The way you hold your hand influences many different factors in how your archery tag bow reacts to the shot, and it is the foundation of proper shooting form. Improper bow grip leads to unwanted torque during your shot. You need to place your hand on the archery tag bow in a way that is repeatable since your hand is the first and last thing to touch the bow during the shot sequence. We owe it to ourselves as archers to be as consistent as possible. This article will hopefully lend you a few pointers on how to grip a bow properly.
Where To Grip The Archery Bow
For your grip to be most effective, your bow needs to rest on the pad of your thumb. You should be able to identify this point as the area to the left of the lifeline or palmar crease if you are looking at your left hand. This is because there are fewer muscles involved. Whereas if you grip the bow with your entire hand, you are crossing several muscle groups which add tension to your grip that can lead to inconsistencies in form and unwanted torque. The bow grip should not cross the lifeline of your hand. Having too much hand on the grip or gripping your archery bow tightly with your hand places your forearm inline of the string. This is why you commonly hear people hitting their arm whilst in a game of archery tag. Furthermore, adding more muscles to your form will result in fatigue during your long games of archery tag tournaments.
Relax Your Hand
When you place your archery bow alongside the lifeline of your hand, you will notice that your knuckles and fingers will be sitting off to the side a slight angle to the riser. We’d advise keeping this angle around 45 degrees from the bow riser. However, don’t be too restricted by our advise. Instead, experiment with different degrees of angle on the pad of your thumb to find the sweet spot that works for you. Remember, everyone’s different, so you do you! Try to keep your thenar eminence as relaxed as possible through the draw and shot execution and point your thumb towards the target. A relaxed hand (and fingers) is essential to a successful grip position.
You can easily practice this technique at home by holding your hand out in front of you (as if you were trying to make someone stop) and then simply relaxing your fingers. Or, you could simply contact us to book for archery tag sessions where you can put these theories into practice! What are you waiting for?