March 10, 2006

from S.N. of England:

"Dear Coach Lee,
 
I hope that you are well and enjoying your move to the USA.
 
It was good to see you again and listen to your talk on B.E.S.T. I have been looking over the notes I made from your talk.
 
I hope that you do not mind me asking.
 
One of the points you made was that you wished to see the draw elbow, beyond the centre line of the arrow. This seems to break the line of force from the elbow to the fingers on the string. It was my understanding that the elbow joint should be directly behind the arrow - taking into account body proportions. This would seem to give more consistency if you use the analogy of the fingers are like hooks, attached by chains to the elbow.
 
Thank you for your time."

We have just added Step 9 - Aiming and Expansion to our website, which I would hope will answer your question more fully.
 
We must get away from the notion that expansion or the line of force as you call it, is just a linear movement and takes place only in a linear direction with the arrow. Once we can fully understand that this expansion is not just a linear movement of push and/or pull, but more a result of a big circular movement, which involves the scapulae to back bone (small movement); the chest bones connecting with the chest joint (bigger movement) and the draw and bow arms (biggest movement). This is the Ratio of Movement (Ratio of Circular Movement or ROCM). This is why we advise that the drawing elbow/arm has to go "beyond line" as part of the circular movement. However, the draw fingers must remain in a straight line as much as possible. Because of the better biomechanical position of the scapulae it will be easier to execute a good shot and even on potentially "weaker" shots there is a mechanically built-in margin for error. On a properly executed shot both the draw and bow arm will move behind on release.
 
[Update: 09/04/2014] Please note that Step 9 – Aiming and Expansion has been renamed to 10 - Expansion on this website, under KSL Shot Cycle.