Basic yet Of the Utmost Importance - Bow Arm (Grip) - Part 2

In the previous part of discussion about bow arm (focused more on grip), we've discussed about the placement of our hand on a grip and the better or biomechanically more efficient way of "holding" a bow.


Today we're going to discuss about different type of wrist position and their advantages and disadvantages.


Low Wrist



The first, and perhaps the most common among the novices are the low wrist position. Check figure 6.


This wrist position is the easiest way to relax the wrist and the fleshy ball of our hand makes full contact with the grip. The wrist is held lower than the hand. In this way, the wrist and the rest of the hand can relax completely. A way to check if the hand is fully relaxed, is to ask another archer to feel the fingers of your bow hand while you are at full draw. It should be easy to bend the fingers.


Advantage : you can fully relax your wrist and you don't need much wrist strength.

Disadvantage : grasping can occur more easily when the hand is not fully relaxed. The larger contact area also tends to promote bow-torsion if the hand is placed off-axis. See also figure 4.





The off axis here actually means that our hand is not placed like as shown in the figure. To put our hand on the correct axis is that, try to imagine a straight line extending out of the right end of the wrist when full draw or when you're gripping the bow and to make sure that straight line actually go through the CENTRE of the grip of the bow.





Straight Wrist




Another way to place our hand on the grip is the straight wrist. See figure 7.





Now the wrist is at the same level as the hand. Pressure is applied on the area between thumb and index finger. Again, hand and wrist should be as relaxed as possible. It is easier to feel an error in the hand placement with the straight wrist.





Advantage : This position is fairly consistent

Disadvantage: Requires more strength than the low wrist position and so it is a little harder to maintain over long periods of shooting. The pressure between thumb and index finger pulls them together, closing the hand, and can lead to grasping.



Grasping of a bow, for most archers, can cause a lot of problem, but that doesn't mean that you cannot grab a bow when shooting to achieve high scores, provided that you have a very stable hand, perhaps. Well, some archers can still do very well to shoot without sling and grasping the bow, some won the Olympic shooting that way, one Example is the 2008 Olympic Men's Recurve Gold Medalist, and 2008 Archery World Cup Men's Recurve Olympic Round Silver Medalist. Still, archers are more advised to not grab their bow and some may still have problems of habitual grabbing the bow during release. We'll come to that later.



Now,

High Wrist



The last position to be discussed is the high wrist, see figure 8. Now the wrist is held higher than the hand. The hand only makes contact with a small area of the grip. Relaxed hand and wrist are essential, as usual.


Advantage : small contact area. The chances of torsion and of grasping reduce to a minimum in this way. With the high wrist position the chance of disturbing arrow flight is minimal.

Disadvantage : This position requires a large amount of wrist strength and is difficult to maintain over longer periods of shooting, e.g. a FITA Star. When tired, the hand quickly drops to a straight or low wrist.



Final remarks

The previous remarks should give a starting point as to what hand position to choose. Always bear in mind that the best position is the one that suits the build of the individual archer best. Pay specific attention to the amount of movement of the wrist.
It is also worthwhile to see how your stabilisers are set up and how they work with the sling. Usually, a well stabilised bow will jump forward from your hand and rotate only after this has happened. Make sure that there is enough space for this between bowgrip and hand. Not too much or otherwise the bow will slip through your hand and end up dangling from your sight. A space of about one centimetre (a little less than half an inch) is usually sufficient.
It is necessary to experiment with different hand positions. There are different types grips available worth trying.
Remember to always keep the bow hand as relaxed as possible and do this in the easiest and most simple way possible.