Hi gblue, welcome to trad archery. I totally agree with everything said above. As a self taught archer and still relative novice, my advice is to develop a shot sequence. This is probably a bit more target based than pure trad but I belive this is the key to progress. It’s hard to do this in apost but just to give you a flavour mine is STAABAR (easy to remember acronym):
Stance – set your feet (i like a square stance), slightly bend the knees.
T-form – key to everything you do! Drop both shoulders and keep those elbows down! bend from the waist when you move on to up/down shots.
Abs – lift the pelvis and tighten those abs (this goes back to t-form really)
Arms – i like to set my arms and prefer a straight arm draw where the bow arm is set out in front in t-form, the string hand is placed wrist forward (thanks to Moebows advice) which rotates the arrow into the shelf on drawing. you’re then ready to draw
Back muscles – engage only the back during the draw and anchor!!!
Anchor – wherever you prefer but the exact same every time!
Release/relax fingers – let the back and the bow do the work. the hand should finish back on or towards the rear shoulder if you’re using your back properly!
Just the way i do things and certainly not the only way or right for everyone but a great way to learn consistant form when staring out. Keep us posted on your progress…
