String blur, spine, light bulb

[the rifleman]

My post hunting season form tweaks has lead to a pretty significant revelation.  I had been able to make some changes to increase my draw length.  As I got used to this I discovered that my bow now wanted arrows one spine group lighter (from 600s to 700s), which puzzled me.  I've never really been conscious of my string blur, but something made me look for it.  I shoot left handed and when my eye went to find the string blur I found it several inches to the left of the bow, of course my new anchor that was back further on my face placed the string waaay outside of alignment with my eye.  Somehow I could look right down the arrow yet the string was outside to the left.
I read a response to a post from Arne that made total sense (as his posts always do).  He had responded to a right handed shooter getting left misses.  The shooter had his string blur way to the right of his bow and Arne noted that this would cause left misses.  I also watched a video from Jim Ploen who noted that if the string blur weren't brought into alignment, "you'll be chasing spine all of your life".
I made the adjustment to get the blur right down the riser side of the arrow, which required me to shorten my anchor up just a bit (I'm still getting into my back with this anchor).  My 600 spine arrows which were showing stiff (flying to the right) when the blur was way off to the left of the bow now flew right down the pike.  I think my misalignment caused torque and the arrow was likely pushed into the riser getting all kinds of inconsistent reactions that I misinterpretted as spine problems.  Now that the string is in line with my visual reference of the arrow I'm finding my bow suddenly much more forgiving of my errors as well as spine.
I know some guys draw the string well past their eye along the side of their face, but I just can't get away with it.  With the snow here I didn't get the chrono out, but am guessing that now that I'm not wasting energy shoving the arrow into the riser with a misaligned string, I'm probably gaining efficiency.  Hope this helps someone else out that is struggling.

[McDave]

“Somehow I could look right down the arrow yet the string was outside to the left.”

Could you expand on this?  String blur is one of the indications I look for when I reach full draw, but for me it is in the corner of my eye since I cant the bow, and is several inches to the right of the bow, as I am a RH shooter.  When I bring the bow to an upright position, the string blur moves in front of my eyeball, but the image of the string is still to the right of the bow.  My eye seems to be over the arrow, whether I cant the bow or not, and the arrow goes where it's pointed, as long as I’m doing everything else correctly.  If the string blur is in the middle of my vision when the bow is upright, it seems that my eye must be over the arrow, but then I don't understand why the string blur is still to the right of the bow.  Maybe I’m just kidding myself when I think that the arrow is pointed at a vertical line through the target, and my brain has just compensated for this over years of shooting?

I haven't watched the Jim Ploen video, but I have read an article he wrote where he discussed the same thing.  Note that in this photo, the string blur seems to be down the riser side of the arrow, as you describe, even though Jim is canting the bow.  Jim advises tilting the head to get the correct eye alignment with the arrow, which Arne does not.  Do you cant the bow and/or tilt your head?

[the rifleman]

Hi McDave,  Don't know if I explained this very well.  When shooting with a vertical bow I would come back to anchor at the corner of my mouth.  Especially when bareshaft tuning I would be careful to assess the arrow to make sure that it was pointing to the target from nock to point.  It appeared to be well in line and I shot this way for sometime.  Then it occured to me to pay attention to the position of the string.  When I looked for it I discovered that even though the arrow was well aligned in my vision the string was several inches to the left of the riser (shooting left handed).  I think that with the string being this far to the left, it must be introducing torque or a sideways push on the back of the arrow in relationship with the bow.  I think what Jim Ploen is talking about is this causing the arrow to crash into the riser making spine assessment hopeless.  This should have occurred to me when I noticed that my 600 spine arrows that flew well bareshaft at my former canine tooth anchor, now appeared to be stiff with the new anchor that was further back on my face.  Once I went back to the canine tooth things really seemed to line up better, including the position of the string in relation to the riser and arrow.
I had previously written string blur off as something that I didn't need to pay attention to, but feel quite differently now.  Ploen notes that when you have the correct alignment spine is just not as big of a deal as it can be made out to be.  I see this now as I shot two bareshafts albeit at only 10 yards in the barn due to the weather.  One was a 700 spine cut to 27 3/4" with 225 up front and the other was a 600 spine with 125 up front and cut to 29 3/8" and both hit the X ring.  I'll try again to post a pick.  I know the length difference here is apples to oranges, but the 600 should have shown much stiffer than the 700, yet they both shot pretty well.  Warmer weather and another 20 yards distance should show more, but for now I think I'm onto something (that others have figured out way ahead of me...).
Interested in your thoughts.

[the rifleman]

Green wrap= .700 spine.  Blue wrap= .600 spine.

[McDave]

I viewed Jim’s video, perhaps the one you refer to because he used the same language about spine issues, although his other videos appear to be similar.  I have a lot of respect for Jim and his accomplishments, and learned a lot from reading the articles he published years ago in Instinctive Archer magazine.

That said, I have always been puzzled by his references to aligning the string with the arrow.  None of the other experts i have studied use this terminology.  I believe what he means is that the line of force drawing the bow should be aligned with the arrow, so that if you are drawing the bow to the side of your face, such that you can’t see the string aligned with the arrow at full draw, it is still okay as long as the line of force is in the same direction as the arrow. 

The only thing I can imagine that would cause the line of force to deviate from the arrow would be torque.  If my conclusion on this is correct, then everybody is on the same page, because all experts would agree that there should not be any torquing force on the string from the string hand, nor torquing force on the bow from the bow hand.

I can move my eye around until the string lines up with the arrow at full draw, but I’m not sure this is the answer we’re looking for, because I can do that whether I’m torquing the bow or not.

Nobody can argue with your shooting, though!  If it helps to anchor such that you can see the string blur lined up with the arrow at full draw, keep doing it!

[the rifleman]

Thanks McDave.  My hunch is that I had the string a bit further to the side than it should have been and that somehow I had introduced torque.  At least at the shorter distances it appears to give me a more reliable indication of spine and cleans up my lefts and rights.  I'll be keeping an eye on it so to speak over the coming weeks and see what progresses.  It could also be that when I was coming back a bit further, I may have been running past my natural alignment causing form issues (I've done this before).  When I'm shooting well it almost seems too easy and I need to remember this process/alignment and do it every time.  I'm my own worst enemy when it comes to trying new things sometimes.  If it ain't broke...