Back Tension

radsbow

New member
How do you know if you are getting back tension right?</p>

I mean are there any tell tale signs that I could/should be looking for when executing correct back tension - like cleaner release etc.</p>

No coach at the club, well there are, but none that know about back tension, so am trying to self coach through books and forums. I've managed to gain 106 points on a York round in?about a month, but my goal is Bowman class by the end of September and I'm looking for everything I can do to gain the 60 points that I'm short presently.</p>

All help greatly appreciated.</p>
 

TJ Mason

Soaring
Supporter
Fonz Awardee
American Shoot
A good indicator is where your drawing hand goes after release. If it flaps outwards ("the Hello release", as I've heard it called), then you're probably using arm muscles rather than back muscles. If the hand remains at the anchor point then you're probably not using back tension -- at least not properly. The hand should come several inches backwards and behind the neck, and perhaps downwards.

You can get perfectly good results without using back tension, but chances are that your consistency will then suffer in the later parts of a long round.
 

JohnM

New member
Another good indicator, in combination with the drawing hand mentioned above, is that the bow arm, if you're shooting right-handed, will go slightly to the left upon release - if you're shooting lefty (like me), it will go to the right - you shouldn't consciously focus on doing this - it should naturally happen, and is more of a "feel." Virtually every time I hit gold I notice this action and "feel" a good shot...in trying to explain how it feels, I guess it should feel like your shoulder blades are continuing to come together upon the release of the arrow...it's only a millisecond, but definitely noticeable.
 

Little Miss Purple

The American
Fonz Awardee
Ironman
American Shoot
The coach at St. Ives told us last week that when you are at full draw your elbow should still be moving backwards (fractionally), when you do this you can feel it in your back - it also forces your fingers to relax and release the string smoothly.
 

Furface

Moderator
Supporter
Try using a "Formaster" or similar. If you are using your back muscles, it will feel the same, and you will be able to draw properly. If not, then you will struggle to draw, but at least you will then have the equipment to practice with.
It is almost impossible to coach yourself in this fine detail - you need someone to observe everything and work with you. If you are not confident in the coaches at your club, then get in touch with your County coaching officer who will be able to suggest others at nearby clubs (yes, there are some!)
 

Barry C

New member
The best set of back muscles to use is the large set located between the tip of the scapula and the spine. The easiest way I have found to use these is to draw with the bow pointing down at 45 degrees, with the a high draw elbow, then bring the elbow up and back. If it is done right your scapula should stick out of your back, you can then squeeze the large muscle to bring the draw scapula down and in, while putting full pressure into the bow arm. I will attach a photo I took of my brother after I taught him this technique. </p>

Now I have mastered the back I have a big problem collapsing with my bow shoulder. If I align it before the shot I cant use the back effectively and end up using the? less efficient muscles between the upper scapula, it looks like a crease in my back, which is bad. As soon as I can mix the stable bow shoulder with the back I will rule the world! :)</p>

I highly reccomend you buy Total Archery. It is explained in detail there. Together with the draw - holding transfer phase and expansion. It is thought bad to continue pulling as you need to effectively stop in order to transfer the bow weight into the important muscles before the push pull. Maybe Marcus can chip in and add his wisdom.</p>
 

radsbow

New member
Thank you to all that replied. I now have food for thought and something new to try out today.</p>

Barry C - do you use a pre-draw? I think my form is more of a classical T Form. I raise my bow arm and draw straight back, without any pause, to my anchor. My draw arm is low.</p>

I had previously used a high draw and let my bow drop onto gold/ yellow as I came to anchor then loosed, but had a club coach (I think) tell me not to do that as it was a movement not needed -?dropping on to yellow. So he tried to get me to aim at the yellow all through my draw. Did't like so didn't do it, but seemed to have lost/moved to a low arm draw, if you understand what I mean.</p>
 

KevinH

The American
Fonz Awardee
Ironman
American Shoot
Hummm, just to be a bit of a devils advocate;

After much reading of books and self-coaching I used to shoot using the muscles and technique Barry has described. I felt I was doing pretty well too. Then at the beginning of this year I attended some performance clinics organised by our local coaching group. I was shown ( with the aid of video ) that my hand came back and down on release. The coach took some time convincing me ( no easy task ) that I would get a cleaner release and consequently better groups if I could make my hand come straight back or slightly up. In making this change it was necessary to change the back muscles I was using, to include muscles higher in the back. Guess what after many weeks work making the change, my groups improved significantly, just like the coach said !!!
 

Barry C

New member
radsbow - 5/8/2005 9:20 AM

Thank you to all that replied. I now have food for thought and something new to try out today.</p>

Barry C - do you use a pre-draw? I think my form is more of a classical T Form. I raise my bow arm and draw straight back, without any pause, to my anchor. My draw arm is low.</p>

I had previously used a high draw and let my bow drop onto gold/ yellow as I came to anchor then loosed, but had a club coach (I think) tell me not to do that as it was a movement not needed -?dropping on to yellow. So he tried to get me to aim at the yellow all through my draw. Did't like so didn't do it, but seemed to have lost/moved to a low arm draw, if you understand what I mean.</p>
</p>

Trying to hold the sight on gold all through the draw will create a lot of tension. Mant people start with the sight above gold, draw and it will just come down. If you start with a low draw the pin comes up anyway. Just dont feel like you are fighting it, it should feel natural and easy. Ki Sik Lee said it doesnt matter how you get to full draw, so long as you have the correct form and muscle group engauged. </p>

Take the Initial draw with the back of?your shoulder then use the elbow then transfer to the back. Its much less of a weight then.</p>

Many british?coaches do not appreciate back tension and or biomechanics at all, even at county level. I have seen books effectively telling the Koreans they are doing it all wrong. However I will side with the technique called correct by scientisits and the words great shooters.</p>

It is reccomended to draw down to your neck then bring up your hand and draw arm parallel?to anchor, This will help you engauge the correct muscle group especially if you start with a high draw. I have a video clip I can email you if you wish of the current world chapion who has a very noticable form that demonstrates this well.</p>

Sometimes you just need the confidence to tell a coach they are no help and are teaching you outdated innefective form, a wise skill to learn usually ;)</p>
 

joetapley

New member
I don't think that 'back tension' is in itself is a positive thing the aim is rather to avoid any forces other than a straight pull with the string hand. Ultimately the only contact the archer has with the bow, and the only thing dictating its behavior is the interaction with the two hands so everything should come back to what happens with your mitt/bow interaction. So there's more than one way to skin this cat.

For me I've found that getting a feeling for what's going on with muscles etc. is done by pulling up on a bungee (low poundage bow an alternative if you have one). You then transfer this to the higher draw weight of the bow (The Formaster is an oft recommended, if expensive, device to aid this).

As to getting (for me) a good back tension - the mantra is "pull the bow arm scapula down throughout the shot and once at anchor to expand through the clicker by pulling the string arm scapula downwards". Do the latter and then a 'clean release' just happens. Don't favour the move the elbow back or rotate the elbow approaches - this is one of my bad habits. You can move the elbow around using all the wrong muscles.
 

Marky Mark

New member
Seems that everyone wants to add their bit so I thought I might as well add my own comments. I started shooting when I was 14 (15yrs ago) and I am all too aware of the problems that can surround 'how to draw your bow'. Although it does sound simple, there is one very important issue that should be addressed. If you do not draw the bow correctly, you can damage, or leave your shoulder open to damage at a later stage.

When I first started shooting, I used to have a very high draw arm that was consistent with the High draw approach. As a direct result of years of shooting this style, my shoulder then became very lop sided to a point where I partially dislocated it whilst doing front crawl (as this is the opposite rotation but essentially the same movement that I used to draw the bow.

They way to ensure that you are drawing correctly is to 'try' drawing the bow across your chest whilst keeping your elbow and your draw hand at exactly the same height as your shoulders themselves (note you should not move your release hand under the chin whilst trying this.) This ensures that the draw weight is kept in line with the stresses that will be placed on your bones (arms, collar bones etc.) If you try this you will find it very easy and it feels natural. This is because you are having to do the minimum amount of work. Now try doing a high draw. This is when the bow arm and the draw arm starts up in a high position (ensure that the angle of the arrow is parallel with the floor). This draw method uses your Lats to pull your arm down and once in the final position, your elbow will be very high.

You should have felt a considerable difference between how the two actions felt. You should also have felt which muscles you used in each approach.
As stated by many people before me, you should feel all the tension between your shoulder blades (as in the earlier example). This is the correct way to shoot.

Oh and one last thing. If you get to full draw and something doesn't feel right, come down and start again. Once your at full draw it is almost impossible to move the stress from one muscle group to another without messing upthe end shot.
 

jerryRTD

Well-known member
I try to elbow an imaginary person in the nose who is standing slightly behind me and to the right.
 

cliveanne

New member
Ironman
Jerry Tee - 20/8/2005 5:20 PM I try to elbow an imaginary person in the nose who is standing slightly behind me and to the right.
</p>



That's the one. ;)?I tell my beginner's to imagine pushing sombody away with their elbow whilst holding the string.I also tell them to stroke the side of the neck with their finger as the elbow is coming back (at the loose). This helps them to stay in a straight line with the boss.</p>

An exersise I also give them is to have a carrier bag with sand in, with a weight comparable to a low poundage bow, I tell them to hold the bag as per normal (Not a a death grip) & let the fingers totaly relax. This is the same as loosing the string, but at a different angle, tie the two together, & you should have something like a good follow through eventualy.</p>

It works for the majority of my beginners. ;)</p>
 

cecile

New member
To feel back tension, and only back tension, here is an usefull exercice:

-Make a loop whith a rubber band. The drawing elbow shall be inside this loop.
-Hold the other ends of the rubber band in the bow hand.
-Adjust yourt stance as you do for shooting with your bow and perform a draw having your drawing forearm relaxed above the rubber band.
-Only the back muscles will work!

Very educational and usefull to test and improve back muscles working.
 

radsbow

New member
cecile - 31/8/2005 10:02 PM To feel back tension, and only back tension, here is an usefull exercice: -Make a loop whith a rubber band....
</p>

Thans for that suggestion, I'll be trying that today :)</p>
 

Marcus26

Well-known member
A key to getting back tension really working well is to keep your alignments through the entire draw process. This will keep the focus on the scapula and away from the arm and hand.
To train for this the Koreans do something that could be described as SPT Pumps. They stand there and they practice moving just the scapula on it's own for about 20 fast reps.
Teaching yourself how to keep the entire draw process in the scapula and not the release arm is the key to achieving correct scapula use during the shot. (I don't like using the word back tension, it makes people think they need to tense up, when the opposite is true)

However more importantly is that if you really want to achieve correct technique then don't set yourself score and time based goals. Give yourself a task like "I wish to develop correct use of the back" and simply work on that. Might take you a week or a year, but if you start trying to score high at the same time then you will simply mess both of them up. Get teh technique right and the scores will follow in due course.
 

cliveanne

New member
Ironman
Marcus26 - 18/9/2005 2:43 AM A key to getting back tension really working well is to keep your alignments through the entire draw process. This will keep the focus on the scapula and away from the arm and hand. To train for this the Koreans do something that could be described as SPT Pumps. They stand there and they practice moving just the scapula on it's own for about 20 fast reps. Teaching yourself how to keep the entire draw process in the scapula and not the release arm is the key to achieving correct scapula use during the shot. (I don't like using the word back tension, it makes people think they need to tense up, when the opposite is true) However more importantly is that if you really want to achieve correct technique then don't set yourself score and time based goals. Give yourself a task like "I wish to develop correct use of the back" and simply work on that. Might take you a week or a year, but if you start trying to score high at the same time then you will simply mess both of them up. Get teh technique right and the scores will follow in due course.
</p>



Marcus26?You are right in what you say.??<font size="2">(I don't like using the word back tension, it</font> <font size="2">makes people</font> <font size="2">think they need to tense up, when the opposite is true)</font>??? It is a method I have used, but not the same wording. Thanks for that point of view, I might get it accross to some of my pupils who seem to get it a little confused.</p>


</p>
 

Erika

New member
For trying to see if you are doing it right, draw up (without an arrow) aiming at a mirror. As you draw and settle, the drawing shoulder blade should stick out further than the bow shoulder. Practice moving that shoulder blade without using any arm muscle and you should have it.

Sometimes I think being able to see what you're moving makes it easier to get the body to obey.
 
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