Day Six: Online Archery Carnival: Slippery Grip Challenge

Welcome to Day SIX of the Online Archery Carnival!

Read the May 24 post for information on the Carnival and how to participate.  Each Carnival Challenge will be communicated in the following format.

To participate, complete the challenge on any given day and use the scaled versions if needed.  Then, submit a video or photo of yourself to Instagram or Facebook or e-mail to Coach Kyle.  Your Facebook and Instagram accounts have to be public, not private, and you need to tag Instagram as @sattva_archery and #archerycarnival2020.  Facebook needs to get tagged as @sattvaarchery. If you want to submit via Facebook, post on your own page.

More information in the March 24 blog post.

Title

Slippery Grip

Description of Challenge & Performance

• WARM UP First!
  • 15 Up and Overs with your bow stringer
  • 30 seconds side planks both sides
  • 20 seconds: Bend at waist and let arms dangle freely to get shoulder synovial fluids moving
  • 10 Push Ups (strict, knees or wall)
  • 20 Jumping Jacks
  • 10 repetitions of toe circles, both sides (balance on one foot and move ankle through full range of motion while tracing circles in air with toes)
• Remove any grip tape or cloth-based tape from your grip so that you have bare wood or plastic/rubber.  I have always applied directly to the grip and have not had a problem cleaning the grip after the exercise.  However, if concerned, though I have not tried this – just an idea – perhaps plastic wrap on the grip first, then oil.  This might make it more challenging.  Jus tmake sure the plastic wrap is secure and won’t rotate around grip.
• Use a vegetable-based cooking oil (olive, canola, safflower) and thoroughly coat
  • Grip Hand
  • Bow Grip
• Tie into the bow with a finger sling for safety.  You don’t want the bow slipping out of your hand during the exercise.  Wrist sling might not be enough security if you make an egregious error.
• Focus on proper grip position, starting at Set Position.
• Perform 25 repetitions of the shot cycle up to Holding without arrows (recurve only).  Compound, shot trainer first and oil up that grip.
• Once confidence is up, move on to using arrows. 75 repetitions with arrows – with oily grip and oily hand.  Re-apply oil as needed.
  • Keep rag nearby to keep drawing hand as clean of oil as possible.
• For this challenge we recommend 1) proper grip position and 2) a focus on making movements “from” the Pressure Point of grip hand.  In other words, all the movements, you make during the shot cycle should increase pressure at the Pressure Point.
• For proper Grip position, check out third edition of  Total Archery: Inside the Archer, pages 62-69.  Purchase at Sattva store HERE

Knowledge Outcome

• Archer will know what proper grip looks like
• Archer will know that they can shoot with a proper grip even under very adverse conditions (oily, slippery grip)

Skill Outcome

• Archer will know what proper grip feels like
• Archer will be able to shoot with a consistent grip even when grip is slippery
• Confidence

Materials Needed

• Safflower, Olive or Vegetable Oil
• A bow.
• Finger sling
• A rag
• Warm soapy water for clean up

Criteria for Assessment & Feedback

• First address the bow by placing web of thumb/first finger into Pivot Point of bow, squeezing with gentle firmness there, and then rocking down to find the Pressure Point.
• Pressure point, at base of thumb, has a lot of pressure going through it. Not a lot of pressure under web of thumb and first finger.
• Pull the Pinky finger knuckle back towards the archer as far as you can go.  Coach Kyle calls this “Mirror Mirror”: If the back of your hand was a mirror, you would be able to see yourself while shooting.
• Index finger pointed down at ground, nearly vertical.
• Archers thumb has intensity in the direction of the target or hitch hikers thumb with intensity still towards target.  Don’t wrap thumb around bow.
• Bow stays firmly in place through Pressure Point throughout the entire shot cycle regardless of the grip and grip hand being oiled.
  • There is a very narrow range of possible positions that your hand/wrist can actually be when shooting with an oily grip that will allow for the archer go through the shot cycle and have the bow remain stable (NOT have the bow slip).  If your current grip position does not work with oil

Scaled Options

• 25 Warm Ups with 50 Shots
• 20 Warm Ups with 30 Shots
• 35 Warm Ups with 150 Shots

Video or Photo Submission Criteria for this Challenge

• Photo: Get photo of your oily grip hand in proper grip position on the oily grip.
• Post to Instagram and use #archerycarnival2020 and @sattva_archery (underscore). or to your Facebook page (make it public) and mention/tag @SattvaArchery (no underscore) ….or just e-mail or text Coach Kyle photos/videos.