Precision Archery-Steve Ruis-Claudia Stevenson

Precision Archery

Steve Ruis and Claudia Stevenson

Head to the range with the skills to hit the bull’s-eye.

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216pp
Paperback

About the Product

Attention, serious archers: If you’re looking for the advanced techniques and strategies to help you refine your skills and thoroughly prepare for competition, Precision Archery can help you achieve your goals.

Relying on the expertise of some of the nation’s top coaches and competitors such as Rick McKinney, Larry Wise, and M.J. Rogers as well as the publishers of Archery Focus magazine, this comprehensive book covers all aspects of competition for all disciplines within the sport. Whether you’re a target archer, field archer, or bowhunter, you’ll discover the subtleties of technique that will give you the competitive edge—and you’ll learn how to tailor your approach to specific conditions and events.

Precision Archery covers advanced technique and form of recurve, compound, and barebow archery. It provides in-depth instruction to help you perfect your stance, align your body, engage the right muscles, and flawlessly execute every phase of a shot sequence, from predraw through release.

You’ll also learn how to

* select and maintain equipment, with detailed advice on bow tuning and setup, arrow tuning, and testing new equipment;
* employ mental preparation, focus, and relaxation techniques to improve your consistency and accuracy;
* adjust your technique for various weather and terrain conditions; and
* use fitness training to condition your body in ways that will directly enhance your archery performance and skills.

If you’re ready to go beyond the basics of shooting and bow stringing to develop pinpoint accuracy, turn to Precision Archery for the edge you need.
About the Editor
Steve Ruis has been the editor of Archery Focus magazine since May 1999. He is mainly a field archer but is interested in all phases of archery, especially the technical aspects. Ruis is a National Field Archery Association (NFAA) certified instructor and a National Archery Association (NAA) Level II coach. He lives and works in California.

Claudia Stevenson is the publisher and managing editor of Archery Focus magazine. An avid archer, Stevenson is a four-time California State field archery champion (two indoor, two outdoor) and placed second in the Freestyle Limited class in the 1997 NFAA Outdoor National Championships. Stevenson is a NFAA certified instructor as well as a National Archery Association Level II coach. She lives and works in California.

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS

Rick McKinney was a founding publisher of Archery Focus magazine and now writes “The Elite Archer” column for the magazine. Known as one of the world’s greatest archery champions, McKinney won the 1977, 1983, and 1985 World Championships as well as the U.S. National Target Championships nine times, Field Championships six times, Indoor Championships three times, and Collegiate National Championships seven times. He is a two-time Olympic silver medalist, 1984 (individual) and 1988 (team), and is currently president of Carbon Tech, a manufacturer of both target and hunting arrows.

Don Rabska is an internationally renowned archery coach and a technical advisor for Easton Archery Products. He is the primary author of the Easton Tuning Guide, the most widely distributed treatise on arrow tuning.

Annette M. Musta, a certified personal trainer with 24 years of shooting experience, has written the “Archery Fitness” column for Archery Focus magazine since 1998. She is the founder and executive director of the Pass the Torch Foundation, which matches school-age children with athletes training for international competition.

Lisa Franseen, PhD has written the “Mental Skills” column for Archery Focus magazine since its inception. A clinical and sport psychologist, Dr. Franseen began working with archers in 1994. Since then, she has continued to help archers of all levels— including elite archers at USAT training camps, international competitions, and the Olympic Games—improve their performance through mental skills training. Dr. Franseen also teaches sport psychology for the NAA Level 3 and 4 Archery Coaching certification courses.

Ty Pelfrey is a two-time U.S. national barebow champion. He has written numerous articles on shooting barebow for Archery Focus magazine and is currently a member of their advisory staff.

Larry Wise is a renowned archery coach and author of five books on archery. He has achieved a number one ranking in the world three times in the men’s unlimited compound bow division, won the 1986 World Professional Archery Championship, and has been part of five World Championship teams. He still competes professionally and is a tournament staff coordinator and design consultant for Indian Industries/XI Bows. Wise has written numerous technical and bowhunting articles for Archery Focus as well as other magazines.
About the Product
Attention, serious archers: If you’re looking for the advanced techniques and strategies to help you refine your skills and thoroughly prepare for competition, Precision Archery can help you achieve your goals.

Relying on the expertise of some of the nation’s top coaches and competitors such as Rick McKinney, Larry Wise, and M.J. Rogers as well as the publishers of Archery Focus magazine, this comprehensive book covers all aspects of competition for all disciplines within the sport. Whether you’re a target archer, field archer, or bowhunter, you’ll discover the subtleties of technique that will give you the competitive edge—and you’ll learn how to tailor your approach to specific conditions and events.

Precision Archery covers advanced technique and form of recurve, compound, and barebow archery. It provides in-depth instruction to help you perfect your stance, align your body, engage the right muscles, and flawlessly execute every phase of a shot sequence, from predraw through release.

You’ll also learn how to

* select and maintain equipment, with detailed advice on bow tuning and setup, arrow tuning, and testing new equipment;
* employ mental preparation, focus, and relaxation techniques to improve your consistency and accuracy;
* adjust your technique for various weather and terrain conditions; and
* use fitness training to condition your body in ways that will directly enhance your archery performance and skills.

If you’re ready to go beyond the basics of shooting and bow stringing to develop pinpoint accuracy, turn to Precision Archery for the edge you need.
About the Editor
Steve Ruis has been the editor of Archery Focus magazine since May 1999. He is mainly a field archer but is interested in all phases of archery, especially the technical aspects. Ruis is a National Field Archery Association (NFAA) certified instructor and a National Archery Association (NAA) Level II coach. He lives and works in California.

Claudia Stevenson is the publisher and managing editor of Archery Focus magazine. An avid archer, Stevenson is a four-time California State field archery champion (two indoor, two outdoor) and placed second in the Freestyle Limited class in the 1997 NFAA Outdoor National Championships. Stevenson is a NFAA certified instructor as well as a National Archery Association Level II coach. She lives and works in California.

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS

Rick McKinney was a founding publisher of Archery Focus magazine and now writes “The Elite Archer” column for the magazine. Known as one of the world’s greatest archery champions, McKinney won the 1977, 1983, and 1985 World Championships as well as the U.S. National Target Championships nine times, Field Championships six times, Indoor Championships three times, and Collegiate National Championships seven times. He is a two-time Olympic silver medalist, 1984 (individual) and 1988 (team), and is currently president of Carbon Tech, a manufacturer of both target and hunting arrows.

Don Rabska is an internationally renowned archery coach and a technical advisor for Easton Archery Products. He is the primary author of the Easton Tuning Guide, the most widely distributed treatise on arrow tuning.

Annette M. Musta, a certified personal trainer with 24 years of shooting experience, has written the “Archery Fitness” column for Archery Focus magazine since 1998. She is the founder and executive director of the Pass the Torch Foundation, which matches school-age children with athletes training for international competition.

Lisa Franseen, PhD has written the “Mental Skills” column for Archery Focus magazine since its inception. A clinical and sport psychologist, Dr. Franseen began working with archers in 1994. Since then, she has continued to help archers of all levels— including elite archers at USAT training camps, international competitions, and the Olympic Games—improve their performance through mental skills training. Dr. Franseen also teaches sport psychology for the NAA Level 3 and 4 Archery Coaching certification courses.

Ty Pelfrey is a two-time U.S. national barebow champion. He has written numerous articles on shooting barebow for Archery Focus magazine and is currently a member of their advisory staff.

Larry Wise is a renowned archery coach and author of five books on archery. He has achieved a number one ranking in the world three times in the men’s unlimited compound bow division, won the 1986 World Professional Archery Championship, and has been part of five World Championship teams. He still competes professionally and is a tournament staff coordinator and design consultant for Indian Industries/XI Bows. Wise has written numerous technical and bowhunting articles for Archery Focus as well as other magazines.

M.J. Rogers is the director of archery programs at the ARCO Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California. A Level 4 international coach in the National Archery Association, he was the lead coach for the U.S. team competing in the 2000 FITA World Field Championships in Italy. He is also active in the National Field Archery Association, where he judges major competitions.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1. Exploring Competition
Rick McKinney

Chapter 2. Advanced Form for Recurve Archery
Don Rabska

Chapter 3. Developing Your Compound Archery Form
Larry Wise

Chapter 4. Executing the Shot
Steve Ruis, Claudia Stevenson

Chapter 5. Achieving a Physical Edge
Annette M. Musta

Chapter 6. Tuning the Mind
Lisa Franseen, PhD

Chapter 7. Tuning Recurve Bows and Arrows
Don Rabska

Chapter 8. Tuning Compound Bows and Arrows
Steve Ruis, Claudia Stevenson

Chapter 9. Coaching and Being Coached
M.J. Rogers

Chapter 10. Dealing With Difficulties
Steve Ruis, Claudia Stevenson

Chapter 11. The Joys of Arco Nudo
Ty Pelfrey

Chapter 12. Perfecting Practice
Steve Ruis, Claudia Stevenson

Chapter 13. Testing New Equipment
Steve Ruis, Claudia Stevenson

Chapter 14. Embracing the Spirit of Archery
Claudia Stevenson
Words of Praise
"As a long-time compound shooter I was surprised to find myself intrigued with portions of this book aimed at recurve shooters. It was fascinating and insightful to learn some new perspectives, which I am sure I will put to use when playing with my recurve.”

Michelle Ragsdale
Pro archer since 1978

About Archery

Modern international competitive form

To shoot an arrow, an archer first assumes the correct stance. The body should be perpendicular to the target and the shooting line, with the feet placed shoulder-width apart. As an archer progresses from beginner to a more advanced level an 'open stance' is used/developed. Each archer will have a particular preference but mostly this term indicates that the leg furthest from the shooting line will be a half to a whole foot-length in front of the other, on the ground.

To load, the bow is pointed toward the ground and the shaft of the arrow is placed on an arrow rest which is attached in the bow window. The back of the arrow is attached to the bowstring with the 'nock' (a small plastic component which is typified by a 'v' groove for this purpose). This is called nocking the arrow. As said above, typical arrows with three vanes should be oriented such that a single vane is pointing away from the bow.

The bowstring and arrow are held with three fingers. When using a sight, the index finger is placed above the arrow and the next two fingers below. The string is usually placed in either the first or second joint of the fingers.

The bow is then raised and drawn. This is often one fluid motion which tends to vary from archer to archer. The string hand is drawn towards the face, where it should rest lightly at an anchor point. This point is consistent from shot to shot and is usually at the corner of the mouth or on the chin. The bow arm is held outwards toward the target. The elbow of this arm should be rotated so that the inner elbow is parallel to the ground though Archers with hyper extendable elbows tend to angle the inner elbow toward the ground as exemplified by the Korean archer Jang Yong Ho.

The arrow is typically released by relaxing the fingers of the drawing hand (see Bow draw). Usually this type of release aims to keep the drawing arm rigid and move it back using the back muscles, as opposed to using arm motion. An archer should also pay attention to the recoil or follow through of his or her body, as it may indicate problems with form (technique).

In proper form, the archer stands erect, forming a 'T'. The archer's lower trapezius muscles are used to pull the arrow to the anchor point. Some bows will be equipped with a mechanical device, called a clicker, which produces a clicking sound when the archer reaches the correct draw length.

Aiming methods

There are two main forms of aiming in archery: using the sight picture or not.

The sight picture includes the target and the bow, as seen at the same time by the archer. With a fixed "anchor point" (where the string is brought to, or close to, the face), and a fully extended bow arm, successive shots taken with the sight picture in the same position will fall on the same point. This allows the archer to adjust aim with successive shots in order to achieve a good standard of accuracy. It cannot be used with short bows, which by definition do not allow a full draw. Modern archery equipment usually includes sights which mark the predicted impact point. Sight picture aiming is universally used with modern equipment and also by many archers who use traditional bows. It allows good accuracy to be achieved after a moderate amount of practice.

When using shortbows, or shooting from horseback, it is difficult to use the sight picture. The archer may look at the target but without including the weapon in the field of accurate view. Aiming involves the same sort of coordination between vision and motion that is used when throwing. With sufficient practice, such archers can normally achieve good practical accuracy for hunting or for war.

Instinctive shooting is a term often used, but there is no agreed definition. Some use it to mean shooting with a sight picture but without giving it conscious attention. Others use it to mean shooting without a sight picture.

Physics

Bows function by converting elastic potential energy stored in the limbs into kinetic energy of the arrow. In this process, some energy is dissipated through elastic hysteresis, reducing the overall amount released when the bow is shot. Of the energy remaining, some is damped both by the limbs of bow and the bowstring. Depending on the elasticity of the arrows, some of the energy is also absorbed by compressing the arrow, causing it to "bow out" to one side. This results in an in-flight oscillation of the arrow in which its center protrudes out to one side and then the other repeatedly.

The straight flight of an arrow is dependent on its fletching. The arrow's manufacturer can arrange fletching to cause the arrow to rotate along its axis if desired. This improves accuracy by evening pressure buildups that would otherwise cause the arrow to slowly tilt in a random direction after shooting. If the fletching is not arranged to induce rotation, it will still improve accuracy by causing a restoring torque any time the arrow tilts away from its vector of travel.

Arrows themselves may be designed to spread or concentrate force, depending on their applications. Practice arrows, for instance, use a blunt tip that spreads the force over a wider area to reduce the risk of injury. Arrows designed to pierce armor in the Middle Ages would use a very narrow and sharp tip to concentrate the force. Arrows used for hunting would use a narrow tip that broadens further down the shaft to facilitate both penetration and a large wound.
Further information: archer's paradox

The speed of the arrow depends on the shape of its shaft and tip. The tip must be somewhat pointed and the shaft straight

Archery is the art, practice or skill of shooting with bow and arrow. Archery has historically been used in hunting and combat and has become a precision sport. A person practicing archery is called an archer or bowman, and one who is fond of or an expert at archery is sometimes called a toxophilite.Roving marks is the oldest form of competitive archery, as practiced by Henry VIII. The archers will shoot to a "mark" then shoot from that mark to another mark. A mark is a post or flag to be aimed at. As with clout a rope or ribbon is used to score the arrows. In the Finsbury Mark the scoring system is 20 for hitting the mark, 12 for within ~3ft, 7 points for within the next ~6ft and 3 points for within the next ~9ft. "Hoyles" are marks that are chosen at the time from the variety of debris, conspicuous weeds, and so on found in most outdoor areas. As the distances have to be estimated this is good practice for bowhunting, and it requires little equipment.

Wand shoot

A Traditional English archery contest. Archers take turns shooting at a vertical strip of wood, the wand, usually about six feet high and three to six inches (152 mm) wide. Points are awarded for hitting the strip. As the target is a long vertical strip this competition allows for more errors in elevation, however since no points are awarded for near misses the archers windage accuracy becomes more important. The wand shoot is, in some respects, similar to the traditional Cherokee game of cornstalk shooting.

Other competitions

Archers often enjoy adding variety to their sport by shooting under unusual conditions or by imposing other special restrictions or rules on the event. These competitions are often less formalized and are more or less considered as games. Some forms include the broadhead round, bionic and running bucks, darts, archery golf, night shooting, and turkey tester.

Archery is popularly used in historical reenactment events. This sort of event usually combines education of the audience of aspects of archery (such as the bow, arrows, and practice drill), combined with a demonstration or competition of archery in the style most favored by the period on display, generally in period costume.

Archery education

A relatively new program has developed in U.S. schools called the National Archery in Schools Program (NASP). In this students use Genesis bows (a compound-style bow without a let-off). This is similar to a physical education programmes, and students who want to can also go to state and national shoots to compete against other schools. Though started in the United States, it has begun to spread to other countries.

Many sportsman's clubs and similar establishments throughout the Australia and other countries offer archery education programs for those under 18. These programs are commonly referred to as Junior Olympic Archery Development Programs, or simply JOAD. There are over 250 JOAD Clubs recognized by the National Archery Association.

Precision Archery

Steve Ruis and Claudia Stevenson