I tried anchoring to my ear and tipping my hand in 'Rick Welch' style, again starting late last fall after hunting season, but I where glasses, and I could not do it without my rims hitting. I now anchor my thumb knuckle to the very back of my jaw bone, that lowers it about 1 1/2 inches from the ear lobe where the 'Welch' DVD tries to have you anchor, and then the fletching touches my lip for a 2 point anchor.
I used to anchor my middle finger to the corner of my mouth, but where I now anchor along with the deep hook gives me another 3 inches of draw length and it insures that I am better aligned and using the correct back tension, or expansion or what ever you want to call it. It has greatly approved my accuracy and made me much more conistant.
I didn't like the thumb piece at first either, but keeping my thumb in the same place each time while using my thumb knuckle to anchor works great. And after the first few months of using the tab with the thumb piece in place it felt really good, and would now feel wierd to not use it. Again, the tab also gives me perfect string alignment on each shot in my opinion.
You are right, it is hard to do anything else with that hand while it is on, such as climing into a stand, or writing.
I have used tabs for years, but when I first started years ago I can remember trying a Glove or fingers, and can remember the tighter fit on my string fingers would make my fingers get numb from the cold (I hunt alot of sub zero weather in South Dakota.)
That is the one worry I have about the aluminum piece on the Cavalier tab is how cold it might make my hand once that aluminum piece cools down during cold weather, I guess we will have to see!
It seems we solve one problem just to create two others, LOL! D.Knecht.