I use his form, mostly, and have studied all the sources I could find, so I'll try to summarize it briefly.
Grip the bow deeply enough so your thumb points forward. Relax the forefinger and take a gentle grip with two or three of the others; he used the lower two, I use the middle two. The back of the hand should make about a 30 degree angle with the back of the forearm. The lower part of the handle should line up about with the base of your lifeline, in line with the upper bone of your forearm.
He held the arrow on the string between the first and second fingers. He placed the arrow above his nocking point and drew the string with his finger tips and a glove. Nowadays many of us use a tab, place the arrow below the nocking point and use a deep hook hold on the string.
He stood erect and square to the target line, and began his draw with the bow held alongside his thigh. He drew as he swung the bow up into his line of sight, timing it so it reached the line of sight with perhaps 8 inches of draw remaining.
During the draw he canted the bow about 20 degrees, give or take, and tilted his head and neck to place his eye over the butt of the arrow.
He was 6'2" tall and could have easily drawn to 30 inches or more, but chose to limit it to 28". To do so he held his bow arm shoulder low and flexed his elbow a good bit. Despite the shortish draw he was able to get his string arm and elbow generally in line with the arrow at the instant of the shot. He did this I believe by making the movement of his string arm and elbow a rotational one, not just a rearward pull. His follow-through continued the rotation with the elbow moving to the rear and around toward his back, by several inches. During follow-through the bow hand moved forward and then swung left as his arm fully extended.
He held the thumb of his string hand low, and advised touching it to pinky finger, if possible. He anchored by placing the tip of a glove finger near the corner of his mouth, actually in the gap where a second bicuspid was missing. This matter is highly individual depending upon face shape.
He aimed by focussing on the target center but made a mental note of the location of the arrow in his peripheral vision, so he could adjust or repeat the aim on subsequent shots. This method has come to be called secondary vision or split vision aiming and is a bit different from the instinctive, gap and point of aim methods. He completed his aiming during the final part of the draw so he could shoot accurately at instant he reached anchor, if need be.
His swing draw method of drawing produces greater economy of effort than the set-arm and push-pull methods which enables the handling of heavier bows or shooting more arrows before fatigue begins. The latter is the reason I have returned to it, so I can shoot more arrows in practice and stay fresh to the end of long target events.
He highly valued rhythm in his shooting, shooting at a quick and consistant pace and most often releasing the shot at the instant he reached anchor, though he sometimes paused to refine his aim, especially at long shots. He practiced fast multiple shots.
A final point: he was a large and powerful man for his time and had huge hands and wrists by any standard. He began with simple and inefficient self bows which required heavy draw weights for good performance and exercised with weights for many years to develop his power. After fibreglas backing made bows more efficient he did most of his archery with bows of no more that 70 pounds and I have heard he used as low as 55 pounds. Men of different stature will need to adapt the style and bow weights to suit their own frames. It is an excellent method hunting and rapid shooting. But it can also produce championship level target accuracy when used with a slower rhythm. It's good way to shoot a bow. - lbg
Topic: Howar Hills form? (Read 1775 times)
