Archery

Continuing from seating and settling the shoulder, I was pouring through Gao Yin’s book (the English translation published as “The Way of Archery”).

It dawned on me that “sinking the elbow” (yijinjing, taijiquan) and “dropping the elbow” (archery) do not quite meant the same thing.

In archery, the elbow drops straight down by following the gravitational force to the planetary surface, in order to achieve a straight expanding release.

Sinking the elbows, on the other hand, is something else. I’m not entirely clear on that, but somehow I muddled “dropping the elbow” to mean having it sink through along the body. That may or may not produce the geometry for an expanding release.

The arrows seem to come out straighter, and it was much easier to learn to aim, at least on the gaozhen. We’ll see if this improves anything at the range.