There's no ‘One Way’ to shoot the Medieval Longbow

Hi, my name's Kevin Hicks. Welcome to the History Squad. Now today we're going to have a little look into the different techniques required to shoot the longbow. Now you must remember there are very few detailed accounts from history, from the medieval times, telling you how the bowmen of England and Wales actually shot these longbows. You have the Toxophilus book, the Tudor book by Roger Asham, that gives you a tiny window into the past of how they shot these bows. But every archer's different, isn't it? You look at the bows on the Mary Rose, they're all different sizes. Every bowman was different and they would have had, because of their build, their techniques, their training, each one would have been different. At the end of the day, the way to look at this is there is no right way and no wrong way to shoot the longbow. Just get on and shoot it and what I'm going to do is show you how I shoot the longbow. So first and foremost I suppose you have to look is where do you hold the bow? The grip, it's very straightforward. Your bow, you should leave a mark. I've actually put a little bit of an inlay on this bow because I was wearing it through. So I simply hold the bow, nice, you can see where the arrow rests on the knuckle of my forefinger on my left hand. It's all straightforward, nothing special. I don't do an open grip, I don't strap the bow to my hand, I don't leave a finger out, I simply grip it with a fist. So next we would knock the arrow. So let's take an arrow out, this is a nice bodkin, straight away I put him on the mark. As I push the arrow forward, I naturally check that we're at a right angle. I also check that the cock feather is proud. You know I'm lucky the cock feathers are grey on this one. I then place one finger above, two below. Keep my thumb out the way, don't put my finger forward as I'm drawing the arrow back. That's the arrow knocked. You know the stance is important. When I was a youngster, you know nine, ten years of age and I'd had a very short spell at an archery club and I was being taught to keep the bow upright, to stand legs apart and shoot, slit the throat with your hands, all that kind of stuff. But I very quickly left that behind and I found that if you're shooting in the woods, you're just messing around with the bow. The best thing to do is just relax and the way I actually hold the bow in my stance is I make sure that I am relaxed down through my right hip and when I draw the bow up, I bring him up at a bit of an angle and I'm looking through that part for my aim. Yeah and it's all a kind of a one action. I'm relaxed down into that hip. I'm not braced up. I'm often asked how I draw the bow and release the arrow and it's now after all these decades of shooting the bow, it's just natural to me and all I do is I begin the draw from down here. I'll bring him up as soon as I feel the tension is enough. I know how far the arrow is going to go. If I'm out in the field and we're doing a little bit of clout, I'll bring him right the way back. I don't like doing that though because at my age it actually hurts but I know the tension needed on the bow. So I've got my finger above, two below and most importantly for me is a dead loose, no fancy throat slitting as I once had it described. Just simply let the arrow go. So here we go, just give it a little try. We're only shooting 25-30 yards, nothing serious and I've anchored my hand. It's still here, no problems. If I need to pull it back a little bit more I will go but I'll do that again. So the arrow's on, it's at the right angle, finger above, two below. A lot of people actually grip the arrow too tight and they find it actually rides a little bit. Just make sure your knock is nice, firm, finger above, two below. Look at your target, up. I felt my hand wander out then. The way I aim is quite straightforward. I just look and I suppose it's all these years of practice. So I put a very, very small target down sometimes, a feather on a stick. In this particular case we've got a nice daily estate from the garden and I've stuck one of my windfall apples on the top and what I'll do is I'll look at it first. As I'm taking the arrow out, I knock the arrow and I'm still looking at the target. Just check the arrow and now I completely focus on the target. There's nothing else in the world, just that tiny little target. What I find when I'm shooting at an archery target, perhaps I'm shooting with friends, I'll look at the whole thing first but when you've got a tiny little stick, feather on it, you focus right the way in, focusing on that tiny little piece. So let's see how close I can actually get. So here we go, I lean slightly, relaxing, up we come, just off to the left so the bow has actually shot me. So what I'll do now is I'll adjust that aim just ever so slightly, lean in, straight through the apple, lean in, straight through the apple. So I am concentrating the arrow in and repetition is another thing. Instead of standing there going hey I was close or hey I hit the target, don't, just relax, shoot some more, shoot some more. Just off to the left, not bad, but what I'm doing is I'm literally concentrating my aim. Sometimes if you're slightly off to your left or your right, especially if you're shooting like 50 yards or something, just adjust your feet slightly, move your body around as opposed to adjusting your arms, move your body so that when you brace yourself on the bow, your whole body is behind it. So you're not using just shoulder or arm strength, you're using your whole body together. Up we go and there you go, I've cut the apple in half. Since we don't have true techniques from history, from the medieval times, we got a few pictures, we don't really know how they went about their shooting. So there's room now in the modern times for you to just shoot your personal style, mine you've seen, I relax, I have the bow canted over. Don't be intimidated by other people who say oh you're doing that wrong, you shouldn't do it like that. You know archery almost died out in England, it was during the late Victorian times that ladies took it up as a sport. It came over from America so I understand, so we owe a lot to that, so don't be intimidated by people you're doing that wrong. What you've got to do, practice and enjoy the process. Be at one with your bow, that's something that I love. When I'm shooting the bow, if I'm stressed I shoot the bow, I am at peace and you're connecting to the history of it aren't you. This is what our forefathers did, you find out what works best for you. So simply this, you got a bow, doesn't have to be an expensive one, practice, experiment with your different styles but most important of all, please enjoy the sport, enjoy the craft. Well I hope you enjoyed that video, if you did like, share and subscribe and if you'd like to support the channel further, why not have a look at joining our Patreon community. The link is in the description. Now before I go, quick shout out to some of my Patreon members and as ever I've got them written down for me. So Paul Clark, hey thank you, Gabor Radoch, thanks a million and Alicia Johnson. Hey guys, thanks a bunch, bye for now.