This is like a skilled magician explaining his tricks; cool and interesting.
Looks to me like that handles all the valid crits.
…and also the invalid ones.
“She has just spent time making a funny Internet video, and that’s OK too.”
Hooray for this guy!
I am love your not so perfect english!
I think that there was still plenty of “valid criticism” which may have been briefly addressed but not actually resolved in his favor.
In the “funny internet video” he mentions, the strongest take-aways, I thought, were:
- His historical descriptions are unsubstantiated
- He is claiming to have rediscovered something others had forgotten
- He is really just carrying on a long tradition of trick-shooting
- His methods are unsuitable for warfare.
I think he “addressed” #1, but did not resolve it. Skepticallypwnd makes a pretty solid case that you can’t glean much from looking at old art, and that, in any case, he cherry-picked art that fit his point and ignored reams of art that didn’t.
2 is really just about his delivery and hyperbole. It’s ok to let that slide, I think, and he back-tracked on that in this new video.
3 and 4 aren’t addressed by him. He is using an extremely light-weight bow, and is doing trick shots that people have been doing for decades, and probably hundreds of years. And to suggest that archery used to be used “mainly” in close-quarters combat would require much more evidence than he gives, but in any case it was certainly used to great effect in long-range combat for centuries.
…none of this is to say that I wouldn’t want him on my side during a zombie apocalypse, of course.
You can’t make definitive statements on the net!
Especially if you didn’t make any.
Even I know that!
But srsly this guy is awesome.
Not only have his methods been used in warfare, people have used extremely light bows in warfare.
I don’t know what the original sources on Arab archery are, but as I mentioned before, the manual of Syrianus Magister includes training instructions for Byzantine archery.
No one said his archery techniques were bogus. People said his historical facts and grandiose bragging were not based in reality.
Are 3 and 4 actual criticisms? Yeah, much of it is trick archery, but holding arrows in one’s hands is useful, weak bows are also useful against unarmoured opponents (i.e. most combatants throughout history). I think saying he’s doing nothing new is rather rich - how many archery videos have these critics made?
And he never says that archery used to be used mainly in close quarters combat. The specific claim he attacked was the claim that archery was “only used at long range”.
No one? Really? I seem to remember several people claiming that arrows on the right side of the bow was somehow impossible.
Pedant.
He didn’t just make claims based on that art, he demonstrated that it works. That’s a pretty huge difference. I don’t get why anyone would claim that something is false when someone is demonstrating that it works. There is art showing different techniques, but there’s also art showing his techniques. People might have interpreted the latter art as errors, but Lars showed that they actually work, and work very well.
I think it’s actually fair to say that he has rediscovered these techniques. There’s art from centuries ago that shows these techniques, then, for centuries, nobody was really teaching these techniques in any organized fashion, and the vast, vast majority of archers were totally unfamiliar with them, and now he’s reconstructing them based on old art and texts as well as a lot of experimentation. And probably also on the work of others who are also reconstructing some old techniques (like that Hungarian horse archer). But if anyone has been able to do what Lars Andersen shows, then I haven’t seen it.
Have they? Can you name someone who has been able to do these things? Maybe you’re right and there has been a long line of trick shooters who have been able to shoot 3 arrows in 1.5 seconds and 10 arrows into the air before the first hits the ground, but why isn’t anyone mentioning them by name? Giving an actual example would be the perfect refutation of his claim, but until then, it’s just empty rhetoric.
And yes, the bow is light, but against an unarmoured target at short range, it can still kill. And a stronger archer would be able to use these techniques with a heavier how. Not having to draw each individual arrow is going to save you time no matter how heavy your bow is.
Has he ever claimed that? I think he claimed that it was also used in close quarters. Obviously it was used at long range, and he actually does show some pretty decent medium range shooting.
Now if the criticism had been only that his claims and statements lacked nuance, were false in specific details (like the back quiver thing), and was overly hyperbolic and grandiose, then I agree. But much of the criticism went way overboard in undermining their own credibility. People need to get their panties out of that twist and appreciate that this guy can do something bloody amazing.
If he really is following in an ancient tradition of archery then he is, in fact, doing “nothing new”.
This is one of the classiest reactions to backlash I’ve ever seen.
Wow. Tough audience. I can’t say that after seeing his video, I would consider any of his claims “grandiose bragging.”
You must know the words to that song about the Rose Panther.
Hooray for this guy making another video. Wildly fun and entertaining!
Then he’s stuck in a catch 22 isn’t he? Either he’s doing something novel and people bash him for being ahistorical since they haven’t heard of it, or he is being historically correct in which case people moan that they’ve already heard of these techniques.
