MASTERING KHATRA: 3 secret hacks to improve this traditional archery skill 

Medium grip variant, as You showed and as it is shown in the book Saracen Archery is perfect for khatra! All my students had to learn this. I do khatra a little different: I don't draw with a bent ellbow. My khatra comes more from the wrist and it is a always result of the sideways/forward tension, that is built up at full draw. This works for me and is very accurate. When we want to go deeper in this khatra stuff, we need to know, there are four types of khatra: 1. sideways khatra (torque), arrow clears the bow without scratching or rattling and it is very accurate 2. forward khatra, gives more arrow speed 3. sideways-forward khatra combines 1 and 2 and the syah hits the armpit, when it is executed correctly! 4. fancy khatra: not good for running or horseback archery, a sideways-forward khatra and the grip of the bow rotates in the hand untill the string is paralell to the ground Most important to me: khatra is not an active movement, we do during release, it is a result of the tension we built up before release. Let the bow do the khatra!

Great to have charlie back

This helps a lot. 👍

Super erklärt, vielen Dank. Werde ich ausprobieren.

I haven't done archery in many years (as a kid with cheap fiberglass bow) . No teacher just many many shots and by "accident" while trying to reduce wrist rash, I turned my grip inward. Not only did it lessen the wrist rash it did exactly as you describe. Then my sister was watch me one day and said "are you aiming at the dirt, haha?". So I joked and said im not aiming at anything, fired off a fast half aimed shot and hit the solo cup i had nailed to a fence post. I guess I was semi khatra and didn't even know it. Years later up until 2020, I got into slingshot shooting as a backyard hobby. I learned that a downward/forward flick of my wrist lessened the chance of a yoke hit, and i was far better at moving targets than still ones when I just pulled and shot on instinct. Cool how how all that works.

Good explanation. Nice to have your videos back

Great tips, gonna try out immediately!

Thanks Charlie!

Awesome tips...will try the second one (bending the arm) Its the first time I come across it. Thank you! always awesome content.

Super helpful tips. I've probably watched this 5 times now and I keep picking up little details. Not aiming is the hardest for me coming from a trad recurve background, but I'm getting there...

I usually use the Gao ying technique but will give your technique a try soon.

I usually favour thumb release but I've recently been trying slavic. You can kind of get away without khatra with thumb but not at all with slavic. It's a bugger to get the timing right but when you do the grouping is awesome

I came across your channel recently. I know your results are good, but I want to say that khatra doesn't move the bow out of the way of the arrow. What's happening is that the arrow's path is changed by khatra. The string is moved to the outside, forcing the back to clear to the side, which makes a cleaner release. Kind of like a false center-cut. High speed cameras show that the arrow is mostly gone by the time any bow movement starts. And if you think about it, it's impossible to move the bow before the arrow as part of the arrow is resting beyond the bow anyway. Not just any part, but the tip, the heavier point that drags the rest of the arrow behind it, which stores most of the energy.

"Not aiming" has indeed helped a lot hitting the target better.

You don't need to push with the elbow of the bow hand, I believe. You can have your bow arm straight--and push with your shoulder! This is a very traditional archery technique and mysteriously increases accuracy. Why? I did it for years as the 'instinctive archery' technique. But why does it work?? I discovered that it produces automatic khatra! Hold your bow arm straight, then look over your fist at an aiming point-- then push with your shoulder. You will see your fist tilt down--forward Khatra. The wrist tends to want to twist at the end of the push. You can insist that it remains straight--or you can let it twist to the left for side Khatra. I believe that many traditional archery techniques around the world get the same result as khatra. The way that Ishi held his short wide hunting bow torqued the bow out of the way of the arrow. Since you only need the bow hand to move a few millimeters to clear the arrow, it works best to concentrate on pushing your fist straight at the target. Even concentrating on pushing straight at the target with the bow hand, you will get that slight down khatra. Holding the bow as you describe, adds automatic side-khatra. I think that this is better than consciously adding a wrist twist, as the tension in the bow hand automatically initiates the twist--at the instant the string is released. The shoulder push adds automatic down-khatra. This is what works for me! Many people use an exaggerated follow through that looks stylish--but happens after the arrow has left the area! I started archery with wooden longbows that I built myself. They are too long and heavy to exhibit that post-shot bow position that comes from doing khatra with a short light weight bow--but l'm pretty sure that I was getting the same khatra benefits. Of course, when I was doing split finger draw with the arrow on the other side of my bow--my grip was the opposite of what I now use for thumb draw and the bow moved slightly to the right and down, instead of to the left and down.

I'm a bit worried about this way of holding the bow hand. I don't really see an alternative that would make for a reproductible Khatra that is the same every time, but could holding the bow this way cause some damage to the wrist on the long term ?

Do you have a link for Mark Barton please?

The best explanation about kathara ever !!!!!!!!! You are amazin !!!!!!!!!!!

does it work with Mediterranean style?

I think you must learn more about khatra.. 😄 there are 3 types of khatra explained by master taybugho.. each depending on how to hold the handle 😁

Gosh I'm sorry Charlie something must have gotten lost in translation....you should not keep the bow arm so bent ....you draw until only one inch of the arrow is left to be drawn and then you snatch back that last inch of arrow with a sudden pull of the shoulder and release quickly as is touching something very hot , to snatch that last bit of arrow you shove the bow hand forward and also draw from the draw hand and shoulders . What I wanted to get across is that the bow hand initiates the release with a shove forward. My apologies Charlie if I didn't explain this correctly before.

Thats fake from books.by archers biomechanics not needed

string weight too light so that easy to shoot