If you don't like this regimented/form orientated shooting, you don't need to comment. DON'T DO IT BECAUSE I DO IT, DO IT BECAUSE IT MAKES SENSE TO YOU. All these form threads are no substitute for a coach. No matter how good any written word is, it can't point and say, “move this here”.

Anchor is the next position in the chain of events. Here we cannot rely on any of our famed authors/archers, because we don't anchor under the chin. That unfortunately means I can't steal from anyone and you will have to suffer through what learned ages ago in the first 10ish years of my archery career.

Now days everyone wants to make things easy – shorten the gap. Hence 3 under, anchor with the middle finger in the corner of the mouth. I was taught, 'learn to live with it', when it comes to a huge gap. Quite frankly, I don't know what my gap is at 20 yards. (I am a gapper) I believe I measured it years ago and it was 42 inches at 20 yards. I learned to gap without putting numbers on the distance and the gap. I'll address that in **Aiming** in the future.

The reason I mention gap is because where you anchor has a direct relation to your gap size. Closer to your eye the smaller the gap. Oly shooters shooting 90 meters need a large gap so their fist is not covering the target, hence the anchor below the chin. Plus from person to person if we measured from the center of the eye to the corner of their mouth we'll get different measurement. An eighth here is going to make a big difference at 20 yards and more at 30.

My anchor is split finger, forefinger in the corner of the mouth, first knuckle of the hand in the cheek bone, and jaw bone in the 'C' created by the thumb and forefinger. I learned that by the mid '60's but who's counting. I will never change, because I'm used to it. George, what do you have here or someone who learned in that era? I'm betting today it's still pretty close to what you learned then.

I will say that today I check my string blur from time to time, especially if I've had a big miss. But I don't know if it's ever necessary because it seems to be the same always. I think if you're conscious of it or check it from time to time it give you arrow alignment. By that I mean for my gap, I can use the tip of the arrow or any spot up to the riser and my arrow will impact up and down, no left or right.

Just to explain string blur, because I'm betting most of us don't see it unless we look for it. At anchor you should see it off to the right of the arrow in your peripheral vision (for a right handed shooter).

I do not use 3 under, because I don't like the feel of three under for stalking. To me it's like loss of control, the arrow is going to fall off the string. When it comes to the middle finger in the corner of the mouth, I don't like it because I have to put tension in my wrist to get it there. ANY tension in the wrist is not a good thing. In addition, it takes away the feeling of my hand knuckle in my cheek bone. My biggest objection is that it shortens the gap, the exact reason everyone does it. It gives me a gap at 40 yards, probably like everyone has at 20. Guess what? I'm pretty good at 40+ yards.

To each his own.

To reference past subjects search by clicking on key word:

**Stance** **Grip** **Hook** **Body Posture** **Head Position** **KSL Sequence** **Set Position** **Set Up Position**

I always thought Anchor was a bad term. It mplies a solid stop. Archery is dynamic...you must always be pulling to get a proper release.

When you stop it could cause you to creep up. Keep pulling I subscribe to that too.

Anchor is also a dynamic term and in the context of archery form, it is very accurate. You do have an anchor, that you pull into as the shot then allows for a "dynamic" release. By the way, there are many folks who use a static release and do very well indeed. Nothing is always and nothing is never.

I first "learned" to shoot a recurve in the '60s. Someone told me about gap shooting so I tried it. Someone told me to put that forefinger to the corner of my mouth for an anchor. No one told me anything else and I went on through life. After I left the recurve for the blasted compound I wasn't satisfied with it even after taking some nice moose and caribou here in Alaska where I live. I went back to the recurve and it has brought me immense pleasure. I no longer gap shoot, but I still anchor with the forefinger in the corner of my mouth. Works for me. But thankfully, since those early days of innocence and ignorance, I've learned about back tension and that an anchor is not a destination, but a place to pause and let my mind sort out all the "aiming" stuff before engaging my back muscles and releasing the string. I still have my problems with a wee bit of short drawing and some hand flapping now and then, but I'm having the time of my ancient life.

In my humble opinion, the single most important aspect of good shooting - for me - is hard focus.

Like almost everything in this sport you're going to find semantics get in the way of having fun. Me personally, "anchor" is that thing your buddy in the front of the boat takes care of when he's not busy netting your fish or fetching you a Hamms;)

To me the anchor is the place or spot you pull to each shot that gives consistent draw length. Once you hit that spot, back tension gives you that dynamic release and follow thru.

Continuing to expand after reaching anchor is good.

Continuing to pull past anchor is bad.

I was thinking how I was going to word it, but Jason described better than I could.

As to the anchor meaning stop. I was going to get into it around 'release' and/or 'aiming' in future threads. It surely can be repeated. Rick McKinney says there's two ways to release. One is continual movement from draw to follow through. He claims that it's the easiest.

His other 'release' is stop/pause at anchor and then re-engage those rhomboids to pull your fingers off the string. He claims this is more accurate.

Anchor is close to or a kin to alignment. Alignment is bone on bone contact. You no longer are drawing the weight of the bow, you're just holding it in place. In terms of movement, alignment and getting off the string with a clicker it's 2 mm's. That's a pretty small distance.

If you're shooting 50 pounds and chose the 'stop and re-engage', you have to pull a little more than 50 pound to get off the string. Let's say your bow gains 2 pounds an inch at anchor, your draw is 28, bow 50. Two pounds is 32 oz, if 2mm is a 1/4 inch, we're looking at an additional 8 oz of pull.

My opinion is that if you pulled 50 pound and 1 oz, you wouldn't collapse. Hope my math is correct.

This pull through anchor is what gives the follow through. The stop at anchor in the golf world would be like hitting the ball and stopping the swing a foot after hitting the ball. "Why not, the ball is gone?" We all know the answer.

Bowmania

Fact^^^^^^

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