Forget Modern Archery
The techniques and concepts promoted by modern archery will kill you in the real world.
For the last several years, every post we made on social media about traditional archery invariably resulted in Google experts and other “experienced” archers slamming everything from body position, to the way the string was pulled, or even how arrows were loaded. All based on modern archery concepts that are designed for aggravated LARPing (as in stationary rather than running around), with no actual need to kill anything outside of fixed target in perfect conditions.
Real archery in the real world, to catch your food or kill enemies is very different. Here are a few pointers:
BODY POSTURE AND POSITION
Is completely irrelevant, with modern standards focusing on show and being stationary while shooting a fixed target, which never happen in real life, and thus is an unneeded luxury. While there are some recommended natural postures that follow the way your body naturally moves, it is ultimately up to any individual to position himself as he wishes for best performance, keeping in mind you will never be stationary in real life, you will not have time to position yourself as per random modern standards, and your target will rarely be fixed. At the end of the day, what matters is to hit (moving) targets with minimal stress on your body.
ARROW LOADING
Modern archery advocates loading the arrows on the side of the bow opposite to your pulling/shooting hand. Again, another completely impractical standard designed for show and that is so inadequate in real life, that it would likely get you killed. The reason is that loading arrows this way not only wastes time, but it also goes against your body natural range of motion, especially if on a horse or while running. The best and most efficient way to load arrows is therefore on the side of your pulling shooting hand.
BOW WEIGHT
Modern archery will advocate low bow weights, even claiming that higher weights have no practical use. This is most likely in order to reach larger demographics, namely unfit people and women. Weight, is in fact, very important. So-called “war” bows in the Viking age had very high weights, hence the concept that a man had to train in archery from a very early age as a boy in order to be good at it. More practically today, many jurisdictions require minimum bow weights to hunt big game. With British Columbia, in Canada, requiring a minimum of 50 lbs to hunt bison. Higher weights, up to 185 lbs for some of us here, allow for much, much greater range, and therefore more firepower with the resulting increased performance when it comes to killing. Some of our younger boys here managed to kill two moose with one arrow using a 105 lbs traditional Yew (war) long bow, from a greater distance than a lower weight bow would have afforded. The use of higher weight bows also means more functional muscle mass and better fitness, and it therefore relates to core male evolutionary traits and characteristics. Most men, let alone women, would indeed be unable to shoot a high weight bow, making it a rare skill that requires a lot of work from an early age, but that will greatly increase success as a hunter or should killing enemies be needed.
STRING HOLD
Again, modern archery calls for very specific finger position, or number of fingers used, to pull a string. Once again, it is impractical and it doesn’t follow natural flow, which will vary for each individual. More importantly, it is designed for low weight bows. Good luck indeed to pull a 180lbs bow with one finger.
Ultimately, following modern archery standards will kill you in the real world. If you are hunting, you will catch less game, if any at all, and if you are in combat, you will kill less enemies, if any at all. Because modern archery is for fat LARPers of all genders in urban centers. It is not designed for real life.