QUICK TIPS

Get A grip!

You may have noticed that over the past ten years or so, bow grips have been getting progressively smaller. A decade ago, most bow manufacturers built compound hunting bows with generous hand-filling grips. Some even sported cut-out thumb rests and bow shops sold different sizes to fit different hands. These grips often felt comfortable enough, but they encouraged a strangling hand hold that often torqued the bow and destroyed accuracy. Compound target shooters of that era often simply removed the molded plastic or carved wood grip from their bows and shot with just the metal frame resting in the base of an open-hand grip, a technique that made torquing the bow very difficult and helped to boost scores.

Gradually bowhunters realised the advantages of an open-hand form, and manufacturers followed with grips that today are about the same size as the older bows with the molded or carved bits removed. The advantages are seen in greatly improved overall form and accuracy. And there is an even more practical application for the trend to narrower grips. As grips got smaller, cams were getting larger, and one danger of a large cam shot with a tight grip is that it is quite easy to torque the bow enough so the the string climbs right out of the cam groves on release or let down and effectively unstrings the bow. The narrow grip held in a relaxed and open hand prevents this from happening.

But even with the new skinny bow handles, the hand position is still one of the most critical elements in proper form. Most knowledgeable coaches advocate an open-hand form with the back of the grip applying even pressure from the base of the thumb to the heel of the hand with no side pressure (torque) applied at all. Uneven pressure on either of the four axes (up and down, right and left) will cause arrow flight to divert in the opposite direction of the pressure. Thus if you are heeling the grip with too low a wrist, you can expect your arrow to go high, and if you torque the bow to the right, your arrow will go left (and vise versa, of course).