Consistent Bowhand Position

Originally Posted by General Dogs

Earlier this week I shot for the first time at 80yds (60 yds being my previous maximum) and found that the extra 20 yds has a huge effect on magnifying minor errors in form.

One area where I am struggling to find consistency is with the positioning of my bow hand. Some shots feel great, with the bow sitting firmly in my hand and falling forward into my finger sling.

Other shots however are followed by the bow slewing left then right - sometimes quite fiercely - after release. I believe this is caused by the incorrect positioning of my bow hand.

Please accept this thread as an invitation for you all to reveal your 'trade secrets' -
How do you go about maintaining a consistent grip time after time?
What is your idea of the 'ideal' grip?

Best kept secret is 'sign up with a good coach for at least 6 months' as being guided through the basics is the best way to start imho

[King Custard]

Just a point I feel is often missed about the relaxation of the bow hand.....
It's not just a relaxing of the fingers so that any finger contact as the the bow jumps forward - is consistent...
But a relaxing of the wrist joint too.

any tension in that wrist, will (as always) be incredibly difficult to maintain consistently - and so too will pivot point / pressure point creating up/downs mostly, but some left/right movement too.
At full draw after checking handposition, I intend to 'numb off' or 'deaden' the whole bowhand to a couple of inches behind the wrist...imagine a star trek type 'warp field' (or bubble) around the whole hand wherein there is no strength atall..
Proper alignment makes this far easier to achieve.

well it works for me

[General Dogs]

Originally Posted by King Custard

...imagine a star trek type 'warp field' (or bubble) around the whole hand wherein there is no strength atall..

well it works for me

Live long and prosper KC

[King Custard]

" but thats contrary to all the known laws of physics, captain"

(in a scot accent)

[cornish george]

Ya cannae break the laws of physics

[Fugue]

A couple of ideas:

Mark out a position on the handle above your grip with a marker pen and use this as a locator when you put your hand into the grip. You can even draw a mark on your hand to line up with it.

As soon as you are at full draw check how your bow hand feels and the position, don't be afraid to have a visual check of the position till you get used to it.

As previously mentioned the swinging of the bow to one side could be caused by you not "pushing" the bow towards the target, this could be because you are correcting for sighting by torquing the bow (usually at the wrist).
For more accurate shots you should aim from the shoulder to avoid changing the direction of the force you are applying to the bow.
If you find you are having to make large corrections in the same direction (ie always swinging the arm to the right OR left to sight up) a change in foot position could be helpful.

[pHz]

no idea if its a good or bad technique but i have a strip of knobbly rubber grip tape horizontally around the grip so i can feel where my thumb / index fingers go and rather than try to grab the grip i pull it into my open hand as i begin to put tension into the string at the start of the draw (ie - the bow is hanging freely from the string and is pulled into my open bow hand rather than grabbing the grip and then beginning to draw)

slainte : rob

[chrism]

I know exactly what you are talking about. i have found I have two comfortable grip positions ( one almost parallel to the ground and one almost perpendicular) and the difference between these grips is Gold to Red at 60 yards. If I could stick to one I would be happy but I tend to oscillate between grips as I shoot. Still, early days.

[King Custard]

Originally Posted by cornish george

Ya cannae break the laws of physics

Can not believe I made such an obvious mistake

[ThePinkOne]

Originally Posted by John (OSF)

Best kept secret is 'sign up with a good coach for at least 6 months' as being guided through the basics is the best way to start imho

I'd say that's probably the best advice yet. Consistency in the shot is down to lots of things, one of which is the bowhand- but maybe not the most dominant one, our minds can play tricks.

As for how you find/identify a "good coach" that is of course a different matter and will be down to a lot of things, not least of which is personality- (a) do you get on and (b) do you have faith in what the coach is telling you (generally go through a dip before start to improve again)- what s/he starts working on first may not quite be what you expected/identified and is likely to be more than a quick fix of a bow-hand position over a couple of weeks....

I know some archers think you can teach yourself; personally I htink you can only get so far on your own. JMO though.

P.