Angular Movement

Archery Technique = Angular Movement A majority of people believe that archery shooting technique is a linear movement. Even though, when "pushed" a bit, they might concede that there is some angular movement. However, we say that it is, nearly, all angular movement. Therefore, as an addition to the KSL Shot Cycle Technique we would like to introduce the case that archery technique consists of, nearly, all angular movements, rather than the push and pull technique, that a lot of archers use and basically is a linear motion. Biomechanically this is not the best possible technique. A blunt statement maybe, but let us examine back tension from a biomechanical viewpoint. There are two branches of biomechanics - Kinematics and Kinetics. Kinematics deals with motion, which can either be linear or angular. As we have stated before, "We must get away from the belief that expansion or the line of force as you call it, is just a linear movement and takes place only in a linear direction with the arrow. Once we can fully understand that this expansion is not just a linear movement of push and/or pull, but more a result of a big circular movement (The Ratio of Movement, refer to Step 9 under Shot Cycle on this Website) which involves the scapulae to back bone (small movement); the chest bones connecting with the chest joint (bigger movement) and the draw and bow arms (biggest movement)" we will get a better appreciation. As we said, archery technique is nearly all angular movement. There is only one part of linear movement, which is from set-up to anchor. Therefore, it is essential to have the transfer step to be able to transform this part of linear movement into an angular movement, as with continuous motion this change from linear to angular would not be possible. The principle of "Follow-through" is another biomechanical principle which clearly explains that back tension is an angular movement. It consists of two key elements - Tension and Direction. The Tension is "Back Tension" and Direction is an angular movement. Throughout the "Follow-through" the archer must continue to feel the tension in their back from the scapulae coming together. This is not just because the bow side scapula is coming in towards the spine, but because the chest is opening up due to the angular back movement. The rotation is around the spine, which can clearly be seen on this website under Shot Sequence Photos of David Barnes, showing, when you examine the vertical lines, that all rotation is around his spine. Why is the KSL Shot Cycle Technique biomechanically superior to other techniques? - For the reason that it is a technique that stands up much better to the immense stress experienced by archers under the pressure cooker conditions of Olympic Match Play at World Championships and Olympic Games. Interesting research, which was conducted by Tom Parrish, USA Archery High Performance Manager, analyzed the highest average of 3x12 arrow match results of the Individual Quarter, Semi and Gold final matches from the Olympics 2000 to the World Championships 2005 period. Refer list below. It is not surprising to find that in the top five there are three Australian archers, all who have been coached by Coach Lee, employing the KSL Shot Cycle Technique. 12 ARROW MATCHES AVG. (WAC + OLYMPIC - 2000-2005) 1 CUDDIHY AUS 113.3 2 FAIRWEATHER AUS 112.7 3 TORRES FRA 112.7 4 BARNES AUS 112.3 5 YEON KOR 112.3 6 YAMAMOTO JPN 111.7 7 IM KOR 111.3 8 FRANGILLI ITA 110.7 9 VAN ALTEN NED 110.0 10 GALIAZZO ITA 110.0 11 CHUNG KOR 109.7 12 PARK KOR 108.7 13 CHOI KOR 108.3 14 WUNDERLE USA 107.3 15 MORIYA JPN 106.3