I haven't watched the vid, but I'm assuming it's the one Rob Jenkins put up? Rod is one heck of a shot--real nice guy too--but what works for Rod may not work for you.

IMO, do NOT drop your bow arm. A full and even exagerrated follow through works best for me--if I don't follow through, my accuracy suffers.

Some folks say you have to grip a longbow tight. I don't--if I try to choke it to death, I torque, and again--my shooting suffers. Heavier arrows will help the handshock, but some bows (longbow and recurve) will have shock even with super heavy arrows. Some tuning may eliminate part of that also.

Some shoot split, some shoot 3-under--just use what works best for you.

Rod does NOT snap shoot. He may not hold at anchor for a long time, but he firmly and positively comes to anchor. I've shot with him a few times, and probably will again this summer. I've never seen a consistently accurate archer that snap-shoots. Getting your head in the game does play a big part.

Chad

I agree with LBR about dropping the bow arm, but then again I'm not even in the same ball park as Rod Jenkins.... I've heard other top archers say that with a proper follow through the bow arm should fall to the left for a right handed shooter.... I've tried every concievable hold possible and mine ALWAYS falls straight forward and a tad to the right...

Then again, Rick Welch, who is probably one of the best shots in the world maintains almost the same anchor and hold as Rod, but his bow arm stays perfectly still...

I believe it's different strokes for different folks.

I also keep my bow arm up and exagerated after the shot as Chad has mentioned. I also get a grip on the bow (longbow). Maybe not a death grip, but a decent grip. More of a Howard Hill style. If I don't grip the bow decently, it throughs other things off. Remember that you have no stabilizer. But, I should mention, that as I draw, I keep a looser grip to feel the pivot point of the bow. I grip according to the pivot point. On my Adcock, it was ordered as a medium grip, but maybe because of my hand shape, it turns out to be a low grip. As such, I grip with more pressure with my bottom two fingers. I also will not exagerate the release hand and try to touch my shoulder. To tell you the truth, I shoot best when I have no idea where the release hand goes after the shot. THe more I think about the release the worse it gets basiacally.

I just bought a book about instintivie shooting by Asbell. Looks like alot of good info.

Some good info in Asbel's book, but then some of his info is bogus. I don't at all agree with the way he discounts the need for a good, solid anchor and consistent draw length. I also don't think he's correct in saying you need to take a chicken-chokin', white knuckle grip on a longbow handle. Other than those two glaring points, his book is okay. [&:]

Arthur, any other book you recommmend

Easy question to answer. "Become the Arrow" by Byron Ferguson.

Also, "Hunting the Hard Way" by Howard Hill. I've heard good things about "Hittin' em Like Howard Hill" by Schulz, but I've never read it myself. Hill, Schulz and Ferguson are all pretty much the same style. Since I've read Hill and Ferguson, I haven't felt too compelled to buy Schulz's book. Ought to tho, I guess...[&:]

Don't try to exactly copy any one style. Try the different things each book recommends. Some of the stuff simply will not work for you. Forget those things. Find out what does work for you and incorporateTHOSE things into developing your own style. I do a bit of Asbell at short distances, a bunch of Fergusonon longer shots,and some stuff that I've just figured out for myself over the years.

One of the big benefits, to me anyway, of an exagerrated follow-through is you can get an idea of what you are doing--right or wrong. If your bow arm drops and you are consistentlyhitting low and left (right handed shooter), you know you are dropping it too soon. If your release hand is 6" in front of your face, or well away from your face, you knowyou aren't anchoring properly.

Just my opinion (take it for what it's worth), but I have no idea how Fred Asbell became accepted as an "expert". I tried to read the books (just couldn't get through either one), and I have the video. Like Art said, there is some good info., but some that's just so far out there it's funny, and he contradicts himself. For instance, in one part of the video he says you should anchor a certain way to get the arrow close to your eye, but in another part says you shouldn't shoot 3-under because it gets the arrow too close to your eye. He says something like "you cannot shoot accurately using 3-under"--guess he's never seen Rod Jenkins or Ricky Welch shoot. He uses a super-light drawing bow to exaggerate why you shouldn't shoot 3-under (I don't shoot 3-under, but I know a lot of guys that do, and are excellent shots).He puts lots of extra pressure on the lower limb, making it bend much more, which is very misleading.

Nothing personal against the guy--don't know him and never met him--I just don't agree with a lot of what he says.

Art covers the rest very well.

Chad

Darn sounds like I wasted 18 dollars. Oh well. Thanks guys for the comments.

Nah, you didn't waste your money. The more you know about different styles, the easier it is for you to develop your own.

When I was a kid, I lived around and shot with Apaches and Comanches. I learned to shoot using the pinch draw/floating anchorlike they did,and didn't learn to shoot like a white man till I was in college.I've played around with a whole bunch of different shooting methods since though, and I think Ferguson's explanation of Hill's gap shootingmethod will get you to shooting better, sooner.

If you pay attention to what he says, eventually you begin paying less and less attention to the gap until, in effect, you become an instinctive shooter. But you still have the gap system to fall back on when you switch to a different bow or try different arrows.