“He’s plucking the string”.

There may not be a mis-diagnosis more common than that one.  A bystander will see the string hand fly out to the side, and assume plucking is the cause.  It is likely to be something ELSE.  Telling an archer to “not pluck” is poor coaching technique.

Rather than a true pluck (like plucking the string of a guitar), it’s more likely to be a combination of several common problems:

    1. The archer has far too much tension in the string forearm, making a relaxed release impossible.
    2. The wrist is cocked out because the string forearm is not nearly in line with the arrow.   In this case the archer can easily see the string elbow if using a mirror as the target.  Simple physics causes the hand to fly out from the jaw during the moment of release when muscles are relaxing.
    3. If the elbow is behind and in line with the arrow, the archer is “in alignment” more and there is no elbow to be seen in the mirror.  If the string arm is not put into alignment by the archer, the bow tends to try to do it during the release process.
    4. Because of the cocked wrist and excess tension in the forearm, the archer has a harder time of simply relaxing the string fingers, and is prone to making an active “letting go” effort which causes the fingers to go straight out after the string is loosed.  A relaxed release results in the fingers actually curling up, not sticking out like a porcupine.

Coaches, in plucking cases it is important to study the archer’s release with a tool like Coach’s Eye or a high-speed camera like a Casio Exilim.  Most archers know their string hand should end up behind and near the neck for followthrough and will MAKE the hand go there no matter how hard it is.  A camera will reveal that the string hand makes a detour out because of the physics and tension then goes back near the neck to where it should have gone immediately.

It’s NOT plucking, and telling an archer “don’t pluck” is worse than useless.  Get at the root cause of the hand flare and “plucking” will vanish.