The Old Archers Thumb Trick

Pretend for a moment you are used to standing up and aiming at something and then one day you decide to try shooting while sitting down or kneeling or even sitting cross-legged. Suddenly the angle of the ground to the target has shifted and it confuses you as to where to aim.

You could shoot... but if you've never shot from a kneeling or sitting position before then you could miss easily. It really does take practice and experience to learn how to shoot from sitting / kneeling positions with a greater degree of accuracy.

Fortunately there is an old archers trick for how to adjust your aim and make sure you are still aiming at the correct spot.

#1. While standing use your thumb to measure the distance between the center of your target and where you would normally aim off the tip of your arrow. Use the wrinkles and marks on the sides of your thumb to measure the distance. (This is where having a wrinkly old thumb is arguably better.)

#2. Sit down or kneel and then use your thumb again, remembering the same spot on the side of your thumb to measure the distance between the target and your aiming point.

#3. Now that you have a better idea of where to aim you can use that point of reference to do your first shot with little worry of missing.

Note - If you don't use the traditional method of aiming off the arrowhead and instead use the Gap Shooting method of aiming then you don't really have to worry about this problem. Using Gap Shooting you can just aim using that method and your shot will still be accurate.\

If you don't know how to Gap Shoot or want to improve your aiming techniques you can always sign up for archery lessons in Toronto.

In other news a friend wore the shirt below to the archery range and I decided to get a photo of it. Happy Shooting!