Follow Through Like a Pro | Stop Your Bow From Hitting You

If your bow keeps trying to hit you during the follow-through, the answer isn't to move your bow arm out of the way. It's to fix the problem in the first place. I've seen a lot of people move their bow arm out of the way, the wrong direction, when they follow through, not because they're trying to do it on purpose the wrong way, but because they're trying to avoid being hit by their bow when it is rocking and swinging forward during the follow-through motion. This is something that is actually very, very common, and it's more common than one might think, and sometimes those archers are doing it subconsciously. They don't know why they're moving their bow arm the wrong direction on follow-through. It's just happening, and it's because they have conditioned themselves to do that time after time, because when they follow through properly, the bow actually hits them either in the face or on the body, or comes very, very close to their head, and it makes them very uncomfortable. And so the easiest way to actually avoid this is to move their bow arm out of the way towards the right when they follow through. I've already covered how to properly follow through and the correct movement that the bow hand should make, and I will have links down in the description below and a card at the top up there to that video already. Essentially, when you follow through, if you're a right-hand shooter, the bow should jump out towards the target, and then the bow arm will actually break slightly towards the left because of physics. Now, there was an excellent comment in that video stating that they actually move their bow arm, So, as Olympic-style archers shoot, when we follow through, the bow rocks forward, such as this. And what that person is trying to avoid is when they follow through, the bow rotates, and then the limb will either hit them in the stomach, hit them in the face, on the chin, or come very, very close to their actual body when they follow through. It can make you very uncomfortable, and one time, I actually got hit so hard by my limb, rotating up underneath the bottom of my jaw, that I actually saw stars, and it was just such a shock that I never wanted that to happen again, so I asked my coach, Kisik Lee, how do I avoid that in the future? What's going on here? This is a problem, and it makes me very, uh... It makes me anticipate the shot because I don't want to get hit by the limb again. It's very uncomfortable, right? And that's why I wanted to make a breakout video on how to avoid that the right way and what the actual cause is. There's really two factors that typically cause this. The first one is to have the hand improperly in the bow grip itself. Where most people will actually grab onto the bow and grip onto the bow because it's called a bow grip, this is really the wrong way to hold onto your bow. This is the number one way that it's going to cause you to hit yourself. And the number two way is to improperly put pressure into the bow grip itself. Where you put pressure, where you concentrate that focused pressure into the bow grip, affects how the bow jumps and reacts after the shot, affecting the follow-through, affecting the roll forward of the bow, which then causes it to hit you as it's spinning. Let's cover briefly how to put your bow hand into the grip properly. Just because this thing is called a grip, it does not mean you should actually grip onto the bow. It's just a place you put your hand. So, instead of wrapping all four fingers across the front of the riser like this, what you want to do is just resist the bow from coming back towards you and give it a solid, flat platform to sit against. And essentially, the easiest way to do this is to tell your bow to stop. That makes the back of the hand flat to you. You keep it that way. You turn these knuckles at about a 45 degree angle. You relax these three fingers and touch your palm if you can. That's very comfortable for me. And then you just rest this index finger on the front of the bow. So, if I were to put the bow into the equation, stop, put my hand into it, 45 degrees, curl, touch, rest, and that's it right there, keeping the back of my hand flat to me the entire time. That's the easiest way to put your hand into the bow grip properly. And if you want to know more about how to put your hand in the bow grip exactly how you should, I will have links down in the description below again and a card at the top up there to a video I've already made about that specifically. So, proper bow hand placement affects the second part that is the other contributing factor to hitting yourself with the bow as it rotates, and that is where you put pressure into the bow grip itself. So, you'll see on this grip here, there's a traction pad area. That is actually where I put my pressure into the bow grip. There's two points on the bow grip. There is a pivot point and a pressure point. They are different. You always touch the pivot point by putting your hand up into the grip, and then you put pressure down into the pressure point by saying that stop motion, keeping the back of the hand flat. Now, where people get in trouble is that they typically put the pressure into the bow grip not in the center line of the grip itself. They're actually putting it on the left edge of the bow grip if they're a right-handed shooter. The difference between putting the pressure in the center and the left edge is a huge difference in the way the bow reacts in the post-shot reaction during follow-through. If I put my bow hand pressure on the left edge of the grip where most people put their pressure, what happens is the bow will actually want to turn towards me, meaning the string and the limbs towards me, and the stabilizer will want to turn towards the right if I'm a right-handed shooter. So if I put pressure on the left edge of the grip, the bow turns this direction. The stabilizer points towards the right, and you'll see the string actually moves towards the actual arm guard. So if I'm putting pressure here, it's turning the bow this way. If I'm putting pressure in the center or pointing my thumb towards the target, holy cow, now the string is turning away from my arm, and that stabilizer is now going to point more towards the left of the target. Why this is important is because if you're putting your hand and gripping onto the bow, the only place you can actually put pressure is going to be a little bit up in the throat of the grip, or the pivot point, but the majority of the pressure is going to be on this edge of the grip, like so, turning that stabilizer to the right, moving the string in towards the arm guard. And now when I follow through, that limb wants to actually come forward and hit me, or come very close to my face. If I put my hand in the bow grip properly, but put the pressure on the edge of the grip, same thing happens. It doesn't want to turn at all. Now if I put pressure in the center line of the grip, pointing with my thumb towards the target, in the proper position, and I follow through, the bow rotates and turns as it's following through, like so. The actual sight window, the sight, and the plunger, and all that stuff that has all of this weight on the right side of the bow naturally wants to pull the bow slightly towards the right, as you are a right-handed shooter. Left, if you're a left-handed shooter. Then you add in the additional pressure into the center line of the grip, it accentuates that rotation even more so, and now there's tons and tons of clearance for that limb to rotate and to not hit you in the face, or hit you in the body, or anywhere uncomfortable when you're following through properly. This will allow you to keep that maintained pressure towards the target, which will make the bow arm break towards the left when you follow through properly, and that is how you avoid hitting yourself with the stabilizer, with your limb, or anything, anywhere on your body. You'll get full total clearance on the body when you exert pressure into the bow, and you exert pressure into the bow grip, with the proper position, the bow turning and rotating and spinning away from you will take care of itself entirely. It takes a bit of courage, it takes a bit of commitment to actually make this happen, because if you're like I was, when you're getting whacked by that stabilizer, or whacked by the limb, it's really annoying. And so it takes a bit of commitment and a bit of courage to actually start doing this the correct way. If you're interested in a custom grip that I've actually made and designed, there is links down in the description below to Arcore grips, and if you use code KAMINSKI at checkout, it gives you 10% off of any of their stuff, not just the grips that I've designed for recurve, barebow, or for those with small hands, and what they do is they are designed to put your hand into the bow grip correctly, and to fill all the voids of where your hand shouldn't be to prevent it from going in the wrong place. It's just a great option to actually put your hand into the bow grip correctly, and it helps keep your hand put where it should be. Hey, if you got value out of this video and you wouldn't mind, consider supporting this channel. There's many different links down in the description below. Many of those are affiliate links, or you can head to my website jcomincy.com, grab some of the apparel that we do have, or sign up for our Backyard Archery Championships, a tournament that we're currently running, or many of the other options of gear that we have available on our website. Also, if you wouldn't mind, when you go to Lancaster Archery Supply, if you're already placing orders there, there are links down in the description below for them. Those are affiliate links. Or you can use code KAMINSKI at checkout to attach your order to this channel. It's just a small way that you can help support the channel, and genuinely, it makes a massive difference. When you click those links and shop at those places that you're already shopping at, but you click the links first, it continues to allow me to produce these videos for free for archers from around the world to enjoy, and I can't thank my supporters enough. Without you, I wouldn't be able to produce this content, so thanks.