I've noticed a few pro's are often shooting with medical wrist support bands on their bow hands. I've often wondered if wrist strain is common, and well, I'm not experiencing some of my own. I hadn't shot for quite some time after the season ended, and with the indoor online league starting up here, I started to get back out and shoot a little more. Well, I changed my grip slightly to a more radical outward grip (past 45 degrees). It worked for a little while, then I noticed I was getting twinge of pain upon drawing back (once I'm back and settled in, it doesn't hurt to hold, but the force of my drawing back gets to be a bit much at times). My last round required me using a more traditional grip (about a 45 maybe a little less), and the pain was alleviated a bit. I haven't shot again since the end of this weekend, and I'm hoping the wrist gets feeling better, but I can still feel the pain is there, just not as severe it seems. Is this a form issue, or more a conditioning issue?
Good point. Funny you mention it, because when I first switched to LH, I made sure I was drawing light weight to ease the transition (about 57lbs). I remember being able hold straight out and just draw back (I also remember you mentioning this in conversation about "comfortable" draw weight). Now that I have the limbs maxed out, it's more of a struggle, coupling that with the lack of shooting time I had in prior to this, I can assume this strain attributed to my draw cycle.
My first guess is that it's form related, but it's hard to say without actually seeing. I'd love to see a little video showing your shot setup. That would help significantly. My front bow hand placement is completely relaxed and has no tension. If you flicked my fingers through the draw sequence, or when I'm at full draw,they would freely move, that's how little tension there is in my bow hand. If you read the book "Core Archery" by Larry Wise, he has a good piece that explains proper placement. If you were to look over your your right shoulder (since your shooting lefty) and raise your hand as if you were giving someone a stop hand signal, relax the fingers from that position into their natural position and that should be your hand position. Below is a pic that best illustrates this. Your thinking of Tim Gillingham when you see the "brace". He uses it actually so that his hand can freely slide on the grip into the more natural and repeatable position, not for extra support.
Thanks, Matt and Jeff. I'll try to get a video up soon. I just need to get ahold of a cam (my dlsr doesn't take video, I don't have a DV cam, and my digital camera with video is in Syracuse with my fiance :D). I could try a 5fps burst sequence with my DSLR on a timer. Would that work for now?
Maybe, I would want to see your entire shot routine including draw, anchor, release, etc. If you can get all that, it would work.
I'm much more concerned with keeping my front shoulder in that low/bottomed out position than I am with keeping my target visible through the scope. I lose tension out of my back when I have to re-shift that shoulder back into the right spot after hitting full draw. These days I do sky the bow a bit through the draw, I've found that to be the most repeatable way to keep all tension where it belongs and out of my shoulders and neck. The video below was taken 2x years ago, I setup very similar to this now but start with the bow in a bit higher position. I'll see if I can get some updated video sometime soon.
I sky my bow slightly too. Like RJ says, it makes it easier to keep your bow shoulder bottomed out. Many Pro's draw their bows high for this very reason. This picture is from last august. My grip is a little different with this bow, compared my the others just because it doesn't have much of a shelf. A few videos of the best. http://s66.photobucket.com/albums/h245/cougars_2009/?action=view¤t=Picture139.flv http://s66.photobucket.com/albums/h245/cougars_2009/?action=view¤t=Picture141.flv Notice a few shooters in the background. Including Gillingham
