What would be the advantage of the 3 fingers under release?

Question

In the Instinctive Bow Division of World Archery, you can either release in the Mediterranean style with one finger above the knock and two fingers below, or you can shoot 3 under, where all three fingers are under the knock.

I have only ever seen people use the Mediterranean style, what would the advantage of the 3 finger under style be?

Answer 1

I'm from the recurve world but have heard loads about freestyle shooting.

I know of two advantages for shooting with 3 under (only one for instinctive)

1. Having a 3-under allows for string walking. What this is, is basically the ability to pull the string at a different position hence changing the distance of your shot. The archer would then be able to maintain his sightpoint (or if instinctive, your feel/instinct) despite the change in distance of the target.

2. With a 3-under, it allows you to sight down the arrow much more easily as the arrow will be much closer to your eye. (not applicable for instinctive).

You will not see string walking in recurve as we have sights wherein we will be able to calibrate our sights to the distance that we're shooting.

Edit: Adding a better description for string walking as I've noted my description above is abysmally poor :)

String walking is basically changing the distance between your hand and the nocking point of the arrow.

Answer 2

In instinctive, string walking is forbidden as it permits you to use your arrow to aim.

I am an instinctive shooter that started with three under then changed to mediterranean style. Honestly, I can see any advantage on the three under.

With mediterranean style the shots are more consistent, more balanced and powerful since your pressure point on the string is more in the middle.

I will not go back to three under for sure. The first day I changed, my score got better, my groups where tighter in the first hour...