Why Your Bow Arm Should Move After the Shot

A lot of archers try to keep their bow arm as still as possible upon release, but physics says that's impossible. A lot of archers talk about keeping their bow arm as still as humanly possible, and I completely agree with that up until the moment the arrow actually leaves the string. But once the arrow leaves the string, you have to let the bow arm and the bow react naturally. Now the bow arm reaction comes down to physics. There is a force vector when you're actually at full draw. When I'm at full draw here, the bow is wanting to pull me forward, or pull me into the relaxed state back to brace height. The best way I can explain this is to actually illustrate to you the forces that are exerted on my body from the bow itself, and I'm going to show you by angling downwards so you can see a little bit of an overhead view of the actual forces, and you'll actually see what I'm talking about much better here. So if you look at the arrow line, that is 100% of where all of the forces are coming from the bow. In order for me to keep my bow arm still, in space, and not let it drift towards the right off target, I have to add a little bit of forces towards my left, or your right from this view. I have to exert those forces because the arrow line, or the force line vector from the bow, is not inside of my body. The string cannot be inside of my body, inside of my chest cavity when I'm at full draw. The string and all of those things is off to the side of my right side when I'm at full draw, and because of that, again, I have to exert a little bit of forces to the left with my bow hand to maintain its position to hold it exactly still when I'm at full draw, which is obviously the goal. You want your sight picture to be as stable as possible, and this applies to every single type of archery, whether that's single string with a trad bow here, barebow, recurve, anything like that, as well as compounds, the same thing applies. There is a force line vector that is outside of your body, and because of that, you have to add a counteracting force towards your left if you're a right-handed shooter to keep that bow arm perfectly still. And so those forces that you have when you're at full draw have to go somewhere when you release the string and follow through, and that results in the bow arm popping out towards the target and gently swinging towards the left, again, because of that slightly left hand movement of the pressure when I'm at full draw. The idea of follow through is that it is a reaction, not an action. It is just something that happens, you're allowing it to actually happen when you let go of the string. The whole idea and the proper principle is to maintain whatever tension you have when you're at full draw, other than the tension of the string curl of the fingers, that goes away in an instant, but everything else in your body should maintain the same, including that leftward pressure with the bow hand, and that's why it pops out and to the left when it's properly executed. One of the biggest things that I see that people actually do is that they try to hold the bow as still as possible when they let go of the string, and that tends to cause a bit of a problem. And actually, when I was filming B-Roll here for this video, my elbow actually hurt a considerable amount from trying to hold that bow still when I let go of the string. Many people complain of bow elbow, bow arm elbow pain, and a lot of that could be just from the vibration of the bow itself, due to you trying to keep that bow arm as still as possible. Now if you see your bow pop to the target and move to the right, that's actually a collapse. When you see a pluck on this side of the string, that's a collapse on the right side, on the string side. The bow arm can also collapse too, so if I try to demonstrate that here as best as possible, it would look something like... And it should pop slightly to the right. It's very, very hard for me to illustrate because I've shot so many arrows the correct way, but it's just something along those lines where the bow is moving towards the right upon release. Now if you slow down that first shot, you'll actually see the bow pop out, break to the left, and then me throw it to the right, because I just simply cannot do it the wrong way because I've shot so many arrows trying to maintain my tension when at full draw, and I know how important it is to performance on the target downrange when I shoot shots properly. So it's really just ingrained in my subconscious brain, and it's frankly very hard for me to demonstrate. So as you let go of the string, when you see your bow arm move, use that as a bit of a gauge to tell you how the tension in the bow arm was maintained or wasn't maintained. If the bow pops out and breaks slightly to the left if you're a right-handed shooter, you did your job correctly. If it stays perfectly still, you got lucky and timed it correct to actually end the tension and try to hold that bow arm still, but that can lead to collapses in the future where the bow will actually move towards your right. A secondary habit of people that move their bow arm to the right is because they want to see where their arrow goes when they let go of the string. Maintain your tension first, shoot a good shot, and then look to see where the arrow goes. Don't move the bow out of the way so you can see where that arrow goes. That's just ingraining bad habits, and it's going to cause more and more collapses over time. Now with all that being said, I want to make sure you don't get one thing wrong. Don't try to make the bow arm move on purpose. It's something that, again, you should just let happen. Follow-through is a reaction in that you're not actively trying to do it. You're just letting the actual follow-through happen. Again, because of all the tension you have built up when you're at full draw, you just let that go when the string cuts through your fingers, when you let go of the string, when the release fires if you're shooting compound, and you just maintain whatever tension you have to let the follow-through just naturally happen. When I actually make a proper shot and I allow the follow-through to happen, it's just, again, something that I'm relaxing into essentially. The string is just pushing my fingers out of the way, and I'm letting the shot complete itself. And it's really just as simple as that. I'm not trying to actively follow-through. I'm just keeping that tension that I have built up when I'm at full draw, and I maintain it until I hear the arrow hit the target. Hey, if you got value out of this video and you wouldn't mind, consider sharing it. Genuinely, that helps this channel grow. And also, the best way you can help support the channel is to click many of the different links down in the description below. Those are all affiliate links, and it genuinely helps this channel out when you click those links before you shop there. Or if you're going to go to Lancaster Archery Supply, use code KAMINSKI at checkout, my last name. That genuinely makes a huge difference. It's not a discount code, but it helps link your order to this channel, so if you did that every time you placed an order, or called them on the phone, that would be excellent, and I'd really appreciate it. Consider checking out some of the apparel we got at jkaminski.com, or some of the other options that we have, including Wave Pro Veins. Genuinely, that makes a massive difference. And again, I can't thank my supporters enough. Without you, I wouldn't be able to continue to produce this content for archers from around the world to enjoy for free.