Stickbow Target Archery Forums

Ah, the witchery of archery is steeped in all things longbow!

ArcC, so you are saying that holding a longbow firmly and a recurve losely are myths?n
Would the recurve of taken over if the longbow was as good of a shooter?

Hi Mark,n
I am saying that if a technique works for longbow, I'll be asking why it shouldn't work for recurve. I tried the firm grip both with a longbow AND with a recurve -- got great results with both -- folklore says hold a longbow firmly, and a recurve loosely.
And, of course, since all my experience has been with a recurve -- I'll be asking why I shouldn't continue to shoot a longbow just like my recurve.

Thanks. Just wondering.

I hold the recurve with a very high wrist usually. Only because that is how I get the best arrow flight. Bare shaft testing proved it to me. Just touch the index finger and the thumb on their tips. I must be torqueing it when I put more than the web of my hand on the grip.
I can't shoot my longbow well and would like to figure something out with it too. Part of it seems to be that I need the mass of the recurve to hold on target after release.

I too use a loose grip with my recurve (FITA bow); in fact I use a totally open grip and rely on the wrist sling to keep it from jumping out of my hand upon release. On the other hand, with my longbow I use a fairly firm grip, because I've found I experience lots of bow torgue otherwise (must be my release.) Apparently, the greater mass of the FITA bow prevents this same torque and allows a loose grip. I know I should be using a loose grip on both, but just aren't confident with the longbow.

Floxter - back when I saw starting FITA recurve, I opened my hand to let the bow drop into the sling. However, it soon became obvious that I was involuntarily grabbing the bow, and it seemed to be because of tension in my bow hand. Nowadays I just place the hand into the bow and then forget about the fingers, letting them rest lightly on the bow. That way, the bow simply pushes them out of the way during follow through.

That's how it works for me anyway. YMMV.