A Response to Lars Andersen: a New Level of Archery

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Interesting that he chose that analogy.

If someone said to me he's the 'Bruce Lee playing ping pong of archery', I would take it to mean it's all faked. (Bruce Lee never played ping pong with nunchaku, it's a well known fake).

I asked a friend of mine about it. He has represented his country in archery, so I trust his opinion on it.

Paraphrased:

Yeah, it's real.
No, it's not that impressive.

He didn't "rediscover" any of the techniques he claimed to. Most of them have been known for ages, and the change for modern archery was intentional and well known. the whole "studying ancient manuscripts" etc etc is bollocks

the catching arrows thing: difficult but not impossible. you use a very light bow, and it's actually not that hard

his accuracy is mildly impressive. not what I'd call amazing at the ranges he shows

he is fast, i'll give him that

@eric3579 I never had an issue with all the details of what he is doing -- couldn't care less about bow strength and armor. I was more curious if he is ACTUALLY DOING IT, or if this was some sort of CGI.

I did find this one article about him, posted Jan 2015, with these two quotes that spoke to my issues:

"This guy is the Clint Eastwood of archery," says Tim Wells, professional bow hunter and host of the TV show, Relentless Pursuit. "Or if I was talking to someone who had never shot a bow and arrow, I'd say he is the 'Bruce Lee playing ping pong of archery.' We have all played ping-pong and none of us can play with nun chucks — that's what this guy's skillset with a bow is comparable to. He's a badass."

Experts agree that the skills demonstrated in the video are unbelievable, but also completely real. "His skillset is tremendous," says Byron Ferguson, owner of the Bare Bow Archery School and star archer on the History Channel's show, Extreme Marksmen. "These shots are legitimate, despite some video editing. His speed is almost unbelievable."

Read more: http://www.mensjournal.com/adventure/outdoor/the-story-behind-lars-andersens-new-level-of-archery-video-20150126#ixzz3Q3tKMqJK
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I can't tell if they have met this guy or not, or if they, too, are just looking at the videos. That other "world record"? All I can find is more videos and nothing from Guinness or anyone else.

So at present, I am going to stay neutral as to whether this guy is for reals or not.

I thought many of you, who left comments, would be interested in the article Trance found. I know i was.

And here it is being discussed http://www.reddit.com/r/Archery/comments/2trrc2/a_rebuttal_to_the_lars_andersen_video/

@all those who commented

The technique to making true Damascus steel was lost in the mid 1800s. The technique and composition to Greek Fire was lost in the 13th century or 19th, depending on whose stories you want to believe.

We were well on our way to losing the schematics and information on our original Apollo and Gemini space programs until they started trying to sort and salvage that data a few years ago. The problem is that when we replace something old with a better technology or limit the knowledge of a technique to a few people, we rapidly lose the methodology of 'how' to do the technique.

In the case of proper war and hunting archery, when guns became more common and easier to use, people gravitated to them because they were MUCH easier to learn than archery. Archery required specific training for war and for survival it was from the time you could hold a bow. Anyone could learn to use a gun quickly, so people just....forgot how to properly use bows. Probably as soon as the remaining archers died out.

A New Level Of Archery Skills has been added as a related post - related requested by newtboy on that post.

I'm pretty sure chain mail was not designed to stop arrows(anything pointy in general). Also how is this "ignore everything anyone knows about archery"? Seems to me he is actually taking into account the history of archery and mimicking long lost military/fighting/hunting styles (way different then modern target shooting).

-edit-
I see newtboy just made my point

Um...did you listen to the narration? He did not ignore everything anyone knows about archery, he actually researched how those who used it for fighting did it, and it turned out to be completely different from how compound bow using, stationary, no time limit target shooters shoot. This is not a 'new' style, it's super old school.
It's possible it's faked, yes, but everything he said made sense to me, and it sure LOOKED like he was shooting for real, just differently from how we've seen it done before.

It -is- too unbelievable, in my view. Which is more reasonable, that some kid has managed to ignore everything anyone knows about archery (after thousands of years) and create an entire new style that, among other superhuman capabilities, makes things like armor useless, or that he's learned some video trickery.

My money's on the latter.

I just lost all respect I had for archers... For a while there I almost thought of archery as a serious and professional sport, not just a refuge for ren faire LARPers.

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spears and boomerangs are also projectiles.

Just change archery to projectiles and it's 100% correct.
They just didnt have bows yet...

Oh yeah, she was on the olympic team for archery or something. Love this! Now I wanna go and watch League of Their Own again