Grip,bow hand?

[Bert01]

Hey guys, I’ve been shooting for a couple of years but never had any real training on how to shoot. I was wanting to hear how you grip or hold the bow.

I’m shooting a pretty open grip, using my palm to push against the bow, with the bow in the crease between the base of my pointer finger/thumb and the bottom of my palm. Fingers open, not touching the bow.

My best groups are with my arm extended basically straight, I’m assuming that gives me the least amount of movement At release and follow through.

My problem is that I keep hitting myself in the forearm with the string. As I straighten my arm my elbow rolls counter clockwise and into the string path.

I can shoot ok with my elbow bent slightly and don’t get hit by the string but it is not as easy to shoot good groups that way. I get “flyer’s” 2 or 3 inches out of my groups because I’m moving the bow slightly on release.

By “good” groups I mean 2” @ 20 to 3” @ 30

I guess my question is am I doing it wrong or do I just need to try harder on follow through? Is there a different way to hold the grip? It looks like some guy just hold it in the V between their thumb and forefinger?

 

[Mish-pop]

Allowing your forearm to rotate into your bowstring sounds like the big issue to me and one I had issue with myself. What I had to do was hold my bow at full draw and work on engaging the muscles of my forearm to help me turn my elbow clockwise. I also would practice placing my palm flat against a wall and practice rotating my elbow clockwise. Does that make sense?

 

[Dave0317]

Look up John Dudley’s videos.
Also look at some good Barebow shooters form. Your bows grip should roughly lay just outside or on the thumb side of your “lifeline”. Your knuckles actually come off the bow at a 45 degree angle down and to the left, if they are stacked vertically along the side of the grip like when you grab a beer can, you will slap your arm a lot. Once you get your knuckles off at a 45, you will see your forearm naturally stays out of the string path.
I think Jake Kaminski has a good video on it too.

 

[DB29]

What angle do your knuckles make with the grip at full draw? If your knuckles are too parallel with the grip it will cause forearm hits. You want your knuckles making about a 45* angle with the grip.

 

[Samdemarais]

Should look like this. Knuckles at 45 degrees and elbow rotated out

 

[Dave0317]

Another angle, and a good video. Lots of the recurve stuff actually translates pretty well to both compound and recurve.

Watch all the Dudley stuff, but then watch all the Kaminski stuff too. I didn’t learn what proper form truly was until I got a recurve. And once I got the hang of that, my groups with a compound got more consistent as well.

 

[Marble]

Probably need to rotate your hand and point your fingers nearly straight up. This will rotate your arm and thus, pull that forearm away from the string.

The grip should be nearly entirely on the thumb half of your hand.

Your draw length may also need to be changed.

Go to YouTube and look up John Dudleys school of Nock.

Sent from my SM-S918U using Tapatalk

 

[Bert01]

Thanks for the replies, I’d get my bow out and play with it but the in-laws are here for Christmas and my MIL is asleep in the guest room that leads to my gun room, so it’ll be tomorrow lol.

I may be just putting my bow too far left in my hand. My fingers are at a 45, I can roll my elbow out of the way but it doesn’t come naturally. I can feel it in my muscles doing it while I’m typing so maybe I just need to practice that more.

I’ll watch the videos, thanks!

 

[Mish-pop]

Thanks for the replies, I’d get my bow out and play with it but the in-laws are here for Christmas and my MIL is asleep in the guest room that leads to my gun room, so it’ll be tomorrow lol.

I may be just putting my bow too far left in my hand. My fingers are at a 45, I can roll my elbow out of the way but it doesn’t come naturally. I can feel it in my muscles doing it while I’m typing so maybe I just need to practice that more.

I’ll watch the videos, thanks!

Rolling my elbow out of the way did not feel natural at all for me right away. But now it's almost second nature when drawing my bow.

 

[Wrench]

Pay attention to your shoulder. High shoulder is a gateway to injury. Shoulder down and rotate the forearm.

Tom clum has an entire series on the PUSH podcasts one of which is specifically dedicated to bow hand.