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Lars Andersen: A new level of archery

larsandersen23
Demos
YouTube
4 HN users recommended this demo4 months2015–2022 score 4
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Recommended as an entertaining example of rediscovered lost skills, though some commenters note it is contested.

Archer Lars Andersen demonstrates fast, accurate shooting techniques he says he revived from historical art and texts, arguing Hollywood archery is not historical.

“Lars Andersen taking archery to the next level by using forgotten skills he learned by looking at old art and various texts. Worth a watch!” (HN, 2015)

4 recommendations · 3 citations · Demos

7 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@rickdale Jan 2015 Recommends
on HN thread Inside the world of longsword fighting
Semi-Related to this is Lars Andersen taking archery to the next level by using forgotten skills he learned by looking at old art and various texts. Worth a watch! [this video]
Archery skills revived from old art and texts
@mikkergp Oct 2022 Recommends
on HN thread Archery World Record: Most arrows through a keyhole [video]
He has lots of videos in his YouTube channel showing various feats of archery, this is a pretty good one: [this video] Maybe he faked all the videos and got the Guinness book of world records to put a fake record on their website, but they doesn’t seem like the simplest explanation.
One of many archery feat videos on his channel

Citations, criticism and jokes

@nkurz Jan 2015 Cites it
on HN thread In which I am crabby about viral archery videos
Read more
Andersen's description on the original posting of the video addresses many of these criticisms. I can't figure out how to link to it directly as text, but you can go to [this video] , stop the video, and then click "Show More". Or view the copy below. --------------------------------------------------------- Published on Jan 23, 2015 The ultimate archery trick. Proving that Hollywood archery is not historical. Press release: [link] . Podcast about how I started archery: [link] . DO I HIT EVERYHING? I use a LOT of time practicing, and every time I set out to learn a new skill, a new trick or how to handle a new type of bow or arrow, it takes a long time, with plenty of misses. When I got the idea of grabbing an arrow in flight and firing before I landed, it took me months to learn. For a long time, arrows flew everywhere! But there's no trick in the video that I haven't done many times (except for splitting the arrow in flight – after I'd done that once I finished the video). The one with hitting the blade I've only done three times, though. All that running hurt my knees. ;-) ON MY BOWS AND POWER Many people talk about how what I do is only possible because I use bows that are less powerful than English longbows. They are correct. I'm 50 years old, and have been doing archery for only ten years. I'll never be able to shoot really fast with 100 lbs+ war bows. I tried, but it just produced injuries. Had I started at age 10, it would have been a different story. ;-) There is also a t
Video description addresses criticisms of the archery claims

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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