Customer Reviews

Precision Archery

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Book Review: Precision Archery
202 Pages, Edited and Written by
Steve Ruis and Claudia Stevenson
Retail Price $19.95 (US dollars)

Precision Archery is a new book brought to you by the folks who publish this magazine. The book is a collection of articles written by some of the foremost experts in archery today: Rick McKinney, Don Rabska, Larry Wise, M.J. Rogers, and several others. It is geared toward recurve and compound target archers who wish to raise their shooting abilities and increase their general archery knowledge. You will find chapters dealing with shot execution, physical conditioning, and advanced form for recurve and compound archery, as well as an inspirational chapter entitled "Embracing the Spirit of Archery."

When I first saw the cover an immediate alarm bell rang. It appeared to be yet one more book that was trying to be "everything to everybody." The phrases "target shooting, field competition, and bow hunting" seemed to imply that this book may be taking on too much. Anybody who claims be an expert on all these areas is probably a master of none. When I saw that it was, in fact, a collection of works by multiple authors it made more sense; each writer stays within his or her range of expertise.
Rick McKinney, one of the world's greatest Olympic-style archers, contributes a fine chapter called "Exploring Competition." In it, he lays out why competition may be good for you (if you're not doing it) and (if you are) how to better prepare for it. Don Rabska, one of the top technical gurus, writes on "Advanced Form for Recurve Archers." While I don't shoot recurve, I still found this to be one of the best chapters in the book. He starts with proper stance, and moves on to each component of an archer's form: bow hand, shoulder placement, and form execution. His final section is called "Connecting with the Target" and explains something I have personally found very mysterious. Why are my shots smooth and effortless close to the target but not further away? I found Rabska's answer to this phenomenon most enlightening.
Compound archers have their technical guru, too; namely Larry Wise. Larry details the steps in shot execution with many photographs. I found it curious that there was no photo showing the release hand anchoring on the jaw, given the importance of this. While there is no doubt that Larry's explanations are technically accurate, I didn't always find the information useful. For example, Larry defines back tension as ". . . the contraction of the dominant or drawing side rhomboid muscles, aided by the levator scapula muscle, which causes a micro sliding rotation of the scapula toward the spine." Right. I'll keep that in mind next time I'm at full draw. (I think not!)
Tuning recurve and compound bows are covered by Rabska and Ruis. If you have been around archery for long, this material may not be new for you, but it's still worthwhile to have for a reference. The chapter "Perfecting Practice" does cover some new ground. Relatively little has been written about this, which is puzzling to me. More efficient use of practice time will make far more difference in your tournament results than about anything else you can do. While the author makes a good start on this subject, I feel it still needs to be explored further. If you consider the volumes of material that have been written on training for other sports, material on training for archery seems nearly non-existent.
Other chapters include "Executing the Shot" by Ruis and Stevenson, "Tuning the Mind" by Lisa Franseen, "Achieving a Physical Edge" by Annette M. Musta, "Coaching and Being Coached" by M.J. Rogers, and many others (14 chapters total). I found the last chapter, "Embracing the Spirit of Archery" by Claudia Stevenson very inspirational. This chapter puts into words many of the feelings that have been at the back of my mind about archery for years. Stevenson attempts to answer the question: just why do we frustrate ourselves with archery? She cites the power of self knowledge that archery can teach us and the sense of community that archers develop as two of the reasons.
I found "Precision Archery" a very worthwhile addition of my archery library. It is well written, attractively bound, and has a nice reference in the back, listing sources for more information. One note of caution: if you are looking for material on bowhunting, this is not the book for you, even though the cover suggests otherwise. Actually, the phrase "bow hunting" was on the cover by mistake. The editors told me that book is strictly for target shooters, although I suspect bowhunters would learn a lot about shooting a bow from it. And while much of the material was not new to me, it is very convenient to have it located in a single source. I doubt that there is a single archer who will not learn something from this book. For example, much to my dismay, the recent elevation of my indoor scores may be due entirely to the "Hawthorne effect." What the heck is that, you ask? Well, you will just have to read the book to find out!

Precision Archery Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Exploring Competition
Rick McKinney
Chapter 2. Advanced Form for Recurve Archery
Don Rabska
Chapter 3. Developing Your Compound Archery Form
Larry Wise
Chapter 4. Executing the Shot
Steve Ruis, Claudia Stevenson
Chapter 5. Achieving a Physical Edge
Annette M. Musta
Chapter 6. Tuning the Mind
Lisa Franseen, PhD
Chapter 7. Tuning Recurve Bows and Arrows
Don Rabska
Chapter 8. Tuning Compound Bows and Arrows
Steve Ruis, Claudia Stevenson
Chapter 9. Coaching and Being Coached
M.J. Rogers
Chapter 10. Dealing With Difficulties
Steve Ruis, Claudia Stevenson
Chapter 11. The Joys of Arco Nudo
Ty Pelfrey
Chapter 12. Perfecting Practice
Steve Ruis, Claudia Stevenson
Chapter 13. Testing New Equipment
Steve Ruis, Claudia Stevenson
Chapter 14. Embracing the Spirit of Archery
Claudia Stevenson

I found this book excellent and one of the few target archer resources that provides pointed guidance that you can "take to the bank". Steve Ruis even answered some tuning questions directly. This book also has pieces from other archers that are poignant and enjoyable reading. I took the Larry Wise Core Archery class and found the section in this book written by Larry to be an excellent review of class material. Learning to shoot using Back Tension is not an overnight endeavor, however this book can get you there sooner than a trial-and-error effort.

Highly detailed in every description ... too much for my beginner status. I seemed to overthink everything and couldn't group my shots as well as before. I will pull it out again after I have more practice under my quiver. This is, however, a great book to tweak your technique in areas you might not have even given any thought. The section on keeping your bow in tune is very useful.

I bought this book to start coaching a 12 year old. I'm an experienced rifle and pistol coach, so I figured this would be the book. It almost is.

I find no fault with this book if you have a reasonably good background in archery. My background was too primitive, too long ago. (My recurve was acquired in 1989, and before this, last used in 1976.) What I had to do is buy "Archery Steps to Success" to get going, then use this fine book for supplemental, often invaluable, information. The book really is a whole. By that I mean, I needed examples from the Compound Bow chapter to really make sense of some of the finer points in the Recurve chapter. Not a complaint - just advice from my experience.

Again, I really recommend this book - as a second book.

An excellent book for the beginner all the way up. Easy to read instructions and plenty of tips to ease the learning curve for someone getting into archery.