This forum is great, and has been reallly helpful.

I shot my first inner 10's today, and have only been shooting for a month with my Hoyt MT sport. My 16 year old son got me into shooting because I had to hang out while he had JOAD classes, leagues, and tournaments. He said, Might as well shoot mom, since you're here and all...

Now, if I could only not hit my bow arm. Any suggestions?
Happy New Year!

Congrats and nice shootin... :D
You're in trouble now, once the bug bites there's no known cure...:lol:

As for hitting your arm it could be a few things. It could be your grip, try turning your elbow out slightly. It may also be that your draw length is a little too long, if you are forced to over extend your bow arm it can cause a slap.

This forum is great, and has been reallly helpful.

I shot my first inner 10's today, and have only been shooting for a month with my Hoyt MT sport. My 16 year old son got me into shooting because I had to hang out while he had JOAD classes, leagues, and tournaments. He said, Might as well shoot mom, since you're here and all...

Now, if I could only not hit my bow arm. Any suggestions?
Happy New Year!

Could be a few different things causing you to hit your arm... Could be your draw length is a little long or it could be the way your gripping the bow. If you get a chance to take a few photos of yourself at full draw that would help point us in the right direction.... :welcome: to the forum...:wave: :wave:

Could be a few different things causing you to hit your arm... Could be your draw length is a little long or it could be the way your gripping the bow.
That's what I just said...try to pay attention :dizzy:

Have your son take a photo of you while you are in shooting position.
Post it and there'll be replies galore from knowledgeable folk who WILL inform you of both form and draw length, how you're holding your bow, how you're holding the string/release...etc.
Those are SOLID tens!

Thanks, I will do that this week, and post it here.

However, you will see I have some issues with my hands and elbows I need to compensate for. My fingers don't have all the knuckles, meaning I can't make a "fist" per se. My thimb and index fingers are normal, the rest aren't, and both hands are affected. You will definitely see it when I am holding the bow.

Also, my left elbow tends to rotate naturally toward my body (and the bow) when I extend my arm. Now that I have some shooting under my belt, I am figuring out how to deal with my elbow, and I am hitting it much less. Still hurts when I do hit it, though!

I am very lucky to go to a range where my instructor is really patient, and we have worked together to sort out how I should shoot with my hand and elbow issues. I am switching to a hand held release from a wrist strap style this week, and hopefully that will help me as well. When I practiced with a borrowed Carter Target 3, I did fine, and was able to get to my anchor point very consistently.

Being an engineer by training, I will figure out the mechanical stuff in time. I have never let the unusual structure of my hands ever interfere with anything I want to do. It might not be pretty to watch in a classic sense, but I will be able to enjoy the sport and be successful at it. My son has taken it upon himself to watch and help me when he is not shooting.

It's really fun to learn from him, and he is enjoying working with his mom.

Thanks again!

congratulations and that is cool that you and your son get to shoot together! :usa:

cool great shooting your draw leght might be a little long why ur hiting ur arm

bow torque can be caused by many things, mostly having to do with your form...as most people have already stated, it could be your draw length.....for me it was how much pressure i squeezed my grip with (too much pressure would cause my wrist to flex inward when I would release my string)....once I relaxed my grip this problem seemed to decrease significantly. I also ordered a custom, wider grip for my bowtech, dang grip was WAY too narrow.....just a thought, hopefully it helps

way to goooo.:peace: :peace:

Since I got my first 10's, there have been a few more. I spent some time sighting in, and just plain practicing. I joined a league, and we shoot a 450 on the Fita multicolor targets on Fridays. I shot a 291 on our first scoring night this week.
Today I shot a 235/300 in a NFAA shoot. That was the first time I used a field target and shot 60 arrows. My arm is still attached! So far so good. I am not hitting my arm now, and will be working on my grip. I tried using a hand held release and didn't like it, so I switched back to my wrist release, and I am a lot more comfortable.



BTW, my son Ian shot a 510/600 in Cadet Compound yesterday at a tournament in Mass. He is getting geared up for Nationals at the end of February

Check out his form!

Thanks for everything, I'll update again soon.

Now, if I could only not hit my bow arm.


Without seeing your hold it's hard to tell, but common things are over extending your bow arm, grip too rotated, not dropping your front shoulder... it's all hard to explain, but I'm sure some of the other shooters could help you if you asked. guys seem to always be offering my wife advice, I think it's a guy thing, they want to help women it feeds their ego. Just ask one or two folks if they would mind critiquing your form for a few shots.. I'd bet you have folks lining up to help, seriously....

Check out his form!



I'm grooving on that range! Carpeted floors, full wall backstop, shazam! I bet they even have Surround Sound stereo system. I miss New England.... Even if it is in the Peoples Republic of Taxachussetts.