Posts Tagged ‘Competitive Archery’

This ebook, An Alexander Technique Approach to Competitive Archery, is published on this website in a PDF format. It is very detailed and practical, and it will give you the physical tools you need to take the limits off of your ability to create an extraordinarily accurate archery technique.
This ebook is also for sale on all AMAZON websites in a KINDLE format.
Located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A. (MOVEMENT THERAPY)

Primary Control is the basis of organized, coordinated, and accurate archery in the Alexander Technique. When an archer is releasing an arrow with the most organized, elegant, and powerful movement possible, then the head is leading the archer’s spine upward into lengthening, as the arms and fingers move from a decompressed, vertically balanced, and aligned spine.

This means that all of the nerves that radiate from the spinal cord have no pressure on them. So, the nerves can send the signals from the brain for movement and/or muscular support, as you shoot the arrow, without being slowed down by the vertebrae and muscles pinching the nerves.

The brain and spinal cord always organize the movement that the body produces, but when the Primary Control is interfered with by muscular tension and compression and poor posture, then that organization is poor organization. THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE IS ALL ABOUT THE QUALITY OF AN ARCHER’S POSTURE AND TECHNIQUE.

The Alexander Technique recognizes that a huge amount of wear and tear and physical pain in archery is caused by how you use your body, not by how powerful the bow is and/or how long you practice.

The assumption in the Alexander Technique is that we are born with an innate ability to move with beautiful Primary Control, and that babies crawl with the head leading a lengthening spine naturally, given that the baby is healthy in a healthy environment.

If you were to observe a 1,000 archers shooting arrows, you’d be hard put to see one archer with beautiful Primary Control (given that none of them had done any Alexander Technique work). What does doing archery without a compromised Primary Control look like?

The archer stands fully upright with a completely mobile body (not trying to stand straight). The archer’s neck is free and the archer is aware that the head is leading a lengthening spine upward, which means that the archer is able to see the bull’s eye, as the head continues to lead a lengthening spine upward.

This means that the archer is completely engaged in competing without being pulled downward. This fully upward mobile posture balancing on the free legs and grounded feet, gives the shoulders and arms of the archer a balanced torso to float on, so that the archer can effortlessly generate the power and accuracy, without joint compression, that he or she wants from the bow.

When the archer’s shoulders are floating on a fully upright torso, then the shoulder girdle is free to back up the arms and hands as the archer pulls the bow string, as the shoulder girdle doesn’t have to tense up to support itself.

When the archer’s body is organized by the Primary Control, then the archer is free to place all of his or her awareness on an archery technique that isn’t being compromised by a compromised Primary Control. In other words, if the archer’s body is collapsed or over-tense with poor head/neck/spine organization, then the pure specific archery technique of the archer can never be what it would be, since it is not backed up by a balanced body.

WHEN THE FOUNDATION OF COORDINATED ELEGANT HUMAN MOVEMENT IS COMPROMISED, THEN THE SECONDARY TECHNIQUE OF A SPECIALIZED ACTIVITY, LIKE ARCHERY, WILL NEVER BE AS EFFORTLESS OR AS ACCURATE AS IT COULD BE.