Where are your feet?

Bernie Pellerite, author and NFAA Shooters School coach recently helped me with what he said in an article. Mr. Pellerite was discussing several aspects of form and one was the positioning of the feet while shooting. Mr. Pellerite clearly demonstrated for me why an open stance is the best way to minimize shoulder forward and back muscle tension.

Try this: while standing lift your arms straight up from your side and hold them out as if you were holding your bow at shooting height. Vary the position of your arms moving them both forward and back and pay attention to the tensions that build in the shoulder muscles. I noticed that as I moved forward tension would develop in the front of the shoulder and when I moved my arms back tension would develop to the rear. Somewhere in between the extremes I noticed an area of minimal tension and this area was slightly forward of the rear extreme of where I could move my arm/shoulder to.

Reducing the tensions in the bow arms is key to staying on the road to archery steadiness and accuracy. By placing your feet so that your stance will be slightly open will reduce the stresses on the shoulder and will make you more accurate.