SPEED SHOOTING AND SNOBBERY

As with every group of people, there is snobbery to be found in the world of archery. Perhaps for a long time it was buried deep inside, trying to find a reason to get out. Then about a year ago, the Danish archer, Lars Andersen, provided a reason. His Youtube video on archery quickly went viral and became the most viewed archery video to date. It did not take long for the scathing criticism, debunking and pawning to begin.

Lars Anderson's video

I admit, there are claims in the video which I think are flawed. I am not convinced that the archery he describes was employed by war archers on the battle field. Nor is Lars the one who has rediscovered speed shooting. While I understand the theory of shooting from the right side of the bow, and it is undoubtedly what makes him the fastest archer today, it is a practice I have not seen amongst Eastern archers. Using paintings and tapestries as an indicator of how archery was practiced is like using an Orthodox icon to determine what someone looked like. The point of the art was not to create a life-like, detailed historical account.

Lajos Kassai reintroduced horseback archery and speed shooting to Hungary

My scepticism and doubts aside, there can be no question that what Lars Andersen has achieved and demonstrated (however many takes he needed to do those stunts) is worthy of admiration. There is no reason to frown upon speed shooting and trick shooting. Its purpose is not to replace target archery: it is simply offering something different and, in a way, more appealing. Lars Andersen has probably done more to reinvigorate interest in archery, and particularly horse bows, than Legolas and Katniss combined. The archery world (not least those selling out of horse bows like never before) should be thanking him.

Of course, I can imagine the frustration of archery instructors when some young wannabe Hawkeye turns up to a club and wants to learn as soon as possible how to imitate what he saw on Youtube. Yet surely the new interest in speed shooting and trick shooting is something which the archery world should embrace. Even I, as a novice who instinctively favoured traditional bows over modern, felt out of place in my first archery club the moment I turned up with a longbow. I could not understand why there appeared to be such a sharp divide between compound, modern recurve, and traditional archers. I guess it is just good, old fashioned snobbery.

Some 10,000 years since the invention of the bow, and only a few decades after being restored to the Olympic games since its debut in 1900, surely there is room for variety in this most ancient of arts and most modern of sports. Archers are shooting themselves in the foot by insisting that it should be only target archery, only modern recurves, only field archery, or only longbows. Maybe archers have a lot to learn from fellow archers who enjoy a different aspect of the same sport. Don't nock it til you try it.