Should You Anchor At The Eye? | Archery

Many archers feel it is intuitive to aim down the arrow shaft when shooting barebow or traditional. Is this is a valid and legitimate technique? What are the pros and cons? Why don't most people do it?
Bow: Barr Indian (courtesy Ken's Archery Store: www.kensarcherystore.com/)
Arrows: Gold Tip Traditional
Shirt: TuS Grün-Weiß Holten 1900 e.V. Bogensport
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[@galileopotato167]

Welcome back Nu

[@davidloganwright4253]

So glad you're back. Thanks for the best archery instruction on the net :-)

[@colinmitchell3213]

Hey, welcome back! Missed you. I hope that you are doing well & recovering at a sustainable rate.

[@lubossoltes321]

Interesting ... well first welcome back :-) We've been missing you ... Anyway ... I guess I am one of those archers. I am shooting 3 under and I tuck the knuckle of my thumb into the top of my ear for anchor (basically just below where the top of the ear starts). There are 2 issues with that: 1. Pivot point - keeping your head position is critical since the pivot point of your head is the neck, the further UP you go, the more the smallest change in head position changes the impact point. The closer to the neck you are the less influence that has 2. Paralax - I cannot really get the arrow into the line of eye to arrow point so I have to compensate for the left to right drift at different distances However shooting 3D, the longest distance is some 30 meters so I don't suffer any of the negative consequences you mentioned for shooting long distances. I basically started under the jaw, then moved to corner of the mount, then cheek bone and now I am up juts below the eye ... I guess in instinctive 3d it comes more to personal preference than anything else. For Olymic recurve, where the sight helps compensating for a lot of issues with the jaw anchor, a solid anchor is more important than comfortable aiming ...

[@bruce6341]

Good to see you back. Hope you are well. I look forward to watching this later

[@JoelRosenfeld]

I’m glad you are back! I blink and you have four new videos in two weeks!

[@haunted2024]

Glad seeing you again. Informative video btw. 2 months archer here, and life has been kicking my butt harder than ever. However, I did archery yesterday, and it was rather therapeutic. Been lacking motivation and inspiration lately. God bless.

[@scottyhugefellow1447]

Hope you're doing ok bud, hang in there

[@han1660]

I’m a new archer too and find it very therapeutic. The focus it brings is wonderful

[@RoyMcAvoy]

Welcome back nu sensei. Thanks for the informative video.

[@SwissFiveNine]

A big hello from Switzerland, good old Europe. Welcome back NUSensei!

[@orlandogiuca9190]

I'm so glad you're back!!! Hope you are OK,

[@MrDonfong]

I am so glad to see you here again. Welcome. Missed your videos.

[@zephyrnius]

I know everyone else is saying this too but I am very excited to see you back! I hope your health has/continues to improve, and that you continue to do things that you love!

[@wellybobs4403]

Yaaayyyy so good to see you back! Thankyou for your truly great instruction. You have thousands of people who will support you. Fear not.

[@camelcasee]

Glad you're back and doing better mate.

[@intanutoyo2887]

Hi sensei, greetings from Jakarta Indonesia!! Love to see you back!

[@oozer3827]

Good to see you back promoting archery again

[@WeedBat]

Been doing archery for half a year now, and I went from hitting the bullseyes every 15 shots (AVG) to hitting it every second shot and sometimes almost Robin hooding my arrows... It's beginning to scare me. And I've gotten this much progress because of you, thank you mate.

[@tika4162]

Glad to see you back Nu!

[@annalisamanderville1364]

Wonderful to see you back Nu!

[@Alex-ir9nx]

So good to see you back. Been looking over a lot of your vids as I has just got a new bow and then a new one is out! Great content as always

[@DeusVault3008]

It's 2 am I woke up for this

[@Aomoi]

I am so happy to see you back :) Quite informative and fun video, as always. Thank you!

[@matpagnolo7041]

Good to have you back online dude. Appreciate the work you do to help folks with archery skills. Certainly made my game improve. Glad you’re back online.

[@AutisticArcher]

Welcome back. Glad to see you

[@cavetroll]

Welcome back squire! So good to see you up and around again!

[@ARTCHILD]

Perfect timing for me on this subject…thanks Nu and welcome back!

[@justwatching6446]

Great video!!! Solves so many questions that my children ask why you don’t put the arrow next to the eye. I just let them what the video. Problem solved!! Thank you!

[@Fatih2341]

Glad to see you came back 👏👏

[@ericluo520]

Happy to see you back.

[@sean2643]

Great to see you back

[@carinalarsen76]

Glad to see you back again. Great video as always 😊

[@MrClawt]

I love NUsensei videos so much. All quality content to learn from.

[@daultonhuskey2804]

Good to see you again! Great video

[@grayfoxv]

Hooray for Nu Sensei!!

[@garryeccles261]

Another great video, awesome to see a new video

[@OGHomey]

Welcome back! Been a while!

[@wallacereyes475]

Nice to have your advice back.

[@Steven-jn2cw]

Welcome back my man!

[@edmcgugan2079]

Great video. You are very informative. String walking was a game changer for me. Still use it to teach beginners.

[@geogemini8528]

I anchor at my temple, I started doing it to increase my draw length. I've had more than one people in Facebook groups tell me my form sucks because of it. It works great for me I get good groups at 30 yards with a 70# bow. Great video though.

[@nurbaiti_hikaru]

Finally, new video. Welcome back.

[@samb580]

Yay you’re back!

Very well and politely explained.... keep up the good work.

[@santosknives6278]

Looking forward for a review on this bow, looks excellent

[@davidbryan4978]

great to see so new content.

[@kizhou]

Welcome back! I’m hope you’re doing good Nu!

[@manjitahzan9577]

Welcome back sensei.

[@JinNOSify]

Welcome back!!

[@tengkualiff]

Welcome back!

[@staffordsanpei7804]

Make sense to me. I anchor on my cheek. Glad you're back. Love your videos. I've learned so much from you. Thank you.

[@gizmonomono]

Like everyone says, glad to see you back. Hope you're doing well. On the topic, I believe I read somwhere that in Turkish traditional archery they ancor at the eyebrow when you're shooting at low targets. It never felt comfortable to me.

[@wilianreyes-benitez3560]

I've always wanted to learn and I feel now is the time. Thanks for your knowledge. 👍🤔😁

[@MateusBorges42]

Good to see you back sensei! And answering a reddit question in a video

[@rapmamori4136]

Thank you nusensei

[@carlc.4714]

I am wearing glasses and use the eye/glasses anchor for targets up to about 20 meters. The cock feather gets aligned with the eyeglass temples. Usually used with thumb ring and my asiatic bows. No need for remembering reference points up to this distance. And it works perfectly fine for me. Draw length check will be done with the thumb and/or index finger on the bow hand.

[@ramoverde4133]

That is a good looking Bow Sensei ! 🏹✔👍

[@shannonshenneniganschieng8040]

Good to have u back, NUSensei. Stay strong in this tough period! :) What are those fluffy things on your bowstring?

[@marcusfridh8489]

Those are string silencers, there are there to silence the string when released and it also helps to decrease the string vibrations

[@28gaball]

Good to see you!

[@VectorAero]

Stringwalking ftw. PS. Welcome back Nu

[@rinkerd3575]

Yess youre back

[@WeedBat]

HE'S BACK!

[@randomguy-dy3uy]

Welcome back :)

[@just-a-bajan6643]

You are back

[@buendimas]

Seems to me that anchoring that way (eye level) would definitely impact in your hook, I mean, probably an eye level anchor archer would choose a three under or string walk instead of the mediterranean hook, because of the interference that is already being occasioned with the arrow or fletching touching the face when prefering that type of anchoring. So, I think the hook will be more affected when opting for eye level anchor over any other form of anchoring. Btw, glad to see you back.

[@galactichobo599]

I use 2 and 3 finger with this. If the head tilt and straightness are off, the string with tear across my chin or cheek. My wingspan is slightly redonkulous...so my alignment(or lack of) also increases length of string slap down the arm starting at my elbow. It takes precision but it also eliminates string walk.

[@alexhaynes7771]

Welcome back

[@Scarlet_Soul]

For me I anchor by my eye for practice shooting. I have the preference to draw back the string back a little further than normal and I know this definitely won't be recommended for most, but I anchor where the fletching just touches my orbital bone. It also for me at least makes distances more easy to adjust for drop off (of course that varies from bow to now but I primarily practice shoot with a 60 pound recurve)

[@taxicarman72]

Hi there, where have you been, I've missed your instructional lessons!

[@barrarchery6156]

This is our bow, thank you!

[@yugen]

WB! Good video!

[@galactichobo599]

I've "aimed down the arrow" but I compensate the trajectory with my bow arm...a** backwards string walk. I'm surprisingly good up to 40yards but it tears up my shoulder and back because I usually shoot instinct across the collar bones with a slight cant. I also Ancor at my ear, under and behind the temple. I tried it with my Awa Kenzo book...but a was also abusing my olympic recurve. It gave me phenomenal gains and understanding...but now I'm locked in to a 33" draw and I constantly obliterate my rest, arrows, fletchings and limb sockets. It works well both at the eye and across the chest, but at poundage over 35 gave me my best results, especially me personally at around 40-50. Only downside is I need longer arrows that aren't made mass market.

[@r8chlletters]

Originally I was taught to shoot from my “earring” but eventually ended up shooting at the “kiss” (corner of the mouth) with my hand placed along my jaw. This works well as I wear glasses and can’t really line up with the eye.

[@chrisbowman2030]

Glad to see you back! I just recognised you're wearing a club shirt from a German archery club. How is that? Greetings from Germany Chris

[@rshaart4810]

A lot of the time I've seen this with 3 under shots vs split finger/med draw, the way I've done it is putting my first finger under my cheekbone. I know Clay Hayes draws that way (or did) primarily for hunting distances vs Olympic shooting, so it could have merit there in that context

[@caseysmith544]

Due to how short my anchor is I am going to the Ear that from part cartilage before the earhole with top finger in a split 3 finger draw with two on top and this works best to get 24 inch or 60 cm draw . Otherwise, I am going 1--2 inches or 2.5--5 cm shorter if to corner of mouth. Also, I find this helps get the arrow up higher for the Split Vison/Howard Hill style of shooting so the gap is less, but the arrow is not too high for archery, and I can correct if too low by going 2 under in split 3 finger draw or go 3 on top if I really need to. It works for me now, I used to draw to back corner of jaw corner with lower finger at the bottom edge but this is just odd for some bows and I was only getting 1 inch/2.5 cm longer of draw then to ear and it was kind of low for me so I stopped doing this unless I have some bows like long target, English, or Yumi/other Japanese longer bow to get the max draw I can from the bow.

[@HandyL]

If I had a bone on bone anchor point that had the arrow closer to my eye I would use it. Unfortunately the only thing close is placing my thumb behind my ear but there is too much movement with the cartilage being too flexible and soft.

[@Galkac]

And I believe that's how to aim aswell I don't know I might be wrong

[@Zweiwehsechs]

Long time no see! 😁

[@Hu3hn3rschr3ck]

Nice shirt, welcome to germany ;⁠)

[@beargillium2369]

Like the bow, nice 🏹

[@blindarchershaunhenderson3769]

I've never seen anybody anchor from the eye as you describe seems inherently dangerous, but I could imagine club coaches jumping up and down in panic if they saw somebody using it, cool video 😎🏹🙏

[@NUSensei]

I often see beginners do it because, as said in the video, it "feels" easier to aim at the 10m target (brings the point in line with the gold). It's more often seen in pop culture media.

[@blindarchershaunhenderson3769]

@@NUSensei I'm glad I'm not a coach, I would find the very idea of putting something so close to your I to be criminally in the extreme 😎🏹🙏

[@AutisticArcher]

@@NUSensei This is the standard "entry aiming method" at our archery club. A lot of archers that chooses to shoot barebow mostly fall back on this and find out that this only work on shorter distances and come te me, I'm a barebow and traditional archer, for help. The they discover face and string walking, or the traditional European method of the hunters of old

[@DeusVault3008]

Good

[@danebrockman1825]

Beautiful bow. Who makes that one? Have you done a review on it?

[@AW-hg3pc]

how about longbow archery (historical) the whole body leans in, its quite an interesting stance. check out Tod Cutlers video on longbow vs armor for reference. It seems like that brings the eye very close to the arrow as well

[@NUSensei]

Joe Gibbs doesn't anchor at eye level. The historical longbow style of archery draws to the ear in length, but typically has the arrow at jaw level.

[@kmarchery]

I like the "eye" anchor . If only for the "mean, evil ,horrible " 3d course planners who mess with your Plans and set up a target at 3 yards and angled down in a pit . A club mate planed a target in just that manner . Hilarious to see the very hi level of good natured well humoured complaints "cursing" him . If only cause it was trade shooters who adjusted their anchor who hit it . More than a few compound shooters missed or only got a five point score (for a compound shooter that is an emotional equivalent to a miss ) I will also cheer for mustache anchor point if only cause its a fun word to say and hear in the English dialects. 👍.

[@WildlifeKit]

long time no see

[@ashoka9306]

when did you visit germany? nice jersey

[@dominicbrady1539]

I'm going to report NuSensei to the local authorities for loading a bow in a residential setting. He is known for accidently releasing arrows around his street and shooting at people's pets that enter his yard

[@charlespk2008]

ahhhh... ....i draw to my ear lobe.... ....no wonder i have trouble finding bows with enough draw-length. i do wear glasses, and they don't get in the way. it actually feels really natural to me.

[@Australian_Made]

💗 ✌

[@elijahoconnell]

i take off my glasses to do the eye anchor. ive got horrible eyesight but i just like the eye anchor that much edit: more specifically by a mole near my earlobe

[@kevinstachovak8842]

It's the same with firearms. One must account for windage and gravity

[@danielruprecht8932]

I learned this by sending my glasses downrange and damaging my string😐

[@typhoon2827]

Are you getting some coaching yourself, David?

[@chrisstokley7687]

no beird /thumbs down again.. i know down is still good lol. ....Look like bow god when got go -T :>).. grow back please.. wise 1

[@sabineriverboyz7]

How's the LOL climb going

[@ashoka9306]

youve got scammers in your comments