Eliminating String Slap; 5 Steps To Prevent A Common Archery Injury

Whether it’s on your very first shot or your thousandth shot, at some point when a shot goes off, every archer catches that bow string on their forearm, leaving a nasty bruise or welt. It stings. It hurts. And sometimes, it even makes people quit.

String slap is what we call it when the inside of the bow arm gets hit by the bowstring as it launches the arrow forward. Can you wear an arm guard? Certainly. Many people of all skill levels do. But an arm guard doesn’t address the cause of string slap, which is typically issues with form. Here, I’ll walk you through, step by step, things you can check about your form that will help you eliminate those nasty bruises.

Check Your Stance

Usually the first and easiest thing to check is your feet. If you adjust your feet, you change the angle of your upper body in relation to the target, which will change the amount of space between the path of the string and your arm.

Everyone’s stance is a little different, but if hitting your arm is a regular problem, the easiest fix is what you see in the bottom half of the image. Simply move the foot farthest from the target slightly forward, and angle your front foot towards the target. If you can imagine your shoulders being directly above each foot, you can see how this simple step can help create some space for the string to travel.

Adjust Your Grip

Fixing your grip won’t just help eliminate string slap; it also has the added benefit of improving your accuracy. Sounds like a win/win, right?

The natural inclination when grabbing the bow grip is to wrap your hand around it, so it’s often surprising to people that this is the cause of a lot of their archery problems. You actually want to have a very relaxed hand, making minimal contact with the grip. Think of it as if you were holding your hand up to tell someone to stop, relax your fingers, and simply push against the grip. You want to only use your thumb pad to make contact with the grip.

Above are side-by-side examples of how your grip should look, both from the front of the bow and from the view of the shooter.

The reason this also helps with accuracy is it reduces torque and bow wobble. It will take some time to get comfortable with, but should make a significant difference for both string slap and accuracy.

Rotate Your Elbow

Usually adjusting your grip fixes your elbow’s placement, but sometimes not. The next thing to try is get into your archery stance, put your arm against a wall or door frame, and practice rotating only your elbow. It would look something like this:Notice how in the bottom part of the image, the flat inside of the elbow is facing where the bow string will travel. This helps to get the widest part of the elbow out of the way. The top view of this shows how big of a difference this can make. In the image below, the top example shows how little room there is for the string when the flat part of the elbow faces up. This space is increased significantly when the elbow is rotated in.

Relax the Bow Arm Shoulder

Oftentimes, because of the energy required to pull the bowstring back, we continue to hold tension that we no longer need to during the shot. The biggest example of this that affects string slap is in the bow arm shoulder.

You can see in the image above how much of a difference this makes. This is also something that can be practiced by getting into your shooting stance and pushing your hand against a wall or door frame. Practice re-positioning your shoulder until it feels set back and comfortable, as if you could lean against your hand all day.

If Nothing Else… Bend the Elbow

While all archers can agree you should never fully lock your bow arm elbow, there is often some disagreement over whether or not it should be bent. However, maintaining a straight elbow without experiencing string slap may be difficult for some, especially if your elbows hyper-extend. If you are struggling with these other steps, the best fix for you may be to simply put a slight bend in your elbow.

The only reason this is not the recommended first step is because one issue people find with bending the elbow is that they cannot always do it the same every time, leading to shot inconsistencies. At the end of the day, though, what’s important is that you are enjoying your time shooting, which injuries like string slap tend to get in the way of!

So, if you’ve been sporting these nasty bruises, next time you pull your bow back, go through this check list. Start with your feet and work your way up. Take the time to practice elbow and shoulder placement with your hand against a wall. Remember that every archer has hit their arm at least once; we all go through this! If the problem goes away for a while and suddenly comes back, go through the check list again before your next shot. Keep in mind that through this process, you may discover that the draw length your bow is set at is too long. A bow technician can adjust this for you. The good news is it’s all fixable!

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