So you want to be an Arcane Archer...........

[Zerub]

http://goo.gl/526LgA

Pretty neat video to watch. I have not watched all the rebuttle of it and his rebuttle of the rebuttle yet, but still pretty neat.

Scott

[Zandel]

He is mostly a trick shot, but a very talented one

[GunnJ]

He is mostly a trick shot, but a very talented one

What's that meant to mean? The video he posted was of trick shots, yes, because they are examples of extreme techniques he has put effort into learning.

I do not understand why people get so sniffy about this video. I watched his rebuttal and the primary problem with several of the whiners is that they don't understand the fundamentals of archery, and apparently of reading comprehension. "Archer's paradox doesn't allow for an arrow to be loosed from the right side of the bow." Whhaaaaat? And darn right you can split an arrow with another arrow... Some of these complainers, have they ever been to an archery range?

[Ronan]

If I understand correctly after reading the arguments:

A trick shot because he deals in techniques that work only at short range and which require particular setup (the arrow split in air, for example, required the two arrows be different types).

Most of the irritation about the film, if I understand correctly, comes from the narrator's explanations of 'lost technique' and so on, as it isn't lost and there are reasons other archers would not use the techniques demonstrated. That being said, he's clearly quite good at his practiced techniques and if he is able to do them consistently I hope he is doing career stuff with them! It is clear the stunts he is pulling take a lot of Coordination, skill and practice.

[Zandel]

I have split an arrow myself and shoot quite a bit of archery, all longbow. I did not mean to imply this guy was not good, he is incredibly talented, just some of the claims he makes in his video are inaccurate with regards to historical archery. He does explain some of that in his second video and explains it off as trying to be brief. I have no issue with his shooting, just his claims of rediscovering some lost historical technique, and his claims that archers did things the way he says they did everywhere, it's a miss-representation. Archery was a diverse practice and lots of techniques were used.

[GunnJ]

I should note I saw the original video several years back when he narrated it himself, it needed a lot of translation work then, but he does talk about how there were many different techniques from all over the world, not just one way like you mentioned , so I think that's a bit of a mistranslation or lost in translation.

Yes there are ancient texts that describe techniques, but very poorly. "...while holding three arrows in one hand..." is not much to go by. Even after doing a bit of a scavenger hunt by searching out artworks that tried to depict what was described, learning how it worked, the correct angles, and how to grip, that took a lot of determination to practice until it worked. So I think he deserves a lot more credit than many of his detractors give him. Doing some of these techniques at close range is a lot more difficult than further away, (and some of the places they're filming are really cramped, yike!) so a lot of people have that critique backwards.

When I was in full practice mode we "robin hooded" arrows often enough our range master started collecting money each time it happened. After repairs were paid for we used it to help pay for parties.

[silverfields2]

*Makes notes to further her imagination*