The most important part of setting up your bow is balance,
vibration cannot affect the accuracy of your bow because, and the arrow has left the bow at one hundredth of a second. The arrow is only on the rest for approximately three inches, the remainder of the time is on the string flying free. Balance is so important the bow must fly with the arrow. If you are to shoot a bow well you must stabilise the bow arm. The bow arm has to accommodate and transmit the compressive load of the drawing bow. The bow hand in contact with the modern tournament bow, the grip is sculptured and the hand positioning is far more critical, there is a large area of contact on the palm of the hand any misalignment of the bow hand will result in torque. You must have bone on bone, if our wrist is to the right the bow will torque to the right if your long rod is pointing to the right the bow will torque to the right, if your wrist is to the left the bow will torque to the left, again, if the long rod is to the left the bow will torque to the left The wrist must be to the center with no left or right torque, bone on bone no muscles holding the wrist. The bow will take the line of least resistance as will the long rod. The long rod must be in the center and the arrow splitting the rod. This is a natural relaxed angle on the bow hand and the long rod. Now look at your body shape and your flexibility. If there is any tension in your arm and shoulder the bow will torque in the line of tension. The long rods and V Bars will have to pull the bow in the line of the flying arrow, so you overwork the stabilisation system, so again bone on bone, no tension in the bow arm, no mad push forward, let the bow fly with the arrow. Why thousands of Euros for a bow and not let it do the work by influencing the bow arm in the wrong direction. Balance. Tuning of the stabilisers does not effect tuning of the Bow, pushing the tuner up and down the long rod has no effect on the tune of the bow, this is a myth. What you do is control the stiffness of the long rod. The long rod has two functions, it puts weight to the front of the bow and it stops torque, bottom line, it helps to balance the bow. The optimum length for the majority of male archers are 30" - 34" Compound, 27"-34" Recurve, Ladies 25"-30" and short Axle Compound 25" - 30" Some archers shoot 54", this has one advantage it stops side way torque, the disadvantages are, you have to put more weight on the V-Bar. More mass to the bow less energy to the Arrow. Again note stabilisers the Bow wrist and the Bow arm, keep your stabilisation system simple. Force to the bow from the Archer is never in line. Bow companies are still working on this problem with shoot through bows & grips that are offset. They all have positive and negative reactions. A top Archer ask me if I could help him, as at a major competition he missed our in a shoot out, he shot 10.9.9 his opponent shot 10.10.9 one shot off, luck or nerves. I spoke to his coach and we said we would have a look at the problem. The Archer said he shot his first arrow which was a 10, the next shot which was equally as good was a 9, the next shot, confusion, was another 9, he said his second shot was a good as the first one and should have been a 10 at that level the guys know what they are talking about. We had a look at his shooting form and I noticed that between shots while resting he put his bow and pressed on the handle putting pressure on the long rod, the long rod took a slight bend to the left so we found that any inconsistency in the long rod, the arrow will move to where the long is pointing. So you as an archer must look to balance your bow, this is most important.

At Carbofast we set our stabilisation Carbon Rods to offset vibration, the new CROSS FIRE system that we have developed if very low on vibration but is an excellent balance system. The Long Rod is very stiff so you will have no problems no matter how long your rod is, it will stay straight. We have researched vibration, balance, and we keep coming back to the same answers. The Long Rod must be stiff. The balance of the bow must fly with the arrow. You must stabilise your wrist and bow arm. Your body position must be behind the bow creating a straight T and standing on two feet, slightly forward. For Wheelchair Archers the same applies only in a sitting position. Do not shoot with the bow arm, let the bow do the work, keep in line, keep it simple. Vibration is a problem if is excessive on your bow, it will shake your sight loose, your stabilisation, it will give you Tennis Elbow and it may crack your limbs. We have tested most bows, compound and recurve using all types of stabilisers, aluminium, steel, wood and glass. When the balance is correct they all shoot well. On the Steel everything falls off the bow but when you bolt it down the accuracy does not change so, vibration has no effect on accuracy but has a detrimental effect on the bow. Now we come to Arrows. Most Bows are 75% efficient. The arrow takes most of the energy. As I have said before the arrow is gone in one hundredth of a second. We have tested with Easton Arrows and found them consistent. Take any Compound Bow Min 50lbs. Max 60lbs. Soft Cam, Draw Length 28". What should fly from that Bow? ACE 520 or 570, X10 500, Navigator 540, Acc 3.18, X7 2114, XX75 2016 How do you know what arrow to shoot? Set everything up on your Compound as recommended. Arrow Rest, Nocking Point, Sight & Peep, set your stabiliser Long Rod slightly tipping forward. Now Paper Test with weight at minimum using Acc 3.18 with 100 gr. Points, shoot an arrow from 5-12feet. If you don't get a clear hole, adjust the weight on your bow by 2lbs. repeat this exercise 2lbs. at a time until you get a clear hole. The nocking point should stay level or almost level. If you cannot get a clear hole after you have got to 60lbs. change the points next weight down then start the same process, min. 50lbs. graduate to 60lbs. by 2lbs. increments until you get a clear hole. If you still have a problem next pile weight down and repeat the process. If the problem persists see your coach and see if you are punching the shot. If you are not punching the shot the next step is to go and get the Easton Guide to Arrow Tuning & Maintenance-an excellent piece of information. Ascertain from the Tuning Guide if the arrow is too stiff or not stiff enough, either way move up a spine or down a spine according to the tuning information and start the process again. Min 50lbs. work up in 2lb increments until you get good arrow flight and punch a clear hole. If your form is not good stop tuning immediately because to continue will only frustrate. Get a good Coach; if you have to pay for one it will be well worth the cost, you can never compensate for good form, you will always have problems with arrow flight and inconsistency with your shooting. To recap balance the bow so that the arrow is flying and the bow is flying in Unisom. Stabilise your body so that your form is clean and you are putting undo torque on the bow.

Keep everything simple.

Good Shooting.