The anchor point is where the draw hand comes to rest against the face at full draw. It is simple to explain and much harder to make identical on every arrow, because the face is a few centimetres from the eye and the target is seventy metres away: whatever moves by a millimetre at the anchor moves by centimetres on the target.
This article looks at what makes an anchor reliable, how it changes between Olympic recurve, compound and traditional bows, which errors I see most often in intermediate archers, and how to find, and then keep, the anchor that suits your face. On two points the registry has measurements: how much the string really touches the face in top-level archers, and where the drawing elbow and shoulder sit. The rest comes from practice on the shooting line.
What a millimetre at the anchor is worth
The reason millimetres matter at the anchor is geometric. The nock sits at the face and the arrow rest on the sight window about seventy centimetres further forward, so if the nock rises or moves sideways by a millimetre while the sight stays on the gold, the arrow changes its angle by that millimetre over seventy centimetres, and at 70 metres the error becomes about 10 centimetres, more than one and a half rings on the 122 cm face. It is a static calculation that ignores how the bow and string behave during the power stroke, and nobody has checked it on archers actually shooting. The claim that fractions of a millimetre at aim become centimetres on the target rests on the same kind of calculation, and the registry marks it as transferred precisely because it is geometry rather than measurement. As an order of magnitude, though, it is enough to explain why an anchor that varies by two or three millimetres from one arrow to the next opens the group more than the archer expects.
What makes an anchor genuinely effective
Putting together what is taught and what can be seen on the shooting line, an anchor that works has four characteristics. If one is missing, the anchor remains a weak reference and the repeatability of the shot suffers.
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Contact at several points
At least three references: in recurve, the hand under the jaw, the string on the chin and the string on the nose. Three well-spaced points fix the hand and the string relative to the face, whereas a single point leaves the hand free to slide or to rotate around it.
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Consistent pressure
The hand has to rest against the face with the same pressure on every arrow. A hand that presses harder squashes the cheek and moves the nock by a few millimetres, which is enough to show up on the target.
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Repeatability under fatigue
The anchor on the sixtieth arrow of a long session has to be the anchor of the first. The last arrows are the ones on which to check it, because that is where many archers feel their form slipping.
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Anatomical compatibility
The anchor has to adapt to the archer's facial and skeletal structure, not the other way round. Forcing a standard anchor onto a face that does not accommodate it produces compensations that take their toll in the medium term.
When all four conditions are in place, every arrow leaves from the same geometry. When they are not, the starting point changes from one shot to the next and the group opens even with a clean release, because the release cannot correct a nock that starts from a different place.
The anchor in Olympic recurve
In Olympic recurve the classic anchor sits under the chin and has three references. The first is the hand under the jaw, with the top edge of the index finger tucked under the bone. The second is the string on the chin, at the centre or slightly to one side, and for many archers on the lips as well. The third is the string on the tip of the nose. Each controls something different: the hand under the jaw sets the height of the nock relative to the eye, the string on the chin sets its lateral position, and the touch on the nose tells the archer whether the head meets the string the same way each time, in rotation and in depth.
How hard the string presses on the face, however, has been counted only once, in sixteen world-class recurve archers, eight men and eight women from national teams, filmed at 4,000 frames per second. The authors looked for the string pressing into the face at full draw and for pressure marks left after the release, and found them in only four, three on the chin and one on the chin and lips; in the other twelve neither the string pressing in nor any marks were visible. Even in those four it was slight, and in the results the authors write that it should not significantly change how the arrow behaves, whereas in the conclusions the same contact becomes noticeable and able to alter that behaviour markedly.
The claim that in top-level recurve the string does not touch the face, or barely brushes it is reported, and its limits are clear: it is a single study, contact is judged by eye, and nobody has set it beside the score. As practical guidance it is still clear-cut, and it is what many coaches already teach: the string reaches the chin and nose and rests there without pressing. The same authors also note that a movement normally seen as poor technique, contact included, can still produce impressive scores if the archer repeats it closely on every arrow, so a contact, if there is one, has to be the same every time. If the chin or nose carries a string mark after a session, it is usually the head moving towards the string, or the hand position under the jaw has changed.
One detail that is often overlooked is the thumb of the draw hand. Many recurve archers leave it relaxed against the neck, below the jaw, where it becomes an extra reference; in intermediate archers it is common to see it change place from one arrow to the next, sometimes pointing up and sometimes curled into the palm, and the whole hand moves with it.
The drawing elbow and shoulder at anchor
The anchor does not end at the face. Behind the hand is the drawing arm, and the position of the elbow decides whether the draw arrives at the face along the line of the arrow or across it. On the drawing arm the registry has two measurements, both taken at full draw.
The first is a 1997 comparison of thirty Japanese barebow archers filmed from the side, fifteen with at least three years of practice and fifteen with less than one. The authors measured the angle between the two shoulders and the drawing elbow, and read it as the height of the elbow: the wider the angle, the higher the elbow sits towards the shoulder line. It was about 155 degrees in the experts and 140 in the beginners. The direction is the one archers are taught, and the claim that expert archers keep the string elbow more open than beginners do is reported, on fragile grounds: these are means of three shots read off a flat image, with no statistical test at all, and nobody has linked that angle to the score.
The second comes from complete beginners. Among 104 students who had never shot, using a plastic toy bow at 3 metres, the 55 who scored at least 10 points out of 90 held the drawing shoulder at 75.4 degrees at the release, and the 49 who stayed below at 86.1; the elbow separated the two groups even more, 103.1 against 83.4 degrees. Here too there is no statistical test, and a difference between men and women muddies the comparison, because the men held the shoulder at 66 degrees on average and the women at 91, and the men scored more. The claim that among beginners, those who score more hold the drawing shoulder at a smaller angle is reported, and it says something about the first shots of someone starting out, not about how the shoulder of a trained archer should sit.
The two measurements should not be added together, because the first concerns elbow height in archers with a few years of practice and the second a shoulder angle in people shooting for the first time. The 1997 comparison points in the direction that is taught, a high elbow that reaches the anchor behind the arrow; the study of beginners only says that, in people shooting for the first time, the position of the drawing arm goes with the score. How many points that position is worth in trained archers nobody has measured.
The anchor in compound
In compound the anchor changes because the string is held by a release aid rather than the fingers, and the hand ends up further back. With a thumb or hinge release it is usually the knuckles, or the back of the hand, against the jaw, below the ear; with a wrist-strap index release it is the back of the fingers along the jawline. The string touches the tip of the nose, and archers who use a kisser button, a small disc fixed to the string, bring it to the corner of the mouth.
Compound then adds a reference that recurve does not have, the peep sight, the small aperture set into the string through which the eye looks at the sight. If the head and hand do not arrive in the same position, the peep ring does not centre on the scope housing, and the archer notices before shooting: that is why the compound anchor is generally easier to repeat, even though the setup takes more tuning.
The other side of this is that the anchor also depends on the string. If the peep rotates because the string has settled, or the kisser slips by a few millimetres, the anchor changes even with an identical shot, so checking the peep and kisser is part of building a reliable compound anchor.
The anchor in traditional and instinctive archery
In traditional archery and in instinctive shooting the anchor takes on a different role. Without a sight there is no reference in front of the eye, and aiming relies on proprioception, on the memory of the movement or on the arrow point; the anchor becomes the rear sight, the only fixed point in the system. Here an error at the anchor is also, directly, an aiming error.
The anchor is usually higher than in Olympic recurve, with the index or middle finger at the corner of the mouth or below the cheekbone, so that the arrow sits closer to the eye and its line comes closer to the line of sight. For the same reason many archers shoot three-under rather than with a split-finger grip.
If you shoot more than one style, for example Olympic recurve during the week and the odd traditional session, it is better to keep two separate anchors, each trained on its own: looking for a compromise between the under-chin anchor and the corner of the mouth leads to an anchor that is neither one nor the other.
Four common anchor errors
Anyone who works with intermediate archers sees certain errors come up again and again, and learning to recognise them helps to build a more reliable anchor.
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Error 01
Floating anchor height
The hand touches the face, but at a slightly different height each time. On the target this shows up as vertical spread, with arrows high and low in no particular order.
Typical cause: changing pressure of the hand against the face, or tension in the draw hand. Fix: work on the pressure by shooting close up into a blank boss with your eyes closed, looking for the same feeling of contact every time.
- Symptom
- Vertical spread
- Fix
- Consistent pressure
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Error 02
String pressing into the face
The string's contact with the chin and nose should be light and always the same. When the string digs into the chin on some arrows and barely brushes it on others, the string's position at the release changes, and so does the way it leaves the face.
Typical cause: the head moving towards the string, forwards or sideways, rather than staying still and letting the string come to it. Fix: set the head before the draw and check on video, filmed from the front, whether the string marks the chin or the nose.
- Symptom
- String mark on the face
- Fix
- Head still
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Error 03
Anchor sliding during expansion
The hand reaches the jaw and then, while the archer works through the clicker, slides back along the chin or drops: there is still contact, but it is no longer the same point.
Typical cause: the anchor is reached short, and the last millimetres of draw length come from the hand rather than the back. Fix: arrive at the face with the draw almost complete, keep the hand still and let the rest come from expansion through the shoulder blades; breaking the draw into phases (raise, draw, anchor, expand, release) within the pre-shot routine helps to see in which phase the hand moves.
- Symptom
- Hand sliding on the face
- Fix
- Draw from the back
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Error 04
Anchor drift over time
Today's anchor is no longer the one from six months ago, and the archer has not noticed, because a slow shift cannot be felt from the inside.
Cause: no external reference, photo or video, to compare it with. Fix: a periodic video check, described below under maintenance.
- Symptom
- Drift over time
- Fix
- Quarterly video check
Diagnosing anchor problems from the shot pattern
The way arrows land on the target often points to an anchor problem before the archer can feel it. It is a clue rather than a diagnosis, because the release and the bow hand leave the same patterns, but looking costs nothing.
Systematic vertical spread, with arrows high and low in a column, suggests a changing height of the hand under the jaw. Horizontal spread suggests a lateral variation of the hand or string relative to the face, for example the string crossing the centre of the chin on one arrow and the side on the next. Diagonal spread often gives away a head that rotates or tilts during aiming, a mixed anchor and posture problem.
When the arrows instead drift in the same direction over the session, for example lower and lower, the first suspect is fatigue. Archers themselves say that form gives way at the end of a session: in a questionnaire of 59 university kyudo archers, 58% answered that after training they could still shoot, but not with good form. In the laboratory, after sixty 20-second holds at full draw, twelve Italian archers kept their score, but in all of them the bow swayed more from side to side. The claim that at the end of a session an archer can still shoot, but not with good form is reported, and what exactly gives way in form, the anchor included, nobody has measured during a real session. In practice, if the group drifts in the last ends, the first thing to try is a shorter session, or one split in two.
A second check is to compare the first twelve arrows of the session with the last twelve. If consistency visibly deteriorates, the anchor does not yet hold up for a whole session; if it stays the same to the final arrow, the problem, if there is one, lies elsewhere: in the release, the aim or the head.
How to find the right anchor for your structure
The textbook anchor is a starting point, not a mandatory destination. Facial structure, arm length and jaw shape vary from person to person, and the anchor has to adapt to your anatomy, not the other way round.
Building one that fits involves three stages, and the first is observing your structure: finger length relative to the hand, chin shape, where the nose sits relative to the jaw. These observations quickly show which contacts are natural and which you are forcing.
The second is guided exploration: testing three or four variations in short sessions of eight to twelve arrows each, comparing consistency, comfort and the groups produced. Ideally this is done with a coach alongside, but it can be done alone with video and a training diary.
The third is stabilisation of the chosen variation: several weeks of deliberate practice on that geometry, the time it takes to settle it. Changing your anchor is motor learning, not an adjustment you make today and can count on tomorrow.
The anchor and distance
You sometimes hear that the anchor should change with distance, higher at short range and lower at long range. The geometry holds, because a lower anchor moves the nock further from the eye and raises the trajectory for the same aim, but with a sight there is no need: the sight handles distance through its clicks, and the anchor stays the same. Changing it would mean moving the one reference that has to stay fixed.
The exceptions are where there is no sight. In barebow, face walking (anchoring higher or lower on the face according to distance) and string walking (moving the fingers along the string) are the aiming system itself, and every variation is codified and trained one by one. For anyone shooting with a sight, intermediate or elite, the rule is one anchor, always the same.
When and how to rebuild the anchor
Changing an anchor that is already well established is a delicate job, to be taken on only for genuine reasons (an injury that alters the anatomy, a change of division, a chronic and documented technical problem) and in the knowledge, from the outset, that it will take time.
The process typically takes 6 to 12 weeks of deliberate work: a practical guide, not a measured figure. The first two weeks are spent simply getting the feel of the new anchor in easy conditions, at short distances and with low volume. From the third to the sixth week volume is built while holding the new pattern, and from the seventh to the twelfth it is tested under progressively more demanding conditions, competition simulation included.
During this period the score usually drops for a while, which is the price of rebuilding. The greatest risk is going back to the old anchor before the new one has taken hold, under pressure or after a few weeks. Among coaches it is a familiar experience: three long-serving coaches of the Korean national team, interviewed at length about their methods, say that after a correction the old movement tends to return, and one of them estimates that in the end 80 to 90% of it comes back. It is one coach's estimate from memory, and the claim that after a correction the old technique tends to come back is marked as not studied, because nobody has followed archers after a correction to see how well it holds. For anyone rebuilding an anchor it works as a warning: the weeks of consolidation are there precisely to stop the old anchor coming back.
Maintaining the anchor over time
A well-built anchor does not stay that way on its own, because it tends to shift slowly, and what keeps it reliable is maintenance: three habits in particular work well.
The first is a video check every three months: you record 24 arrows in normal conditions and compare hand position, draw depth and facial contacts with the original baseline. If something has shifted, a consolidation cycle brings everything back to standard before the deviation becomes a new stable pattern.
The second is the return from a break, because after weeks without shooting (through injury, holiday or exams) the anchor loses precision. The first two or three sessions back should be spent recovering the geometry, not building volume: going back to normal arrow counts before the anchor is stable only reinforces compensations.
The third is reassessing your own physical structure from time to time: changes in weight, posture and mobility alter the geometry of the face and neck, and with it the anchor that suits you. An annual check with a coach shows whether the anchor you use still fits your body as it is today.