What is a Good Archery Stance? Tips for Perfecting Your Stance

The secret to successful archery is having the proper archery stance and posture. This refers to how you hold your head, legs, shoulders, and arms. Without the correct stance, you won't have a strong foundation for your shot, resulting in many lost opportunities and the potential for injury, to yourself or others.

Implementing proper archery stance will increase your shooting accuracy, allowing you to hit your target more often and have more fun. If you’re new to archery or need help improving your stance, we’re here to help! 

Keep reading to learn about the elements of a proper archery stance and some tips to perfect your form.

The Perfect Stance for Archery 

Although every archer has a slightly different form, most of them use the same fundamental technique. Follow our professional advice to increase your shooting accuracy and consistency.

Feet 

The foundation of the ideal bow stance is the placement of your feet. 

Though you may find varying information on different sites about foot placement as part of a proper bow stance, there is a lot of inaccurate or misleading archery content on the web. We’re here to set the record straight. 

• What You Shouldn’t Do: Adopting a square stance is not recommended because it’s bad for stability and performance. What’s worse, when using a square stance, you risk the string slapping your forearm as it travels straight down your arm. Likewise, adopting a closed stance also leaves you at risk of injury and isn’t great for providing a stable base.

• What You Should Do: You should utilize an open stance. In an archery open stance, the feet are positioned with the legs and hips pointing more directly at the target. You should have your left foot slightly more open to the target and your right foot slightly inward. 

Legs

If your feet are in the correct archery stance, you won't need to pay much attention to your legs. However, you should always keep your knees straight and relaxed to avoid straining your back muscles. Avoid overextending your knees as this could weaken your stance and potentially harm your joints.

Torso and Back

When shooting your bow, your torso and back spine should be straight up, with the collar bone parallel to the arrow. Leaning away from the bow is a common mistake. While this may be a natural response, it makes it more challenging to hold the bow at full draw. Additionally, avoid leaning forward or bending left or right.

Elbow and Arms

Inconsistencies in your shoulder form can reduce the accuracy of your shot. The elbow of your release arm should point away from the intended target, and the forearm should be parallel to the ground. Without locking your elbow, your bow arm should be straight and point slightly upward. When in the correct archery stance, your bow arm’s elbow should have a slight bend.

Shoulders 

One of the key elements of archery is proper shoulder form. 

When your elbow and arms are in the right positions, your shoulders should follow suit and align with your bow arm. You should feel like you are pinching your back, with your shoulder blades coming together into towards your spine.

Make sure you are keeping your holding shoulder down (the shoulder connected to the arm holding your bow). You do not want this shoulder to creep upwards toward your face because doing so can lead to poor accuracy, and even worse, injury. 

Head 

After your lower and upper body are in the proper archery stance, hold your head up straight and keep it relaxed. You should always bring the bow string to your face. While you can rotate your head to look at your target, you should never torque your head to move your head to the bow string.  

Anchor Point

Your anchor point, or where your drawing hand is placed on your face, is the final part of the proper archery stance. Numerous points of contact are necessary for a strong anchor point. Although different archers have different anchor points, the majority of compound bow archers usually anchor along or behind their jawline. Additionally, some archers create a second point of contact by placing their bowstring against the tip of their nose.

Now that you know the correct archery stance, it’s time to put it into action. You need high-quality archery training equipment to hone your abilities and perfect your stance.

AccuBow carries the best archery training aid on the market that is perfect for all ages and skill levels. With a variety of options, from the AccuBow Nano made for kids to the AccuBow 2.0 designed for the experienced archer, you can increase your shooting accuracy, holding stability, and shooting strength.