YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG!

The problem with taking up traditional archery is that every other archer - traditional and modern - becomes your coach, whether you ask for their advice or not. In a way, this is understandable: archery schools do not teach you how to shoot traditional bows, and all the instruction is based on shooting a modern recurve or compound bow. While the same principles apply to all archery, traditional shooting is more free and simple, but considerably harder, and so there is no end to all the tips and advice you will receive. Every traditional archer fundamentally is self-taught. Through experimentation, practice and experience, you learn what works for you and what doesn't. It really is that simple.

Matters become worse for archers who, like me, are intrigued by Eastern bows and techniques. A coach at one of my clubs was giving me some stern looks because of my unconventional (for Western archery) method of shooting. I started worrying that I would be ejected from the shooting range. When eyes are keenly watching you for errors and bad form when you are just trying to enjoy your archery while working out the best method for shooting a horse bow, it really sucks the enjoyment out of the sport.

Mongolian method: thumb draw with
the arrow placed on the outside of the bow

This brings me to the subject of bows and styles and why we use them. I have been on the receiving end of ridicule for my choice of bow: "Why are you shooting that without a horse?", "Where is your thumb ring?" Why are you placing the arrow on that side of the bow?" etc. etc. I do not expect all archers to be clued up on every style and method of archery, but it would be nice if people considered that I might actually know a thing or two about the form of archery I prefer. Most horse bows, in fact, are simply bows that were used in Eastern Europe and the Far East. Ancient archers from those parts of the world did not have one bow for horses and another for being on foot. They were simply the bows which were used in general - for warfare, hunting, and target practice. So no, I don't actually need a horse to justify the use of a horse bow. I now prefer not to use the term "horse bow" at all. I think "Mongolian", "Chinese", "Hungarian", "Scythian" etc. would be more accurate definitions. In fact, I seriously doubt any Eastern archers ever referred to their bows as "horse bows". Perhaps it is a term Westerners came up with to distinguish Eastern bows from their own.

Chinese method: the thumb draw with the
arrow placed on the inside of the bow

Moreover, there is more than one "traditional" method of shooting. The Mongolian style is not the same as the Japanese, and the Japanese is not the same as the Korean. Even within these traditions, there are variations. Alas, most people now glean their knowledge from Youtube videos, online articles and raging comments on social media, and then regurgitate them with remarkable confidence without ever having experimented themselves with the styles, tips and information they have picked up. For example, I have been told quite strongly that the arrow must be placed on the inside of the bow when using the thumb draw, as it causes the arrow to flex in the opposite direction to the Western draw on release. Not only did I not experience this when practicing, I later learned that many Mongolian archers use the thumb draw with the arrow on the outside of the bow. There may be more to it than I realise, but based on my own experience, that is a pearl of wisdom I may as well throw to the pigs.

Then there is the purpose of the bows and styles to consider. Here the objections of modern archers have a little more substance. Eastern bows, like English longbows, were not invented with the purpose of hitting a bullseye in mind. Bows were designed to kill, and no one really cared which part of the skin or hide on a rib cage you managed to pierce, or how good your grouping was on any given corpse on the battle field. It is indeed much harder to acquire consistent accuracy on a target face with such weapons than it is with their modern counterparts. But unless you are a lunatic who is preparing for a zombie apocalypse or hoping your skills with a bow will come in useful for killing living beings, shooting at inanimate objects is the only kind of archery you will ever do, and acquiring accuracy and consistency is the only real indication of improvement. So, there is something to be said of using bows which will help you be as accurate as possible. Notwithstanding that objection, there is more to archery than hitting one's target: there is the enjoyment, aesthetics, history and meditation of the art to consider. In my opinion - and this is an experience shared by many a traditional archer - the simpler the archery, the more enjoyable it is as an activity. 

There are many types of bow, many styles and traditions, and many "correct" ways of doing things. But I would dare to say that there is one very incorrect way of doing archery: if you are not enjoying yourself, you are definitely doing it wrong.