to touch or not to touch: Sting dilemmas

[ornias]

Here I am with my new Guardian, all set, my new arrows and all the other stuff. Now, James Park suggests in his last book that the string should not touch in any way the face of the compound archer. The string does not touch at all my face, since, in fact the25 inches module is short for my draw lenght. I have set a d loop of 1 inch so the string still does not touch my face but I am able to draw to what should be my correct place. The question is, should I fit the next module (25,5) and shorten the d-loop or leave it as it is? I will have to send the bow back to have the modules set, but, leaving aside that, I do not mind doing it.

Suggestions????

[Hidden Hippo]

Different coaches will tell you different things dependant on their preference. I didn't have much (if any) string contact prior to a coaching session with John Dudley, but now I get contact on my nose and my lip. However, I find this is far more consistant and helps to cut down left/right arrows as I've got another reference point.

[Marcus26]

I was involved in the testing that produced the information Jim wrote about.
Basically if you touch the string to the side of your chin you can change it's impact point at 18m by 4 rings on a 40cm face.
To test this I shot 3 shots on a 3 spot.
Normal: X
Aligned the dot onto the left side of the peep: Left 10
Touched the string to the side of my chin: Left 7

This is quite dramatic and while some people will shoot fine with face contact, it will lead to odd shots they can not explain.
Pat Coghlan use to be so hard into his face the string was bending and while he was a 1390 shooter it wasn't till he got the string off his face did he break 1400.
You can still touch your nose, but keep it on teh front or the left side, not against the right side, and be careful not to bury the string into your face.

For example this is bad


As is this


This is not too bad, she would just have to be careful


Cousins here while quite solid is opening a clear path to the string. Notice how it's more on the front of the face than the side.



This one is excellent. See how the string is mostly off the face and any contact is very very minor. I believe he has a 1400 as well.

[phil_r_58]

I actually pull the string into the corner of the mouth, and I can feel it bedding in against the canine tooth. Most of the top shots I have ever hung around with use a solid anchor into the face as John Dudley suggests. And look at what his teaching has done for Archery_mum, AKA Wicked Wendy.

[ornias]

My string does not touch my chin at all. There is a gap of let say 5mm or perhaps less. I feel quite comfortable and according to my compounders fellows I am shooting extraordinarily well for being so new to the dark side. However they insist in the string touching my chin. I think I will leave it alone by now; perhaps I will change the module in future, but I do not think it is really necessary. From the logical point of view, Marcus and James reasonings seem quite right to me.
In any case I will try to post some photos so that you may have a look.


Thanks everybody.

[archery_mum]

The way I was taught by John Dudley was to shoot with the string touching the tip of my nose and coming into the corner of my mouth. The main issue with the nose touch is that you can get left/right variation if you don't consistantly put the string in the same place on your nose.

This works for me.

I should add that I have the greatest respect for James Park's work and his books on compound setup and shooting should be part of everyones collection.

[bimble]

Interesting... I've never had the string come near my nose (least as far as I can see!!) but do have some contact just in the corner of my mouth... will have to investigate when I sneak off to the range this evening....

[not dead yet]

marcus in your pictures dave cousins looks remarkably like nicky simpson.

[archery_mum]

Looking at the photos Marcus posted I would say my position is very close to Nichola Simpsons. I have just got watch_man to upload a clip from one of last weeks training sessions which shows my points of contact and also a closeup of the face contact around the D-Loop/arrow area.

YouTube - Wendy Release Practice

[flamingbladerider]

Originally Posted by ornias

Here I am with my new Guardian, all set, my new arrows and all the other stuff. Now, James Park suggests in his last book that the string should not touch in any way the face of the compound archer. The string does not touch at all my face, since, in fact the25 inches module is short for my draw lenght. I have set a d loop of 1 inch so the string still does not touch my face but I am able to draw to what should be my correct place. The question is, should I fit the next module (25,5) and shorten the d-loop or leave it as it is? I will have to send the bow back to have the modules set, but, leaving aside that, I do not mind doing it.

Suggestions????

You don't need to send the bow back to the dealers. A D/L change is just swapping modules, about £9 from Bowsports and its only 2 allen screws holding them in, with no need for a bowpress. Bowsports also have the chart for which module you will need.