Learn to Avoid Archer’s Elbow | Archery Injury | 60X

Archery, while generally one of the safest sports around, is not without injury. As long as you’re practicing recommended safety (such as not walking between an archer and a target), a potential archery injury will generally be limited to minor ailments. Learn how to avoid these injuries with 60X.

Common Injuries and How to Avoid Them

String Slap

A string slap is by far the most widely experienced injury. Anyone who’s shot a bow more than a couple of times knows what this feels like. While it may not be life-threatening, it is rather inconvenient

The most sensible way to avoid string slap is to buy yourself an arm guard. An arm guard won’t stop the string from coming into contact with your arm completely but it absorbs the impact so you do not get hurt.

If you want to avoid the string ever hitting your arm at all then you need to address the root cause. More often than not, the cause is bad form. You want to ensure that you rotate your elbow out correctly without also rotating your wrist or shoulder on your bow arm. You also need to ensure that your standing posture is correct and all your bones from the bow arm, through your back and draw arm, are aligned.

Make sure you keep a light grip on the bow too. Over-gripping will force your arm or wrist in, and you’ll be well lined up for a good slap. For more in-depth advice on your form,  check this out.

Archer’s Elbow

When it comes to archery injuries, archer’s elbow is fairly common. It is a form of tendonitis in the elbow that generally occurs due to repetitive and unnecessary strain on the elbow. This added stress is commonly due to bad form or overbowing (when your bow's draw weight is higher than what you should be handling).

To avoid archer’s elbow, you need to check your form. If you are not correctly transferring the bow weight into your back, your elbows are trying to draw and hold more weight than they are designed to. Make sure your alignment is on point, you offload correctly, and you never hold the draw with your arms or shoulders.

You also need to take draw weight into consideration. If you’re pulling more weight than your body can reasonably handle, you are setting yourself up for injury as well as poor performance. If you think the weight may be too much, drop to a lighter bow and work your way up.

Blisters

Blisters are a slightly less common archery injury but still happen frequently enough to warrant mentioning. If your draw is off, or your fingers don’t harden in time, you may get blisters due to excessive contact with strings.

A sure-fire way to avoid this is a good set of archery gloves, but you also need to ensure you have the correct and  most suitable string. You may also want to check your elbow height when you draw. If it’s too high, your fingers curve in more, extending their contact with your string even after release.

The Right Technique Goes a Long Way

As you can see, even the most common archery injury can definitely be avoided quite easily with the right equipment, and most importantly, good form. If your technique is on point, you shouldn’t have a problem.

At 60X Custom Strings, we pride ourselves on creating premium custom strings, as well as keeping you up to date on everything relevant in the world of archery. For more tips and advice like this, be sure to follow our  blog, and subscribe to our newsletter.