For twenty years of trad. bow shooting I've tried to have the perfect release. I was told to draw back to an anchor point hold, release. The only thing to move was my fingers opening to release the string.
Today I messed around with my release. Instead of keeping my release hand and fingers against my face I let my release hand follow through. I guess you could describe it as what I've seen target, or olympic shooters release. With this type of release I had better arrow flight and my groups improved. Maybe that is why they are olympic shooters!
Al
If your correctly pushing\\pulling at full draw your hand will naturally come backwards, if you hold on your face your going against a natural process but I think it shouldn't be exagerated like Olympic shooters as they have a huge amount of stabilization on their bows.
Last year I trained with Coach Kim Hyung Tak a top Korean Olympic coach, I asked about this type of release saying it's quite difficult to get right with a Longbow, he was telling me when they teach novice students they start with a quite short followthrough and it's developed over years of training to what you see at Olympics.
He suggested keeping followthrough for Longbow quite short 1-2" to help maintain Bow control, this seems to work well for me, I have control of shot and Bow and consistent groups\\arrow flight.
When I experimented with a longer followthrough it worked even better but found under pressure situations it was quite difficult to repeat so I went back to shorter followthrough which I know I can repeat under all conditions.
Back tension is the driver of the follow though (in any style). If the hands, and arms are relaxed enough, then the back drives the follow though (can't be helped). There are correct follow through positions however that are pretty much still dictacted by back tension. One thing to note is that back tension does not stop upon release. If you are forcing a position, then the back tension is probably not completely correct. The bow arm follow through is mainly there to provide balance and stability. There should be equal forces to each side of the body (spine being the divider).
Personally, I do not believe that Olympic Style Recurve shooters exagerate the follow through.
I'm know expert but Bobco is correct and from all the dvd's I've watched lately the word anchor just like the word release is incorrect. You want to see a good explanation of the process then get Masters Of The Barebow Vol.III and watch Rod Jenkins explanation. He pretty much sums up the whole process of shooting-drawing/releasing and how back tension is used. As for release, you can't open your fingers fast enough to get a clean release. It is a relaxing of the whole forearm. Some people say the whole pulling side. As for the anchor it isn't a stopping point but a reference point for a consistent draw. Hopefully I said this right......
I struggled with my release until I watched the MBB III video and read Byron Fergusons book "Become the Arrow". When I finally got used to totally relaxing the drawing arm side of my body at release my groups really tightened up. My firing hand ends up with my thumb on my shoulder at the end of the shot. I can tell when I am going to hit the target perfectly by where my hand ends up after the release.