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monsterblood10 t1_iy12li9 wrote

Reply to comment by KesselRunIn14 in TIL that many pro archers use surprise release mechanisms to prevent themselves from anticipating and reacting to the impending impact. by broogernavn

Just out of curiosity, how would modern archers compare against historical ones like the mongols/longbowmen etc? Do we have better range, accuracy etc?

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htp-di-nsw t1_iy1uba1 wrote

Modern equipment is insanely better.

However, modern archery technique is entirely either entertainment-focused either trick shooting or target shooting where hitting precise spots is the only thing that matters, while archers from history would have been using archery in life or death situations.

In reality, neither Lars Anderson doing backflips while hitting erratic thrown targets with a bow whose draw weight would barely penetrate human skin nor the entire cadre of Olympic archers who fire 6 arrows in 2 minutes would be anywhere near as dangerous in a real battle as a typical Mongol warrior or any historical archer who participated in wars.

You see, you can't actually fire like Lars and still kill someone, especially through armor. But you also can't spend 20 seconds per arrow aiming at a moving target trying to kill you back. When you're putting arrows into a person's body, a hit that's an inch or two off center isn't going to matter.

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invent_or_die t1_iy14yiy wrote

Modern equipment is light years ahead of anything they had. Gotta believe techniques are far better as well.

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NorthernerWuwu t1_iy1pta4 wrote

As a counterpoint though, relatively few people today make a career out of it while archers might well have devoted their entire lives from a young age to the skill back in antiquity.

Obviously the modern equipment is orders of magnitude better but if both were using the same stuff, I'm not so certain the results would be the same.

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TheDBryBear t1_iy2kegb wrote

also entirely different purpose - archers would not be singular they would be firing in a unit and be on the move

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