Changing to olympic style anchor recurve

oceanjaws

Supporter
Supporter
AIUK Saviour
Hi.
I've been shooting for a few years, and when I'm at full draw, my index finger touches my canine tooth. It's been good for me.
The other day I watched a video (I watch a lot of archery videos) on that YouTube thing, and this one video was espousing the benefits of drawing to your chin - olympic style. It made SO much sense to look down the shaft of the arrow that today I practised like that.
I'll honestly say that it was really great. Gimme a while at it, and perhaps I'll mellow in my opinion, but today it felt so right.

The thing is, when I was drawing, I was drawing and the nock was touching my lip. I shoot 3 under, you see.
It was good for me. I could feel the nock touching my lower lip, and the string on the tip of my nose. My index finger was in the cleft under my lip. I was staring down the shaft of the arrow.
What do you think? Do any of you shoot that way?
 

geoffretired

Supporter
Supporter
It sounds good. I would add a little bit about the string blur and where that appears in relation to the arrow ,and to the Centreline of the bow. Sometimes archers turn the head too far round to face the gold and that can bring on a posture that puts the string at full draw into a position that is between the eyes and not in line with the aiming eye. That can, at the same time, leave the draw elbow out of line making the full draw posture harder to hold steady.
 

oceanjaws

Supporter
Supporter
AIUK Saviour
Thanks Geoff, as always!!
and.... of course... here's a video so you can see how it's looking.
A few excuses beforehand...

1st - yes my arrows are too long, and I'll sort that out.
2nd - my head is moving into the string, and it should be in position and then I should move the string to that position. I'm still finding that position though, so i'm currently getting a feeling in my body of how I should be at full draw.
3rd - I know that hat is more for formal/urban environments, but I lost my trekking hat.


Normally we'd have these conversations in our private messages, but it might be interesting to see how the others react.
 

geoffretired

Supporter
Supporter
First off, I had the wrong idea about what you were doing with the draw hand and where it was contacting your chin. So what I said about, the draw elbow ending up out of line, doesn't apply.
There is a lot of good stuff going on there.
A couple of details to mention. When you are drawing to your face and just about to settle the draw hand against it, you tend to open/close your mouth which could mean some variation from shot to shot regarding where the hand is in relation to the aiming eye. You could check this out by wrapping some thread or similar round the string about a hand width above the nocking point. Adjust it until, at full draw, the thread appears close to the arrow point.( that isn't legal for competitions but it will let you know if the hand is varying from shot to shot and give you a chance to sort the issue before you remove it.)
When you draw the bow and get the string onto your face and then adjust its position, that adjusting seems to be causing a distraction. It's a bit like someone taking a penalty in soccer and doing hesitant steps just before kicking the ball properly and so losing speed.
I feel it would be better to make sure you keep pulling to adjust your hand on your face; as opposed to creeping forwards and getting the shakes.
Great video by the way!
 

Steve Ruis

Supporter
Supporter
Hi.
I've been shooting for a few years, and when I'm at full draw, my index finger touches my canine tooth. It's been good for me.
The other day I watched a video (I watch a lot of archery videos) on that YouTube thing, and this one video was espousing the benefits of drawing to your chin - olympic style. It made SO much sense to look down the shaft of the arrow that today I practised like that.
I'll honestly say that it was really great. Gimme a while at it, and perhaps I'll mellow in my opinion, but today it felt so right.

The thing is, when I was drawing, I was drawing and the nock was touching my lip. I shoot 3 under, you see.
It was good for me. I could feel the nock touching my lower lip, and the string on the tip of my nose. My index finger was in the cleft under my lip. I was staring down the shaft of the arrow.
What do you think? Do any of you shoot that way?
You didn't say but it sounds as if you are shooting Recurve Barebow? Yes? By shooting 3FU, you can crawl down to distances inside your point on target distance. It get to distances beyond your 3FU point on, you can drop down to the under chin anchor and then crawl down from the point on for that distance. If the two sets of crawls cover all of the distances you need to shoot, you are good to go. There are other techniques (shooting of of the shelf, etc.) but this is what I start my Barebow students on.

If you are shooting standard Olympic-style, with a sight and whatnot, be aware that there was a Swedish female Olympian a while back who shot with a 3FU string grip, so you do not have to give that up if you like the feel of it.

By the way, an under chin anchor does not allow for sighting down the arrow shaft (across the arrow point, yes, down the shaft, no). The only time you get to sight down the shaft, aka "shotgunning", is when you are taking a large crawl, bringing the nock end of the arrow up near your aiming eye.
 
Top