In my never ending search for knowledge (horsemuffins[8D]) I have been experimenting with the grip on my ChekMate recurve. I began brainstorming (always a dangerous undertaking) after shooting my old Wing with it's high wrist grip and having a great night of shooting last Thursday.

My ChekMatewas made withwhat I would call a low wrist grip while I use a neutral wrist position - meaing my wrist is straight. Neither high like Asbell, nor low/brokenlike one would use with a longbow. the CMnever has felt particularly comfortable. At first, I thought it was because the grip was a little thick, so I thinned it a bit. It didn't really help much.

So, since I didso well with the high wrist grip on the Wing, I decided to tryto modify theangle of the grip on the CM, but I didn't want to do anything permanent in case it didn't work out. I have a lot of leather scraps (thanks again, Chris), soI got out a piece of leather, folded it up, laid it over the lower part of the grip and wrapped it in place with another strip of leather. In effect, I built the grip up into a medium highwrist grip.

Took the bow out to the range to try it out. First thing I noticedwhen drawing the bow is how comfortable it felt. Good. Second, the grip forced my hand into exactly the same position each time. That's very good. Third, all the muscle tension I'd been feeling in my forearm was gone. Very, VERY good. Lastly, somehow, it made the draw weight seem a good 5 pounds lighter. I suppose it was because I felt more relaxed and wasn't having to concentrate so hard on keeping the grip balanced in my hand.

Then I started playing around with my stance.

Until about 5 years ago, I'd always shot with an extremely open stance, with my back foot actually placed behind the line from the target to my front foot. At that time, I'd decided I wanted to shoot wood arrows again, so I moved my back foot well forward of that imaginary lineto close my stance, trying to shorten my draw length. It seemed to work well for me, even though I began getting unexplainable misses to the left. Then my shoulders started going sour about two years ago, to the point I couldn't handle much draw weight and developed a serious problem with snap shooting before getting to anchor.

Today I took my old aluminums with me, cut 32 1/2". I decided to try my old stance again, and slid that back foot way back to where I'd always done before. I guess I shot 150 arrows all told. Everything just clicked. Didn't feel my shoulders at all. Nice clean anchor and release. That is just my natural alignment, I guess, putting all the pressure and tension from the bow in alignment with my shoulders and the target.

Both changes togetherreally helped mewith COMFORTABLY handling the draw weight.

So, I have come to a couple of conclusions. You need a grip made to fit your natural grip angle. I think that's likely the number one reason people get a bow that simply doesn't feel right or shoot well for them. Second, you need to play around with your stance in order to find your own natural shoulder alignment with the target. Third, when you find the right combination for you, DON'T MESS WITH IT!

Now I'm gonna try building up the grip on my longbow. One never knows...

Glad you didn't whittle it down! I know what you mean, at least to a point--I thought it was just me. I can pick up a bow and I may not know right then if I will like it, but I can tell if it don't--if the grip doesn't fit, I'm not going to like it, I don't care if it shoots 500 fps and fletches it's own arrows. Had a chance to shoot one of the "latest and greatest" bows on the market a while back, with carbon replacing the glass, shoots faster than anything out there, etc. etc. I drew it, but I didn't shoot it--grip didn't fit me at all, and I knew right then I was not going to like it. Kinda wish I had shot it a time or two, but......oh well.

Never thought much about my stance--most of the places I shoot vary too much--slopes up, slopes down, not many level spots--I just get as comfortable as I can with that also.

Chad

Wow, sounds great Arthur!

BUT, now that leads to more questions. How important is what all the books say then? If you have the basics like consistant draw, anchor, bla bla bla. Then how much should I look like the next guy? You run across this question all the time in cycling with bike fit. All men are NOT created equal physically, so how much varience is ok and how much is just stubborness? I've been trying like everything to get my back elbow down in line with everything. It sticks up!! It hurts when I try to pull it down, and I'm not having much luck keeping it down in line. Is it maybe just me? Is it just always having shot that way I don't want to change it? I don't know, and how important is it?

Anyway, sounds like you sure got things worked out AP!! 150 shots is impressive indeed, you must feel great!
BTW, I need an illustration on high, medium, low wrist. I get low and straight, how the heck do you shoot high wrist?? Sounds uncomfortable!

Christopher

Arthur, if you're bored and interested, it'd be great if you could post some riser pics showing the grip area that corresponds with the different wrist positions you're describing.

About everytime I'm sure I've figured out what high/mid/low wrist is, I convince myself I don't...

With my bow hand extended, low wrist has my thumb higher, medium has it level and high wrist has it lower, right?