I have been canting my bow ever since I started shooting a longbow 25 years ago. When I shot recurve and compound before that, I held the bow vertical. I can’t even imagine doing that now. It seems so foreign. But that’s how the coaches teach my son to shoot a bare recurve at 4H Shooting Sports. I have never interfered with their method. I just let the coaches do their job. But I plan to get him into hunting in a couple of years and would like to know how to go about this. Should I continue the hands-off approach, or teach him how to cant?

No hands off. You teach him please! No strict rules, he will find his groove. Help him along the way. Fundamentals already there?

You're his coach in life and hunting, your confidence and teaching will go a long way over any 4-H programs or any of the many "expert" following replies to your thread on this.

Take note, plenty on here who look to advice...way too many are given the advice of certain individuals/methods and wind up frustrated ..not where they could have been had they followed their own innate hidden talents and instincts! I could list several instances ...not gonna do that.

Canting the bow is something natural to shooting...don't allow it to be taken away by those coaching. The degree of canting will come with shooting hundreds of shots at different ranges.

You're his best coach...teach him.what you know.

JMO: If he is anchoring under his eyeball so that he can look through the string as kind of a rear sight, let him be exactly as he is.

I used to shoot that way, hunt that way, and never found it to be a problem.

These days, I anchor a bit further outboard on my face, so if I don’t cant, I can’t get the arrow under my eyeball; which means I’m always triangulating the shot, which is not good for accuracy. So I cant my head to get the arrow under my eye, and I cant the bow to match my head.

So personally, I would say let him learn one way well and look into mixing things up later. Fight the Urge.

I think alot of archers have a typical way of shooting the bow for most of thier shooting.Whether its canted or upright.They probably dont vary thier form much for most shots.

For me I practiced various canting postitions as it was more versatile for me in hunting situations from both the ground and in some cases tree stands.Those things have to be practiced.Not unlike a baeball player being able to throw from various body positions and angles

So in hunting I think its much more versatile and overall more effective to be able to shoot from various degrees of cants of the bow and also different body positions.

That has helped me close the deal more than once in a hunting scenario.

I would not want to be stuck with having to shoot with a vertical bow because thats the only way I shot a bow.

Doesn't matter what you think. What works for him?

Actually you should be able to shoot either way without a 2nd thought.

"Doesn't matter what you think. What works for him? Actually you should be able to shoot either way without a 2nd thought."

Yeah. This.

I’ve found archery instruction within in any organization teaches shooting the bow vertical. Whether the 4H or Boy Scouts etc. Its Olympic style. I have no issues with this. If they enjoy and continue to shoot they will try others styles like most of us have and find what works best. You can teach him to cant but Imo you don’t want to force a change at this time and insist he shoot with a cant while at the 4H so he is not singled out in front of others for doing what is instructed. Have him ask the instructor if he can shoot with a cant during class and if not it’s most likely due to the instructor wants to keep the class uniform. Imho listening to and following instructions is more important. He should developed some good form skills like coming to fill draw and anchor.

I’ve found archery instruction within in any organization teaches shooting the bow vertical. Whether the 4H or Boy Scouts etc. Its Olympic style. I have no issues with this. If they enjoy and continue to shoot they will try others styles like most of us have and find what works best. You can teach him to cant but Imo you don’t want to force a change at this time and insist he shoot with a cant while at the 4H so he is not singled out in front of others for doing what is instructed. Have him ask the instructor if he can shoot with a cant during class and if not it’s most likely due to the instructor wants to keep the class uniform. Imho listening to and following instructions is more important. He should developed some good form skills like coming to fill draw and anchor.

The Olympic Style moniker is true; however, well before the Olympics reinstated archery in 1972, most archers were actually shooting a vertical bow. Old photos of the older archery gatherings will easily back that up. Bowhunting, which is relatively new when compared to archery history in general, is what brought about the canting thing, that merely opens up your vision/periphery. As fdp mentioned, you should learn both and then use what best fits your individual interest and comfort.

There have been times in my hunting where a vertical hold was the only way I could have made the shot; particularly, in 1992 when I got my buck with Ol' Buck, the lemonwood bow. I was plum up against a shellbark hickory, trying to look like a pencil when the buck approached. I made the shot as he was passing about seven or eight yards or so from me, by just leaning away from the tree and shooting relatively quickly with that vertical hold. There was no room for canting.

Bias aside, learn them both. If you must, do it when nobody's watching so you won't be stigmatized. :)

So much depends on the style in which you shoot. Vertical probably works better for gapping/string walking and especially sights. Hunting situations myself I like instinctive shooting and the ability to shoot vertical to full horizontal. My stance is the so called gorilla stance or whatever it was called on here recently but that is how I shoot. In hunting situations, this style to me is better than the olympic style.

For me the cant is a result of the type of bow I use and how I grab the handle. For anything with a "pistol grip" I don't cant. I cant the ASL or Scythian I shoot of the knuckle. The cant is repeatable because it is the result of repeatable grip.

@ George….

You didn’t REALLY just say that bow hunting is relatively new within the realm of archery, did you???

ROFLMAO

It’s OK. We all know what you meant!

But FWIW…

Olympic style shooters use that “target“ form for many good reasons.

“Instinctive“ adherents take note: even Fred Asbel wrote (30 years ago) about learning to shoot from the free throw line 1st, and developing your turnaround jump shot/hook shot later on as your skills increase.

Everyone learns better and faster when they do a task in exactly the same way every time. The more precise your practice, the quicker and better the result. So again… I would say let the coaches do their coaching in the way that works best in a group setting. I’m sure they would appreciate your not introducing alternate styles at this point, as it is liable to confuse not only your child but those around him.

I am a county level 4H archery coach and did a season as the state recurve coach to help our team compete at nationals. The instruction provided to coaches by 4H is very basic.

As others have said, 4H prepares kids for state and national competitions in the Olympic style. If a kid plans to compete using traditional style against Olympic style shooters, they probably won't be standing on the podium.

So to cant or not to cant purely comes down to what your ultimate goal is.

That being said, of my own 3 kids, they have multiple 4H state titles and a second place finish nationally. All compete with Olympic style. And yet all are also darn fine trad archers during the rest of the year.

I believe he can do both- Cant for traditional and keep it upright with Olympic style.

This gansta canting thing is kind of new. Perhaps the horseback archers were big on canting due to the horses neck?

I would be more concerned with mentoring his desire to hunt than which way he holds his bow. If you build his desire to stay in archery and to hunt, he will eventually experiment with different form on his own. If he can hit what he’s shooting at, leave that part alone.

"Cant for traditional and keep it upright with Olympic style."

There's a WHOLE bunch of folks that shoot "traditional" with their bow vertical just like they do an Olympic rig. Always have been.

This (the notion that you need to shoot a canted bow to shoot "traditional" has always been a strange thing to me.

When I was trotting around behind my dad and his buddies back in the '60's not a single one of them felt like they needed to cant their bow unless something was in their way.

So, I hear Gansta style every once in awhile. Is that referring to someone in a hunting stance, head tilted, knees bent, leaned forward? This has been around since well bows I believe. Not a lot of indians shot the perfect form, anchor under chin, vertical bow!!!

Def. Teach him how to cant. Also how to stalk, how to shoot from a crouch, kneeling, behind cover, even how to snap shoot. As long as he shoots safely - let him explore and encourage him to develop his own style.

Just b/c a coach says to shoot a certain way does not mean that it is the best way for him to shoot.

I appreciate all of the responses so far. Keep them coming if you want. There are many interesting perspectives. I think I will teach him to cant, crouch, still hunt, shoot from a treestand and let the coaches continue to teach Olympic style for competition. Thanks for the replies.

I cant to position my eye directly over the arrow shaft.

I use a slight cant shooting my blacktail. always have. Those who use sights go vertical

What do Olympians do?

Asbell got everyone canting. Lol

Asbell got everyone canting. Lol

That’s how I learned to shoot my longbow 25 years ago, from Asbell’s book…lol. The guy at the bow shop insisted I read the book, even though I had been shooting recurves and compounds for 20 years before. Things were never the same since. This summer I tried to gap and missed the entire target!

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