Instructor Corner: Hold What You've Got!

Hold What You’ve Got!

Shoot Like A Girl Instructor & Pro Staff Member Suzi Greenlee

You hear it all the time…”follow through”!  Follow through with your golf swing, follow through with your bat swing, tennis swing, basketball shot and even follow through with your plans!

The sport of archery it is no different than any other sport, you have to follow through your shot.  Early on I was shooting a 3D tournament just for fun with friends, no pressure other than I am very competitive in nature.  That day every shot I made was a little too far to the left.  I made some adjustments to my sight, which meant moving my sight to the left to “follow my arrow”.  I shot again and darned if I wasn’t still shooting to the left.  Adjusted my sight again, certain it had come loose and was moved at some point during transit.  I began really focusing on everything that is important in archery like my stance, my anchor point, my grip, making sure I wasn’t punching my release and could not figure out what was off to make me shoot to the left.  I even tried to blame it on the uneven ground I was shooting on!  Hahaha.  It took only a few more shots when a buddy said “I know what you are doing, you are looking to see where your arrow went before it has hardly left your rest!”  Sure enough, I was getting more and more anxious to see where my arrow would land that I was jerking my bow away to see my shot too soon.  Nothing smooth about my follow through.  To be honest I was laser focused and dialed in until I released my arrow, then it was a race to see where it landed!  It is easy to develop bad habits if you aren’t careful.  If you drop your bow arm too soon and your arrow hasn’t cleared the rest, you can steer your arrow off target.  Follow through means engaging your back muscles even after you have released your arrow, and holding your bow up until the arrow hits the target.

I am thankful for 3D tournaments to have the chance to iron out any wrinkles or bad habits I may have developed before it’s time to be back in the tree stand.  It is so important to me to make a good, clean shot when harvesting an animal, we owe it to them.

Archery to me is an art, a beautiful, graceful motion from the moment you pick up your bow, smoothly draw it back into your perfect anchor position and gently release the arrow into flight.  With the final part of the almost poetic motion being a smooth, controlled movement with confidence to follow through the perfect shot.

May all your arrows fly straight and your aim be true.  <3