Archery FAQ

Online Archery Lesson

[Video Transcription]

Hi this is Reo Wilde, the Honey Badger here, with my little girl. She is going to spend some time with me today. Getting to our January questions, sorry it has been so long. It’s been a busy month, I had pneumonia, just trying to get caught up, so we will try to keep up with this for you.

How should grip placement on the bow be?

I put mine down my line, so it sits like that and I want it relaxed, I don’t want to put a lot of pressure, build with my heel and if I go anywhere down that line it keeps my heel out of play. It will put it in there and it is just relaxed and let the bow push in. Some of the guys are doing higher wrist, the new Hoyt has the option to put the higher wrist in. I found if I go the higher wrist it builds the tension. You can see it go down my arms, and it will make me bow arm, or fire it. I like to go down more of that line and let it set there, relax and boom.

What sidebar sight would you recommend to use for 3D?

I don’t shoot a lot of 3D, but the best site out there is the Axcel, which answers his next question:

Are you using Axcel? Is that a special order color for the tilbow that you are running?

Actually no, that is the new color for this year. They come out with that to match the new Hoyt Bows, because they have so many they just figure that will be the hot color of the year. If you want get with your Lancaster or Tru Ball and get your one ordered, because for the 3D or whatever the Axcel that is the best thing on the market bar none.

What kind of wrap do you use on your grip?

The wrap I use on my grip is a Wilson Pro Tennis Racquet Overlay Grip. Not a big heavy one, just something nice and thin so it keeps my grip from slipping if I get wet outside, or anything like that.

Do you have any advice for someone who is double jointed in their bow arm?

Yeah, I can tell you, I am. Mine rolls up and in, I get a double joint like that. Just to keep it relaxed and I don’t do a bent elbow but a relaxed. If you go too strong I feel like you build tensions, just a nice relaxed elbow.

Do you shoot X23s or X27s and what is the difference?

I actually use them both. The X23s are the smaller diameter for using for world archery, and their rules have a nine millimeter which the X23 fits in perfectly. I’d use the X27s for like Vegas, Lancaster. A lot of the tournaments in the United States allow you to have the bigger arrow, so I will run them. And that is the difference, is just the size of the arrow.

The best way to train for a tournament?
I would say shooting a round you are going to be shooting. If you are going to be shooting a Vegas round, shoot a Vegas round. Shoot it to score. Something similar to what you are going to see or what you are going to do. So when you get the tournament, you have a good idea of where you are at, so you don’t expect too much.

What do you do in the off-season with your exercise?
I exercised a lot. I spent a lot of time on a treadmill, I have a bench that is inverted so I do a lot of sit-ups, some curls, some different weight lifting. Nothing too big, nothing too heavy, because I wanted to stay strong and not bulk up, but to keep myself toned. A lot of that time was time on the treadmill.

I shoot a back-tension release. I find myself running out of air before the shot fires. What is the best breathing exercise and way to stay steady with a full-draw while breathing. Is there a perfect breathing cycle during pulling and execution?

What I do is I breath out as much as I come to full draw, because the less air inside of your body the less it is going to move and shift like that. That comes from rifle shooters, and everything else like that, is to exhale and have as little air in the body as you can. The thing with holding your breath, the more I do cardio the better I can hold my breath and last longer. So I think that is a big part of working on it, that is why a lot of time I spend on a treadmill working this year is so I can stay with my shot a little longer and be comfortable with that.

With too short or too long of a draw-length cause you to twerk your bow or go paper sideways?

Yes, I mean paper tuning is a neat thing to have to kinda give you a starting point, but the people who say I can’t get a left tear out, or I can’t get a right tear out- what is funny to me is the paper will show your problems as much as it shows the bows problems. So what I use it for is as a slight starting point. It’s never the Bible, never anything, it is a starting point of where I want to get.

How do you hold your stabilizer weight out front?

Work on it. It is not something that happens overnight, and if you look a lot of guys, like Mikey Sauser, lot of the guys that are shooting, have gone to more weight up front. It’s more stable and as you get more nervous, it gets the dot more in the middle. It is more of a thing to have and keeps you more in that realm.

What rest do you recommend?

By far, I can’t say anything about it. I mean have had other companies offer more money to shoot their product, and everything like that, but it is the Spot Hogg Edge or the Affinity, both of them of them are great rests. The Edge is a new version of the Affinity that locks outs and allows you to change your blade angle so it is perfectly where you want it, it’s all micro adjust.They are just brick solid and the nice part is the micro-adjustability. Everybody else out there that does the micro-adjustability has the lock-screw on it, that will bend the way you will adjust it. With the Spot Hogg, there is no lock on it, it stays in place and you can micro-adjust it left or right, up or down, and I would go out on a limb to say that is one of the most successful rests out on the market. It’s been around since Golden Key, when Spot Hogg built it for Golden Key and now Spot Hogg is just doing it for themselves. If you get a chance the Edge is one of the best rests to get and that is the rest I am using.

Thanks everybody for watching. Make sure to subscribe, and I’ll keep getting these videos out as much as we can. Hope you enjoy and learn a lot.