Lessons in Coaching Compound vs Recurve

Compounds may appear different than Recurves, but they ultimately have more similarities than differences

Having only shot recurve bows, my focus going into coaching was on Olympic Recurve and Barebow shooters. However, as I gain more experience working with Compound shooters, it starts to click with me more and more that they are fundamentally the same. I recently completed the USA Archery Level 3 coaching course and this further confirmed the notion. The main difference, in my experience so far, has been how much compounds are able to get away with in regards to form. One of my Compound students has a very bent bow arm when they shoot. This is something that just isn't done in Olympic Recurve. Compound shooters also have the option of command shooting, as opposed to using back tension. This would be equivalent to an O.R. shooter ignoring their clicker and just shooting whenever their sight floated to the middle of the target. Overall, when coaching Compound shooters I have found that using my knowledge of Recurve form still works on a fundamental level, but it is crucial to keep in mind that due to the more forgivable nature of Compound bows, there is more leeway for discrepancies between what, "textbook", form may look like and what may be preferred by certain shooters.