#I'm currently learning historical english long bow shooting

[wtf-amiru]

As someone who spent 5 years teaching long and recurve bow archery, and someone who's been in a reenactment group for 3 years archery fan art can sometimes irk me so much

Remember, 2-3 fingers on the string, never all four (one above, two below, three is what we taught) because it's easier and faster to release 2 or three fingers than four and much more stable

And usually no finger OVER the arrow tip on the bow hand. This is a thing that's huge in media and had made its way into actual archery but you're actually taught not to do it in the field. The most you're allowed to get away with is sticking a finger out under it and resting the arrow on it, like pointing. But usually you're encouraged not to and to fully grip the bow for a couple reasons. One, bows come in different pull strengths, you need to learn to grip that sucker hard if you're gonna be able to shoot the higher strength bows accurately. Two, your finger's in the way; it's just in the way of the arrow once it's fired. The top/outside fletching can more easily catch your finger and fly off wide, it's actually not super safe if you're on a heavier pull bow. 9 times out of 10 it's much easier to just knock properly and rest the arrow on the top of your grippy hand or the arrow ledge on the bow.

Also look up proper knocking, there's always one way where the fletching won't hit anything on the arrow's way out (they make a triangle right, so one flat side against the bow side with the point pointing out and away, this is the fletching that would get hit if you've got your grip hand's finger around the arrow)

This ain't the law, there's lots of different ways to shoot a bow but this is just basic things you'd be taught on your first day kind of stuff. The basics that a person builds upon

Also please, if the bow curves back at all at the tips and isn't just ) shaped, it's a recurve bow, doesn't matter how big it is.