| Springy launchers:
The principle is the same as with a flip rest, you want as little pressure as consistently holds the arrow up. In an ideal situation, there shouldn't be any late contact with the rest, but if there is, you want it to move as easily as possible.
Drop away rests:
There will come a point where the arrow doesn't need support. You see that in high speed video of a release. I don't know how you determine what that point is, though I'd guess there is a rule of thumb that may be applied. The "guiding the arrow" explanation is specious IMO. If your arrows need that much interference, there's something wrong with your setup. I think the "leave it to the last minute" approach is probably just over-cautious.
It occurs to me: if you leave the drop very late, how quickly does the rest fall? Does it just end up behaving just like a springy rest in that case? |