Anchor Point

aquatoo

Member
When I first took up archery in the mid 1960's I was taught to put the string to the tip of my nose and the middle of my chin so that my forefinger was under the jawbone. After a few years I gave up archery (wish I hadn't) and did various other things. I returned to archery in 2007 to discover that the thinking then was that the string should be to the right hand side of the chin (I am right-handed) so that the arrow was below the eye.

So, I drew the bow to slightly to the right of my chin and got on reasonably well, making Bowman without any coaching at all. That attracted the attention of the County Coach who put me with, the then, chief coach for said County. He decided I wasn't properly getting into line and that I should draw further to the side of my face. I tried this for a while, shot longer arrows, and gradually got worse as an archer and with a painful left shoulder. I got to be so bad that I gave up altogether.

When I started with the coach my only problem was that on occasion I plucked the release and asked if we could concentrate on that. He told me that when I got properly in line that my release would be cured as a result. It wasn't! At that time I was in my sixties, a little round shouldered from working at a desk most of my life, and not as flexible as a teenager. The final straw was that at the last coaching session I attended he observed that he thought I was so far in line that I had nowhere to go as my shoulder blades were already up against one another. I know of another, pretty good, archer who went through the same process and then tried to get back to how he shot before and couldn't. Neither could I.

Anyway, to bring this long post to a conclusion, I have returned to archery and am intrigued to notice that many of the top international archers are now drawing the bow to either the middle, or close to, of the chin. Is this the new thinking, and why the change?
 

Whitehart

Well-known member
Was there really a change?

Running the string down the side of the face presents a number of challenges
1 When we release we deflect the string with our fingers into the face so the further back you draw the more opportunity for deflection of the string.
2 We anchor under the jaw bone again the further back you go and your hand follows the jaw bone the closer your hand is to your eye giving you poorer sight marks despite drawing the arrow back further.
3 The position of the string on the face determines the position of the back sight so unless you turn your head more you are not inline pointing the arrow more to the left RH archer requiring a correction of the sight pin position.

The only reasons I can see for not drawing closer to the front of the face is for medical reasons or it works for you.

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Was there really a change?

Running the string down the side of the face presents a number of challenges
1 When we release we deflect the string with our fingers into the face so the further back you draw the more opportunity for deflection of the string.
2 We anchor under the jaw bone again the further back you go and your hand follows the jaw bone the closer your hand is to your eye giving you poorer sight marks despite drawing the arrow back further.
3 The position of the string on the face determines the position of the back sight so unless you turn your head more you are not inline pointing the arrow more to the left RH archer requiring a correction of the sight pin position.

The only reasons I can see for not drawing closer to the front of the face is for medical reasons or it works for you.
 

geoffretired

Supporter
Supporter
If you stand in front of a mirror and hold a pencil, or similar, ( to represent the bow string contact) up to your face so the pencil touches the tip of your nose and centre of your chin,while you look directly into the mirror, you will note the aiming eye is well over to the right of the pencil. That would mean having a very poor view of the string at full draw. If you turn your head as you would to shoot, the pencil will appear in front of the aiming eye, but is leaning over to the right at the top.
So now you would see the string when aiming but you will be canting the bow. To get the string in view without canting the bow, the pencil at the chin will need to move across the chin to the right, while the upper part stays on the tip of the nose. That move keeps the string on the front of the chin but not central.
That also moves the draw hand to the right but still under the jaw. That allows the draw hand a bit more room as it is no longer in front of the Adam's apple but over to the side of it. If you draw a picture of that viewed from above, the draw hand has moved slightly out , away from the bow shoulder, giving a better clearance for the string path. It also brings the draw hand more easily into line with the draw elbow. In the sense that a common problem is having the draw elbow sticking out compared to the draw hand . That misalignment makes a relaxed release more difficult.
Leaving your head facing straight at the mirror and drawing the string in front of your aiming eye will bring the string along the side of your nose and down the side of your jaw. Chances are an extra long draw will result from that which puts the draw elbow too far round and the shoulder blades will come together.
 
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