Q: How do you hold strong in the wind? I don’t usually struggle too much in calm weather, but when the wind picks up I can’t hold centrally and struggle to get the shot off cleanly. Should I just add more weight to my stabilisers or is it a form issue?
A: It’s important to remember that everyone struggles in the wind and everyone gets blown around, so don’t set your expectations of how still you can hold too high. The common mistake most people make is that they know how well they hold in the calm, and feel they should be able to achieve this in the wind as well. As a result, the archer holds too long – striving for perfection – and this means they break their usual rhythm and their form totally falls to bits. Keeping your form and rhythm is very important; holding too long won’t do you any favours in the long run.
Adding additional weights to your stabiliser setup will help in the wind as the bow is more difficult to move, but you run the risk of overloading yourself. If the bow becomes too heavy you will just fall out the bottom of the gold anyway, and the wind won’t matter. I don’t like to add weights in wind as it totally changes the feel of the bow you practise with every day. In my experience, heavier stabilisers are a big help in windy conditions, but you need practice and experience with them so I just run this setup all the time now, regardless of weather. When it’s calm, a lighter stabiliser setup would probably work just as well, but in in the wind that extra weight is a big help. Try gradually building a bit more weight into your regular stabiliser setup and see how you get on with it on the next windy day. However, my key advice would always be to maintain your shot routine and don’t forget your rhythm.
Liam Grimwood
Thanks for the info.