There have been several questions and discussions lately about what constitutes a good grip or hold when shooting a longbow, and specifically a Howard Hill longbow. The classic description offered by Hill and his protege' John Shultz is to hold the bow as you would hold the handle when lifting a heavy suitcase...from the side and with the back of the hand flat and perpendicular to the ground. Some seem confused with this concept and instead tend to explain it as placing a large amount of heel into the grip (heel down), but...although there is heel its not actually not a heavy, broken-wristed kind of heel. Anyway, for an excellent description and in-action demonstration of the suitcase hold take a look at the Masters of The Barebow DVDs. Volume I has a very good explanation of how to hold this way using selfbows, offered by Dean Torges. Vol. II has Gary Davis describing and doing a good job demonstrating this 'from the side of the grip' hold. Both shooters do well with this grip and show how effective, comfortable and simple it is, and both get good results with minimal handshock. If you want to see a 'suitcase hold' demonstrated, take a gander at one or both of those DVDs. A picture's worth a thousand words.
Topic: The 'suitcase" grip (Read 826 times)
