In itself, “bow hold” is a misnomer, and can be at the heart of tension in the body.  Instead, the words that I use to describe our hand’s relationship to the bow are “cradle,” or “support”.  The hand is merely a conduit from the body to the instrument, and is not “in charge” of the bow.  The first order of business when evaluating the hand/bow relationship is feeling the connection of the fingers to the stick and removing the thumb from the equation.