# Griv, What are your feelings on hinge speed?



## montigre (Oct 13, 2008)

Patience, please. 

Why not let's all give the man a chance to read over the hinge thread before bombarding him with a ton of questions here. He just may answer some/many of the questions when he comes back on to post his feelings about it.


----------



## grousegrove (Aug 8, 2013)

I was listening to a nock on podcast The other day and Dudley had what seemed an interesting approach to this. He said at times he has put several identical releases in his pouch all set to different sensitivities, in order to force him to focus on the right aspects of his shot sequence and not anticipate. I assume they would have to all fall within a certain sensitivity range--not sure. I do not recall him noting whether he did that during competition, or just during training/practice. It might be an interesting question to ask him, if any of you know him or I suppose one could ask thru nock on. 
I don't have so many releases that this is an option, but I thought it was an intriguing idea.


----------



## boilerfarmer12 (Nov 22, 2011)

grousegrove said:


> I was listening to a nock on podcast The other day and Dudley had what seemed an interesting approach to this. He said at times he has put several identical releases in his pouch all set to different sensitivities, in order to force him to focus on the right aspects of his shot sequence and not anticipate. I assume they would have to all fall within a certain sensitivity range--not sure. I do not recall him noting whether he did that during competition, or just during training/practice. It might be an interesting question to ask him, if any of you know him or I suppose one could ask thru nock on.
> I don't have so many releases that this is an option, but I thought it was an intriguing idea.


Randy Ulmer did the same thing during competition.


----------



## Padgett (Feb 5, 2010)

Right now I am shooting one hinge my backspin set to my favorite speed, in the past few years I was more in the learning stages of becoming a solid hinge shooter so I did have a variety of hinges set at different speeds and I shot all of them on a regular basis. Having a variety of them does force you to have a fluid and longer firing engine because depending on which hinge is in your hand. I never did have 3 hinges by the same brand that were exactly the same that I could set up differently and just pick one of the three which I could see being a really cool way to train, my hinges were all different so it was way to easy to know which one was the slow one and medium one and fast one.

Right now I am really enjoying just shooting one hinge set at my favorite speed and what it is allowing me to do is really shrink my shot window down to a much nicer size and my shot is firing within that small window much nicer at a consistent time. 

The other thing I am noticing is that when my shot doesn't fire at the normal time I am feeling little to no anxiety just floating for a good chunk of time because I know that I am right on the edge of firing this allows me to allow the sweet float to continue for a while. I don't add pressure of do anything stupid to make the hinge fire, the fact that I am only shooting one hinge all the time allows me to have a perfect feel for it and know that I am on the edge and this keeps any anxiety from creeping into my shot. Of course I just let down if it doesn't fire at at or near the end of the shot window.


----------



## RCR_III (Mar 19, 2011)

I think Dudley did this to help combat his target panic. The reason he was turned onto the hinge was because of his punching and this allowed him to get away from that mindset. I don't remember if he's come out and said it word for word that way, but that's what I'm inferring from his podcasts and writings. 

You can go to his facebook page, search John Dudley, and ask him questions for his podcasts. He will start threads on there asking for topics to talk about from time to time too. 

I'm interested in hearing what GRIV has to say on the hinge speed setting too. Hopefully he will have the time to come by and share his knowledge with us. I'm int he same boat as Padgett, when I work through getting my speed dialed in I can get through my shot in the window I'm holding the best each time too.


grousegrove said:


> I was listening to a nock on podcast The other day and Dudley had what seemed an interesting approach to this. He said at times he has put several identical releases in his pouch all set to different sensitivities, in order to force him to focus on the right aspects of his shot sequence and not anticipate. I assume they would have to all fall within a certain sensitivity range--not sure. I do not recall him noting whether he did that during competition, or just during training/practice. It might be an interesting question to ask him, if any of you know him or I suppose one could ask thru nock on.
> I don't have so many releases that this is an option, but I thought it was an intriguing idea.


----------



## yeroc (Jan 11, 2007)

ive settled on one hinge also.my favorite is my old brass longhorn.i play with others but my longhorn is my favorite.for me hinge speed is everything.it took awhile to find that setting that aloud me to have a firing engine that i could execute when my float was at its most steady.for me its 2-3sec window.when i get to comfy with it and become cocky ill pick up another hinge to keep my self honest.i wish griv would chime in.i think he would validate what padgett has been saying for quite sometime.


----------



## RCR_III (Mar 19, 2011)

I feel like there are two types of hinge shooters. Ones that can use one hinge and get to know it inside and out and have the ability to feel the edge and find comfort in that, and ones that find anxiety in that same senario. I've always been in the first group and I've found that when I first started helping people with their hinge shooting I was trying to teach a certain way of shooting to them and it just didn't work with that second group of shooters who were getting the anxiety. When I noticed this I started looking at the teaching differently and started asking more questions to the shooter about the problems they were having and what they were feeling. This has helped a lot with incorporating the right method into the right shooter to keep them from having to play the guessing game on the best method of execution.


Padgett said:


> Right now I am shooting one hinge my backspin set to my favorite speed, in the past few years I was more in the learning stages of becoming a solid hinge shooter so I did have a variety of hinges set at different speeds and I shot all of them on a regular basis. Having a variety of them does force you to have a fluid and longer firing engine because depending on which hinge is in your hand. I never did have 3 hinges by the same brand that were exactly the same that I could set up differently and just pick one of the three which I could see being a really cool way to train, my hinges were all different so it was way to easy to know which one was the slow one and medium one and fast one.
> 
> Right now I am really enjoying just shooting one hinge set at my favorite speed and what it is allowing me to do is really shrink my shot window down to a much nicer size and my shot is firing within that small window much nicer at a consistent time.
> 
> The other thing I am noticing is that when my shot doesn't fire at the normal time I am feeling little to no anxiety just floating for a good chunk of time because I know that I am right on the edge of firing this allows me to allow the sweet float to continue for a while. I don't add pressure of do anything stupid to make the hinge fire, the fact that I am only shooting one hinge all the time allows me to have a perfect feel for it and know that I am on the edge and this keeps any anxiety from creeping into my shot. Of course I just let down if it doesn't fire at at or near the end of the shot window.


----------



## Padgett (Feb 5, 2010)

When I think back to when I first started hinge shooting there was absolutely no information readily available on how to set up a hinge and I can remember being scared of it, I ended up setting it really slow and drawing with my thumb and index finger and then I had to get my ring and middle finger on the hinge which created a lot of rotation taking up all the slack created by drawing with only two fingers. This caused a lot of finger pain and even some blisters and very inconsistent shooting because so much change in the grip of the hinge just to get the shot started just was a huge undertaking. So huge that I failed and gave that hinge to a buddy.


----------



## nochance (Nov 27, 2008)

well I remember, when i first started, i too had no one to teach the "proper way" I set the ultra 4 a little cold and made sure to draw away from my face. within weeks is set it hotter so that as i unweight the thumb peg and acquired the target, it took little motion to go off. Been shooting that way ever since. Thats just what works for me.


----------



## skiisme753 (Jan 15, 2013)

I think that if you are executing great shots then you can leave the speed the same. You will learn where the shot will go off after shooting a hinge set the same after a while. I don't think there is anything wrong with knowing as long as you are focused on executing your shot almost without thinking about it and with a good flow. If you are anticipating or worried about the shot going off then you really should change the speed. 

I tend to make minor adjustments to the speed while practicing depending on how my shots are. If you have a truball it's easy to speed up or slow down the release a quarter or half turn. I don't change the speed very often, but if I feel like the shot is breaking a little quick before I was in a good part of my float i will slow it down. If I feel like I am not committing to pulling through the shot I will slow it down for an end or two and work on pulling through. If you are shooting a tournament under pressure you might have more tension in your body so speeding the release up a tiny bit can help.


----------



## Padgett (Feb 5, 2010)

Yesterday I went ahead and set my scott longhorn pro brass back up, i had given it to a guy to try and he had changed it. For a couple months i have only been shooting my backspin and have been loving it but I thought it was a good time to get the longhorn up and running. I set it a little slower than my backspin and really enjoyed shooting it.

What were the advantages of having a slow hinge along with my competition speed?

1. Instantly the slow hinge loosened up my transition from coming to anchor to running the engine.

2. Instantly my engine had to allow itself to run longer and smoother to deal with the extra travel needed to fire.

These two things to me when you only shoot one hinge start to tighten up to the point where they begin to strangle your shooting just enough that you have some trouble firing. But when you train with both a slow one and your perfect one the slow one keeps things nice and smooth, i have missed having my secondary hinge set a little slower than my competition hinge and am glad that my buddy gave me back my longhorn.


----------



## ILOVE3D (Feb 4, 2009)

I started out with two of Bernie's Knuckle under, one brass and one aluminum. I picked up a Scott longhorn pro advantage and almost immediately picked up a second one I liked it so much. Just fits my hand better and like Padgett I have one set so it clicks the moment I reach full draw and the other one a little colder. Last year was my first year I went to a hinge and at times would go back to my carter from time to time depending on how I was executing the hinge. This year I find it hard to go back to the Carter Target 4 and feel so much more at ease with the Scott Longhorn Pro Advantage. I have them both set like Griv suggested in his LCA thing a week video with the click and absolutely love them, thank you GRIV. I just need to sell my Bernie's Knuckle under releases because they just don't fit my hand like the Scott.


----------



## Padgett (Feb 5, 2010)

Yep, there is just something about the feel of a scott longhorn. I have the longhorn pro but they discontinued it and are only going to make the pro advantage now, I wish I had one of them to feel the difference and see why so many people like it better. I have a feeling it is because the taper allows it to cut into the middle and ring finger just a little and give a little more feel to the shot. The regular longhorn pro just melts into the hand it is so comfy.


----------



## jim p (Oct 29, 2003)

When setting up a longhorn, Which size clicker do you use? 

I had a zenith comfort 3 + with a .004" clicker. I really like the small clicker but it wore out within 1 year. I replaced it with a .008" clicker by mistake and could not get the release for fire consistently. I have now replaced the clicker with a .006" clicker which I can shoot and this clicker has been in service for 5 or more years.


----------



## cbrunson (Oct 25, 2010)

I think he left the building.


----------



## jim p (Oct 29, 2003)

He has probably been down this road before and knows whatever he says that some are going to say that is absolute the wrong way to shoot a hinge. So why be ridiculed.


----------



## Iowa shooter (Feb 23, 2013)

jim p said:


> When setting up a longhorn, Which size clicker do you use?
> 
> I had a zenith comfort 3 + with a .004" clicker. I really like the small clicker but it wore out within 1 year. I replaced it with a .008" clicker by mistake and could not get the release for fire consistently. I have now replaced the clicker with a .006" clicker which I can shoot and this clicker has been in service for 5 or more years.


I think Scott only has the .010 clicker.


----------

