How to Modify a Toy Bow for Contortion Archery

How to Modify a Toy Bow for Contortion Archery

So you just bought a cheap toy bow so you can finally give this whole contortion archery thing a try - but surprise, it’s way harder than you expected! The arrow keeps falling off, you can’t even grab it with your toes… Unfortunately most children’s toy designers are not engineering these things with the budding contortionist in mind.

But lucky for you with a couple of super easy modifications you can be shooting like the pros in no time! Read on to learn how to make your bow infinitely easier to shoot with your feet. (And if you don’t even have a bow yet, I have some recommendations for cheap contortion bows for beginners).

First a quick anatomy lesson of your new bow and some of the pieces you may need to update:

DIY Contortion Bow Modifications

1. Add a contortion-friendly arrow rest

The arrow rest is the part of the bow handle that the arrow sits on when you’re shooting. My favorite practice bow actually has a “shoot through” style arrow rest which doesn’t need any modification because it holds the arrow in place, even upside down. But many toy bows have a shelf-style arrow rest (like in the picture above) where the arrow will fall off as soon as you tip the bow sideways or upside down (aka whenever you try to do anything cool).

But you can make your own shoot-through arrow rest with some wire (I used some cheap jewelry wire like this I’d found at Michaels) by simply wrapping it around and making a hoop for the arrow to shoot through. Quick note - this will only work for toy arrows without fletchings (feathers) - so this is a great modification for indoor practice with suction cup arrows.

2. Create a toe cushion to grab on the string

This is a great tip I got from the fabulous Kelly Saabel who performs foot archery professionally: wrap a bunch of layers of squishy tape - like medical tape, athletic tape, etc - around the bow string to make a nice toe pad you can grab instead of the string itself. This helps give you an obvious spot to grab with your toes (while you’re basically upside down and fumbling and can’t see anything…) and for some people it’s more comfortable to grab (by squeezing the cushion) instead of trying to hook your toes around the string. Give it a try and see if it’s less Charley-Horse-inducing.

I used this athletic tape because it was the cheapest black tape on Amazon Prime, and it works great.

I’ve also heard of people wrapping athletic tape around the bow grip as well if it’s an uncomfortable shape for you to try to hold with your toes, but I never had an issue with the bows I tried. But if you’re finding the bow slip a bit because your feet are sweaty, or if the grip is a little too narrow to grab, this might be a good solution.

3. Use putty to hold the arrow nocked on the string

The biggest challenge with toy bows is that the arrows have crappy plastic nocks that don’t actually “grip” the string when you’re trying to shoot. The arrow nock is the little grip at the butt-end of the arrow that you knock into the string. Real/legit arrows have nocks that practically clip in to the string that hold them in place while you’re drawing the string back, but toy bows’ arrows aren't nearly as nice and need to be physically held in place on the string as you’re pulling back, otherwise they’ll fall. My first attempts at foot archery involved rolling into a cheststand while simultaneously trying to hold the arrow taught and nocked into the string - not an easy feat!

The best solution I’ve found is to add a bit of putty to the string where you want to knock the arrow, and that’ll hold it in place. This stuff is strong enough to withstand some light shaking as you’re flailing around upside down, but not so strong that it’ll keep gripping the arrow once your release the string and actually want to shoot. I actually use a little bit of a rubber eraser, but even something like Silly Putty would probably do in a pinch).

And that should do it - just a couple of simple modifications and you too can join the ranks of people who shoot things with their feet.

Stay tuned for more posts on beginning foot archery - up next are easy contortion archery tricks for beginners!

Look for more help with contortion archery?

See more contortion archery posts, or comment below!