The Axial library
Every article, organized by topic. Written from mechanics and manufacturer documentation, not from "that worked for me" folklore. Live articles are linked; the rest are on the bench.
Arrow Selection
The arrow is half the system. Diameter, material, spine, and weight all affect flight, tuning, and scoring in ways that compound setups, stabilizers, and releases cannot compensate for.
- ToolArrow Oscillation & Node Calculator — find the two points along the shaft that move least during oscillation; see how tip weight shifts them
- ToolArrow spine calculator — compound and recurve, with cam profile, rest type, FOC, and Axial's light-arrow recommendation
- Arrow SelectionThe Spine Check test — a tip weight diagnostic for compound archers
- Arrow SelectionBareshaft group tuning
- Arrow SelectionAdvanced Spine Selection — find the exact spine for your setup
- Recurve · Arrow SelectionRecurve spine selection with ALR — one target, no chart tables
- Arrow SelectionArrow diameter — the full guide from 3.2mm to 27⁄64″, and why bigger usually costs more than it gains
- Arrow SelectionDIAG tuning — a two-pass method for finalizing tournament arrows
- Arrow SelectionBroadhead accuracy — what the arrow actually needs: FOC, spine, and insert concentricity explained from first principles
Shot Sequence
The shot as a mechanical sequence — anchor, back tension, follow-through, release — described the way a technician would describe it. Geometry and muscles, not mysticism.
- Shot SequenceSurprise vs. command — the debate you've been having wrong, and the skill nobody talks about
- Shot SequenceRelease execution quality — what separates elite execution from everyone else
- Shot SequenceTarget panic — understood
- Shot SequenceBack tension — how much is right
- Shot SequenceAfter the break — the power stroke window, arrow speed, and what follow-through really tells you
- Shot SequenceHolding steady — the anatomy of the hold
- Shot SequenceCall your shot — pin position and angular momentum at the break
- Shot SequenceOffset-sight drill — process confirmation with no result feedback
- Shot SequenceRelease aids — the four families and the one that doesn't exist yet
- Shot SequenceThe compound clicker — the back tension release is the trigger you already have
- Shot SequenceShooting side and laterality — which hand actually belongs on the bow
- Shot SequenceStabilizers — weight, inertia, and the aiming trade-off
- Shot SequenceStabilizer balance vs. MOI — two separate jobs, two separate physics
- Shot SequenceThe peep sight is an aperture, not a peephole
- Shot SequenceArchery glass — everything is a compromise, and there is no alternative
Diagnostics
Symptoms first, then causes, then real fixes. The difference between managing a symptom and correcting the underlying condition.
- DiagnosticsThe bow tuning sequence — six steps, in order
- DiagnosticsOscillation plane identification — nock tuning and what the methods actually tell you
- DiagnosticsArrow nodes — what they are, why rest placement on a node doesn’t matter for compound, and what vibration actually tells you
- DiagnosticsPaper tuning — what the tear is actually telling you
- DiagnosticsPorpoising and fishtailing — telling them apart and what each points to
- DiagnosticsArrow ES: using the chronograph as a final tuning check
- DiagnosticsPeep rotation: forcing a straight object into a helical form
- DiagnosticsBow cant, tilt, scope yaw, and scope pitch — what the sight axes actually adjust
- DiagnosticsWhat goes into a sight tape
- DiagnosticsWalk-back tuning — a recurve carry-over and what to use instead
- DiagnosticsGroup size — what it measures, what it doesn’t, and what’s actually good
- DiagnosticsTiller tuning — what it changes and why compound archers should leave it alone
String Building
The core of what Axial teaches. Building a bowstring is a sequence — each stage sets up the next, and shortcuts anywhere in the process show up as creep, peep rotation, or peaking noise months later.
- ToolString thickness estimator — enter material, strand count, and serving to estimate finished diameter; includes reverse lookup for target diameter
- Part 1Equipment & jigs — what you need at the bench
- Part 2Layout & length planning — starting length, post-twist length, pre-serve length
- Part 3Strand equalization — the light pull that makes the bundle honest
- Part 4Twisting — 0.5 to 0.75 twists per inch, measured to a real target length
- Part 5Tensioning & burnishing — where the bundle actually stabilizes
- Part 6Serving — end loops, center serving, and the peep-strand question
- Part 7Stretching — the final 300-pound hold
- TechniqueCenter serving — how to start, how much tension, how to back-serve
Material Choices
Fibers, arrows, servings, D-loop material, nock sets, peep sights, and the small parts most builders default to without thinking. What each material is good at, and where it quietly costs you.
Bow Technician
Real bench work — for archers going deeper than owner-level maintenance. Press safety, draw-length work, cam adjustment, center-shot, and the tuning procedures that actually earn their name.
Competition & Practice
Scoring, structured practice, and the mental side of competitive archery. What scores actually mean, how deliberate practice differs from shooting arrows, and the psychology of performance under pressure.
- InteractiveWhere is your shot? — a diagnostic quiz that places you on the shot execution map and tells you what to do about it
- CompetitionHow to practice archery — what a real practice routine looks like
- CompetitionThe archery progression curve — why it’s never a straight line
- CompetitionThe difference between a 295 and a 300 shooter — it's not your skills, it's your attention
- CompetitionThe archery mental game — a complete guidebook
- CompetitionIs a 290 a good score on a Vegas face? Score distributions, equipment classes, and where you actually stand
- CompetitionWhy every archer should know their Vegas score
- CompetitionIt doesn't make sense until it does — archery's knowledge-gated advice
- CompetitionThe tinker trap — when your inner engineer becomes your worst enemy
- CompetitionRelease roulette
- CompetitionWhy do you shoot archery?
- CompetitionWhy can't a compound bow drill every X?
- CompetitionPressure is information
- CompetitionPressure is information
Science & Mechanics
Why strings and bows behave the way they do. The physics is settled, but very little of it makes its way into shop advice. Connects measurable behavior to the choices at the bench.
- ScienceArrow properties — what the numbers measure, what the shot reveals
- ScienceWhat compound bows got wrong from recurve — which rules carry over and which ones don’t
- MythFix left and right paper tears with spine changes
- ScienceForgiveness — hunt for the impossible
- ScienceATA and brace height — why longer is better for target, and what it costs you
- ScienceThe ideal arrow — what aerodynamics actually wants
- ScienceCompound bow limb geometry — the physics of the bent beam: parallel limbs, cross-section, materials, and what’s still improvable
- ScienceThe golf ball question — could boundary layer physics make a better arrow? Dimples, point geometry, and the trailing edge
- ScienceCam energy storage and let-off, in one page
- ScienceCreep vs. stretch — different mechanisms, different fixes
- ScienceThe helix, in one page: why a bowstring is a helical bundle
- ScienceTension and dwell: what a string is actually doing during pre-tensioning
- ScienceDraw length and biomechanics: what your body does when the number is wrong
- ScienceString jump — why the deer moves, and why it takes both sounds to make it happen
- ScienceBias — anything but perfect
- ScienceString weights and silencers — why placement matters, and what they cost you
- ScienceSpring-mounted stabilizer weights — spring, damper, or placebo?
- ScienceStatistics in archery — what every archer needs to know
Care & Maintenance
Keeping the string and bow in good shape between builds. When serving can be fixed, when the string should be replaced, and the owner-level care that doesn't require a press or a tech.