# Back tension vs. Hinge release: What is the difference?



## SouthernSass

There is still so much that I'm learning about releases. Can some one explain to me what the differences are between a back tension and a hinge release? I've heard there's no difference and I've heard there are significant differences. Right now I'm battling with a back tension and a thumb release. Maybe there's magical happy place with a hinge release!!! HAHA!


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## ar1220

A hinge is a type of release just like a thumb trigger or a wrist strap
Back tension is what is used to hold into the wall and fire them


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## TN ARCHER

Ask 10 people you will get 12 opinions lol!

But... Any release can be "fired" with "back tension", a hinge, a button (thumb release), a index finger (hunting style), even just your fingers. They can also be fired in other ways. 

WHat are your issues with a hinge release?


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## chiefjason

You probably have a hinge and are calling it a back tension release. What do you have? 

There are some release that are set off by the force of pulling tension on them, pulling through the release. But far more of them are set of by some form of rotation of the release in the hand while holding the bow with "back tension". The Tru ball HBX can be rotated or pulled through. 

Have you looked into the process of "yielding" the release? Where you relax the release hand and let the release rotate and fire while you hold pressure with your back? Hopefully Padgett will be along shortly. He's got some great insights into it. Until then, read this. 


http://www.archerytalk.com/vb/showthread.php?t=2329890

If I had to guess you may be too tense and fighting the release. You really have to relax into the shot. Too much tension in the hand and a hinge will want to hang up. If all you do is pull and don't rotate it will hang up. The first few times i tried to fire a hinge with back tension only while holding the peg with my thumb. Yeah, that does not work. lol


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## Padgett

There are lots of terms and phrases that are associated with our releases so it takes a little bit of time to get a grip on all of them. Overall you have hinges and thumb triggers and index finger and resistance releases. Those are the primary choices.

I am the one who started using the phrase "Firing Engine", I just needed some phrase that I could use to explain to people the different methods to fire different types of releases. A lot of people used the phrase Back Tension for a variety of things such as a name for hinges and how to fire a variety of releases so it became over used. 

Back tension is used to draw the bow and hold nice and strong into the wall and it can also be used to 100% fire a release or it can assist in firing the release. You are using back tension in many ways during a shot from start to finish so it can be easily over used if not careful and especially when you are a new shooter studying the process it can be a issue for sure when you choose to define it one way. 

So when you talk to me I will be referring to you as a hinge shooter and then when I mention back tension I will be talking to you about how to stay firmly planted against the wall during the aiming and execution phase of the shot. I will also talk to you how to use back tension to assist you in your firing engine to send a smoothly executed shot to the target.

I am going to copy and paste a article from my website below on "Back tension Preload" it is a nice little article that shows you how I use this type of stuff to describe the things going on in your shot.


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## Padgett

BACK TENSION PRELOAD

Well Well Well, this is something that has been a long time coming for me but in the last 6 months has been a wonderful addition to my shooting that I believe has boosted my shooting to a slightly higher level than before. It all started about a year and a half ago at my buddy Rick’s house shooting his 3d range, he stopped me after a shot and said “Did you know that you are creeping forward every shot”. Hell no I didn’t know that I was creeping forward every shot and for the next month or so it really bothered me because I could feel it wanting to happen all the stinking time and I battled mentally to keep from doing it. My bow was creep tuned really good so the creeping forward wasn’t causing the arrow to hit funny on the target but deep down inside I knew that this was something I needed to address sooner or later.

So let's skip forward a few month into the indoor season this early winter and one day for some reason I checked my bow and my draw length was almost a half inch long and I didn’t even know it so i twisted up my string and reset the draw length and on my bow I have a option of moving the draw stops from 75% to 65% let off so I went ahead and thought you know i have shot this bow for over 4 years now I guess it wouldn’t hurt to try them in the 65% setting. All this does is shortens the valley to basically no valley right on the edge of ripping your arm right out of your shoulder if you creep at all and to do so it shortens the draw length by about a 1/8 inch.

Well I had twisted my string back to my normal draw length before moving the draw stops to the 65% setting so moving them basically shortened the draw length just enough that I felt something that I had never felt before. PRELOAD.

What I have learned since then is that I was a guy that was coming to anchor and sitting in the valley and just touching the wall and I was doing so so lightly that if I left the wall during the shot execution I didn’t even feel it happening. So especially if I was shooting my hinge with any form of yielding where you allow the hand to stretch I was totally creeping forward and had no idea that it was happening. Secondly if I was shooting with some form of pulling into the wall I was so light against the wall that when I began that effort that sometimes i would do quite a bit of effort and not even be to the wall before the shot fired so I must have been just sitting in the valley not really against the wall at all.

So, by accident I have lucked out and set my draw length and then I moved my draw pegs to the 65% let off setting and this has given me a draw length setting that seems to be too short. Well, it wasn’t to short. Actually it was the first time ever that my draw length was spot on perfect. With this draw length I come to anchor and am touching the wall and my body still has a little left in the tank so as I settle in on the spot and my pin is moving the last few inches towards the spot I add a little back tension to the wall and my body ever so slightly pulls me into the wall. This is so so so so so important to realize that I am no longer just sitting in the valley and touching the wall, I am now inside the wall.

Now I have no idea how much inside the wall I am but mentally I like to think that it is about a 1/8 inch inside the wall but again that is totally a fictional number that I am making up. I guess a guy could put a mark on his arrow in a draw board when the cables are barely touching the draw stops and then come to full draw and add his back tension preload and have someone see for real how much they are pulling into the wall but I have never done this to actually see the truth.

I do not fire my hinge with back tension, i use a firing engine that creates rotation and that firing engine starts after the preload has already been applied to my system so the preload is basically that last little bit of lining up your rear arm with the arrow so that it is in a perfectly straight line so this is where setting your draw length perfectly is so important so that the wall happens just before your rear arm is perfectly straight in line with the arrow.

I will say that this is a totally different sensation from just pulling straight back into the wall with your hand and release and I absolutely do not recommend that you do so, it is also not a violent or overpowering sensation. Back tension preload is something that you feel and it is solid but it is not excessive and to me it is what top shooters are feeling when they have their bow draw length set perfectly, top shooters have this draw length written down and they know what it is for a reason and they may not be a coach that can give you the reasons why it is so important but they just know that that draw length is the one that produces really freaking good feel and shooting so they use it.

This is something that i have only written about a very few times so it is still in development and I am really interested in hearing from people that have perfected it to chime in so that in the future I can produce an article that I consider solid and add it to my website because right now I don’t feel I am ready. All I know is that it is something that has really helped me achieve a even better execution and feel during my shooting and it is well worth my time to master it and gain the ability to give it to other shooters.


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## Padgett

I wrote that years ago and I have thought about updating it many times because it sounds like it just happened 6 months ago, but I just like the way it reads. I hadn't read it in a year or so probably and reading through it just now I think it does a good job of using the terms and phrases you were talking about in your posts.


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