episode 4 | more on hand position

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Alistair answers some questions asked by viewers of the first 2 episodes of performance-archery.tv regarding hand position.

Transcript:

This is an insert really just to discuss some of the questions that came up with the front hand position. First of all we're going to have to just make absolutely clear (there was a little bit of discussion) about what you are going to do with your fingers. If you put your fingers inside your palm like this, you are making a natural pocket. Yes this top index finger is going to rest against the edge of the grip like that, but people said about some sort of tension within your hand - it is better if the hand sits absolutely square like this, and yes putting these in here does make a tension within your hand, but if you try and do something around the front of the grip you are always going to have a movement down the finger side, and that is going to be inconsistent, so bear with it, get used to what you are trying to do and where the pressure is trying to sit and in doing that put the fingers inside the palm. At a later date you can rest them [on the front of the riser] but only when you've learnt that this part - this back [of the] hand part has to be square back to you.

The other thing that came up about this [episode] was about the grips - [questions] to do with high and low grips. Now lets sort something out to start with. If you are going to shoot a high grip you are still looking for exactly the same position - [it's] just [that] the wrist is going to sit higher, so [with a] medium grip the wrist is sitting like this - and there's some good grips out there that are pre-made, this is just built up for an individual. I like (the) building them up yourself - there's a good make of grips out there at the moment which has brought high grips really into the fore, and people are using them who were scared and worried to make their own grips - they're a little bit wide, and let's not forget this idea of the thumb sitting over the top. So - [this is a] really high grip. Thumb [is] sitting over the edge of the grip, wrist [is] directly in line with the throat of the grip, but still at this point it doesn't make a push. Some people have been talking about if you have a high grip, do you get to push? Not at all - [the] bow is coming back to you through the line of the wrist, so we end up with this.

If I just go back to the standard medium grip, all you're going to see is that the wrist sits lower. The pressure is still coming through that base where the wrist is - the base of the hand. Not up here, but down there. And finally something that I like a lot. This is a made up grip, and I don't know if you'll be able to see this but it's for a right-handed archer (so reverse it for a left-handed archer) but for a right-handed archer as you look at this now, this side - the finger side of the grip - is higher than the thumb side, and that naturally makes this turn, this flat [of the hand] back to you fingers. And so although I appreciate that for a lot of you who are used to the fingers coming down the side of the bow, it's a little bit tense - this is what the very best grips (the mass produced ones) are naturally leading you to - to just have that straight back to you. So I hope that answers some of your questions.