How to Stop Hitting Your Arm when Shooting in Archery

One of the most irritating things for a beginning archer is having the string slash your bow arm. If you are using your fingers to hold the string, when you release the arrow the string does not just go back to its starting position. The pressure that the fingers placed upon the string cause the string to vibrate upon release. The string then comes forward and hits your arm, and causes you pain. Sometimes this can be some pretty major pain. You don't want this to happen. Archery is not supposed to be about pain!

To begin, look at the fingers of your gripping hand. Be sure that your hand is not too far to the inside. Check to see if a straight line goes across your hand from the grip down. If you have a lot of you hand within that line then you need to make adjustments to your grip. The type of grip you're using puts too much of an angle on your wrist, and this in turn pushes your arm into the plane of the string's motion. However, you don't want you hand to be too far out, either. Many beginners think that if they stick their hand out way to the side, the string won't hit it. But, this grip puts too much pressure on the thumb and your hand, in turn, all too easily slips out of the grip. So, needless to say you want to strike a balance with your hand grip. You want your grip to feel natural and almost effortless.

The best bow arm position if you want a clear release and don't want to get struck by your string is one with the elbow rotated slightly inward or downward. In this way you get your arm out of the string's plane. So, rotate your arm in a slightly down and in motion. Don't rotate too much and make sure that you keep your hand's position steady. Done right, your arm lies flat and provides more room for the vibration of the string.

If you continue to have difficulty after doing the above things then you can try opening your stance. By opening up your stance, you place more room between yourself and the bow's string. In essence you have created a larger triangle between your bow hand, your bow should, and the anchor. Start out with your elemental closed stance. Align both of your feet perfectly with the target. Once you have this, move your back foot forward slightly. Female archers find this stance very useful as they often have trouble in the closed stance with the string hitting their breasts.

If still you get string-struck after these three things, then you are probably anticipating the shot. This is a common mistake that beginning and intermediate archers often get caught up in. This is where you are trying to extend your arm before the shot is released. All you do here is put your arm directly in the path of the string and cause your arrow to fall far short. Remember, stay relaxed and let your release by natural and easy.