematic hitting the front arm. Lots of issues if you're hyper extended and draw back like this all kinds of things can go on. So what I want you to do is raise the bow to the target with that front arm in the position and draw the release back until it stops and then come over to your anchor position all while keeping that elbow soft keeping the thumb at two keeping the elbow at eight. You'll be able to make a good shot and have consistency. So I'm going to give you one right here take a notice at this shot cycle and how I'm addressing the target. Notice that my elbow isn't changing. If you're adjusting that elbow at full draw that is a problem. So right here I'm letting this arm be extended and pretty soft right now. It's soft I'm going to raise to my target draw till my bow stops. You can see my elbow is in the position there's no tension in the elbow and as I pull through the bow has the ability to do what it needs to do and fall forward. So the key to the front arm is let it be soft let it absorb some shock make sure it's allowing for clearance and keep from locking it out or bending it too much and if you're shooting too much overall physical weight on your bow or too much stabilizer weight too far in front of your bow to where you're finding yourself having to lock that out or if you're locking or if you're cocking then you simply have too much weight forward for you to be able to maintain it. Soft elbows equals big time groups.