Ancient archery technique rediscovered. Shoot 3 arrows in 1 and half seconds.

Amazing stuff.

Machine gun bow and arrows.

These people must have been like the elite sharpshooters of the day.

Just goes to show how much we've forgotten about our history.

Lars Anderson is good... very good... But it's not ancient archery techniques, it's trick shooting techniques.

The guys below use ancient techniques....

a reply to: imitator

Trick shooting or not, he does use extremely similar techniques as the Huns. Doubt he could do the same on horseback.

Of course, he didn't revive the ancient technique. He just exploited it.

Uh oh! "semi automatic" bow shooting! Ban them! Neat vid.
Firepiston

originally posted by: Sunwolf
I always wondered in descriptions of ancient battles that mentioned that it took years and years to make a competent archer why it would take so long.Now I know.

This is why the firearm was a revolutionary evolutionary step. You could train a competent rifleman in a matter of weeks but a good archer took years to perfect.

originally posted by: Baddogma
a reply to: elitelogic

Thank you so much for bringing this to the site... fascinating. I think most of us history nerds (and fantasy nerds, too) will love this.

A common meme in our modern culture is to frame older cultures as somehow "primitive" and less clever, when the opposite is true... as with less technology one must be more innovative to live, as well as the fact people have been the same, as far as mental hardware, for thousands of years... perhaps even closer to a million.

I knew that archery was a deadly art and that the bow was a fearsome and amazing weapon... but the speed and accuracy is amazing. I still couldn't see how he held the arrows before feeding them to the string (or see him string the arrow, for that matter).

Cool beans.

I have to agree with you. When you don't have much technology, innovation and being able to create your own materiel and techniques was very, very important.

Fascinating...I didn't know that the ancient archers had gym mats.

Don't get me wrong, the guy is scary good and his archery skill must be level 90 at least. But he wasn't exactly emulating historic skirmishes, This was a guy shooting in controlled conditions. The situation would be very different if he was in actual combat with riders bearing down on him-practice is one thing, application is another.

Nevertheless, I wouldn't get within half a mile of this guy without wearing plate armor.

That is awesome, Katniss is passé now...

Cool, but no way is he getting the full draw weight with that method. Awesome to watch though. I could see ancient archers doing this technique before dropping their bows and drawing their swords as enemy infantry got close.

I always wondered in descriptions of ancient battles that mentioned that it took years and years to make a competent archer why it would take so long.Now I know.

Simple, an arrow falls WAY more over distance than a bullet...so MUCH harder to estimate the target, the further you are. Most ancient archery was more to create a rain of arrows to fall amongst the enemy before they got closer. It was a sheer strategy of numbers, not marksmanship. The skill was more so the group of arrows would fall into the attacking horde. Marksmanship was more of an issue if the archer was firing from battlements DOWN into the soldiers. Even the crossbow was pretty revolutionary, as you didn't need the strength to hold the bow taught, so young boys and old men could even be pressed to defend.

Bullets, on the other hand, would also go through the shields and armor though, even at good range, rendering them obsolete. Sure, arrows can too, but not at nearly the same lethal range.

a reply to: elitelogic

If you think of someone shooting a bow you normally imagine the holding hand is stretched an then the string is pulled.
As a kid we used to shot with slingshots and bows and we found out by our self to span the sling/bow with both hands and hold stones/arrows between the fingers in 2 packs. You use the sling/bow to aim and hold the stone/arrow to give it a angle point. If you watch the slingshot video with the old guy on youtube (sorry no link) and compare it to Anderson, you see both use this techniques. I bet these are woven into the ancient trick.

They were not always parlor tricks they are actually old techniques that they would use to rapid fire on horse back then retreat to a safe distance. They would shoot the arrows in the time that the enemy would attempt to advance on them. So if it only took them 1.5 seconds to shoot 3 arrows at the enemy and then run off to a safe distance before the enemy could even string their arrows they would have the upper hand. They didnt even use armor on their horses because of this. Once bows started to be developed in that reigion that had a longer range this method was not as effective anymore.
I had seen this awhile ago and as an archer myself I did a bit of research and the guys in the videos are using techniques from a book called Saracean Archery it was published in 1879 and supposedly is an english translation of old text from 1368 AD. If you want to read it they have it on wordpress Saracean Archery

originally posted by: NavyDoc
This is why the firearm was a revolutionary evolutionary step. You could train a competent rifleman in a matter of weeks but a good archer took years to perfect.

I have to disagree with this statement as it's being unfair. You can also train a "competent" archer in a matter of weeks, but a good rifleman took years to perfect. See what I did there? It doesn't take much skill to fire a gun, nor a bow. But In both cases it takes many years to master them. No bow rookie is ever going to top a bow veteran of say 20 years. How many gun rookies out class 20+ year vets? Like, none. Doesn't happen and never will because like with everything else, it takes years of experience to gain that confidence and skill to perform in such a professional matter that they appear to do it effortlessly.

I won't get into speculation and whatnot about the ease of assault weapon use. I speak purely of the art. In the case of good ole guns, I suppose the masters would be called snipers, or marksmen. Not really any different from master bowsmen that have been shooting for 30 years and the only purpose in life is to put an arrow cap in some enemy's ass.



We today tend to look at the bow and arrow too simply. They are almost a toy to us. But back in those days, when they ruled supreme, they were weapons of war, weapons of ensuring survival, and as such went through centuries of changes and improvements to improve their capability of killing, and they were by and far NOT just something anybody could pick up and shoot, and why entire armies of bowmen didn't exist. If you lacked the physical strength you could forget about it. That's probably why the crossbow was invented eventually, and finally the gun, so John Does could fight, too. Still, even to this day it requires hefty dedication to become a top tier shooter. Just as the bow and arrow era of the past.

Some of these videos I just watched does make one believe that in some areas of the world they used these small bows that appear to be easy on the body to draw and shoot but I'm betting they too are no child's play. They still have to be able to kill or else they're worthless.

a reply to: elitelogic

Astonishing..
dumbfounding

Amazing... so much has been lost over time... Great post thankyou

I can't help thinking after watching some of those vids, that the draw on those bows isn't much. If someone was popping me with arrows that were only penetrating a few inches, I would probably charge them and take their head off with a blade. They would be fine rabbit hunters. You cannot fire at that rate with a compound bow with 70-90 lbs of draw. I do realize that in the old days there were no antibiotics and an arrow in the gut was a long, painful death sentence. Impressive skills nonetheless.

originally posted by: FirePiston
Uh oh! "semi automatic" bow shooting! Ban them! Neat vid.
Firepiston

haha....but remember bow & arrows don't kill man.....man kill man! Lol.

a reply to: elitelogic

I can see how some ancient people could have used this technique. People such as the Mongols did not have the resources, or knowledge to use other short range weapons such as throwing knives. For these people, or others like the ancient native Americans since it is easier to make arrows and to have used certain stones, or bone for the tip of the arrows while the shaft is obviously wood and feathers could be easily gathered.

However, there are techniques used by other ancient people, such as the Shinobi/ninja, who would have used the bow only for medium and long range effectively while using throwing weapons like shurikens and throwing knives for short and even medium ranges as fast or even faster, depends on the technique used, than shooting arrows.

For such short to medium ranges there are other weapons, that are easy to recover and can be reused easily, such as shurikens and throwing knives which would be even faster, easier to shoot, and more accurate although it does require a lot of training as well as more use of metals.

It is still amazing to see how fast some people could shoot arrows. The one problem is that with bows/arrows shooting so fast is equal to, to use a modern expression, "spray and paint" sacrificing accuracy for speed. Most of the time people only needed one or 2 arrows in ancient battles to kill or fatally wound an opponent. Not to mention the use of shields which would have rendered the bow and arrow inefficient using such technique once the element of surprise was out the window.

a reply to: elitelogic

There is actually a way to shoot 6 arrows in a second

Not sure if it's a warrior skill for battle (less than a full draw and a lighter bow), but it would be useful for bandits or raiders. If you were highwaymen raiding a caravan, skills like that used by your men hiding in the woods might convince those being robbed that you had a much larger group. Simply because they wouldn't know much other than there are a lot of arrows coming at them, and would be convinced enough to give up. Also it would seem useful in a similar manner for guerilla or skirmisher tactics against less defended opponents. It's a skill that would really be considered a force multiplier in some situations.

Awesome as it is, I also agree that this technique was probably never used in battle on a large scale. There are no illustrations from the past of arrows being held this way, by anyone. The only reference is a written one where a certain number of arrows were fired in a certain amount of time, which could have been exaggerated.

But he is amazing to watch though.

By the 14th century, the English Longbow was the weapon of choice with its longer range and hitting power. Note the placement of arrows for rapid fire.



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