# Horizontal Bow Grip



## rick11743 (Sep 20, 2010)

This is what I thought of, first time I had to rotate my bow arm to avoid string slap - seems this would be a lot easier if the grip were horizontal:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO6l17GX42Q

It's a compound, but could be used for recurve as well. In the thousands of years of archery history, I guess that someone has tried this before.


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## rick11743 (Sep 20, 2010)

I googled & can't find any record of anyone trying this before


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## lksseven (Mar 21, 2010)

I believe (my memory is a little oblique on it) that a year or two ago, Paul Jager tinkered with a prototype grip that had a big tennis ball like hump that fit into the palm of your hand, with your left index and middle fingers straddling (like the toe post of a pair of flip flops) the vertical pillar of the grip, orienting your grip hand in a mostly horizontal posture. I had the opportunity to see/hold it in my hand, but never got the chance to shoot with it.


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## rick11743 (Sep 20, 2010)

Bio-mechanically, it seems to be a valid concept


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## Chinese Tea (Mar 17, 2010)

rick11743 said:


> I googled & can't find any record of anyone trying this before


Seen it on a flight bow before:
http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/flight.html
http://anthromuseum.missouri.edu/grayson/donbrownbows.shtml










lksseven said:


> I believe (my memory is a little oblique on it) that a year or two ago, Paul Jager tinkered with a prototype grip that had a big tennis ball like hump that fit into the palm of your hand, with your left index and middle fingers straddling (like the toe post of a pair of flip flops) the vertical pillar of the grip, orienting your grip hand in a mostly horizontal posture. I had the opportunity to see/hold it in my hand, but never got the chance to shoot with it.


Excuse the horrible video, but this guy seems to be doing something similar with a normal bow grip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WbtOmeSEUw&feature=plcp


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## Chris RL (Oct 30, 2011)

Interesting thread.
Are there any FITA/NFAA rules about this configuration? Wonder why it hasn't been more popular before.
Chris


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## kshet26 (Dec 20, 2010)

I've experimented with this on my recurve. The problem lies in the fact that the grip is below the center of the bow. At full draw the bow pivots back (pointing up). With a normal grip the fleshy part between the thumb and index resist this pivot keeping the bow horizontal. With this type of grip the only areas that can resist this pivot aren't meant to take a load like the webbing between the index and middle fingers. Also the more you flatten out the hand the longer it becomes wich moves the prssure point even further away from center making the above problems worse.to get the bow to react even close to normal I had to set a positive tiller of more than an inch. You'd need something almost like a yumi bow because of the imbalance.


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## kshet26 (Dec 20, 2010)

I'd also say from experience and watching that video, that at indoor distances your bow shoulder needs to be crazy low to make it work.


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## rick11743 (Sep 20, 2010)

Thx, I thought that there had to be reasoning against it


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## kshet26 (Dec 20, 2010)

It might be perfect for compund though! I've spent a year trying to make it work on my recurve.I had abanndoned the idea but this thread has got me thinking about it again. There are some nice advantages of it, its just about working out the issue (both physics and biomechanical).


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## Fury90flier (Jun 27, 2012)

if you're getting string slap, just use an arm guard.


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## massman (Jun 21, 2004)

Perhaps I am missing something...To place the grip of a bow correctly in your bow hand, a previous comment indicated that he had to "rotate his arm". I'd suggest that this is incorrect.

Rather, you need to make sure you DO NOT rotate your arm. 

Explination... Biomechanically when you raise your arm with a load (weight) attached to your hand, biomechanically your body wants to place that load on a musle to best support the load.

Try it. standing straight with your arms at your side, raise just your forearm so that the forearm is parallel to the floor. Holding this form, now raise the arm up to bow arm height. Now straighten your arm. You'll find that this will be a near perfect bow arm positioning with the hand at the typical 45 degree positioning. 

Now hold a weight in your bow hand. Repeat the example and notice how the body will want to rotate your arm in order to use your bicep to support the load.

This is what you are trying to work on, developing correct technique in positioning the bow arm, resisting the bodies perceived need to carry the weight of the bow on your bicep.

You will also find that by tightening the latt muscle on the bow arm side of your body before raising the bow arm, you will be improve your ability to carry this bow weight.

My best,

Tom


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## Chris RL (Oct 30, 2011)

Tom
Awesome. Best description and demo of the correct arm position that I've read. Thank you!
Chris


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## rick11743 (Sep 20, 2010)

massman said:


> Perhaps I am missing something...To place the grip of a bow correctly in your bow hand, a previous comment indicated that he had to "rotate his arm". I'd suggest that this is incorrect.
> 
> Rather, you need to make sure you DO NOT rotate your arm.
> 
> ...


Tom,

Thanks for the input. It seems that I've had to rotate my bow arm to get a vertical elbow to get proper string clearance & avoid string-slap. However, I find the rotation uncomfortable and also has caused some tennis-elbow issues. I'll try the non-rotated bow arm & see if I can get proper string clearance.


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