Common Archery Mistakes and How to Fix Them

Archery is one of the oldest sports in existence. It’s been practiced by people worldwide for centuries, and it continues to grow in popularity today.

The idea behind this sport is to shoot an arrow with a bow and hit a target. This seems like it would be easy, but people make many mistakes when shooting arrows.

Despite this ancient history, many beginners still make common mistakes easily avoided with little practice and guidance. The following tips will help you avoid these mistakes so you can improve your game right away.

Tired Of Why Your Arrows Not Hitting The Middle Point?

Shooting a bow and arrow is a great way to pass the time. It’s an activity that people of all ages can practice, and it provides a fun challenge for everyone involved.

Following is a list of the most common archery mistakes, along with helpful tips on correcting them.

1. Improper Stance

Having the proper stance is very important when shooting a bow and arrow. If your stance is wrong, it can hurt your accuracy. You want to have a steady position before drawing back the bow’s string.

There are two ways to hold a bow while shooting an arrow: a modern grip and a traditional one.

• As you see in many movies, the modern grip involves gripping the bow between both hands. This is the most common type of grip today because it provides more stability.
• The traditional grip was used by people hundreds of years ago. With this grip, your feet are shoulder-length apart, and your dominant hand holds the lower half of the bow. Your other hand rests on your side and has the top part of the bow. Whichever grip you use, make sure that it doesn’t cause you to lean forward or backward while shooting at a target.

2. Holding The Bow Wrong

If you’re not holding the bow properly, it can negatively affect your accuracy. You want to hold the bow in a way that allows you to remain stationary while shooting at your target.

In order to do this, you’ll need to grip the bow with your dominant hand. Your other hand should be at the end of the handle, and it will help support the bow as you’re aiming. You can adjust your hands accordingly if you don’t feel comfortable with the position of your fingers.

3. Fingers On The Bow String

This is another common mistake that beginners make when learning to shoot a bow.

It’s important to avoid touching the string with your fingers because doing so will result in inaccurate shots. You can easily avoid this mistake by gripping the bow correctly and holding it closer to the belly side of the grip.

In addition to that, there are some of the following tips on avoiding touching bowstring you can follow in order to increase your accuracy:

• Make sure that your shoulders are square with the target before you shoot.
• Don’t rest at full drawback more than necessary.
• Turn your head to one side so you can look down the arrow shaft.
• For longbows, keep the bottom limb tip pressed against your thigh while you press down on the top limb tip with your upper body weight.

4. Dropping The Arm After Releasing The Bow

This is a common mistake made by those just starting with archery. Even if you don’t have previous experience, you want to avoid dropping the bow arm immediately after releasing the string.

The best thing is to hold your bow arm straight until the arrow hits its target. This will help ensure that you can see the trajectory of your shot and that you can tell whether it is accurate.

When you let the string go, it should be followed by an immediate release of the whole bow arm instead of just the fingers. This will allow you to keep your position and control your weapon.

5. Measuring The Anchor Point

How you measure the anchor point for your shot can significantly impact whether or not you hit your target. An excellent way to ensure that you’re using the good points is to keep in mind that there are seven vital areas on your face and skin where you should be pointing the string to create a consistent anchor point. These include:

• The corner of your mouth
• The center of your eye
• Your ear canal
• The edge of your shoulder joint
• Your nose bone
• The corner of your eyebrow

6. Shot Perfection

When it comes to hitting a target with your shot, one of the biggest mistakes you can make is being impatient. Some people pull back on the string and release it as soon as they have a perfect sight picture. This means their arrow misses the target entirely because they didn’t give it enough time to reach its destination.

You should hold your shot and continue focusing on the target until you see an opening. You can then release the string and hit that spot. If you’re having trouble with this, work on holding back for more extended amounts of time as you practice shooting at a target.

7. Hitting It With The Incorrect Bow

The bow you choose can also have a huge impact on how accurate your shots are. Ensure that the type of bow you’re using is best suited for your purposes and experience level.

For example, beginner archers should learn with a recurve or compound bow since it has a more forgiving design and will handle it more easily. In fact, some compound bows even come with a peep sight and arrow rest already attached to the riser. So, you won’t need to worry about adding them yourself.

Also, pay close attention to the draw weight of the bow before purchasing it because choosing one that is too heavy will not only be difficult for you to handle but can damage your bow in a short period.

8. Don’t Take Too Long To Aim

The longer you take to aim with your bow, the more chance you will lose concentration and miss your target. This is why new archers need to train themselves to be very quick when aiming with a bow so they can hit it before the target gets away from them.

9. Rotation Of The Elbow

Many archers make another common mistake when they let their elbows rotate too much when drawing the bow. Ideally, you should keep them close to your body and take them out only once ready to shoot. This will help ensure that your shot stays steady since the elbow will counterbalance the whole upper body.

10. Wrong Finger Positioning

One of the most common mistakes that people new to archery make is putting their fingers on the wrong part of the string. The three fingers you should use when drawing your bow are:

• Your index finger should be placed on the same side as your nose.
• Your middle finger should touch your cheekbone.
• Your ring finger should touch your chin.

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the proper way to grip a bow and arrow?

The proper bow grip and arrow is by drawing an imaginary triangle in the webbing between your thumb and index finger. Hold your bow with your dominant hand and support it using the fingers on that side of your hand. Use your other hand to draw back the string and anchor it between your thumb and index finger.

How important is a quiver?

A quiver is an essential piece of equipment that every archer should carry their arrows safely and conveniently. If you don’t have one, you can buy several different types of back quivers to take your arrows safely. There are also belt quivers, bow quivers, and hip quivers that you can use when you go out to shoot.

Conclusion

If you are serious about becoming an archer, it’s crucial to try and eliminate these mistakes from your shooting as soon as possible. They can lead to poor accuracy and even cause injury if you aren’t careful handling your weapon.

So, make sure that you have the right posture every time you draw back your string and don’t take too long to aim. Keep those fingers in place and don’t rotate your elbows as you shoot, instead use them as a counterbalance.

If you do this, your shots will be more accurate, and you can begin improving your technique even further – such as learning how to shoot with a recurve bow or compound bow.

Best of luck, and remember to have fun out there!