Before we get into technique an understanding is required of
what physical stress an Archer’s body is under. The video below is a good overview of this
(apologies for the exaggerated American commentary)
Before we continue, yes it is not 74ft Brady is shooting and
no I do not know how many donuts were harmed in the making of this film.
With the commentary aside it does give an indication of the
physical forces and how archers use the human body, the skeleton structure in
particular, to handle it.
As mentioned at point (0.38min) in the video by aligning
bones in the front arm (the arm holding the bow) this allows the compression
force from pulling the bow to be loaded on the bones with only minimal effort
from the muscles. This is great for efficiency and means Brady can keep doing
the same shot each time.
Now let us focus on the right arm or the pulling arm. In the
video it comes back and the hand rest under Brady’s chin. The point where the
hand and subsequently the string touch his face is known as the reference
point. The bow is not drawn much further from this point so Brady is now at
full draw.
Take a look picture (a) a photo from behind of Taylor Worth (I couldn’t find a picture of Brady from this angle) at full draw. Notice how the string lings up with elbow. Then look at picture (b) a face front picture of Brady. Now notice how the arrow is lined up directly with the elbow.
Picture (a)
Picture (b)
What you are looking at in archery terms is the draw force
line or put simply alignment. This is a
text book position at full draw. It is solid, the force is being held directly
inline, perfect really. We can surmise
that the force of the bow is being held by the right arm/pulling arm, in
reality this is not the case. Nearly all the work/force is being held on the
back muscles.
From this video see how the back muscles are moving and
working during the shot. The back muscles are what we want to use during
shooting. They are strong and can take 56lb of force as related in the video. (you might need to loop the video is 8 sec long)
What Brady does and other archers of his caliber do can be
classed as text book technique. It is worth knowing that the application of
this technique can differ.
Bloggers Note
This post has just taken a brief (text book) review to handling the power of a bow and in the process touched on technique. Now there is much more about technique than what I have written. There are volumes dedicated to this subject matter. This a blog not a book so don't shoot me on the bits i have missed.
