 Correlation
between stabilizer weight and
shoulder pain with archers.
By
Hans
Pfeffer (Doctor,
specialised in chiropractic and sports medicine.)
Within
the last few years, I have treated more and more archers due to pain in
the shoulder of the shooting arm. The pain seems to stem from the pause
phase that comes directly after release. The discomfort seems not to be
related to the stress on the arm resulting from high draw weight, which
could arguably result in shoulder pain.
I
think it can expected, that a heavy draw weight or an improper string
length (or a combination) would result in pain in the forearm rather then
in the shoulder.
Still,
it is important not only to treat the injury, but rather to get to the
root of the problem which lies in the choice of equipment.
After
checking with the patients, it has been determined that without exception,
they all use heavy stabilizer systems. Systems such as Mono-stabilizers
without V-BAR with side stabilizer on compound bows, as well as complete
systems with Mono-stabilizers, V-BAR and Extender are being used.
The lengths are generally between 37 and 40 inches.
The mono stabilizers were equipped with either 2,3 or 4 tuners.
From
personal experience, I know what such systems weigh because I used these
heavy systems myself. At that
time, I also experienced pain in my bow shoulder. I was shooting at the time between 900-1000 shots per week.
Fortunately
I was able to find at least a part of the solution: I used only one tuner
on my stabilizer in order to reduce the weight and the amount of strength
needed to hold the bow.
The
results were not really surprising. With a reduction in stabilizer weight,
the shoulder pain also decreased.
By
reducing the amount of tuners however, the bow vibration also increased
and this is naturally not the hoped for result.
At
this time I had the opportunity to test several of the extremely light
“THE
BETTER ONE” stabilizer
systems from OK-Archery. This had the advantage that I could let other archers test
these systems also.
I
could determine that the strength needed to hold the bow was indeed
reduced. In the meantime many
of my patients have switched to the “THE
BETTER ONE” from OK-Archery
and since that time, shoulder pain has been eliminated.
To
sum it all up, I am of the opinion that a light stabilizer system can
reduce pain in the bow shoulder or even completely eliminate it.
Bild: A small weight on the end of the stabilizer ensures a clean
follow through of the bow after the shot without dramatically increasing
the total weight of the system.
Hans
Pfeffer
(Doctor,
specialized in chiropractic and sports medicine.)
(Compound
bow archer and German national champion 2002)
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