People often ask me what the most important fundamental of the archery shot is. The simple truth is every piece of the shot is interconnected and one poor fundamental will affect the entire shot. If we take this as a given, the foundation of the shot then becomes its most important piece. By foundation, I mean stance.

Stance? But of course. Everything else is layered upon your stance. But this is so elemental and easy, right? Wrong. While the act of standing straight is natural and easy, the act of doing so with a bow in your hands is anything but easy.

Let’s begin with foot placement. There are a few methods commonly taught, but for the sake of simplicity, let’s use a square stance, which places the feet shoulder width apart and toes pointed 90 degrees from the target.

Now stack your knees, hips and shoulders on top of your feet and keep your head centered between your shoulders. That’s easy enough and should be your template when you reference your posture with a bow in your hands.

The fun begins, as archers of all abilities pick up their bows and begin their drawing sequence. Even before the sequence begins, the act of picking up the bow causes an imbalance, which leads some shooters to do many things to counter the added weight at the end of their hand. Things like a hip moving towards the target, or a bow shoulder being raised, help counter the weight being lifted. The archer is in a bad position even before their draw sequence has started. So the extra load of picking up the bow can cause issues with our stance and must be watched carefully. Placing a small amount of tension on the string can help as we raise our bows, as this shifts some of the work load to the string side of the body.

The act of drawing the bow often alters the stance as the force needed to execute a draw is sometimes too much weight for the archer, or the archers inexperience leads to improper body movement to counter the resistance of the bow. To be blunt, there are many ways to ‘screw it up’. This is where the watchful eye of a coach is invaluable.

Look at your stance in three different states. The first is under no load. This is the act of standing straight, with your arms outstretched, in a mocked full draw position. The second is executing your sequence with a nominal load. Use a stretch band and come to full draw. Compare that picture to the picture of you standing straight. Thirdly, pick up your bow and come to anchor under full load. You should find no difference in posture under all three scenarios.

So now how easy do you think it is to achieve good posture?