The Archery Project

It’s Not the Bow. It’s You. (And How to Fix It) | FRIDAY KILL NOTES

• Zakk Plocica • Season 1 • Episode 31

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A pricier bow won’t fix a shaky shot, and that’s exactly where we go today. We unpack why fundamentals—not accessories—decide whether your arrows fly clean or drift off, and we break the process into three pillars you can master: a torque-free grip, a repeatable anchor tied to proper draw length, and a calm, shot execution that kills target panic instead of feeding it. Zakk brings shop-floor experience to common problems like white-knuckling the riser, overlong draw lengths that fake consistency at 20 yards, and the classic karate-chop trigger that ruins groups once you stretch to 40 and beyond.

We get practical fast. You’ll learn how to seat the grip along the lifeline at a 45-degree hand angle, relax the fingers while keeping pressure consistent, and use the “tip of the nose, corner of the mouth” cue to build a stable anchor. We walk through starting draw length from wingspan/2.5, then show how posture reveals whether you’re too long or too short. For release execution, we cover deep trigger placement around the second knuckle, keeping the rear elbow in line, and pulling through the shot for a true surprise break. We also talk about training with a hinge to reset timing habits, using distance to expose flaws, and filming your shot cycle to catch what you can’t feel.

If your bow is tuned but your groups won’t tighten, this is the blueprint to turn confusion into control. Expect cleaner paper tears, steadier pins, and confidence that holds up in trees, on uneven ground, and across 3D courses. Invest in your form, build your woodsmanship, and let the gear serve your process—not the other way around. If this helped, follow the show, share it with a friend who’s chasing gadgets, and leave a quick review with the one fundamental you’re working on next.

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Zakk Plocica:

Your $2,000 bow will not fix your $2 shot process. That's what we're talking about today, right? Guys chasing the most expensive gear, but have not mastered the fundamentals. So if you're somebody that thinks adding that new accessory, that new piece of gear is going to fix your issues. I'm sorry to be the bear of bad news, but it's not, right? You have to master the fundamentals when it comes to archery. So thanks for joining me today on the Archery Project. I am your host, Zach Placeika, and that's what we're talking about today. You know, chasing the next piece of gear in order to what you think is going to improve your capability behind your bow, right? Bow hunting is hard, it's difficult. Archery is extremely difficult. And you have to master the fundamentals in order to be good with the bow. We see guys all the time that come in and they're like, I think I've got it. I shoot a gun. I understand how this works. And it's not quite the same, right? There's a lot of variables that affect the output of that bow. And the fundamentals have got to be mastered if you're going to be good at shooting your bow, right? Um gear does not increase your capability in the woods. Uh, I think there's an illusion of progress for most people when it comes to that, right? They see maybe if I just add this piece of equipment, it's going to make my bow shoot better or make me more capable in the woods when that's not the case, right? Your fundamentals behind the bow and your woodsmanship skills are the ultimate defining factors in whether you are successful or not, or whether you are a good archer or a good bow hunter. And I think the archer, the individual behind the riser is the weapon, right? The bow just delivers the results. So you have to be good with that bow in order, and good behind that bow in order to be successful. And there's some fundamentals that you need to master, and these are the key fundamentals that I see the biggest issues with within our shop, right? People coming in, and these are from people who've been doing this a long time to your new archers or your new bow hunters. And there's, I think, three key things that we see, right? So let's assume that your bow is set up, right? You've gone to your shop, you've come to our shop at Extreme Outfitters, the bow is tuned, it's timed, everything's leveled, the bow is set up as it should be. I got something in my eye. Your arrows are built specifically for that bow, right? Everything's consistent. The bow is set up as it should and performing as it should. And you get a couple, what we do here is we get a couple of our guys to shoot the bow. We put it through paper and make sure it's performing correctly. And then you come in and you shoot the bow. And you can't get it to tear through paper correctly, and then you can't get it to group at 20, haven't bid 40 yards to save your life. And you're like, there's something wrong with the bow. Something's there's an issue with it. Turns out it's not the bow, it's you, it's the person behind it. And there's a couple things that you haven't mastered. And the first one, the biggest issue that um I think people have with shooting a bow is the grip. The grip is hard for people to, especially new shooters, to comprehend, right? Because usually it comes with a little bit of fear, right? They're they death grip the riser, they're white knuckling it. So what happens as soon as you squeeze that riser and you death grip it, you get what's called hand torque, induced hand torque into the riser, which when you look up at your string, the way it tracks on your cam, it's not perfectly in line. So what does that do? That makes that arrow come out of the bow weird. And you're never going to get to shoot a bullet hole through paper if you can't grip the bow correctly. And we can only tune a bow to somebody's grip to a certain extent, right? Yes, the bow's got to be turned to the individual, but the individual still has got to grip a bow correctly and consistently. And what happens is they're unable to do it, right? They're either their grip is inconsistent. They grip too high once, they grip too low, they death grip it, they white knuckle it. They're unable to grip it consistently. And what happens, we see, like I said, is the string doesn't track correctly, you get weird arrow flight. And then a lot of people end up hitting their forearms and it leaves a nasty wealth and a bad taste in your mouth if you're a new archer. It hurts and it wrecks your consistency when it comes to shooting that bow. So you've got to be able to index that grip repeatedly. Archery is all about repeatability and consistency. You have to do the same thing the same way every time in order to get consistent, accurate results. If you don't, your groups open up, your arrows are all over the place, and you never hit what you're aiming at, especially as we open up the distance. The greater the distance, the better the input have to be in the bow. If there's inconsistencies at distance, your error is amplified. So you got to be able to grip the bow correctly. And whenever you grip the bow, the way we teach people is there's a lifeline in the palm of your hand, right? It runs right down there, right under your meat under your thumb. What we tell people to do is that grip needs to set right in there. So instead of death gripping your riser, you take, if you hold your hand up and then turn it at a 45 and relax those fingers, that's how the grip should be on the bow. You should still be able to move your fingers on the front of that riser. They shouldn't be so stiff and rigid that you can't move them. At full draw, I can still move my fingers. Typically, they're touching just the front of the riser, just slightly, just a little bit of pressure, depending on the bow. But you've got to find what works for you. The biggest issue is people are afraid or they just they just don't understand and they grip that riser too hard. You need to eliminate that. You need to relax your grip a little bit and make sure it's consistent and there's consistent pressure on the grip itself, right? That's the biggest, the biggest issue I see, especially with our new guys that get behind the bow, is the grip. It's very hard. It takes work, it takes effort, but once you figure it out, your shot will improve dramatically. The next issue is I think the second biggest issue is the anchor point. And anchor point is kind of hard to teach sometimes. So, like your grip, your anchor point has got to be consistent, right? That's what the whole point of the anchor point is. Whenever that bow draws back and it rolls over, it's got to be on your face in the same spot over and over again. That's why we have a peep. You're able to look through that peep, it lines up with your sight, you're able to line up your pins on your target and you get consistency. Well, with the anchor point, the anchor point comes into play with the draw length of the bow. The draw length has got to be correctly set for you so that you can order or excuse me, anchor correctly. Right. So to get a draw length, your starting point is typically your wingspan divided by two and a half. That gives us our starting point for our draw length. Once we set the draw length in, we go, we have you draw the bow back and we have you anchor. And there's a couple different ways you can anchor depending on the release style that you use. So, for example, with a wrist release, right? The way I like to anchor is I'll take and I'll use my knuckle, I'll put it behind my jaw, and that's where my anchor point is. So that string on the shooter should look like it's touching just the tip of the nose and the corner of your mouth. It makes a nice little triangle right there. It's not so far back that it's back behind your jaw. It's the middle of your face. Because what happens with that is you end up putting too much facial pressure on that string because it's so far back, right? Facial pressure impacts the flight of the arrow. If you're pushing into that string, it pushes that arrow out of alignment. That arrow is going to come off of the string a little bit weird. So you need to make sure that you're able to get your anchor point set correctly. It's a critical aspect of shooting a bow and shooting a bow accurately. Like I said, if you're using an index style release, you can use that knuckle, you can put it right behind your jaw, or you can take and cup your jaw with your release and have that string come right at the tip of the nose corner of your mouth. Either of those, I think, is fine. What we do, what we do see is some people like to game their draw length, right? Which I'm not a big fan of. They are able to anchor consistently, but they over their draw length ends up being too long. So what they do is they put their thumb at the back of their neck, that draw length is way too far back. Um, and we notice, yeah, you can shoot 20 or 30 yards pretty consistently, but as the the distance opens up, you have a lot more inconsistencies with it. So I would encourage you if you're using a wrist release, use that knuckle, put it behind your jaw, grab the corner of your mouth or your jaw, excuse me, and then make sure that string, when you draw it back, comes just to the tip of the nose, the corner of your mouth, and that arrow is sitting right under that bottom lip, right? Right in that gap, kind of midway between your chin and your lip. And that's a good anchor point because you're not going to put too much facial pressure in that that string. That bow is not too long for you. Because again, if a draw length is too long, you're gonna smack your forearm too. We see that all the time. And then it's if the draw length is too long, it's hard to consistently grip the bow. Same thing with the draw length is too short, right? This comes down to this affects your anchor point as well. If a draw length is too short, what happens we see is people suck up their shoulder, right? They're crunched up, their elbows bent. It's hard to be consistent that way, right? You're utilizing a lot more muscle, you become unstable. It's hard to shoot the bow, right? So the goal with your draw length and to have a consistent anchor point is you need this shoulder down and out, this lat flared out, and that arm pushed out, not overextended, but just out naturally, out in front of you and not sucking up towards your jaw, right? We want, whenever you, as the archer, we're setting you up, you should be able to stand up nice and straight, very proud posture. You should be able to draw that bow straight back, come to anchor, which is tip of the nose corner of your mouth, with that shoulder down and out away from your jaw, and then anchor accordingly based off the release you're using. And that is going to make you shoot much more consistently. It's critical. If you're shooting a handheld release, whether it's a hinge, a thumb button, a back tension release, the way I like to do it is I'll take my two fingers here, my index finger and my middle finger, and I will split my jaw on my face. And that gives me virtually the same anchor point as if I go to a wrist release and I use this knuckle and put it behind my jaw, it's almost um perfectly consistent. I don't have to make any adjustments as far as my peep and everything goes. So the other thing with your anchor point and your draw length is you need to make sure you're not ducking your head, right? If your draw length's too short and you really got to duck your head into your peep site, you know, maybe your one your peep side is too low or your um draw length is too short. So those are things you need to consider, and those are things I would highly recommend that you fix before you start chasing new gear, right? Make sure that bow is set up correctly. So make sure you're gripping the bow correctly, make sure your draw length is set to the proper length for you. Again, starting with your wingspan divided by two and a half, start there. That's a starting point. You may have to shorten it or lengthen it based off the bow itself. So, and the actual uh release aid that you're shooting. So make sure you get that anchor point dialed in. If your anchor point is inconsistent, it's up, it's down, it's too far in front of you, it's too far back, you're constantly back and forth, you're never going to be able to shoot that bow correctly. It's critical. And that bow will never shoot through paper, and you'll always blame the bow when it's actually the individual behind the bow. Make sure it is set up correctly to you. And this does take time, right? You cannot rush this. That's why it's critical you go to a bow shop or a pro shop with text behind the counter that can help you in this process. That's what we do. We set you up correctly so that you are able to be successful with your bow. You're comfortable with your bow and you're confident with your bow. And when it comes to grip, we show you how to grip the bow. Anchor point, we make sure we set that draw length correctly for you and make sure you are anchoring correctly. They are critical in order for you to be able to shoot that bow. And then finally, it's a release execution. And again, this is difficult for a lot of people. I've really struggled with this. Release execution is incredibly important. Again, especially as you shoot more and you shoot more distance, right? If you're shooting those long shots because you like going to total archery challenge or you just like shooting distance, being able to execute a shot correctly is important, right? Everything you do, every input into that bow has a direct output, whether it's good or bad. So if you have good inputs, you're gonna have consistent good outputs. If you have bad inputs, you're gonna have bad outputs, right? It's gonna have an negative impact on the flight of your arrow and how it leaves that string and comes out of that bow. So with release um execution, what we see a lot of people, um, again, new archers in particular, or people you who have even developed bad habits over the year, who have a hard time coming to terms with them or with that, is they take and they'll do everything right, they'll get in the bow, they'll anchor correctly, they'll grip the bow correctly, they'll come back, they'll draw the bow, and they'll one, either if it's a wrist release, they'll they'll reach for the actual trigger, right? So they'll take just the tip of their fingers on the release and they're reaching for it. And what happens is they kind of start to ride that bow forward. So that bow or that string starts to go forward before the bow even goes off. So it throws that arrow weird if you're not getting the proper flight out of it. The other thing that happens with that is people they punch the trigger. It's very easy to do with a wrist release or an index style release, right? You go, you get in, you get anchored, you put your finger up here. I see guys with a whole hand and they karate chop that trigger. And yeah, it's fine up close, right? But again, as you start to open up the distance, you'll notice a lot more inconsistencies. And what happens to a lot of people is they start to develop a target panic, right? Their sight gets on, they're they get their um their pin on the target and wham, they hit that trigger. And there's so much inconsistency that comes with that. So it's hard to fix, it's difficult, and it does take time to learn, and it can be frustrating, but sometimes you've got to go backwards a little bit in order to move to that next level or to become more proficient, right? We got to get rid of those bad habits or eliminate those bad habits before we even develop them. So, release execution, it's important. What you need to do, especially with a wrist style release, is you need to be able to get nice and deep in that trigger. This is how we teach all of the shooters that come through here. That trigger, I like to get nice and deep almost to that second knuckle. So I am very, very deep wrapped around that trigger because what I want to do is I want to execute that shot using back tension. Not everyone agrees with this, but I would say the guys that are very good shooters and the guys who are good at coaching this, this is kind of how they teach it. This is where we get it from, right? We want to get nice and deep in that trigger and we want that elbow nice and high, and we want our entire body in line, right? We don't want to be chicken winged out to the side, plucking that string away from our face, because again, that's a bad input. You're gonna have a bad output. Everything needs to be in line. That elbow needs to be high, that finger should be wrapped nice and deep around that trigger. And you are going to start, you're gonna put your pin on target and you are gonna start pulling through that shot, right? Utilizing back tension, using those back muscles. And that shot should break and should surprise you. The better you get at that, the more consistent you become, the less target panic you develop, right? There's some good ways to um to really teach the the shot process or shot execution to with different release aids, right? I like to shoot a hinge. A hinge is based is fires off of rotation, right? There's no button to hit. It's really helped me improve my shot process and helped me to pull through my shots. Good follow through, utilizing back tension. It's made a world of difference. And it's something that's that can be practiced in the offseason. That's why we encourage you to shoot your bow all year, right? There's a lot of fun things to do. Go to total archery challenges and challenge yourself. Go shoot 3D events, challenge yourself. That's the great thing about archery, is you can go through and redevelop these skills, right? But it does take practice. I can tell you, whenever you put your bow down for extended periods of time, whether it's a week, a couple weeks, a couple months, your form and technique will break down very, very quickly. A bow requires you to constantly take time and spend time behind it in order to shoot it proficiently. There are so many variables that impact how that bow performs and they're based off you, right? We assume that the bow and everything is set up correctly. If you have grip the bad poor, grip the bow poorly, if you have a bad anchor point, an inconsistent anchor point, or you have poor shot execution, that bow is never going to perform up to the standard that it that it should or the capability that it should. We see it all the time with guys that come through here, right? And all bows are different, right? If you're somebody that shoots multiple bows, different brands especially, you need to be aware of that because all grips are different. Those can impact how you shoot that bow. So I would encourage you to pick your bow up, shoot it often, uh, and be familiar with it so that whenever it comes time to get in a tree, shoot weird angles, you know exactly how to shoot that bow correctly. And it's second nature, right? You don't got to go through and think about every little aspect of it, right? The way you grip that bow or index that bow, the way you draw that anchor point, it's always there. It's important, it's going to make your archery experience that much better. Those are some of the major issues that we see. So if there's anything you can do to improve your capability behind the bow, it's one, improve your grip, make sure you're gripping the bow correctly. Two, it's your anchor point. Make sure that bow is set up correctly. The draw length is correct, and you are anchoring as you should, right? The best way to teach it, tip of the nose, corner your mouth with that string. Make sure that it is not so far back, it's near your ear, or it's so short that you have to dip your head into it or suck your shoulder up. You get your draw length, you start by dividing your wingspan by two and a half. So that's your starting point, adjust from there as needed. And then finally, release execution. This is critical. Make sure you are working to develop a good shot execution utilizing back tension, whatever the release is that you are using. Um, this is just going to help eliminate one inconsistencies, two, target panic. So whether you go to a back tension release, you go to a hinge style release, or you just work on proper execution utilizing the release you've got, it's important. It's going to make you a better archer, a more consistent and a more accurate archer. Remember, archery is all about repeatability and consistency. You have to do the same thing the same way every time in order to be good and accurate with that bow. So that's what I would challenge you with this week. Film your shot process, right? Film your shot cycle. Look at it, dissect it, see what you're doing wrong. You don't have to post it on social media. You can do it just for yourself. Look at it, see where you're weak at, and then seek out some resources to help you improve your shot process, right? John Dudley has the knock-on series, which is fantastic, which takes you through all of the fundamentals from your grip to your stance to your anchor point to your front shoulder to shot execution, all of it. There's a great, lot of great resources out there. Reach out to people who are good shooters, find a coach, find somebody that'll help you work through any of the areas that you struggle with. Or if you're brave enough, record your shot, your shot cycle, your shot process, put it on your social media account and ask for somebody for guys to critique you and help you out. That could be hit or miss because there's a lot of people that think they're better than what they are, and or they'll just bash you, uh, depending on where you uh post that video. But it can be helpful as well if you've got if you're in some good groups or surrounded by some good people who can give you some quality input. Um, yeah, that's it. Take your time, develop your shot process, become a better shooter, become better in the woods. Same thing, craft or hone those woodsmanship skills. If you're a bow hunter, get out there, spend time in the woods, develop them. Those are all more important than any fancy piece of gear that you could ever invest in. Invest in yourself. You will become a better archer. So that's it, my friends. Thanks for listening on this Friday kill notes. Um, drop some comments, uh, give me some feedback. Let me know where you struggle the most when it comes to shooting your bow, right? Mine has been shot execution. That's my biggest issue that I continue to work through. That's why I shoot a hinge release or a back tension release in the offseason for the most point. So drop some comments and let me know where you struggle or any advice that you've got for new shooters in order to improve their shot process or their performance behind the behind the bow as they are slowly uh venturing into the archery journey. So thanks for listening, guys. As always, uh be safe this weekend, and I will see you guys in the next episode of the Archery Project.