Grip is something a lot of folks take for granted, I think.

I don't grab the handle like I'm totin' a suitcase. Here's how to take the grip I like... Hold your bow arm straight out, inside bend of the elbow vertical to the floor, palm down, thumb extended out to the side. Rotate your wrist so that your thumb is pointing up at a 45 degree angle. Elbow bendis still perpendicular to the floor! Now, just relax your fingers and the back of your hand. The bow fits right into that V. Index finger wraps around the front of the bow. Middle finger is about in the middle of the bow. Ring finger just touchingand the pinky is not touching the bow.

A bow will usually tell you how it wants to be gripped. Grab the handle, take hold of the string, relax your grip - plumb loose! - and draw the bow. Pay attention to how the handle wants to settle into your hand. Where it pushes hardest, that's where you want to put your hand pressure. If it's in the throat area, the bow is telling you it likes a high wrist grip. If it's a bit below the throat, it wants a medium grip. If it's more into the palm, the bow wants a low wrist.

Now, go back through the steps I use to obtain my grip. Point that big knuckle on your fist from your index finger at the wall so that the top of your hand is level with your forearm. That is high wrist. Now, relax the wrist. That big knuckle will be above the line of your forearm. That's medium wrist. Lean the hand back, but not so much that you'll feel strain in the wrist. That is low wrist.

It's all about shooting the bow the way it wants to be shot. If you want to shoot with a certain style grip and the bow wants to be shot a different way, then you've got a problem. And, like Chad said, if the grip doesn't feel comfortable, that's also a problem. You can either send the bow down the road to find a new home - which is probably best - or, if you're handy, you can modify the grip.

Take the grip on my ChekMate, for instance. I always felt it was a little thick in the throat area, felt like it could use a bit more of a palm swell and it was cut a little too much into a low wrist for my tastes. I could send the bow down the road, but I've already sold two cutom bows I wish I hadn't. I did not want to repeat a mistake like that. So...

I got out the sandpaper and thinnedthe throatdown a bit- not too much because I definitely don't want to hear something go CRACK when I draw the bow. [:-]Then I got a long strip of leather and folded up a few other pieces of leather. I wrapped those folded pieces of leather under the thong - one under the side of the gripto make more of a palm swell and the otheron the belly side of the grip toincrease the grip angle. I wound up with a grip that felt very comfortable.

The pads let me put pressure where the bow wanted it and yet let me hold my wrist at an angle that was comfortable.

Also, I've got a definite preference for a wrapped handle rather than using a piece of leather glued and sewn on. The wraps give you something you can feel in your hand. If you can feel them in places where they aren't supposed to be when your grip is right, you know you haven't your grip right. I have never tried that navcom stuff, but with all those bumps and stuff, it's gotta have enough reference points to drive you absolutely NUTS! [8D]