Part 6 (2/2)

But few experienced archers now extend the bow-arm fully and take their aim before they commence drawing at all. Neither can this method be commended, as it has an awkward appearance, from the necessity that exists of stretching the other arm so far across the body in order to reach the string, and it materially increases the exertion necessary to pull the bow. Yet this method is not without its use as a preliminary drill for a beginner, that he may learn the necessity and the difficulty of drawing his arrow up, whilst keeping it constantly and exactly on the line which the arrow is afterwards to follow towards the object to be hit when it is loosed; at the same time not yet attending to the second and equally great difficulty of a beginner, namely, that of shooting the exact length as well; also that he may learn how to cover different lengths by higher and lower positions of the bow-hand.

Much diversity of opinion exists as to the best method of getting the bow-hand into position for the aim and loose, as to whether, in the course of drawing up, the arrow shall be brought into the line of aim from below or from above, or from the right to the left; and here it would seem that to make the motion of drawing from the right to the left and upwards at the same time is the simplest and most direct plan, since, after the nocking of the arrow, the drawing commences most naturally from beneath and to the right of the object to be hit.

There seem to be three successful methods of drawing--namely, first, to draw the arrow home[3] at once, loosing when it has been aimed, without any further draw; secondly, to draw the arrow within an inch or a little more of home,[3] aiming then, and loosing after the completion of the draw; and thirdly, the method of combining the operations of drawing and aiming so continuously that the loose is the uninterrupted completion of the draw. It is unnecessary to consider the distinct method of drawing up and letting out again before the loose, or the uncertain method of fraying up and down, or playing as it were at fast-and-loose a bit before the loose, as no archer would adopt any such uncertain style as a matter of choice; though such stuttering and hiccoughing performances may occasionally bring back an erring arrow to its duty, or may arise from the loss of nerve and the departure of the crisp finish from what was once steady and unhesitating. Any movement of the bow-hand in drawing up from the left towards the right should be avoided, as that movement tends to contract instead of expanding the chest; therefore great care should be taken, when lateral movement is used in drawing up, to avoid pa.s.sing the line of aim in moving the bow-hand towards the left.

Though the theory and practice of aiming will be fully treated in another chapter, some reference must here be made to _aiming_, although it may lead to apparently unnecessary repet.i.tion. Reference has already, somewhat prematurely, been made to the _line of aim_, and also to the _length_ to be shot. Now it is clear that the success of a scientific shot must be the result of the exact combinations of the _right line of aim_, and the correct _level_ of the bow- and loosing-hands by which to attain the _length_. In drawing, the process by which the _line of aim_ and the _level_ are arrived at must be a.s.sociated in _practice_, but may be _considered_ separately. Advice has already been given to avoid--as soon as possible after the beginner has got through the first elements--the setting-up of the bow-hand with the arrow already on the line of aim to be then hauled at, and this for reasons already given.

But now comes in the apparently contradictory advice, to get it planted there to be hauled at in good time before the conclusion of the operation of drawing, so that _that conclusion_ may be certainly in the right line of aim. And the further advice at this stage of drawing is that the loosing-hand be kept well back, and never allowed to advance between the archer's face and the object aimed at. In previous editions of this book it was laid down that 'the arrow shall be at least three-fourths drawn when brought upon the [line of] aim.' But this is far from sufficient at this point of the process. About nine-tenths of drawing should be by that time accomplished, or the archer will be in a still worse position for applying his strength to the loose with advantage should there be any pause at this stage of drawing to combine the _level_ with the _line of aim_. Next come the considerations whether the arrow should be held quiescent for a short time, whilst the perfect aim is found, or whether the entire drawing should be one continuous act from the first moment of pulling and raising the bow to the loose.

Neither of these methods appears to have much advantage over the other, if well executed. The former will be a little more trying to the bow, and, if the finish be imperfect, may lead to letting the arrow out, which is known as a _creeping-loose_. The latter may lead to an arrow being occasionally imperfectly drawn; but the bow will have no cause of complaint, and full advantage will always be taken of all the work that is done.

The method of drawing the arrow home at once, which has still to be considered, has this point apparently in its favour--that it ensures the arrow's being always drawn to the same point. But it is very trying to the bow, the arms, and the fingers, and, ending in what is called a _dead-loose_, at the best scarcely produces results commensurate with the labour undoubtedly taken, and whenever it is imperfectly finished a creeping-loose results.

Ascham, quoting Procopius, says that 'Leo, the Emperoure, would have hys souldyers drawe quycklye in warre, for that maketh a shaft flie a pace.

In shootynge at pryckes, hasty and quicke drawing is neyther sure nor c.u.mlye. Therefore, to draw easely and uniformely ... is best both for profit and semelinesse.' The modern style of shooting the York Round, &c., is the same as used in his days to be called shooting at p.r.i.c.ks, and his advice as to the manner of drawing cannot be much improved.

A few lines before the pa.s.sage above quoted he says, 'And one thynge commeth into my remembrance nowe, when I speake of drawynge, that I never red of other kynde of shootynge, than drawing wyth a mans hand either to the breste or eare.' This he says when referring to the invention of cross-bows. But it is curious that to no writer on the subject of archery it occurred that 'under the eye' might possibly be a better direction for 'drawing' than either to the _breste_ or to the _eare_. Yet so it is that until the first appearance of Mr. H. A. Ford's 'Theory and Practice of Archery' in 1855 there existed no intermediate styles between the one, that was too low, and the other, which, though in the opposite extreme, was then so highly regarded as the grand old English style, that the author, though annually Champion since 1849, must have been a bold man to give the first indication of the new, and now almost universally admitted, best style for target-practice of drawing '_to such a distance that the wrist of the right hand come to about the level of the chin_,' and the level of the arrow shall be a shade lower than that of the chin; its nock being in the vertical line dropped from the right eye.

One of the main features of good _drawing_ is that the distance pulled be precisely the same every time; that is to say, the same length of the arrow must be drawn identically, whether this length be to the pile, or any shorter distance. Unless this be unerringly accomplished with every shot the _length_ must be more or less uncertain, since the power taken out of the bow will be greater or less according to the longer or shorter draw.

A great many devices have been tried and practised to make this exact similarity in the distance drawn a matter of certainty, such as by notching the end of the arrow, so that the left hand may feel it when the right length of draw has been reached; or by touching some point of the face, neck, or chin, collar, b.u.t.ton, or other fixed point with some part of the drawing hand. But it will be found infinitely better to arrive at an exact repet.i.tion of the same action by careful practice rather than by dodges, which may, however, be useful as experiments.

These mechanical devices are unlikely to have a beneficial result when constantly in use, as, when the eye and mind are fixed and concentrated (as they should be) on the aim, if anything occurs to distract either, the loose is almost sure to become unequal.

The pile of the arrow should not be drawn on to the bow. It is far better that no arrow be drawn further than exactly to the pile; and every arrow should be longer, by at least as much as the pile, than the archer's actual draw. The danger of overdrawing, in that the arrow at the loose gets set inside the bow, to its own certain destruction and to the bow's and the archer's infinite risk, is very considerable. Nothing can be gained by the violation of this rule. In cases where a beginner may be likely to overdraw, a string of the correct length to be drawn may be tied between the bow string and the handle of the bow, which will effectually prevent such an occurrence.

It is believed that all archers, good, bad, and indifferent, are (more or less) constantly subject to one failing, namely, that in completing the draw, after the aim is taken, a slightly different line to that occupied by the arrow (if correctly aimed) is taken, instead of making the line of finish (as they should do) an exact continuation of the arrow's axis, dropping the right hand, or letting it incline to the right, or both; the effect being to cast the arrow out of the direction it had indicated, and by means of which the aim had been calculated.

Here nothing but the most minute attention and constant practice will save the archer; but he must be prepared for partic.i.p.ation in this common failing, and it is one of which he will be often quite unconscious, though the cause of his frequently missing the target. The very best archer needs to bear constantly in mind the necessary avoidance of this fault; for, however skilful he may be, however experienced and practised a shot, he may be quite sure that it is one into which he will be constantly in danger of falling. Failure in wind is frequently caused more by this failing than by the effect of the wind itself; for instance, the aim, perhaps, is designedly taken so as to make some allowance for a side-wind, and then the loose is delivered as if no allowance had been made. The difficulty all experience in shooting correctly on a ground where the distant level is not horizontal is more or less connected with this dangerous failing. Here, though the archer be perfectly aware that the distance slopes, however slightly, one way or the other to the correct horizon, yet at the instant of the loose he will unconsciously overlook this, and expect to have his unfortunate arrow travel in a plane vertical to the mock horizon instead of in a really vertical plane such as it must travel in, unless diverted from it by wind. Another way of accounting for this universal failing is that there is an unconscious detection of error at the last moment, and a convulsive attempt to correct this error before the completion of the loose by altering the line of the loose. Every archer is strongly advised, when he detects an error in the aim at the last moment that cannot be corrected before the discharge except in the action of the loose, to take down his arrow and begin the shooting of it afresh. The capacity to do this, when needful, is an excellent test of nerve.

As far as possible the right hand must always be drawn identically to the same point for all kinds of target-practice, whatever the distance to be shot may be. To the left arm alone should be left the delicate task of the elevation or depression necessary when a longer or a shorter distance from the target is adopted. It will be obvious that when the left hand is, according to this rule, higher or lower for the purpose of shooting a longer or shorter distance the relative positions of the two hands must vary from a greater to a less divergence from an horizontal level between them, and this leads to a most important consideration in the action of drawing, namely, the position of the right elbow. This, being necessarily out of the archer's sight whilst aiming, is too frequently forgotten, and a faulty weak position of the elbow is much more easily contracted than cured. Treated as a mechanical contrivance for drawing up an arrow, the only correct position of the right elbow with reference to the arrow is that the arrow's axis should pa.s.s through the point of the bent elbow, and in this position only can the archer apply his full strength. Yet, probably from the fact that the elbow must pa.s.s through positions of less advantage in the course of drawing before the full draw is reached, it will be observed that many archers at the loose have the elbow below the level of the arrow's axis; and not a few have the elbow projecting forwards from the same axis. These faults are believed to be the causes of the constant and otherwise unaccountable, but most frequent, downfall of successful archers, generally attributed to the failure of nerve. Yet the nerves cannot certainly be altogether at fault, for the same archer, whose arrow takes its flight into its own hands, when applied to target practice, can steadily draw and hold the same arrow when it is not to be shot. It can doubtless be observed that in such cases the arrow in the one case is drawn up with a faulty wavering of the elbow, whilst in the other the elbow is brought steadily into correct position. When a position of the elbow higher than the axis of the arrow comes to be considered, it appears to partake of the nature of an exaggerated virtue rather than a fault; is an a.s.sistance in the earlier processes of drawing; and, when in excess though not graceful, will probably cure itself. Much the same may be said of the much less frequent fault of drawing the right elbow into a position further back than the axis of the arrow. This can only be brought about by overdrawing, and is seldom observable except in beginners who are anxious 'to do all they know' with too long an arrow.

The treatment of the elbow of the bow-arm remains to be considered. Here trouble is more likely to arise with beginners than in an archer's after-career. If a beginner, in obedience to the instructions of Waring and the older masters of the craft, hold out the bow-arm 'as straight as possible' i.e. locked tight at the elbow, a sprain difficult to cure may not unlikely be the result, and, at any rate, a vast deal of unnecessary arm or armguard thras.h.i.+ng. On the other hand, a bent bow-arm, such as may appear to be recommended in the earlier editions of this work, will lead to but poor results if a bow equal to the archer's power be used.

Here again the best advice that can be given is to hit off the happy mean between the too rigid arm and that which is too slack. Let the bow-arm be straightened naturally as the strain of the loosing hand is applied to it, and by careful drill each archer will arrive at a method of rendering the recoil of the bow string harmless to the course of the arrow as well as to a naked wrist, which, it is now almost universally admitted, need not be brought into contact with the armguard.

A marked variation of the method of drawing has occasionally been adopted, with considerable success, with weapons of light calibre. The nocked arrow is placed horizontally a little below the shoulder-level.

The draw then commences with the extension of the bow-arm, whilst the right hand and elbow take the position for loosing, the arrow being kept all the time on the line of aim.

One not altogether uncommon distortion must be mentioned for careful avoidance. This consists of a stiffening of the right wrist, with the hand bent backwards, at the time the fingers are applied to the bowstring. This antic of course cripples considerably the draw. The action of the wrist should be quite free and unconstrained until the commencement of the draw, and during the draw the back of the hand should be kept as nearly as possible in the same line as the forearm.

The left shoulder requires most careful attention. It must not be allowed to rise too high when the bow is drawn, nor to shrink inwards, as it will sometimes do with beginners when using bows that are too strong. Moreover, this shoulder must be kept so close to the line between the bow and the right shoulder that it shall project neither before nor behind that line.

FOOTNOTE:

[3] By 'drawing the arrow home' the full length of the arrow is not necessarily intended, but so much of its length as each archer _should_ draw.

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