After a weekend of sunny weather I decided that I was well overdue a visit to the woods.  I sent my buddy a message and we arranged an evening of shooting. Unfortunately, on the day of the shoot it rained all day which led to the track that leads up to the wood becoming a challenge in itself to navigate. I didn’t get the car stuck – much – but it definitely needed a wash before I took it home.

After successfully navigating the mud track of death I met my buddy at the edge of the wood, we got our kit ready – including wellies – and started our shoot. I really love just wandering around the forest and having a chat about life and archery, I don’t even have to shoot well (but I’d lie if I said that didn’t help), there’s just something about being outside with a bow that instantly recharges the batteries.

In terms of the shoot, I felt that I shot okay, all my arrows hit the target but I need to pull my groupings together. I’m still getting used to the recurve and shooting from a shelf that is so central – the bow however, feels amazing. Whilst shooting I took a few pictures and my buddy took a few of me whilst at full draw. It’s not often that I get to see a picture of myself shooting but I did notice, when I went through the pictures at home, that my bow hand is in totally the wrong position.

As you can see I’m holding the weight of my bow in the gap between my thumb and finger which means that the weight of the bow is held in my wrist. I need to push my palm into the bow which will help me engage my back tension which in turn will make my release smoother (hopefully). In my minds eye I was already doing this so it came as a bit of a shock seeing the evidence that I wasn’t. It’s something I’ll start working on correcting the next time I pick up my bow but it goes to show how easy bad form can creep up on you.