Archery 101 pt 2 (shooting form)

So, in the last post I explained to you what a bow is.

Let's look at how to use one.

2. Can your body do that?

The character pictured above might look like a perfectly capable archer to you. To someone who has practiced archery for a while, he looks like someone who has never pulled back a bow before.
Let's take a look at why.

Disclaimer: I will be explaining form using competitive recurve and compound archery as examples. This is the form of archery I am most familiar with, however the underlying principles are the same for any type of bow.
Also, this article will not teach you how to shoot, it is mainly intended to help you understand what correct archery looks like.

Here's an archer with good shooting form.

This is Brady Ellison, he's ranked no. 1 in the world, has won three out of four world cup stages this year, and taken the overall world cup title two years in a row. So you know, he's good.
He also shoots in a very clean, textbook-friendly style, which is why I chose him as an example.

Let's see what we can establish about his form.

Stance


What we call stance in archery is basically the position of the archer's feet, laying the groundwork for the direction of the hips, torso, shoulders, arms. The archer's stance is aligning the entire body, so telling you it is a crucial part of shooting form will not come as a surprise.

The base for an archer's stance is the line from where he/she is standing to the target. In competition, there will be a Shooting Line, which is perpendicular to this direction, and all the archers line up on this line and shoot at the same time. Like so:

See the faint white lines extending to the right of the picture? That's the direction the targets are in. Btw that is yours truly in the foreground, and if you look closely you can actually see my arrow flying)

The archer will be placing his/her feet roughly along the imaginary line to the target, and about at shoulder width apart. This is what we call a neutral stance in archery.
Depending on the archer's style, they may put one foot outside of this line, opening or closing their body to the target. In an open stance (a very common stance for high level shooters), you would see more of the archer's chest when looking at them from the target, and in a closed stance (which is rarer for experienced archers), you would see more of their back.

In the picture at the top, the character is showing an open stance, but his legs are positioned in a way that would suggest a closed one, meaning his shoulders and hips are grossly out of alignment with each other, creating a rather unstable body posture.
But hey, he might've needed to shoot in a hurry while moving, so let's forgive the weird stance. He has another, more serious issue to work on that I'll get to later.

If you want to learn more about different stances and their effect on the shooting, here's an excellent article on the topic by my friend and top archer John Dudley. "Kick it" by John Dudley

Let's move up, to the torso of the archer.

This is Brady Ellison again. Note the resemblance to Oliver Queen.

Note how the upper body forms a T-shape, slightly bent upwards at the waist. You'll also notice the arrow (and the stabilizer) face upwards a bit too, to make sure the arrow reaches the target, which is 70m ahead of him. If he was shooting a weaker bow, he would have to aim even higher (remember what I said about sights?). 

The "T" created by the torso, both shoulders, and bow arm creates a powerful, and most importantly, repeatable basis for the shot. If he raised only the bow arm to get the sight high enough, it would slightly change the distance between the bow and the spot where his drawing hand touches his face. In turn, that would shorten the power stroke of the bow, and the arrow would not hit the same part of the target - it would be a very inconsistent form. That's why skillful archers will always bend at the waist.

You can easily observe this bending from the waist in Field Archery, a form of competition where archers aim at targets higher or lower from themselves.

Observe also how the front shoulder is below the arrow. Beginners and archers drawing too much weight often have a problem of their shoulder naturally rising up and inwards, losing to the power of the bow. If the shoulder is positioned as shown above, the bone structure of the body offers optimal support for the bow weight. Remember, this guy is pulling about 50lbs right now.

The drawing hand's elbow is slightly higher than the line of the arrow, and almost exactly behind it:

See how compact his form is? The more compact, the more aligned it is with the arrow and the target, making it more precise.

Even halfway through the draw, the elbow is only slightly out of line from the arrow:

The wrist of his hand is in line with the lower arm, and relaxed, as he is not using the lower arm or wrist to pull back the bow. The main muscles he is using at this late stage are the back muscles (rhomboids, rotator cuffs), traoecius, and the lower back side of his upper arm (connecting to the shoulder). He's basically rotating his elbow around to the back of the arrow line. 

The character in the comic book cover at the top of this post has his drawing elbow out from his shoulder at almost 90 degrees from his torso, and would be using mostly his biceps to draw the bow(?). In addition, his bow arm is also far far out of alignment from the shoulder, which is extremely hard to maintain, as the bow would be working against his body, trying to pull the arm in towards the other. It's not impossible, but extremely inefficient and strange.

The only way I can think of to justify this kind of posture, is if he was planning to pull back the rest of the bow by twisting his torso out of the picture, aligning his shoulders with the legs. I don't know anyone who shoots that way, but it's probably possible, and if the artist intended to imply this sort of shooting technique, they're pretty clever.

Also, the arrow is on the wrong side of the bow, traditionally it would be resting on the back of his hand, not on the thumb. (resting the arrow on the thumb is how you shoot traditional Japanese bows btw) On any modern bow (and a lot of wooden long bows), 

Speaking of thumbs, note how Brady is not gripping the bow fervently, like Green Arrow is on the cover. His hand is very loosely closed around the bow grip, which is resting securely against the base of his thumb. This is because if you grip the bow too hard, you will effect unnecessary torque on the bow, and it might negatively affect the shot. 

In the Green Arrow picture, the bottom knuckles of the fingers visible at the front of the bow, meaning the grip would face the same area on the thumb, which would be extremely hard to do and probably painful.

Compound archers often grip the bow more securely, but never to the extent where it's basically a clenched fist:

Note that both archers shown have their drawing hand resting against their jaw, this is something we call anchor. The anchor is a reference point that the archer decides to be able to pull to exactly the same distance and angle every single shot. If your anchor is inconsistent, your arrow will hit a different spot every time.

Archers not using a sight also use an anchor point, but it might be at a different spot, for example they might have their fingers touch the corner of the mouth:

The anchor position is highly dependent on shooting style, but you will notice there is always some kind of reference point to keep things consistent. Additionally, most archers have the string touch their face at the chin and tip of the nose, these are also additional reference points that allow for added precision.

Upon release, the power of arm that had been pulling back the bow is instantly set free, making it fall back behind the head and neck of the archer. The archer does not suddenly pull harder, it's just the sudden release of power that makes the hand fly back. Some archers will release to have their hand touch the shoulder, others will stop at the back of their ear.

The hand will be relaxed with the fingers more or less stretched out, as the only thing the archer really does at release is to take the tension out of his/her fingers.

Finally, the bow turning upside down is a very characteristic part of the recurve archer's follow-through, however this will not occur if the archer isn't using a stabilizer system.

To sum it up, the archer will always try to maintain a solid, straight posture, with 

• a solid T from torso to shoulders and bow arm
• hips and shoulders more or less in line with the target (opened a little in most cases)
• a relaxed hand gripping the bow
• the draw elbow in line or behind the line of the arrow
• the draw hand "anchored" somewhere along the jaw or on the side of the face
• the draw hand will fly back towards the rear shoulder as a result of the shot

That's it for today...Might've been a lot at once, but now you know the basics of shooting form.

I'll try to come back for another post on the little things to note about bow accessories and geometry, but don't hold your breath...

Before we go, how about some good examples of archery in the media!

Nicolas Cage's performance in Weather Man is generally praised. The film depicts a man who takes up archery, and as you can see his form is pretty good for a beginner (low elbow, bit grippy on the bow, but hey...). Insiders say that Cage was very enthusiastic about his archery training, and probably still owns a bow.

I personally enjoyed the Russel Crowe Robin Hood flick, and he did a pretty decent job with the longbow (look! arrow on the right side! and he's not turning the bow horizontal either) There wasn't that much archery in it, but it was way better executed than the Costner one.

On that topic, one scene that always stuck with me from the Costner film was when he shoots two arrows at the same time. Yes it is possible to nock and shoot more than one arrow at a time - but the result is quite unpredictable, and of course you would need a much wider arrow rest.

See also:

Note that this is for shits and giggles, and not applicable in a competition, hunting or combat situation! I also wouldn't call it accurate in any sense of the word.

Let me know in case you have any feedback, questions, or stuff that you would like me to touch on. Thanks for reading!
PS I do not own most of the pictures on here, so if they are yours and you don't want to have them on here, please notify me and I'll take them down right away.

Archery 101

Archery is one of my favourite hobbies. I compete on a reasonable level. I work for an archery manufacturer. I also enjoy reading comic books, watching movies, and playing video games.
So you can probably imagine, bad or plain wrong depictions of archery in these media are a pet peeve of mine. (correct ones on the other hand are awesome!)
For a while now, I've been saying I should create a sort of "manual" for artists who are about to draw an archer, to make sure it doesn't look completely ridiculous, like this:

What's wrong with this picture? For anyone who has ever even tried out archery, it'll be painfully obvious, and very embarrassing to the artist and publisher. My peers were mocking this all over facebook.

You'll know exactly why after you're done reading this post.

I'll try to give you a primer on what archery equipment needs to look like to be credible.

1. A bow is not a bow.

Well, it is. But there's several types of bows.

Observe:

Exhibit A:

Looks like a bow, right? This is the shape most commonly associated with the word "bow".

It's carved out of a piece of pliable wood, or, more commonly in modern times, laminated from several (notice how you can make out several layers in the bow, like layers of sediment).

This is called a traditional bow, one-piece bow, or longbow. There are myriads of different shapes, lengths, etc all over the world, but they all are one piece, with a string attached to both ends.
This type of bow is commonly used for recreation, and there are competitions held allowing this type of bow, which is especially popular in Europe.
You will not see this bow in the Olympic games, however, and it is no longer commonly used for hunting either.

Exhibit B:

Fancy, right?
This is a modern competition Recurve bow. Note how the ends curve back from the overall shape - thus the name recurve.
These bows disassemble into three pieces: one handle, or riser, and two limbs.
The riser is a piece of machined or forged Aluminum, or in some cases plastic or CFRP (Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic)
The limbs are the white things with the logo decals on them, and they serve the same purpose as the pliable wood on the bow above - they flex and store more power for every inch you draw back the bow string.

The limbs are what gives the bow its power, not the string.
I cannot emphasize this enough. The string is not elastic, the limbs are.
A fully drawn recurve bow will have a stronger concave shape than one at rest, depending, of course, on the length of the bow and the archer's drawlength.
Competition recurve bows generally have a draw weight of 35-50lbs, depending on the archer's physical ability and style of shooting.

A recurve bow will, in a competition situation, be outfitted with an assortment of accessories:

A Sight is what you use to aim. It has a vertical rail so you can move it up and down for different distances (the arrow will only fly a certain distance, so if you want to aim farther away, you need to raise the bow higher), and a reticle, or aperture, that you overlay with the target.
For Recurve archery, it's a relatively simple construction, made out of aluminum with some plastic or carbon parts.

A Plunger (Plunger Button, Berger Button) is a cushion that is pressed against the arrow shaft, and compensates for arrow flex upon release. It has to be adjusted for the individual archer's arrow stiffness to guarantee the right level of compensation.

A Stabilizer is, in most cases, a carbon tube with weights at the ends. The archer in this picture is using one long center stabilizer extending towards the target, and two side rods extending back towards the archer diagonally away from the bow in a V-shape (all together this makes for a three-tipped star, like a Star Wars A-Wing plane.). This configuration is most common among competition archers. (Common lengths are 26-30" for the center and 9-12" for the side rods)
Stabilizers offer, well, stabilization, they keep the bow still while aiming, and, to an extent even during the instant the arrow is shot. Think of a circus athlete using a pole to balance themselves while walking atop a wire.

Recurve bows can also be used as a bare bow, which is a separate category in some competitions, and looks like this:

Note that the archer is aiming along the arrow, and will be adjusting for target distance with the position of his drawing hand.

Recurve bows are also used for hunting, in which case they will have little to no stabilization and a rudimentary sight, or none at all.
However, this bow type is uncommon in hunting situations due to the high draw weight and low accuracy, which leads us to...

Exhibit C:

Compound bows are highly complex, intricate constructions - and the easiest to misunderstand. Note that this is the type of bow the artist tried to render in the picture at the top of this post.

They are also used in competition (albeit not the olympics, sadly), but their raison d'etre is hunting.

Bow hunting is quite popular in North America, so many of you might have seen a bow like this on TV.

Like the Recurve, a Compound bow also has a riser and limbs, but in addition, it also features a set of wheels or pulleys at the top and bottom. These are called cams (sometimes jokingly referred to as "training wheels"). They are connected by the string, which connects to the arrow like the one on a recurve, and 1-2 cables, which control the cam rotation. 

Cams on modern-day compound bows are eccentric, meaning the pivot point is not in the center of the cam. If you've listened in high school physics class, you can probably imagine that this means they offer more resistance, and store more energy, at different parts of the draw cycle. 

For example, let's say the above bow has a draw weight of 60lbs - not uncommon for a reasonably fit bowhunter or competition archer. At the end of the draw cycle, the draw weight will drop down by 60-70% to offer a comfortable position for aiming. At the same time, the bow will also increase power after you let go of the arrow, accelerating the it to 300 feet per second or more, far above what a recurve bow would allow an archer of the same ability.

Since the arrow is faster, it travels in a flatter curve, and is less prone to influences from wind and weather, making it more accurate.

In addition, compound archers also use different accessories to help their accuracy:

In a cometition situation, an archer will use a sight with a scope, which contains a lens with magnification. The archer is looking through a peep sight, which sits inside the string and allows the archer to look through it at the sight and the target - his eye is perfectly aligned with the sight, which again means added accuracy. (a recurve archer aims around the string, trying to keep it aligned at a reference point on the bow)

Also, the archer is using a release aid, a little hook with a mechanical trigger to open it, so his hands aren't actually touching the string. Again, accuracy boost.

On both recurve and compound bows, the arrow is not resting on the actual bow, but on a mechanical arrow rest, which can be adjusted to give maximum clearance and guarantee straight arrow flight.

Compare this picture to the one at the top, keeping in mind what I said about the string and cables. 

Even though the compound bow has three strings on it that look the same, and are in fact made out of the same material, you do not pull all of these at once. Having the cables on there enables the cams to work as pulleys, lower holding weight, and speed up arrow flight, but they do not make contact with the arrow.

Not only is pulling all three of these back with your hands nearly impossible with normal human strength, but it also offers no merit at all - as I mentioned, it's the limbs powering the bow, not the string, and If you were to use it like that, the strings would all tug the arrow in a slightly different direction, messing up your flight path.

In a hunting situation, the configuration would look like this:

This bowhunter has a quiver mounted to the bow (competition archers will have it on a belt around the waist, a traditional archer may have it on the back), and uses a hunting sight. 

A hunting sight has no lens in it, but it has several adjustable pins, which the archer sets to enable them to aim at several distances at once - for example the top pin might be 10yds, while the bottom one will be 40. 

In a situation requiring speed, like the comic book cover back at the top, the archer might not want to bother with a release (which takes time to hook onto the string), so they would use a shooting glove or a tab, like a recurve bow.

The archer on that comic book cover seems to be pulling either with a release aid at his wrist (no idea how he would trigger that), or by tugging at the arrow, both of which are highly unpractical.

Before we go, here's some more examples of doing it wrong:

This looks more like a crossbow than a bow, honestly I can't figure out how you would use it. 

The blades(?) that are on there in place of the limbs look rigid, meaning the thing wouldn't move an inch. 

This bow was obviously designed upon the assumption that the strings (again, why so many?) are elastic. In that case, they would have to be some new, super tough and elastic material (hey, it's a fantasy world, right?). 

That or the limbs pivot at the root, with some kind of elaborate mechanism powering them from within.

Either way, traditional limbs would be much more practical.

Ok, this is probably a problem with the 3D rigging of the character, but the arrow isn't attached to the string... Also, there seems to be some kind of shielding right where the arrow rest should be, which would trap the arrow and break it, leading to serious injury. Always clear your arrow flight path..

That's it for today, I will try to make time again and come back for a second post about technique - what the archer shooting the bow needs to look like to be credible.
Let me know in case you have any feedback, questions, or stuff that you would like me to touch on. Thanks for reading!
PS I do not own most of the pictures on here, so if they are yours and you don't want to have them on here, please notify me and I'll take them down right away.