No Mutants Allowed

probably because of the most people perception that any bow that is not longbow could only have a draw weight of 30-50lb, or probably because most our current view of ancient warfare is just too europe centric. Most people doesnt aware that there a single poisoned arrow to the weak part of armor is more deadly than a penetration from heavy warbow arrow

I mean the turkish archery is still alive and well in 17th century eventhough most european army had abandoned longbow and crossbow. If you worry about the bow strength, well a comp bow could go as far as 180lb like this guy have https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8OLbdV5snk

personally for me, i stick to just 60lb target shooting bow

Dont have enough power to pull a warbow let even a longbow.
Eventhough iam a swordsman in HEMA

I don't know much about bows, but they always fascinated me. I love these little details, that are gone from most modern conciousness, like a detail in "Mononoke Hime" where the protagonist carries his bow with the string disattached, when he is not using it. Is that common? I never knew.

Another movie detail is in Norwegian history-legend-Saami-drama "Ofelas"/Pathfinder, where these short little bows are used, and upon being hunted by "chudes" (finnish tribes), a character holds up a large arrowhead, and angrily asks "what do you think these are for? Hunting rabbits?" I had never given that any thought, I liked the detail. I have also seen "moose arrows" from viking age, 10cm long points

Another interesting thing was this British stone-age enthusiast, chubby guy, I forget his name, maybe you know who he is? He shows ancient survival methods in Europe. In one episode he was visiting hunter-gatherers in Africa, and gifted the chief there a huge English longbow, and the chief was so thrilled. As he shot an arrow into a tree-trunk, it sounded like a sharp whip. Impressive sound!

I agree that Lars is seeing a lot of unreasonable hate. However, I have also seen serious discussions and I think they make good points too. Like a female archer who described Lars as 'trick' shooter rather than someone who's really someone to talk about 'historic' archery.

It is simply very unlikely that he discovered a very ancient and lost technique that no archer is practising today, even though he gets a lot of his 'historic' details wrong. Doesn't mean that he isn't impressive.

personally i more like to think lars doesnt make explanation about the technique an archer uses in warfare vs the technique that its uses mostly in training and physical improvement. Catching arrow always done with target-shooting bow which have about 35lb drawing (but still fit to hunting), it uses was mostly to improve an archer reflexes.

Maybe. But I see it like this, if we would be talking about rifles, Lars would be an extremly impressive trick shooter with no combat experience, who's trying to explain how snipers in combat should act. Is he the right source for such informations? I don't know it.

As someone who practice HEMA and furussiyah martial art, learning through medieval drawing in combat manual isn't something wrong. Quite a new technique in uses of sword is discovered through careful analysis of manuscript drawing, like the instruction how to properly throw a sword or dual wielding that is practical

I kind of assumed he was mostly showing off his skill and reflexes, as well as showing *the potential* for a more dynamic "bow fighting". I seriously doubt a lot of people would jump-catch arrows, and shoot them back, like some Chosen One... I mostly suspect flock-mob mentality though. Someone gets loud-mouthed in the comments and everyone jumps on the band wagon "yes! he is a liar and a scoundrel!"

Crni, but who in the world has *combat experience* with bows and arrows, apart from Amazonian indians?? Where does these unrealistic demands come from? Send Lars to Afghanistan to shoot arrows at Talibans, before he makes more videos?

See, that is the problem. All I am voicing is scepticism, and it's questioned. Why so defensive guys (and girls)?
Look, I could be wrong here, it's just the 'feeling' I get from Lars and his videos, that he is presenting his points as facts, but there is no way to tell if they are or not.

A lot of what he says makes sense, archers keeping their arrows ready or in their hands and so on. Sure. But a lot of his 'historical' claims have been also debunked by actuall historians. All I am saying is, despite of his impressive skill, one should always take it with a grain of salt. Now if thousands of other archers came out with the same analysis, it might be different.

The arrows in the hand is something most current tribals do, they simply do not have tradition for making these arrow-bags, so they carry them in the hand. This habit is seen in Asia, Africa and South America, and is therefore - very likely - truly archaic to humanity. Lars is probably just putting together what he considers to be "likely" sprinkled with "potentially"

I love this photo by the way http://img1.izismile.com/img/img2/20091015/kenyan_war_17.jpg actual modern tribal war in Kenya, with lots of archers (here too, every one of them carry the arrows in the bow-hand)

And to be clear, Lars probably got a bit carried away, sure. But from there to "hoax" or "fake" is a big and unfair step.

@zegh8578 nice of you putting african archery as example, i was going to talk about it.
You see, one point i like about lars technique is that they work extremely well in small scale warfare where archery is more like duel and armored combatant is just rare like in most part of africa.

Penetration isn't a thing since archer uses poison and its so damn accurate that they're called eyes hunter in nubia. This is where foot archer moving and shooting gonna works

Yes, I think that's also an element working against Lars, that the audience tend to be, as you said, quite Eurocentric -as well as having dificulty imagining our historical past as much more varied than viking or medieval age. But a true historical enthusiast will easily get lost in *milennia*. The invention of the bow in itself is ancient, possibly humanitys oldest real invention (apart from sticks and stones)