Bend at the waist?

Found myself hijacking another thread so I started this one.

I keep hearing that one should bend at the waist (on a downward shooting angle) before shooting?

The object is to line up your eye with your peep, pin and target correct? So where your target is will determine whether or how much you bend won't it? If your target is 15 or 20 yds away and you're 25' in the air then in order to line up your eye, peep, pin, and target you will have no choice but to bend at the waist will you? In order to get the right site picture bending should be automatic shouldn't it? Is it just that simple or am I missing something? Is this some sort of additional or special bending because that's the way it seems to me that people talk about "bending at the waist".

What am I failing to understand?

It's not automatic. Most folks tend drop the bow arm some and that's what causes them to shoot high. Same principle for shooting up a hill. If you don't bend at the waist to make the angle and raise your bow arm, you'll shoot low. I always draw level, anchor, look through the peep and then bend at the waist.

Shaw covered that well.

If you drop the arm it changes the angle . I made the same mistake when I first started bow hunting .. I do just as shaw described now ..take aim level and bend at waist

I'm sorry, I don't mean to be dense, I really am trying to learn something here.

If your bow arm drops prior to the shot then your site picture will change and move off target won't it? If your bow arm drops during the shot then you failed to hold steady during the execution. In either scenario, if your bow arm drops and everything else remains the same, wouldn't your shot be low instead of high?

I think what I need to do is practice more from a stand, then maybe I can see what everyone is talking about?

I assume when you say bend at the waist the means left and right not up and down? I've never thought about this before while shooting my bow. Maybe my excellent hand eye coordination just makes up for all this mechanical talk.

yep

Yes, he means bending up and down at the waist.

Smells, when I say dropping the bow arm, I'm referring to dropping it to make the angle.

Bend at the waist, trust me; this is my first season bow hunting and I had a really nice buck walk out 20yds, I DIDN'T bend at the waist and I watched my arrow go right over his back just before he bolted.

Ok so I spent some time in a ladder stand today shooting a 3d target downhill at 20 yds and 30 yds. I didn't have a huge amount of time so I only sent 5 arrows at each distance. First I just took my normal shot, then I purposely contorted my body to be as upright as possible, even arching my back in the opposite direction of what has been prescribed. I did, however keep my sight picture aligned at all times regardless of the position of my body. All shots were tightly grouped and lethal. I will work on this some more when I have more time but I'm satisfied as of now with how I shoot from a stand. This will however, become a regular part of my practice from now on.

Here's a thought, and I'm really not trying to argue with people who have been doing this a lot longer than me, but is it possible that a lot of misses that are attributed to not bending at the waist are actually the result of something else, deer jumping at the sound of the string for example or buck fever or whatever. I still just don't seem to be able to comprehend how a properly sighted bow can send an arrow anywhere except where a properly aligned site picture tells it to.

This is not something new or we made up. You are shooting from a ladder stand, what 12' ,15' ? The higher you climb the smaller the sight window. At 30 ft its tiny. yeah you might get away with it from a ladder, but from 20' or above its vital. Jumping the string is usually from a deer hearing the shot and reacting. the further the shot the more time it has to react. A quiet bow is deadly. Just keep it in your mind when you climb. hunt safe

The object of bending at the waist is to maintain proper shooting form while shooting at angles up or down. The nessessity to do so increases with the severity of the angle you are shooting. Ideally your body is making a T when the bow is drawn. The spine is the vertical portion of the T ; the bow arm and humerus of the release arm comprise the horizontal. By bending at the waist, you maintain the T. Shaw said it perfectly. Draw and anchor like normal, then move the T to target.