Coaching Tips 08/7Barebow Shooting Barebow is an increasingly popular discipline within archery. As the name implies the bow is shot bare of any attachments or aids such as sight and stabilisers, although an arrow rest and plunger button can be used on recurve and compound bows. Short stabilisers can be used on compound bows and weights (not stabilisers) can be added to recurve bows. Many believe barebow shooting simply involves looking at the target, drawing the bow and shooting. This method is not barebow but is called “Instinctive. You can have limited success with this method of shooting but it’s a very hit and miss method and usually effective only over short distances up to 30m. Instinctive shooting is widely used by hunters. The more competitive archer demands greater accuracy and higher scores hence the use of “Barebow” or the “Point of Aim” or “Gap” shooting method. Not a new method of shooting but a method of aiming used for centuries and in recent times for all levels of competition up until the late 1940’s and early 1950’s before the introduction of modern bow sights. Point of Aim or Gap Shooting Point of Aim or Gap shooting is a method of aiming without the addition of a bow sight and is the method used by all successful archers shooting in the Barebow division (recurve and compound) and longbow. Aiming is achieved by placing the point of the arrow on a pre-determined position for a given distance; below the target, on the centre of the target or above the target face, the position will vary for different distances. The same principles apply to Barebow to using a bow sight; the longer the distance the higher the arrow must be aimed. A lot of practice is required to determine where the point of the arrow needs to be placed for a given distance. For example at 20 meters the point location may be below the target face while at 40m the location may be on the centre of the target face and at 50 meters and 60m the point location will be above the target face. It is very important that a consistent draw length is achieved from shot to shot. Any variation in draw length will change the bow weight at full draw and greatly affect the efficiency of the bow. In freestyle shooting you can use a clicker which gives you a consistent draw length, but clickers are not permitted in barebow archery. The same as shooting with a sight, the point of aim or gap you use will vary if you change bows and arrows, so you need to establish different points of aim or gaps for each bow/arrow combination. All bows are different even the same model, brands and draw weight and will store energy in different amounts and will then shoot differently. Also, if you change arrow size, weight, brand or length you will change the weight of the arrows which will have an effect on your point of aim. Always use the same bow and arrows, if you make any changes then your point of aim will change. Just like shooting with a sight you need to spend a lot of time on the practice range Coaching Tip 08/7 Copyright Archery Australia Page 1 determining your sight marks or points of aim/gaps for each distance. If you want to be successful at barebow you need to spend the hours on the practice range determining your sighting gaps as well as practicing your technique. Determining your point of aim or gaps. In Australia barebow is shot in all types of competition, target, field, indoor and clout, although internationally barebow is only shot competitively in field archery. You need to spend many hours practicing and determining your points of aim or gaps. For target, field and indoor this is usually done using the point of the arrow but for clout as you will need to aim high into the air usually a point on the bow is used. To start to determine your point of aim or gaps, start at a short distance say 10m using the point of the arrow to aim. At short distance you will find to hit the target the point will be positioned under the target face giving you a gap between the centre of the target and the point. When you are happy with 10m now go to 20m, again you will find there is gap but the gap will be less then at 10m. Now continue through a range of distances recording the required gap that allows you to consistently hit the target at each distance. Of course when shooting field archery you then need to take into account the terrain in particular up and down hill shots. Just like shooting with a sight the angle needs to be taken into account when aiming, you will need to aim off to compensate for the angle and the effects of gravity. Shooting Technique The shooting technique used for barebow shooting is the same as all archery styles. For details refer to the section on Advanced Shooting Technique. There is only one variation to the standard technique and this is the anchor. Freestyle (sighted) archers anchor under the jaw to give them a greater gap between their eye and the arrow, this allows them to use a sight over long distances. Barebow archers on the other hand ideally should have the smallest possible gap between their eye and the arrow. Ideally the archer should anchor so they are looking straight along the arrow shaft but this can be dangerous as it brings the arrow close to the eye at full draw and is not a Coaching Tip 08/7 Copyright Archery Australia Page 2 recommended practice. Barebow archers develop an anchor where the top finger touches the corner of the mouth. This provides a repeatable and consistent anchor position and also brings the arrow closer to the eye. String Walking To greatly improve accuracy barebow recurve and compound archers can “String Walk”, longbow archers are not permitted to walk the string they must only use the Mediterranean grip. String walking means you still draw the bow back to the normal anchor position but for a particular distance you place you fingers on a different position on the string. Fig 1 For example the standard finger position on the string is “Split Fingers” one finger above the arrow and two fingers below the arrow (Fig 1), this is known as the Mediterranean grip. You can change how the bow shoots by changing your finger positions on the string. Fig 2 For example, when shooting at 50 meters you may shoot with split fingers (Fig 1), but for 40 meters you may have the three fingers under the arrow (Fig 2) and at 20 meters you may move your fingers down the string (Fig 3) while maintaining the same or a similar point of aim. What you are doing is in fact changing the dynamic balance of the bow when at full draw by changing the limb balance (tiller) on a recurve bow or changing the tiller and cam timing on a compound bow. You can achieve great results with string walking but forget about good arrow flight and tuning. Bows are not designed to be shot this way, you may be getting good results by string walking but you are shooting with an unbalancing bow and this is a compromise that you must accept. For Fig 3 this reason if you are going to walk the string its critical how you set up your bows tiller and nocking point (recurve) and tiller, nocking point and cam timing on a compound bow Ideally you should set up the bow tiller and nocking point (recurve) and tiller, nocking point and cam timing on a compound bow with your fingers placed on the string in mid string walking position. You will find the bow will shoot balanced in this position but will shoot unbalanced as you move your fingers up and down on the string. By setting up the bow with the fingers on the string in the mid string walking position this will result in the bow only being out of balance a small amount as you use the maximum high and low string walking positions, but if you set the bow up at the split finger position the bow will be dramatically out of balance when you go to the low string walking position. The low string walking position is usually used for the short distances where achieving a good score is more critical. This is particularly critical when shooting barebow compound, compound bows are designed to be shot with release devices and not fingers and in particular they have never been designed to be shot walking the string. Coaching Tip 08/7 Copyright Archery Australia Page 3 Face Walking Face walking is another system used with Point of Aim or Gap shooting but instead of walking the string, the fingers are kept on the same place on the string, but the bow is drawn back to a different anchor point depending upon the distance being shot. Sometimes a combination of both face walking and string walking are used. For example, if you shoot a short distance say 15meters you would anchor high on your face and look along the arrow, while at long distances you would anchor low on your face say below your jaw. You would still use the point of the arrow to aim but the variation in gaps would be much less. With practice you can develop anchor points that give you “point on” (that is, the tip of the arrow is always on the target) at different distances. In Archery Australia and FITA face walking is not permitted Example of Barebow Compound with stabiliser (max length 305mm) Rules For detailed rules refer to Archery Australia and FITA rule book. Written and Images by Jim Larven Coaching Tip 08/7 Copyright Archery Australia Page 4