Stickbow Target Archery Forums

I spent a couple of days shooting at 70 meters -- wow -- what an unforgiving (and telltale) distance! At short range, I don't pay any attention to my 3rd finger -- and I don't think it makes much difference. But at long range, that 3rd finger starts to become important -- a little too strong and my arrows go high -- a little too weak and they go low. I've heard that some archers don't use it at all -- and others do use it, and pay a lot of attention to it. What are your thoughts -- should you cut the third finger off, or cultivate it?

Don't cut it off! Use it to your advantage. With enough practice, you can use it to adjust your second arrow impacts. (it doesn't just hit high and low at 70, it can cause you to hit high and low at all distances, it just shows up more exagerated at 70. Just try it. If you consistantly hit a little high at 30, use that 3rd finger to adjust and see what happens, keep your anchor exactly the same. Anyway, have fun. Don

At the NAA Coach's camp, they told us finger pressure should be split up, 30% on index finger, 60% on middle finger, and 10% on ring finger. Easier said than done!

I think that adjusting the pressure on the third finger is a poor way of adjusting your sight. As with anything in shooting a bow you must learn how to do the same thing each time. This is the purpose of practice.

Finding out what to do is not possible via the internet but you should join a club shooting the style you like, get a coach and get some good books on your style. Massachusetts is not an archery wasteland and has many of the above. You might also go to tournaments and meet other archers.

You might also consider taking the series of NAA Instructor courses. In addition to learning how to coach, you also learn proper shooting techniques.

Bill, you are right on the money. But I should tell you that this forum is enormously helpful.
You see, I can read McKinney and Axford and Kidwell, I can take the level one and level two NAA coaching courses, I can acquire a level 4 NAA coach and consult with the local barebow champ, and I find that they all disagree with other. And I've found that using my personal experience as a basis for decisions is also a way to go down some dead end roads that a wider audience would warn me about if I were to listen.
So, don't underestimate the value of your advice in this forum. It is very very helpful. And if you want to put a measure on the usefulness of your advice -- despite having a point-on range of 70 yards, which puts me into the purely instinctive category at indoor league distances, my indoor average is in the low 230s for the 300 round. I know it isn't world class yet, but hey -- with your continued help, I may get there yet:')

The way I shoot is to let the ring finger "float" I try to keep my elbow in line with the arrow point, so the whole arm is as relaxed as it can be. I found that if I raised my elbow I would be putting extra pressure on my ring finger (I've still got the calus to prove it)

I used to drop the ring finger off the string once I came to anchor, thinking that it helped me avoid string torque. But shooting at long distances (90M FITA and 100yrd York) showed me that lightly involving the ring finger gave me considerably more left/right accuracy. At the shorter ranges, i.e. 20yrds indoors, it doesn't seem to make much difference.