Archery - The Basic Concepts of Traditional Longbow Archery Shooting

By Jim Kyle

 
The basics of traditional archery once learned and mastered are never forgotten.
I started archery shooting with a traditional wooden longbow and wooden arrows and it brought to mind some helpful tips I remembered in my youth and Boy Scout days that I still love and use today and would like to share some of them.

The fun of true traditional archery is no archery scopes or sights, pulleys or wheels or carbon fiber but just the good old eye and natural ability of looking over the thumb holding on to a traditional wooden longbow and wooden arrow looking at the target. Nothing is as fun as setting the arrow at the right height for the shot to hit the moving or still target.

It's like flying a plane. If you learn without the computer or gadgets you will always know how to fly.

Starting out with a traditional straight longbow is the best way. Start with a good quality longbow as the cheaper ones just do not handle well. Be sure that the grip fits your hand fully. Do not get or use one that is too small or too large as it will throw off the balance-especially if it is too large. The only time you might want to use one, and this is not really recommended, is when we are growing up fast. It would be better to buy a cheaper product to learn the basics and then move up to a better product to hone your skills.
Strength is very necessary and very important to pull a traditional longbow to full power. Be sure that you can use all your arm strength because you will not have the proper positioning basics if you cannot. Pull all the way to the cheek or lip to gain the full power of the bow. You can always use a lip button if you need to.
I always bring the longbow down from the top ever so slightly to the target when pulling. This gives you a nice eye on the path of the arrow. Do not tip the longbow side to side as this will throw off the balance. Try to keep it as straight as possible without having the arrow fall off the rest. Do not twist the string as this pulls the arrow to the side and poor alignment occurs.

I like to use a finger glove with some very hard but flexible finger pads. This assures there is very little resistance on the string and allows for a good release. My arm guard is as long as I can get it and very stiff. In this way you will not have to bend or twist your wrist to get the forearm out-of-the-way of the string. I have taken off a lot of skin before solving this problem when I was younger. Nothing deters and breaks the concentration more than thinking you will have pain when you line up a shot so do indeed get a long hard arm guard.

With all of the technology we have today in sports to help us get better nothing satisfies more than knowing you have the basics down pat and will never lose them. Traditional Archery starts with a wooden, longbow, wooden arrows, leather finger guard or glove, leather arm guard and quiver. This really amounts to a thrill of a lifetime in archery knowing that you did it the Traditional Archery Way.
HAPPY STRAIGHT SHOOTING.

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