arm slap

[frassettor]

I was shooting my bear bruin long bow and kept getting some forarm slap. Is that because I was holding the grip  to tight? I orderd a recurve, one of the reasons why I did that was because of the grip , it fits in my hand nicely, but this long bow has more of a straight grip.

[SlowBowinMO]

The way you grip the bow and extend your arm, as well as brace height, can all cause the slap.

Dick Wightman has a great site that has some good pics of a proper grip on a straight gripped longbow.

http://www.howardhilllongbowmen.com/

Hope this helps, good shooting!  Tim

[frassettor]

Thanks!

[mike g]

Proper Grip and one of My Armguards will work wonders....  

[geno]

one of mikes armguards and move that big thumb knuckle so it is more under your arra.raise your brace if needed

[jacobsladder]

armguard will help..but the best thing to do is is rotate your thumb down on your grip..this will move your forarm away from the string...

[Tim Fishell]

I always slap my arm no matter what bow I shoot.  I asked a very experienced traditional archery shooter what I was doing wrong and he told me that is why they make armguards!!

[Pete W]

Over drawing, brace height and grip are the most common things I see causing arm slap.
I only wear a guard to keep loose sleves out of the way.

[Dave Bulla]

Where is it hitting you?  If it is down about where a watch band would be or towards the base of your thumb, it's 99% chance you just need to raise your brace hight.  However many long bow shooters expect to get hit there and just wear the armguard.  I shoot a longbow and prefer not to be hit each shot mainly due to the noise it makes so I raise a my brace a bit till it goes away.


Another thing is how open or closed up your standce is.  If you are getting hit in the middle of the forearm or near the elbow you may be turning to "edgeways" to the target and turning slightly more square will open up your stance and provide more clearance.  Don't overdo it though.  You should be comfortable.

Also, try pointing your bow arm elbow to the side.  This will rotate your whole arm from the shoulder to the wrist and the natural bend in your arm gives quite a bit of extra clearance.  I think it also feels stronger than the elbow pointing down but I've been doing it that way for so long anything else feels unnatural.

At the grip end of things, the centerline of your hand down at the heel should be a little left of center of the bow.  When I shoot, the big bone in the heel of my hand that goes to my thumb is pretty much centered behind the handle.  If you put the centerline of your hand down the center of the bow or even to the right, it moves your whole forearm into the path of the string.

[Killdeer]

Ask MarthaK, she knows  all  about it.    

Killdeer