A little over 2 months I have had the opportunity to shoot loaned
recurve bows (without sights) at clubs in my neighbourhood, but
anchoring has been a major point for me. I had been under the
impression (before I was told otherwise) that an archer would pull
back the elbow as far as it will go (the upper arm lining up with the
upper body and bow arm) and in that way obtain an absolute and steady
point that would be easily repeatable and which would in my case have
resulted in 34 inches of drawlength. My fingers would in that case
also finish up at or a little behind the corner of the jaw.
At the archery clubs they kept on the contrary hammering on an
anchoring point that would result in the bend fingers or thumb
finishing up at or near my mouth, possibly at the corner of the mouth
and thereby also moving some 3 inches or so forward from the point
that I previously kept.
In itself I could understand the thinking behind this of getting the
string at the point whereby it could be seen and then brought
horizontally in line with the arrow's tip and center of the target.
Also in that way the arrow shaft can be nicely followed over the full
length from the nock to the tip and lined up with the target.
But this new anchoring point also has the disadvantage that it moves
the upper arm forward and the once so steady or locked position of
the upper arm is now lost and suddenly some muscle strength is
required to hold the upper arm from moving more forward while aiming
at the target.

But was it such a dumb idea then of me to try and search for that
locked or absolute arm position, that could be held for a very long
time? In that case I would likely have needed a release to add the 3
inches difference to get the string in front of my face again and
enable proper aiming.

So is it correct to search an anchoring point with the fingers near
the corner of the mouth and to do this regardless of the possible
disadvantage that the upper arm now gets to hold more of the bow's
weight?

Ron van Mierlo - Sweden