Kill The Spider

Archery enthusiasts of every kind, welcome! This blog will include general information posts, archery in popular media, and answers to any archery questions you care to ask, so ask away! In particular, I will focus on competitive target and field barebow archery. Have a look at Archery Etiquette and the Dictionary of Archery Terms in the menu as well.

[stephexmachina]

proposing a new genre of fiction called an anti-romance where u r presented w a couple at the start & the story is about their emotional journey towards a catastrophic break up

[neosatsuma]

[neosatsuma]

[rain-droplet]

who turned them german mid tag ?

[dastardlywlw]

how do you know they were transformed midday?

[ragsy]

"Adopt don't shop" and "that's a 10 year commitment" style PSAs except instead of being aimed at would-be irresponsible pet owners it's for people who want to start yet another long-term ttrpg campaign

[ragsy]

now I'm thinking about a petfinder type service where would-be GMs browse through lists of abandoned or surrendered campaigns with hopes of finding a loving but skittish party of adventurers and their bbeg to adopt

"Where did you come up with this convoluted plot?"

"It's a rescue 🥰"

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Women Archers at the 1908 Olympics

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ARMLESS ARCHER sings Frozen parody: Do you want to shoot my compound?

Brought to my attention by the wonderful Naomi Jones

[real-kate-bishop]

Starting Archery, Part 4: Shooting Basics

Here I'll talk you through how to shoot a recurve bow. Please use this guide only as a supplement/reminder in addition to personal instruction from an archery coach. Again, please join a club and take lessons; this will save you a lot of frustration and potentially injury.

The number one thing to remember when learning archery is:

RELAX (DON'T PANIC)

Stay calm and loose. I've seen lots of beginners get so uptight about everything, they contort themselves into strange shapes, they lean and twist about, and they throw everything out of balance. Relax. Simple, efficient motions are the key.

The second thing to remember is: TAKE YOUR TIME

You will only get a limited amount of shooting time per session. Make each arrow count by thinking carefully about each step in sequence. Over time, it will become natural and unconscious, but at first you should be very intentional about everything you do. There's no need to rush; work through each step consciously and carefully.

The steps of shooting!

1. Stance

Stand on the shooting line, facing perpendicular to the target; you should be facing the same side of the target as your dominant hand/eye. That is, if you're shooting right-handed, you should be facing to the right, and vice versa for shooting left-handed. You should stand with one foot on either side of the line, with your feet about shoulder-width apart and pointing forward. Stand comfortably and naturally; don't bend over or puff out your chest. Once you're in position, don't move again.

2. Hips and shoulders

Your feet, hips, and shoulders should all be in line, facing forward. Don't twist or lean to pull the bow during any part of shooting.

3. Nock an arrow

This is a good point to put an arrow on the string. Always make sure the arrow is nocked all the way (you should hear and feel a click), and that the odd-coloured fletch is towards you.

4. Hand position

Your grip on the bow is a very important part of your shooting technique. It determines the angle of your hand, arm, shoulder and body relative to the bow. Bad hand position is a major culprit in smacking your forearm with the bowstring.

To practice good hand position:

Make a two-finger gun with your bow hand, so your ring and pinkie fingers are folded in. The top of the riser should sit comfortably on top of your hand, on the joint between your thumb and hand.

Wrap your index and middle fingers gently around the grip, with your fingertips resting on the front of the riser and your thumb on the side of the grip. Keep your bottom two fingers tucked in alongside the grip.

This naturally moves your hand into a good hand position. Your first two knuckles should be at a 45-degree angle below horizontal. You should also have good contact between the riser and the palm of your hand, and the center of the grip should sit in the center of the base of your palm.

This position should feel comfortable and solid. You should not need to grip the bow tightly. When you draw, you should always have good contact between the grip and your palm, with the bow pressing into your hand (not the other way around!)

Hand position is very important. A lot of the injury, discomfort, and bad form in beginners is based in bad hand (and by extension, arm and shoulder) position. I highly recommend Performance Archery's guide to hand position and the thrilling sequel for a good (if overly detailed, at this point) explanation.

5. Position your front arm

Lift your front arm, holding the bow, as if I had asked you "Where is the gold?" and you point with the bow. Your arm should be straight from your shoulder, and your elbow joint turned horizontally. You should place the bow approximately where it will be when you shoot. Keep your shoulders relaxed. For help with front arm position, see this guide.

6. Draw

With your tab covering your fingers, grab onto the string. The string should sit in the first knuckles on your fingers, just above your fingertips. Most clubs will teach either three fingers below the arrow or one-above-two-below; in either case, keep your pinkie finger off the string. Align your drawing arm so that your forearm is parallel to the floor and in line with the arrow. There should be no bends in your arm at the fingers or wrists.

Using your back muscles, draw the string back. Think of it as if someone is pulling your arm back by the elbow; the rest of your arm should be relaxed. Pull straight back to your anchor point only by moving your drawing arm; never push forward with your bow arm. Again, guide here.

7. Anchor

It may take you some time to find an anchor point that works. Depending on your coach, you may be shooting with an anchor point on your face (barebow style) or under your jaw (recurve style). For both, don't be afraid to press your hand into your face. The more reference points the better!

For a face anchor, use some or all of the following points of reference:

Index finger knuckle under your cheekbone

Base of your thumb around the curve of your jaw

Fingertip at the corner of your mouth

String touching your face/nose

For a jaw anchor, use the following points of reference:

Top of your hand (between your index knuckle and the base of your thumb) in firm contact with the line of your jaw

String pressed into the front of your chin and the tip of your nose

Many beginners are hesitant about pulling the string all the way to their face, but a solid, consistent anchor point is absolutely critical to shooting well, so get as much contact with your face as you can. If you need some ideas, watch some experienced archers anchoring: Ladies Team Gold at Medellin and Gents Mixed Team Gold (Field). Of course, Performance Archery also has a guide here.

8. Aim

If you have a sight, look through it and put the pin/dot in the middle in the center of the gold. If you don't, look down the shaft of the arrow and put the point of the arrow in the center of the gold.

Aiming is much more, and much less, than this. As you're just starting, this is more than enough to worry about for now!

9. Release

Relax the fingers on your drawing hand. The key is to not let your hand come forward with the string, but rather let the string slip off your fingers while your hand continues the drawing motion backwards. A good release will end with your hand under your ear (face anchor) or on the side of your neck (jaw anchor).

10. Followthrough

Just like a tennis player following through on their swing, archers have followthrough as well. For archery, it involves:

the movement of the drawing hand backwards to complete the release movement (as described above)

keeping the bow arm still and allowing the bow to swing

keeping good form until after the arrow has hit the target

Maintain good form until after the shot is complete ensures that you are maintaining good form during the shot as well.

Some Important Things!!

This guide is not meant to teach you to shoot from scratch. It is intended to help remind you of the things to pay attention to in between sessions with a coach.

You will not get all of these things right the first time you shoot. Learning archery is like trying to put an octopus in a picnic basket; just when you think everything's in order, something slips out of place while you weren't paying attention. Don't worry about it too much, you're learning!

Observe. Watch archery finals and medal matches on YouTube. Watch the experienced archers in your club shoot. Look for the steps described above and try to do what they do. 

MOST IMPORTANT: Relax. Take your time. Do one step at a time. Archery is fun!

More Information:

Performance Archery's YouTube and website. These guides are aimed towards more advanced archers. If they confuse you, skip them and come back when you have a better feeling for archery.

Also try World Archery's YouTube for lots of good footage of professional archers on top form.

Protip: avoid YouTube how-tos, especially jokey, Hunger-Games-related ones or Howcast. Learn to shoot from a coach or instructor.

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Sourced from Facebook.

[3rshooter]

Story of my archery life.

[archeryadventures]

It's OK to Miss... Beating target panic

I love Archery, its my passion in life. And I realise how incredibly lucky I am to be doing a job I love at Merlin Archery. But a while back I hit a small snag in my archery, a dark cloud that was sucking out all my enthusiasm and enjoyment from this noblest of pastimes… Target panic!

Target panic comes in many forms, but for me I was unable to let go of the string. I’d draw up, focus on my target and nothing, I just couldn’t make my body relax my hand and let the string go. So I’d force the shot and the arrow could end up anywhere.  

What had changed?… It wasn’t my form, I’ve been shooting the same way for years. So whatever was happening to me was mental. I put my bow down for a while and started looking at what was going on with me.

I spent time talking to all the archers I knew about the dreaded target panic, but being an instinctive archer I’m really in the minority around these parts. A lot of the advice I got from my target archer friends was very technical, a lot of working on my form, blank boss shooting and shooting with my eyes closed, that kind of thing.

Don’t get me wrong, blind shooting is an amazing technique and I’ve used it for years to get my form down pat. I even tried it in this instance. It worked a treat, a perfect shot every time with no target panic. But as soon as I open them boom it was back. I needed to look deeper.

Being incredibly bull headed and stubborn I find it quite hard to ask for help. But desperate times call for desperate measures. I’m lucky enough to count a Canadian Instinctive archer that I hold in the highest regard, Jeff Kavanagh as a friend. I’ve learned a lot from him over the years.

So I bit the bullet, and asked him for his help and advice. Jeff has got this uncanny ability to tell you exactly what you need to hear…      

What is Target Panic? All it is really at it’s core is a fear of missing. So why was I so scared of missing? It was my job. I’m the face of an archery company, I make youtube videos giving people help and advice, reviewing products, coaching, holding workshops and doing challenges.

Without really thinking about it I’d put myself in the public eye, and the pressure I’d placed on myself was huge. Whether I was shooting at my club, at the Merlin range or making a video, I thought every shot I took had to be perfect, people might be watching. But Jeff made me realise it really doesn’t.

Its ok to miss every once in a while, especially when shooting instinctively. Jeff told me to get back to doing what I love, put the fun back in to archery. Archery to me has never been a numbers game, I’ve never been bothered about high scores, all I’ve ever cared about was hitting what I was looking at. But lately I’d been putting in a lot of target rounds, almost to prove to my self that i was good enough.

Jeff also told me that Target panic is no big deal and not to “get my knickers in a twist” I’ve heard so many horror stories about how its ended archery careers and how people have had to change disciplines or put the bow down for good. I really don’t want to trivialise anybody else’s experience, because I know target panic can be devastating. But when you come to understand its ok to miss sometimes, that pressure just lifts right off.     

Please understand that this is just my own experiences with target panic and yours may be totally different, but one things for certain, its all in your head. Take the pressure off and have a little fun with it and I’m sure your target panic will ease…  

It has done wonders for me.

I’d like to thank Jeff, Gillian and Dan for helping pull my head out of my arse… 

[real-kate-bishop]

Starting Archery, Part 3: Eye and Hand Dominance

Before you actually roll up to an archery range and start pinging away, you'll need to know whether you should shoot left- or right-handed. Like most things in archery, this is more complicated than it seems.

For most people, your archery handedness will match your general hand dominance - if you're right-handed for writing and spatulaing cookies off a tray and mouse-clicking and using scissors (a comprehensive list of important things to do with your dominant hand right there), you'll very likely shoot right-handed as well.

Somewhat confusingly, your archery handedness is the hand with which you draw the bow. If you're shooting right-handed, the bow itself will be in your left hand, and vice versa for lefties. This does make some sense, though, because the muscles in your dominant hand/arm are stronger and more developed for precise movement, which is exactly what you need in your drawing/anchoring arm. Think of it this way: your archery handedness is the hand with which you draw and anchor, and the direction you face when shooting relative to the target.

However, your dominant handedness generally is one component of determining your archery handedness. The other part is eye dominance. Just like for your hands, you have one eye that is stronger than the other. For the majority (about 60-70%) of people, your eye dominance will match your hand dominance, and everything's peachy. The situation is a bit more complicated if you're cross-dominant - that is, your eye and hand dominance don't match.

First, though, how to test for eye dominance!

Wherever you are, pick some object about ten to twenty feet away. This should be something fairly large and distinct.

With both eyes open, and without thinking about it too much, point at that object with one finger.

Keeping your hand still pointing, close one eye at a time while keeping the other open.

You will find that for one eye, your finger will be pointing directly at the object, while with the other eye you finger will be pointing off to the side. The eye that is open when your finger is pointing directly at the object is your dominant eye.

An alternate test if the pointing thing doesn't work out:

Hold up both hands in front of you, palms away, and make a triangle by touching the tips of your thumbs and index fingers.

Again, pick an object and center it in the middle of the triangle.

Keeping the triangle still, close one eye at a time.

The eye that is open when the object is centered inside the triangle is your dominant eye.

Need more help? Try Archery360's guide to eye dominance. If you're having trouble ascertaining your dominant eye, your instructor/coach can help you out. 

If your hand and eye dominance match, there's no reason to not do what the universe is clearly telling you to do and shoot with that handedness. Problem solved! If they don't match, you may have to consider the issue a bit longer.

Some people are ambi-ocular or ambi-eyed; analogously to being ambidextrous, this means you have no particular eye dominance. So far as I know, this simply means you can choose which side you'd like to shoot with and shouldn't cause you undue problems.

More problematic, though, is cross-dominance, when your dominant hand doesn't match your dominant eye. In this case the solution isn't as clear: do you go with your dominant hand or your dominant eye?

The answer to this question is going to come up a lot: each archer is unique, and you'll have to give both a go, with coaching, to figure out what works. For some people, shooting with their nondominant hand is so awkward that they go with their hand dominance and close their nondominant eye. For those that have trouble even closing their nondominant eye independently, there are eye patches or clip-on shields to block the nondominant eye. For other people, especially those starting archery from the beginning with no preexisting archery habits, it may be better to match eye dominance and learn to shoot with the non-dominant hand. Which way you particularly will go is a combination of your existing physical ability, the strength of your hand and eye dominance(s), your goals for archery in the short and long term, and the input of a trained coach.

More information:

Archery coaching blog on cross-dominance

Bowhunting guide on cross-dominance

[real-kate-bishop]

Awesome slow motion archery: World Cup Final compilation with high speed camera

Fantastic slow motion video footage from the 2014 Archery World Cup Final in the Olympic Capital of Lausanne, Switzerland. See arrows leaving recurve and com...

[real-kate-bishop]

Starting Archery Part 2: Bowstyles Primer

Right, so you've (hopefully) joined a club and you're ready to get started on your own magical archery adventure. Presented for your reading pleasure, for future reference, and so you can sound very clever when chatting with other archers is the following summary of bowstyles; scroll down for a bit of guidance on how to choose a style.

Disclaimer: All this information is shaped by my opinions and experience. If you have a question about any of the following, or would like to add something or correct an error, please send me an ask. I'll be happy to direct you to the information you need or update this primer as necessary.

Note: You can think of the various bowstyles falling on a hierarchy of technological sophistication. This primer will list the styles in descending order along that hierarchy. Unsurprisingly, this hierarchy is social as well; pretty much everyone (including me, so be forewarned!) dismisses styles above theirs as overly complex and too serious, and styles below theirs as primitive and silly. It's all (mostly) in good fun.

1. Compound

Take a look: Indoor World Cup Final 2013

The basics: Compounds are the scary, complicated-looking contraptions with the wheely bits (cams) at the ends. Compounds have all sorts of extra aids to help achieve high precision and consistency, including spirit levels, scopes, and release aids.

A diversion into technicalities: the cams at the top and bottom load the draw weight as the bow is drawn into the cams/limbs; this means that the draw weight "lets off" sharply towards the end. The practical upshot of this is that you can have a compound with 60 lbs draw weight that, at full draw, only feels like holding 20 lbs. This allows for a longer, steadier full draw and aiming process with high poundage, which gives you very high arrow speed and very high precision. (Seriously, I know almost nothing about how compounds work; if you're interested, check out more detailed guides like this one for more information.)

2. Olympic recurve

Take a look: Ladies Olympic Finals 2012

The basics: The recurve is named for the ends of the limbs, which "recurve" back away from the archer. This is the standard, entry-level style for beginners (although with very simplified kit, of course). A good summary of the anatomy of a recurve can be found here.

A diversion into technicalities: Unlike a compound, draw weight increases linearly with draw length, so the farther you draw the bow, the heavier it becomes. At full draw, an archer shooting a 45lb recurve will be holding 45lbs of draw weight. 

3. Recurve barebow

Take a look: Ladies Field Champs Barebow Gold 2012

The basics: Essentially, a recurve barebow is an Olympic recurve with none of the extra bits. Barebows are allowed no aiming aids, stabilisers, or other accessories to help with consistency (e.g. a clicker). For target archery, a barebow is allowed: a rest, a pressure button, and weights attached directly to the riser. There are a variety of techniques to aim without a sight, including stringwalking, facewalking, and gapshooting (full posts coming soon!). 

A diversion into technicalities: A barebow obviously shoots the same way as a recurve bow. In general, barebows are less accurate because they lack specific pieces of kit designed to improve accuracy; however, a dedicated, experienced barebow can match or beat recurves. It's a simple(-sounding) matter of doing on your own what recurves rely on their kit to do for them: stabilise, draw consistently, aim precisely, and release smoothly.

4. Traditional recurve, horsebows, flatbow and longbow

Take a look: A guy shooting traditional recurve in his backyard; a guy shooting a Mongolian horsebow; a slow-motion comparison of a Japanese yumi and an English longbow. Note that there are no official competition videos, although people do shoot them in competition.

The basics: these are the sorts of bows you will recognise from films and books depicting medieval warfare, or from Robin Hood movies. Precision is difficult with these bows due to the variation inherent in their construction and the lack of stabilising and aiming aids. Traditional bows are also not allowed to stringwalk.

A diversion into technicalities: traditional recurve (which are the size and shape of an Olympic recurve, but made of single piece of wood), the Japanese yumi, and horsebows are all still recurved, while flatbows and longbows are a simple parabolic arc. The slow-mo video above explains briefly what difference this makes. I am not well-acquainted with the intricacies of these styles, and the expense and expertise required means that beginning archers are unlikely to start here.

So, how do I choose a style?

To start with, if you do join a beginner's course, there's about 100% chance that you will learn to shoot recurve, first barebow and then with a sight. This is a solid way to get to know your way around the basics of archery, and then you can choose which style you want once you can hit the target consistently. If you like recurve, stick with it! Any style you enjoy shooting is going to be fine; the important thing is that you enjoy what you're shooting, be it competitive compound or a horsebow.

Compound: First, some people switch to compound because of physical reasons. Because of the loading and letoff, they allow people who have less physical strength, problems with balance, or injuries/disabilities to still shoot competitively at high poundage. Other people shoot compound for the speed, power, precision, and prestige, or for hunting. Switch if you like: high-pressure situations, extreme accuracy and precision, fine-tuning, being miserable (kidding! Mostly.)

Barebow: Barebow offers a nice compromise between the technical sophistication of a recurve and the challenge of shooting unsighted. Some people don't like shooting with sights and stabilisers, don't want to pay for all the extra recurve kit, or just enjoy the challenge. As a side note, especially in the UK, there are relatively few competitive barebow archers, so it's easier to become competitive quickly and achieve higher rankings.  Switch if you like: A (slightly) more relaxed shooting atmosphere, spending (slightly) less money on kit, achieving/winning a lot quickly

Traditional: Traditional archers (in my experience) are generally more interested in doing archery as a fun hobby than for competition. This is absolutely legitimate if that's what you want to do! On the one hand, since seriously competitive traditional archers are fairly rare, if you're good at it you can do very well fairly quickly. On the other hand, there are very few (no?) serious competitions for traditional archers; even recurve barebows have little in the way of serious target competitions in the UK (outside the UK Barebow Champs). Switch if you like: doing archery for fun, traditional styles, not always hitting the target

(Obviously I'm being a bit facetious. Choose what you like!)

Bottom line: Start with recurve and get to know archery, then choose a style that fits your personality and tastes. You can always ask archers in your club about their style and they will be more than happy to talk your ear off!

[real-kate-bishop]

Starting Archery, Part 1: Find a Club

So one of my mutuals on my other blog has recently asked me about how to get started doing archery. I thought this might be useful information for anyone who has toyed with the idea but doesn't know how to get engaged with the sport. Archery can seem intimidating at first - lots of new words and jargon, tons of expensive, specialised equipment - but there's no need to worry about that. The beauty of archery is that pretty much anyone, regardless of physicality, can learn to do it well.

If you're like me, you've seen archery depicted a lot in popular media recently (Katniss, Hawkeye, Merida, even Batman that one time) and thought something like, "That looks like fun!" Perhaps you've tried archery before, at a summer camp or (if you're lucky) at school, and would like to try to give it a go seriously. Or maybe you've read an article about how terrible Hawkeye is at archery and decided to try to do better than he did. For whatever reason, you want to start archery, but you don't know where to begin. The answer is very straightforward:

Join a local archery club.

In this blog, I'll happily explain everything I know about archery, answer any questions that come my way, complain (mostly) good-naturedly about how terrible the archery in movies and comics usually is, and generally natter endlessly about this wonderful sport. I can walk you through choosing, setting up, and shooting a bow, but that will never be as useful as simply taking a beginner's course and getting coaching from a real live archery coach. It is possible to simply purchase the equipment and do archery on your own, of course, but you will make mistakes and form bad habits, and you may injure yourself or others.

Please, if it's in any way possible, join a local archery club.

If you are in the UK, Archery GB has a very handy club finder to help you find clubs in your area. For Americans, USA Archery has a similar index of archery clubs that you can search by state. Many universities have archery clubs as well. Archers are generally a friendly, welcoming, enthusiastic bunch, and the vast majority of clubs will have beginner's courses or coaching sessions you can join designed to get you started.

The benefits of joining a club include:

Having direct, personalised instruction and coaching from an experienced archer.

Being able to try out different bow- and shooting styles before having to purchase your own equipment.

Getting specific recommendations for equipment, tuning, and shooting from professionals.

Having a safe, legal, supervised place to shoot.

Much reduced risk of injury or accident.

Getting to know other archers and becoming involved in the archery community.

Although it seems like an individual sport, archery is extremely communal. Archers trade stories, recommendations, and advice on equipment and shooting, arrange groups to go to competitions, and train and compete together. If you just shoot alone in your backyard, you will be missing out on huge amounts of help, feedback, and fun. (It sounds cheesy, but it's true!)

JOIN A CLUB!