Learning to shoot offhand?

[Mo_coon-catcher]

I'm curious who all has learned to shoot with there offhand side? And how difficult it was? Have you seenu u benefit of learning to do so?
I'm sure the answer to the second question will depend on the individual. I'm thinking about doing so myself. My biggest issue is I am STRONGLY right side dominant. So I'm sure it'll take quite a bit to over come that.

Thanks
Kyle

[Pat B]

Why are you changing? With lots of practice you should be able to change over a couple of weeks

[Mo_coon-catcher]

No real reason, I figured it would be a good skill to have. To be able to shoot from both sides.

Kyle

[bjrogg]

Kyle, I've done a fair amount of shooting left handed. My wife two daughters and one son are all left handed. I also made a bow for a friend who shoots both left and right off the knuckles. I actually got pretty decent shooting left handed at least at close range. I think it could be helpful and don't see how it can hurt. I think having your bow set up so you can shoot same spine arrows off both sides is probably very helpful.
Bjrogg

[Hawkdancer]

I agree with Pat, a lot of practice should get you there soon!   The current wisdom is to go with your strong eye, however, most folks are pretty well dominant to their strong hand.  I shoot bows left handed because I am, and had an early coach who was left handed.  I have a dominant right eye, a bit late to change over, but I can shotgun either way, rifles I shoot right handed, because that was the way most rifles are set up and all my family shot right handed.  I just learned this spring that archers are supposed to follow their strong eye.  Pistol is easy, use left hand, aim with right eye!  It is really just creating new muscle memory.
Hawkdancer

[Pat B]

Glenn St Charles mentioned it in his book..."Billets to Bows". He had to switch due to an injury and said after a few weeks he felt confident in his left hand shooting.

[Mo_coon-catcher]

I think I'll play around with it everytime I'm out shooting. With my luck and the way I shoot, I wouldn't be surprised if when I hit full draw I relese with my right hand and end up having the bow come back to me.

Kyle

[bjrogg]

I think I'll play around with it everytime I'm out shooting. With my luck and the way I shoot, I wouldn't be surprised if when I hit full draw I relese with my right hand and end up having the bow come back to me.

Kyle

Ha that's a good one Kyle. I'm pretty sure the first couple will feel very uncomfortable. Hope it works out for you.
Bjrogg

[Pat B]

You might start off with a lighter weight bow if you have one just to get used to the oddity of shooting offhanded.

[Urufu_Shinjiro]

This is something I really should learn to do as well. In the Saracen archery manuals as well as some of the Chinese treatises this sort of skill is considered fundamental to archery, especially among horse archers as you may be called upon to make a shot off the other side of the horse unexpectedly.

[Hawkdancer]

Kyle,
That would be a big time OPPs!  Remember, when shooting left handed - right hand holds bow, left hand releases arrow , otherwise friends make lots of jokes about your technique!  Not us, of course👹😂!
Hawkdancer

[bradsmith2010]

I think it would be a great skill to develope

[GlisGlis]

I'll be counter-trend
I dont see any particular advantage to shoot offhand unless you're  100% satisfied with your regular shooting
...and I always see margins of improvement in my regular shooting 

[TimBo]

I seem to remember reading somewhere that Glenn St. Charles and Fred Bear both switched to LH shooting to overcome target panic.  I messed around with LH for a bit and found the greatly increased focus on form was really helpful.  The hand/eye thing doesn't take long to adjust, but it is weird at first...it would be interesting to see how long you would have to work on "switch hitting" before you could lock in immediately from either side.

[mullet]

That's something I wanted to do since I switch when shooting with a Thumb Ring but I don't have any left handed bows that are light anymore..