FULL DRAW IN THE WAY OF ARCHERY

A problem for many archers - particularly those who practice traditional styles - is that once we have learned the basics, we do not have continued coaching to help us maintain and master good form and get rid of bad habits early on. I have been fortunate that other more experienced archers at clubs and field shoots now and then have given me invaluable advice. A more surprising source of help, however, has come from reading texts, and in particular a translation of a 17th century Chinese military manual: The Way of Archery.

While I am interested in and practice both Eastern and Western styles of shooting, this text is written in the context of Chinese archery, and so archers who practice different styles should bear this in mind, particularly when it comes to things like gripping the bow and loosing the arrow with the thumb draw. Other things are relevant to all archers.

One section of the text in particular has helped me address a couple of problems I have had with my archery. The first is the conspicuous movement of my bow arm on release whenever pulling around 30 ibs or more. The other is inconsistency in the power of my shots even when my form and release appear to be consistent.

Enter The Way of Archery and a passage on the meaning of full draw. I had not considered until I read this text that both problems I was having were related to proper joint alignment and the pre-draw. I could always "feel" when my shots were right in terms of power and alignment, but could not fathom exactly what was right about them until I read this:

"There is only one true path to reaching full draw, but a lot of people are not aware of it. Some people can reach full draw by chance. But because they do not understand how they were able to achieve it, they are not able to maintain it. After practicing a while, the problem of misaligning their joints creeps in. At first the problems are not severe because their joints are occasionally aligned. But then over time, their muscles get strained, and the joints that were almost aligned eventually become completely misaligned. In the end they cannot reach full draw at all! 

What is the right way to reach full draw? The basis of reaching full draw rests entirely in the bow shoulder settling down and rotating clockwise [for the right-handed archer]. Once the bow shoulder settles down, the bow-side and draw-side arms and the draw-side shoulder lift together and assume proper alignment with respect to the bow shoulder. The draw-side elbow bends all the way and points towards your back. You feel your back exerting most of the effort and your joints have reached their limit. You can hold the draw without moving. The arrowhead has a little room until it reaches the handle. This is what you can call full draw.

Nowadays, people do not know how to reach full draw. They rely entirely on muscle strength to draw the bow and think that it is enough for the arrowhead to reach the handle to call it full draw. They do not account for joint alignment at all. However, within a given day a person's strength will change. From morning to night, your strength diminishes gradually. If you rely exclusively on strength and try to measure your full draw length, then you would be able to reach full draw in the morning but fail to reach full draw by the end of the day! With multiple draw lengths, the distances which you are able to shoot will change accordingly. How can you achieve consistency? Only when your joints are at their limit can you consider it full draw. That is why people with long arms should use long arrows, and people with short arms should use short arrows. Strong people should use heavier bows, and weak people should use lighter bows. In all cases, the arrowheads of these properly-sized arrows will reach the bow handle, and only then will they be able to draw to a consistent length."

In addition to the original text, which goes into much more detail about this and other aspects of archery, this particular volume (by Jie Tian and Justin Ma, published by Schiffer), includes modern photographs to demonstrate technique plus notes and annotations by the translators and editors which are very useful. On page 26 and 27, for example, we have four images demonstrating the process from pre-draw to full draw, and the following explanation:

1. Start with the bow and arrow pointed to the ground and draw-side shoulder hunched.

2. Draw the string back as you lift your bow arm, making sure the bow shoulder blade is settled down the whole time.

3. Use your back and shoulders to push down your arms to reach the end of the draw.

4. Now you are at full draw and ready to release.

I acquired a copy of 'The Way of Archery: A 1637 Chinese Military Training Manual' because I am interested in historical archery and old books and ancient manuscripts on the subject. What these authors have done, however, is taken an old Chinese text (the original Chinese is included in the margins) which is already useful in itself, and added modern photographs and annotations so that it can be used as an instruction manual for modern bowmen, particularly those who practice Eastern styles. I can not recommend it highly enough.