Shooting form - critiques welcome (Video)

[Noctis]

Hi everyone. Since I'm new to the forum and don't have that many opportunities to get feedback locally, I figured I'd go ahead and post a clip of my shooting form. Critiques more than welcome. Sorry for poor quality.

       

Shooting my Bear Montana longbow - 64" 40#@28. My draw is around 31".

[Draven]

Are you happy with your accuracy/shooting? Is the single thing that counts in this recreational/hunting setup. I see no reason to change something in your form as long as you are happy with the results.

[McDave]

I see head movement on release.  This could be caused by the string hitting your face or nose either now or sometime in the past and you're still reacting to it.  Or, maybe you're just peeking, but it looks like more of a flinch reaction to me.  It's a difficult thing to be aware of one's self.  If the string is hitting your face now, solve that first and then work on the head movement.  If it's just peeking, then video yourself until you become aware of when you're doing it, then stop doing it.

[moebow]

Your shot looks pretty good overall to me, but -- coaches always have a "but" ...

Your bow hand wrist is straight into the bow grip.  I'd suggest getting the base of your thumb DOWN on the bow grip.  Like you are doing push ups on the floor.  That straight wrist grip is weak and inconsistent and places the pressure of the bow in the wrong area of the hand.

arne

[Noctis]

McDave

Thanks, I do need to work on my follow through. I've never had the string hit my face but I will sometimes peek. I only tend to ever flinch away from string when I'm indoors, over-focused on form - not sure why.

Arne

I will work on the bow hand. I rewatched your grip video. So it's OK for the wrist to be bent all the way up like that to force your thumb base to rest against grip? Won't lead to soreness? Should the lower part of my wrist be angled out away a bit (when I bring my fingers around to rest pointer on front of grip, my wrist naturally follows a bit).

Also, one more question. I am working on pronating my elbow even more. My elbow is generally mostly out, but not fully. It is very unnatural right now and I need to pause and force myself to do it before drawing. Does it ever become second nature? Even when I am successfully rotating it without moving my shoulder it feels very forced.

[Draven]

Noctis, you tend to flinch away from string because you learnt that a good release is when your fingers are touching your shoulder at follow-through. And you are trying to do it as you were told. You did not developed your own follow through for arrow hand based on what you really feel in your hand the moment the arrow is released. Learning things is good, but at one point make those things yours.
Maybe the rush to touch the shoulder after release is forcing the fingers to have a 'guitar moment' on the string @ the release instead fingers pointing the arrow's direction while releasing. But these can't be seen in a video without falling in assumption trap. The best doctor for less obvious things is you. And you just gave yourself an answer: over-focusing with the form is preventing you to get the best from it. Give the brain a pause, feel the bow, arrow and your body instead.

PS For the elbow out, you don't need to force it to the point it feels unnatural. When you do push-ups on your fists on the wall the elbow is naturally oriented outward, right? Otherwise you couldn't do the push-up - or your hand will be parallel with your body. Look at your hand extended after the push-up. The fist is slightly rotated (knuckles oriented to a close to 45 degrees), the elbow is pointing out without hurting. Have the same feeling in the bow hand, nothing more.