How do you hold yours?

[flamingbladerider]

Like the picture but with the grip flat against the soft pad of the thumb. Stops any rollover.

[Murray]

The gentleman on the right won the tournament. I believe he's been shooting 3 years, and has been MB class for 2 of them.

IMO, lack of tension in the thumb is much more important that all the other bowhand fingers.



An old pic of my grip (no recent ones)

[sweetpea]

Originally Posted by morphymick

Bow-hand totally relaxed not gripping anything. (Had to pick up my training bow to confirm before posting)

Hand naturally half closes around the riser at full draw.

Don't think I could shoot without a sling anymore.

Mick

i hold both mine [recurve and compound] in exactly the same way + sling. less pressure on the area around thumb and first finger.

[LineCutter]

I use one of the "clip together" wrist slings, that tie you to the bow. I used to use a bow mounted sling, which was OK too. I did once borrow a finger sling... I wasn't "programmed" to relax my hand in a tense fashion, so when I loosed the bow moved forward, taking the finger sling off my fingers & down range a yard or so.

As for learning the skill, when I shoot field I use no modern aids at all & manage not to drop the bow, whereas in target shooting I always drop the bow & let the sling catch it.

[PorlyP]

Well, I haven't settled entirely yet into a fixed grip, bad I know, but I'm trying stuff out while I can still get away with screwing up a lot.

I've been picked up on actively gripping the bow too hard, so over the weekend I tried two different ways to reduce the temptation to hold the bow too tightly:

1) tuck 3 fingers under themselves so it's actually impossible to grip with those fingers. felt ok if a little unstable.

2) holding with thumb and index, but using my extended little finger to touch the bow and take away the impulse to grip. Probably looks really daft, but was ok, and seemed to be easily repeatable with regards to placement of the hand (although I could be wrong)

I have to say, I like the grip pictured above, might try the hand angling thing.

[clickerati]

Where have I heard that before???

[LineCutter]

Originally Posted by PorlyP

I've been picked up on actively gripping the bow too hard, so over the weekend I tried two different ways to reduce the temptation to hold the bow too tightly:

1) tuck 3 fingers under themselves so it's actually impossible to grip with those fingers. felt ok if a little unstable.

2) holding with thumb and index, but using my extended little finger to touch the bow and take away the impulse to grip.

Beware gripping the bow with your thumb against the base of your index finger. If the bow's not trying to fall on the ground when you loose then you're probably holding on too tight