Follow Through in Archery – Why Is It Important?

Last month, we covered archery practice tips for beginners along with the key skills that you can develop by participating in this sport. 

To follow on from these helpful tips, today we’ll be focusing on the last but most important step required to fully nail this shooting game – the follow through!

If you’ve been playing this sport, you may have heard coaches and archers talk about the significance of good follow through. However, when you ask them what you’re supposed to do, you’d probably receive a vague answer. This is primarily because, while it’s easy to point out a bad follow through, it’s difficult to describe what exactly you should be doing to perfect it.

At Avalanche Adventure, we’ve put together a comprehensive guide explaining what a follow through is, its significance and other archery practice tips to improve this skill.

Let’s dive in!

Follow Through in Archery – What Is It?

If you’re a beginner, then we’re sure that the idea of follow through may be new to you. However, here’s what it means in simple terms:

A follow through in archery is a process that takes place immediately after you’ve released the bow and it involves all the movements that happen until your arrow has hit the target. Moreover, when it comes to follow through, its first part (the process of releasing the arrow) is extremely important since your quarrel is still clearing the bow.

This is why you need to have a consistent follow through to ensure that it doesn’t interfere with the movement of your arrow.

bunch of green arrows placed on the ground

Why Is Follow Through Important?

For almost every beginner, focusing on their follow through seems a little unnecessary.

You might say that if both you and your bow are stock-still until your arrow has been released, then nothing could possibly go wrong. While that is true, it isn’t possible for you to stand still till the time your arrow hits the target – this is because, the moment you release the arrow, all your tension instantly disappears and you tend to lose your focus.

Having a good follow through, however, will help ensure that you’re only applying pressure towards your target. It will also make sure that you don’t end up influencing your arrow to move in the wrong direction.

Some of the best examples to highlight the significance of a good follow through are games like baseball, golf, volleyball and basketball. All these sports have one thing in common – the need to be as accurate as possible with your swing or throw. Have you ever noticed, when a golfer swings or a basketball player shoots they hold their position for a few seconds after?

That said, the two most important archery practice tips that you need to keep in mind are:

  • Never lower your bow too early, as that will cause your arrow to fly low.
  • Do not jerk your bow in the right or left direction, as that will result in your arrow flying to its right or left.

To find out more about the importance of follow through, click here!

4 Archery Practice Tips to Improve Your Follow Through

While we covered some of the basic tips to refine your aim in our archery for beginners blog, here we’ll be talking about how you can improve your release and ultimately your follow through.

Let’s take a look.

1. Improve Your Bow Arm

First things first – for you to nail the follow through in archery, it’s important to keep your bow arm up until your arrow clears the riser.

However, normally, it’s recommended not to lower your bow until you’ve hit your target. This is because it’s usually difficult to determine whether or not the arrow has cleared the riser. That being the case, it’s always best to keep your bow up for as long as possible.

While you’re at it, ensure that you’re keeping your bow arm as steady as possible; any up/down or sideways movement could influence your arrow’s direction.

Pro Tip: Do not shoot the arrow with bent arms. Not only is it impossible to remain stable with bent arms after the arrow has been released but it also makes you jerk your bow unintentionally. Additionally, do not lock your elbows; this will only cause extra vibration, resulting in a miss hit!

archery practice tips, man practicing his follow through in the backyard

2. Work On That Bow Hand

While many archers are scared of dropping their bow, a lot of them think that it might fly right out of their hand if they don’t have a firm grip on it.

However, this isn’t something that we’d recommend because doing so will only make you jerk or twist your bow upon the release of your arrow. It is, therefore, crucial to ensure you have a relaxed grip.

One of the archery practice tips that you could try out here is shooting the arrow with open hands. Don’t worry about dropping your bow because your reflexes will immediately kick in, making you hold onto the bow and by then your arrow would’ve long gone.

Make sure you aren’t overdoing this step and are still gripping the bow properly.

3. Focus On Your Draw Arm

During the process of aiming and releasing the arrow, see to it that you’re not only pulling your draw arm backwards but also ensuring it’s in line with your arrow and swing.

Once the shot is fired, all your energy will be released; so, it’s completely safe for your arm to fly backwards.

In fact, this comes with an added advantage – since your draw arm moves away from the bowstring as quickly as possible, it eliminates the chances of you interfering with the direction of your arrow.

archery practice tips, bunch of archery bows and arrows placed on a yard

4. Nail the Use of Your Draw Hand

You tend to release your bow by simply relaxing your draw hand.

That said, make it a point not to forcefully straighten the fingers as this would only result in consistency issues. Moreover, since the force of your bowstring pushes your fingers out of the way, ensure that you’re relaxing them immediately after releasing the arrow.

To Sum Up

Perhaps the most important practice tip to perfect your follow through, is to keep standing as if you’re taking an aim even when your arrow is airborne. While this might sound a little strange, it is something that professional archers do all the time.

It simply ensures that you aren’t influencing the arrow’s direction while also analysing your shooting technique. This means, standing still for a longer time will only enhance your accuracy.

Book Your Slots At Avalanche Adventure for a Fun Filled Archery Session

If you’re ready to learn more about archery and how you can nail this sport, book your slots in advance at Avalanche Adventure.

Along with archery, you can also book slots for other adrenaline filled outdoor activities like clay pigeon shooting, quad biking, off-road driving, camping and more.

To find out more, contact our team today!