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Did English archers shoot over the knuckle or over the thumb?

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Del the cat:
The real issue is how the string slips off the fingers once they start to open.
The string will deflect left from the fingers of the right hand and to the right from the fingers of the left hand.
If you imagine the fingers of the right hand as a plate hinged along it's right edge, as the left edge (finger tips) starts to move towards the bow the string will be trying to slip off. With a flat plate this will happen once the plate has moved a few degrees, obviously with soft fingers and maybe a tab the string will bite int an bit, but it will still pull free early, say when the plate/fingers are at 45 degrees, this gives the deflection.
This is the big effect that those idiot target archers with centre shot bows confuse for 'Archers Pardox' when it is nothing to do with it.

So, a right hamded archer deflects the string (and thus the nock of the arrow) to the left, this tends to pivot or buckle the arrow about it's centre forcing the front end to the right against the bow, stopping it leaping off the hand...
Del

warrior kiwi:
For what its worth, I as a kid also used the over-thumb technique with my sapling bows and being a left hander, sometimes used my friends right hand recurve bows as the shelf was in the position I was used to, and the technique became quite accurate with practise. however since practising at a club I shoot now using the knuckle (and I have also changed to shoot right-handed as I am right-eye dominant).

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