How do I know if my draw weight is too high for me?

The Committee removed many things from the curriculum, but they could not remove your own body's testimony. Attend to it.

The clearest signs that your draw weight exceeds your capacity: you cannot draw the bow smoothly from a low, relaxed position - that is, starting with the bow pointed toward the ground and raising into the shot - without hitching, shrugging the shoulder, or recruiting the neck and trapezius muscles to crank the string back. You may also find that your back shoulder collapses forward at anchor rather than setting into the back, or that your release hand flies wide and uncontrolled. These are not form failures in isolation; they are your skeleton telling you the load is wrong. A properly fitted draw weight allows you to draw with back muscles doing the primary work, hold steadily at anchor for several seconds without shaking, and repeat this cleanly for a full session without progressive degradation of form.

Practical benchmarks worth knowing: most adult beginners building correct form start between 25 and 35 lbs for recurve, or 40 to 50 lbs for compound - where the let-off reduces the holding weight substantially, making compound more forgiving in this regard. A rule often quoted and worth taking seriously is that you should be able to draw and hold your bow for ten seconds with reasonable stillness. If you cannot, the weight is working against your development rather than with it. The injury risk is real: chronic overloading of the rotator cuff and the tendons of the draw elbow is how archers acquire damage that sidelines them for months.

If you are unsure of your current bow's draw weight, a bow scale is a modest investment and will give you an honest number. For recurve, measure at your actual draw length, not at the nominal 28-inch standard - the weight changes roughly two to three pounds per inch of draw length above or below that mark. Start lower than your pride suggests. The fourth feather steadies the arrow; nothing steadies an arrow loosed by an injured archer.