The Archers Paradox
What is it?
Have you ever heard the term “Straight as an arrow”? Well, this isn’t exactly accurate. Arrows don’t exactly fly straight, they twist and bend as they fly. When you draw back and release your bowstring the large force of kinetic energy stored in the limbs gets transferred into the arrow and this force causes the spine of the arrow to start bending as it gets pushed forward.
The archer’s paradox is this bending of the arrow around the bow as it is being loosed before it straightens out. At the moment the arrow is loosed from full draw, it will begin to bend in towards the bow and then with a correctly spined arrow it will bend back again to its starting point and continue forward, flexing back and forth as it travels along its path to the target while its fletching and stiffness works to straighten the spine of the arrow.
So what is arrow spine?
Pro Tip: You never fire an arrow, you loose or …show more content…
If you are shooting with a compound bow then this won’t affect you as much, there is still some flex on the arrow with a compound but this is greatly reduced although an incorrectly spined arrow will still not fly where you want it. Compound archers use a release aid to loose their arrows, traditional and recurve archers use their fingers to loose their arrows. The fingers creates a sideways motion on the string that causes the arrow to bend on release. This motion doesn’t allow the string to move forward in a truly straight line, it moves slightly out to the side. A release aid on the other hand has a lot less contact with the bow string than fingers so it doesn’t affect the forward motion of the string on release as heavily, allowing the sting to move in a completely straight line thus not causing the same heavy bending of the arrow. Recurve shooters to compensate for this using what’s called a plunger or cushion button. This button uses a spring to dampen the bend of the arrow into the bow keeping it straighter on
What is it?
Have you ever heard the term “Straight as an arrow”? Well, this isn’t exactly accurate. Arrows don’t exactly fly straight, they twist and bend as they fly. When you draw back and release your bowstring the large force of kinetic energy stored in the limbs gets transferred into the arrow and this force causes the spine of the arrow to start bending as it gets pushed forward.
The archer’s paradox is this bending of the arrow around the bow as it is being loosed before it straightens out. At the moment the arrow is loosed from full draw, it will begin to bend in towards the bow and then with a correctly spined arrow it will bend back again to its starting point and continue forward, flexing back and forth as it travels along its path to the target while its fletching and stiffness works to straighten the spine of the arrow.
So what is arrow spine?
Pro Tip: You never fire an arrow, you loose or …show more content…
If you are shooting with a compound bow then this won’t affect you as much, there is still some flex on the arrow with a compound but this is greatly reduced although an incorrectly spined arrow will still not fly where you want it. Compound archers use a release aid to loose their arrows, traditional and recurve archers use their fingers to loose their arrows. The fingers creates a sideways motion on the string that causes the arrow to bend on release. This motion doesn’t allow the string to move forward in a truly straight line, it moves slightly out to the side. A release aid on the other hand has a lot less contact with the bow string than fingers so it doesn’t affect the forward motion of the string on release as heavily, allowing the sting to move in a completely straight line thus not causing the same heavy bending of the arrow. Recurve shooters to compensate for this using what’s called a plunger or cushion button. This button uses a spring to dampen the bend of the arrow into the bow keeping it straighter on