There is guy who has won many tournaments nationally and at the state target levels. I'm hearing this story second hand, so I hope it's pretty accurate. Dave Barnsdale is his name.

Dave was shooting a national tournament years ago. Dave is 6'2-4 inches, anyways-he's pretty tall(especially compared to my 5'9" stubby frame). The first day he was in the lead in the pro class. That night his only bow he had taken "out of state" to the tournament blew up. His 31" draw bow was done, so he shot his wife's 24" bow instead. He preceded to shoot a perfect indoor round and won the tournament.

The point of the story: There is always a "perfect" length, and you'll find that shooting too short you have a tendancy to push arrows to the left if right handed, and I'm sure you can experience aches and pains that aren't normal, but the bottom line is, if you shoot with good form, you can still shoot very well several inches shorter-you just compensate by bending your elbow more. When doing this the pushing and pulling balance becomes much more critical, meaning you push too much you go left, pull too much you go right. On the other hand, if you are too long, you cannot shoot well, even with good form, because you anchor point becomes less secure, less natural, and sloppier as the draw length increases. Your anchor should stay the same when shortening though.

Your arm can always bend more to compensate, but it's real hard to get it to lengthen to accomidate a draw length too long, that's where the problem lies.

Jeff...U.P. of Michigan.