Deep Hook simplified

[mooseman76]

I’m really trying to work on my form this offseason and one thing that I can never seem to wrap my head around is the deep hook.  I’ve searched all over and it seems like it’s hard to wrap my head around since nearly everyone has a different idea what a deep hook is, and which is the first finger joint (first from palm, first from tip). So to help me clear it up would the deep hook run along the blue line or red line in this pic. Thank you very much.

[Jock Whisky]

Blue line.

[Jim Casto Jr]

The blue line represents a "deep hook."  The red line represents... well... I don't have a clue what that is. 

[mooseman76]

Thank you both. There are some out there that advocate the red line. I tried it but it never felt right, but it certainly felt deep. The other confusing aspect to me is when talking about the hands or toes generally the first knuckle is the one closest to the palm/sole area (center of body outwards)...Mike

[McDave]

It is easier to pull if you pull on the red line.  However, the objective is to hit the bullseye, which requires a good release. Most people get a good release holding the string on the blue line. Some get a better release in front of the blue line, some behind the blue line. I don't understand why they get a better release that way, but for some people that seems to be true.

[durp]

Mike when most of us talk about shooting off the pads were talking about the end of the fingers...so from there the blue line would be the first joint...why i dont know but thats the way i was taught in the 60's by target shooters...hope that helped ya

[Huntschool]

For me, (I shoot 3 under with a glove and gun barrel the arrow under my eye) I tried the "pad/finger tip method and could not get what I thought was a good release.  My POI was scattered. I went to the "blue line" and everything got much better.  My "blue line" is really with all three "joints lined up and the string at the very forward most point of that juncture.  Think right in front of that juncture. My groups tightened up a bunch at 20 yards.  I consider the "blue line" a deep hook.

Just me...

[flntknp17]

I'll add my $0.02 to this as a long-time shooter of Olympic target recurves.  I have a good friend that competed for the United States in the Olympics and has had her release filmed in super slow motion for instructional purposes because she got so good at producing an extremely clean release.  I think many trad shooters could gain A LOT of useful information by studying Olympic recurve shooters and their highly refined technique of releasing the string. 

What is absolutely vital is that the shooter eliminate ALL tension in the hand.  If you have muscles under tension that is not parallel to the plane of the string, this WILL cause lateral movement of the string as it is released and cause undue lateral travel of the arrow.  I will post a picture of my hand as it sits at full draw.  Note how the back of the hand is as flat as possible.  Having the back of the hand FLAT makes a huge difference in the ability of the archer to make a clean and consistent release.  The plane of the string is marked in green and the plane of the bones in my hand is marked in orange.  As you can see.....the actual location of the string at full draw is neither the red line or the blue line, but a hybrid.  I would suggest for folks to hook as deeply as they feel comfortable and this will allow you to have a flat hand.  If you don't hook deeply enough, it will be extremely hard to have the carpal bones in the hand flat enough to be able to be tension-free.

[Huntschool]

I'll add my $0.02 to this as a long-time shooter of Olympic target recurves.  I have a good friend that competed for the United States in the Olympics and has had her release filmed in super slow motion for instructional purposes because she got so good at producing an extremely clean release.  I think many trad shooters could gain A LOT of useful information by studying Olympic recurve shooters and their highly refined technique of releasing the string.

flntknp17:

Could you post a link of the video of this young lady shooting please.

Thanks

[last arrow]

I hold as described by Flintknp with the string sitting on the fleshy part between the knuckles.  This fits with Howard Hills recommendation to hold the string “like you would hold a suitcase”.  For me it works  best when I keep the back of my hand relaxed and in line with my forearm creating a straight line from the elbow through the hand and arrow to the arrow tip.  I feel shooting from the finger tips is some of the worse advice you can give a new archer.