Thumb Draw is my jam!

Last week while watching countless YouTube archery tutorials I had a minor panic attack when I thought I had been drawing my bow wrong for the past 2 months. I shoot righthanded and I line my arrow up on the right side of my recurve bow. I quickly had to tape the base of my left thumb due to fletching burns. My bow doesn’t have a shelf, or a left or right. I couldn’t remember why I had started with the arrow on the right side of the bow, but it was working for me. In the first few weeks I always shot to the right of the target, and it seemed my eye didn’t line up like all the institutive archery instructors said it would, but each night that I practiced my groupings were getting tighter and closer to the bullseye. I found a few more videos that assured me my draw was correct for mounted archery. Only difference was they all used a thumb draw with the right hand and I was using a three under draw which I preferred to the Mediterranean draw. So great, one more thing to learn – the thumb draw. 

One of the best videos teaching the thumb draw recommended using a lighter pound bow and taking it easy to not injure your thumb. My plan was to shoot a few sets with the thumb draw and move back to three under to give my thumb a break. I don’t yet have a thumb ring so I taped my thumb and threw a riding glover over it. Joe was turned out in the pasture along side his best friend James, so I took the opportunity to get some practice in without him yelling at me from his stall for ignoring him. I set up my target under the glow of the indoor arena lights and shot from maybe 2.5 yards back. I copied the L shape with my thumb and index finger I’d seen on several videos, wrapped the first knuckle of my thumb around the bow string and took my first shot. The arrow hit the target, slightly low and to the left, but it was solid. The second arrow hit close to the first, and the third and fourth. 10 arrows in and I had the best first grouping of a practice so far. 30 arrows in and I was hitting the center of the target. 40 shots in and I had 3 of 10 arrows in the bullseye and was saying “this is fucking awesome!” out loud. 60 shots in it was time to go get Joe or I may have left him turned out and shot on foot for the next hour. 

I took my time getting Joe warmed up, we’ve been doing a lot of no hands work at the walk. One half of the arena was full of poles and jumps so we had plenty of turns to navigate and poles to step over. When it was time to let him catch his breath, I picked up my quiver and bow from the jump standard they were hung on and we headed towards the target. I stood him at the same distance I had shot from on foot and used the same thumb release. Once again, my groupings were some of the best I’ve done, a little high but close together. I’m only shooting with 10 arrows at a time right now (1 broke and another is out in the yard somewhere) so I have to get off and on several times during a session. I see this as another training opportunity, Joe has a tendency to walk off when I get on because for years, I let him. Now I make him stand and when I get on our first few steps of each ride is in the back up. Its only taken a few weeks and he stands quietly on a loose rein when I swing my leg over. He still takes one step forward at times when I adjust my quiver (I mount with it behind me and then move it to my side once I’m on), so I ask him to back up again. I’m finding that mounted archery is exposing all the holes I’ve left in his training and I’m no longer willing to be lackadaisical about fixing them.