April 7, 2011

from K.S. of USA:

"Hello,
 
I have a grip built with the specs you lay out in Inside the Archer (about 30 degrees from vertical and a 5 degree left-to-right slant). As a right handed archer at full draw, if my bow hand is slightly sweaty (a common occurrence) I find the bow will want to slide to the left so that the grip moves more towards the center of my palm.
 
I know in that section of the book you mention adding grip tape to the grip itself, but I wonder if in this situation adding tape would increase torque because the bow is trying to slide left. Is it OK to be adding grip tape in this situation? Or should I be looking at something form related to correct this?
 
Thanks for any help."

Firstly make sure that the angle of the knuckles is at least 45 deg to the riser and preferably more. If it is less than 45deg the pressure point would most likely be more right on the grip and a sweaty hand could cause the hand to slide as you indicated.
 
I would suggest you could try some tape on the lower half of the grip, but keep it about 1” below the throat of the grip so when you slide the sweaty fleshy part of the hand into the throat it will position itself properly and then make full contact with the rest of the thumb muscle, ensuring that the pressure point is located on the outer half, left side of the grip, as described on page 43.