Alignment is critical

I spent a few hours at the Quicks indoor range on Saturday due to the poor outside weather. After a few ends my aim was not as it should be, with the dot moving around to much. Whilst it was pretty much in the gold, something was not quite right.

Then I discovered that my alignment was wrong, in that the line from the tip of my elbow, through the arrow and through the bow hand wrist and finally the grip was not a straight line. This was simply down to my draw elbow not being pulled round onto the back muscles. It only took about 1/2" of movement to bring it in line, and suddenly my aim steadied to the point it was locked on the X ring most of the time.

I also shot my trigger release and managed to shoot most of the shots without punching the trigger. Out of the 70 or so shots only about 3 were punched. I still have issues with not pre-loading the trigger enough, so this needs some more work. When I did pre-load properly, the arrows nailed the X ring with surprise shots, with the shots going off within the optimal time frame of about 2 - 3 seconds.

I was also pointed out to me that whilst my elbow alignment was good, my front shoulder is not pointing towards the target enough. When doing this properly, it makes my draw length correct. No need for that new cam! By not having the front shoulder set properly I am shooting from a slightly collapsed position.

So the moral of the story is that alignment is crucial. Just a small amount to extra movement can make a huge difference to the steadiness of the aim because the body is using the bone structure to support the weight of the bow, and not the muscles.