Finger pinch using glove

[Bill from NJ]

Being new, and just learning the protocol of posting what where… I will take a chance and just post here. So…..

I have used a "can't pinch" style finger tab for many, many, years. Can't really remember when I even used a glove in the past.
 
Well, my loving wife bought me a very nice finger glove as a gift. And as Paul harvey once said, " and now the rest of the story...…"
 
Shooting with this glove is painful.
 
I'm having d@#* finger pinch on the bottom of my right index finger from squeezing the nock when I draw to anchor.
 
Please help, I really want to keep using this glove.
 
I do not want to use the tab at this time.
 
Some things I have tried:
 
Tried keeping my elbow down when drawing.
 
Tried spreading my fingers wider apart when drawing.
 
Tried curling my fingers more around string.
 
Tried drawing with string further into fingers away from first finger crease in joints.
 
Any "real suggestions" from you all that I can do to prevent the painful pinch during draw and release?
 
I really want to make this work.

Too protect my fingers from knock pinch, I even made a small patch stuffed into the pointer finger of my glove.

I made patch this using a small pattern cut out pattern from a soda can, the aluminum is way too thin. Milk jug plastic is not working that much better.

I have even resorted to using a homemade spacer between the fingers of my new glove, just like on my old tabs. This works!
 
Oh a little back ground,  my Jeffrey Recurve is 62"  53#@28". I have used this same bow for 21 years. So, it is not the bow.
 
I am seriously contemplating using a three finger under draw when using this glove, to alleviate the finger pain. Never shot this way ever in the past.

Somehow, deep down, I believe it is just my poor technique using a glove.

What say you?

[old_goat2]

Keep using the tab and keep telling the wife how much you like the glove would be my suggestion.

[ranger 3]

Try spreading your fingers apart just a little when you put them around the string a least till you used to it.

[Tedd]

Mess around with how much finger you put on the string. most will advocate a "deep hook" and according to the best shooters that is the best way. and usually that will be better for finger pinch even though the opposite would seem true. Try a string hand where you just let the top finger go along for the ride. you can deep hook the bottom two and have no pinch. Also if you had a long draw make sure you have bow suited for that. Not all bows are created equal.
(Personally even though it's supposed to be wrong.  I use the front finger balls and more of a straight hand than the deep hook. Maybe it came from having an ill fitting bow when I was young.)

[McDave]

If you have pain on the bottom of your index finger, and not on the top of your middle finger, then it is not finger pinch that is causing it.  Once you have pain anywhere, anything you do, right or wrong, with that part of your body is going to cause pain.  So first you have to get rid of the pain.  Maybe you have to go back to your old tab long enough for this to happen.  Or maybe this is just God's way of telling you to try 3 under.  I don't know.

You should not have finger pinch with a 62" bow, unless you're pulling it way farther than 28".

Probably you're not relaxing your hand and forearm when you pull the bow.  Probably you're not using your back muscles.  Learn to do these things, and in the mean time go back to your tab or try 3 under until the pain goes away.  Then try your new glove again.

[M60gunner]

I have the same pain in the same finger. Mine started out as an old work injury. I used tabs for years with the spacers, usually Black Widow tabs. This past year the pain got so bad I went to my American Leathers glove I used with my heavy LB.
I mentioned this in a thread and a member here sent me a tab that works pretty good. I think it is called a Archers Mitt.
I also went to the American Leathers Kanagroo leather glove. It works as well but even as I type this I have some pain in
the nail area of my finger.
Been thinking of going three under as well. But if I do I am going to get an experienced person to teach me.

Unless you are talking about a short bow with a long draw, the pain on the side of the index finger is most often caused because the shooter is turning the palm down towards the end of the draw.   This gets the finger leveraging against the arrow.   Palm down is the most natural position, that is where the forearm bones are not twisting.  They twist at the elbow to get the palm towards the face.   You could check to also see if your elbow and draw shoulder are high.  I would suggest to wait for the inflation to settle down for a week, ice?, then when you get back to shooting make sure that your draw fingers are more right angled to the bowstring and still in that position pretty much when you reach anchor.

[Archie]

I have the EXACT same problem... shot with a spacer-tab all my life, and when I went to a glove, had lots of pain in the side of my index finger that touches the arrow nock.

I adjusted my grip on the string over and over, and at some point found a position that doesn't hurt anymore.  But then after talking a few months off, when I started shooting again, my fighter hurt so bad I almost threw the glove in the trash.  But I have given it some time and it fixed itself again.  

I'm going to check and see if I'm twisting my palm like Pavan said, though.

One thing that helped for a kid here was to make sure first that the fingers were at or close to the crease in the joint and at right angles to the string, then try to pull with the fingers as equally as possible.  His problem was that as he drew, to compensate for the down turning palm he also would let his ring and middle fingers straighten out, the ring finger more, until the majority of the load was on his index finger.  The fix was to shorten his draw about an inch,he was really stretching away from the bow, and to concentrate on the ring finger.  Hill explained that the ring finger is the trigger.  That did not mean that it should start letting go of the string gradually while the bow is being drawn.  The kid also had a tendency to anchor very high.  By keeping his head up a bit and in a comfortable forward position while anchoring with his index finger at the corner of his mouth and the other two against the side of his jaw,  the pressure came off  his index finger and the arrow was still under his eye.

[Rock 'N Bow]

I used to experience finger pinch when using a glove. I was then told to focus on using the middle finger for the majority of the draw,then the ring finger,basically having very little pressure with the index. It took some getting used to but now I have a more consistent release and no pain in my fingers.

[Bill from NJ]

Thank you, everyone!

There are plenty of fantastic options now available for me.

Again, Thank you!

I know I came to the right place for information, I cannot get anywhere else.

Somehow I no longer feel alone.

[beaunaro]

If the tab has served you well for years, as you say...I would just keep using it.

Kind of like saying if it ain't broke, don't fix it.