Then Merida steps up and shows us how it’s done. When the king screams at him, his startled reaction inadvertently compensates for his form flaws his plucking release would have made the arrow go to the left, but his frightened jump pushed the arrow to the right, resulting in the bulls-eye hit that he couldn’t repeat if he tried a thousand times. His fingers are clamped tightly around the end of the arrow the pressure on the string causes it to turn and the arrow turns with it, which is why it moves away from the bow. 3, the goofy-looking kid, has a problem with pinching. Naturally his arrow responds by going to the right.Īrcher No. (“Anchoring” means touching the hand against the face so that every shot is made the same way.) When he releases the string, he does so by pulling his hand (and the string) to the left as he forcefully throws open his fingers. 2, the left-hander, has a serious plucking problem and a lot of extraneous movement a big dramatic draw with a turn of the head, and no anchor.

He’s also got his bow arm bent at the elbow, which is called “collapsing.” By all rights, his arrow should have hit the dirt about 10 feet in front of the target.Īrcher No. 1 does what I call “the chicken wing.” We can’t really see it because we watch him from the back, but you can tell that he’s got his arm folded up like a chicken wing, doing all the work with his hand, wrist and forearm, not using his considerable back muscles at all. Let’s talk about the three suitors shown in the clip first.Īrcher No. Even better, her archery form is perfect.

First off, Merida - Brave‘s redheaded archer - is a great character, and they show us that right away.

Brave merida bow and arrow