The Swing Draw...relaxed and powerful

        The swing draw form holds a simple key to leveraging the weight of the bow during the draw.  When the draw is started while the bow hand is down lower towards the waist, (or very slightly above) and the bow arm bend at the elbow is set prior to beginning the draw, the leverage of drawing the string against the upswinging arm will help draw a bow with more power and control, and less strain on the muscles.

       The shoulder, back in the shoulder girdle and the bow weight primarily on the deltoid, becomes a pivot point in this leveraging action.  As you are drawing the bow, the bow arm is rigidly bent and allowed to swing up against the gradually increasing bow weight.  This is hard to explain but easy to feel in practice. As the string hand is coming back, the rear shoulder and back muscles are engaging, and the draw weight increases as the arm is rotating rearward...meaning the weight builds as the drawing arm elbow moves more rearward.    It differs greatly from setting the bow arm out in front and drawing straight back, target archery style.

      When the bow arm is set out in front, and the string hand is pulling straight back on a level with the bow hand, notice the elbow of the string hand.  It's pointing forward because there is a reaching motion. The reaching forward motion has to transition under the weight of the bow to a rearward pulling motion without benefit of the bicep or like compound shooters do by drawing the bow with a downward pull.  This is a compromised position for the shoulder to be adding weight when you compare the action to the swing draw motion.

      If you draw the bow with the swing draw, the string hand starts down low, about belly height.  As the draw motion begins, the force of the draw weight is upwards because you're using the bow arm shoulder as a pivot, and the draw is leveraging against a rigidly bent bow arm.  As both arms are moving upwards, the drawing arm elbow is moving rearward with the weight of the bow and by the time the string hand is up and level with the bow hand, the elbow is pointing rearward, not forward as when using the set-arm straight-back draw. Now the drawing arm shoulder is in a much better position to handle the weight of the bow.

       This is one of the main reasons why you see all kinds of shoulder injuries in archers that use the set arm-draw-straight-back drawing motion and they are limited to lighter weight bows. (of course there are genetically muscle-superior strongmen that are the exception to this).    And why such guys like Hill, Swinehart, the Wilhelms, Pope, Young, Schulz and a host of other old timer bowhunters could handle such heavy bow weights for the majority of their lives.  They used leverage to draw the bow.

      An extreme example of this leverage is seen when watching English Longbowmen draw their very heavy bows by "bending their body into the bow".  They are leveraging the draw weight against a rigidly bent bow arm during an exaggerated swing draw motion.  This rigidly bent bow arm statement is not to infer a static style of shooting.  The bow arm elbow is bent, rather downward instead of outward, as it should be...and the bend is what give the body the ability to make fluid relaxed shots.

      So... if you use the set arm style of draw, you will always be limiting your potential draw weight capacity and better control of the bow, while furthering the tendency to have a shoulder injury unless you limit yourself to light weights. 

      Current archery instructors are all about teaching people to lower the bow weight to a weight they can control and we are now seeing young grown men of rather large builds having difficulty in drawing and controlling 40-50 pound bows.  Many are suffering injuries.  This was not the case in the past. But they are told this is the weight they need to drop down to in order to control the shot, and perhaps may even have to go to lower bow weights.  This instruction is all coming from the target archery side, where the set arm is standard operating procedure.

      The true Hill style shooting method is not taught by current instructors and relatively few archers know that there is an alternative.  You can shoot more weight, comfortably and controlled.  Or you can shoot your current bow weight more efficiently and effortlessly...all by utilizing the Swing Draw as popularized by Howard Hill.  (even though there were many, many archers throughout time that have shot this way).  Watch Hill, or watch John Schulz, and learn this easy leveraging method of drawing the bow.  And you too will be able to 

       Shoot Straight.