String picture: string way to the left of sight pin

Testot

New member
I'm a right-handed recurve archer. When I'm at full draw, the fuzzy string is way to the left of the sight pin. Not even close to touching it. Miles from the riser. I think this means I have quite an inconsistent string picture because there's nothing for me to measure its location against.

Articles about string picture suggest that the fuzzy string should/ could be next to the sight pin or even next to the riser. But there's no hint on how to change things to get it there.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks!
 

Timid Toad

Moderator
Staff member
Supporter
Fonz Awardee
Ironman
Ok, Lots going on here and you really need to get some hands on time with a coach.
But starters to think about: have you been checked to see if you are right eye dominant? So if you shoot both eyes open, is it the right eye's image your brain is seeing? Secondly, where are you anchoring the string? If it's central/left of your chin you might find that influences your natural picture. If you anchor to the right half of your chin it'll appear more to the right. Now. How do you grip the bow? Is the web of your thumb/forefinger down the centreline of the grip and the knuckles of the rest of your fingers out at at least 45 degrees?
If you've got all that sorted, then you need to think about *putting* the string up against the inside of the sight window (or somewhere there) as you draw up. It'll take some getting used to, but it can be learned.
 

Testot

New member
I’m right eye dominant (a coach has helped confirm this) and shoot with my left eye closed. I anchor I think to the centre of my chun: string touches the end of my nose, middle of my lips, and my right hand nestles on the right hand side of my jaw.
I think it’s the ‘putting’ the string against the inside of the sight window I need t work on - how do I physically do this? Is it just dragging the string to the right?
Thanks for your time!!
 

JohnK

Well-known member
All that TT says, but also this:

There have been Olympic archers who have aligned the string on the other side of the sight. It's not standard practice, but if you can do it consistently, then why not?

I had trouble in the past with my string picture. No matter what I did, the string sat over the sight itself, blurring or even blocking my view of the target. The problem was a combination of things, including string position on the face, head angle, and my tendency to cant the bow slightly to the left. You just need to work with a good coach you can trust to work out what's going on with you and how best to fix it.
 

geoffretired

Supporter
Supporter
If you use an elastic bow string, you can draw the bow with ease, and move your hand and head around while watching what happens to the string blur. If, for example, you turn your head a long way round and anchor on the centre of nose and chin, you will see the string to the left of the sight. If you stand in front of a mirror it will be easy to see why. If you hold a pencil, or similar, up against the centre of chin and tip of your nose to replicate that part of the string, you can see what happens, too. A mirror is useful for showing why things appear as they do.
If you don't turn your head quite so much, the tip of your nose will be further right compared to your right eye.( you will see the tip of your nose out of the corner of your eye) If the string is upright and touching the tip of your nose, it will now be landing to the right side of your chin, not dead centre as it was before.
 

Stretch

Well-known member
I shot naturally with my string to the left of the sight pin for many years. It works fine (I shot a 1245 WA1440 with it out there) but it needs to be consistent and to be consistent it needs to be aligned to the left edge of the pin. This alignment was often referred to as “Japanese” alignment. No clue why.

As pointed out above, a good coach could help you with this. However, if you are of the stubborn persuasion it is not that hard to fix yourself. Again, as suggested above a very light bow or elastic strap might be handy... but again not essential.

Firstly, get someone to take a photo of you from the front while you are at full draw (without an arrow) and aiming at the camera. This will also tell you if you look the way you think you look.

A simple exercise, with no bow, take “aim” at something as if you are aiming and at full draw. If you can see the blur of your nose to the left of your “target” the your string picture will follow. You need to find a head position that puts the tip of your nose on the left.

My guess who’ll be that your face is turned a long way to the target (make sure your are not leaving your shoulders open to the target) but then you are moving your face out to the string. (So in the vertical line from your point of view your chin is to the left and the top of your head is tilted towards the right - towards the bow). Getting your face upright or maybe tilted the other way a fraction will move the string across. This may not match up to what you describe as it would be hard for this to match to “tip of nose and centre of chin” unless your face is further through the line of your shoulders than most people can manage.

The good news is that once you fix it you will never work out how you managed to shoot like that in the first place. It took me maybe 2 to 3 weeks shooting 5 times a week to flip the switch. For me flipping did not make a huge difference to my best scores but it did improve consistency.

Again, as suggested above, a side anchor might facilitate as it forces the string to the right but if you tilt your head towards it your string picture will not change.

The worrying thing is that your initial coach didn’t pick this up - really this should have been quite obvious because of where your sight pin needs to be to centre the arrows. And in most cases it is obvious form the physical positioning of the head-shoulders-anchor.

Good luck fixing - it is doable and there is no magic knowledge needed. It is just how you are positioning your head with reference to the string.

Stretch
 
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