I came across this video the other day, called Lars Andersen: a new level of archery, which I thought would be of interest to either those frequent roleplay gamers or anyone engaged in designing a roleplay system. It brings up an interesting point, that modern archery has been distilled down to standing still and firing with accuracy over a distance. But combat, especially where smaller engagements are fought, can be all about movement. Something a stationary archer is sorely lacking in.
Lars has had to rediscover and extrapolate older techniques of archery on the move, so there is every possibility that some of his more ostentatious moves were never employed in real-world battles. But it is interesting to see what is often considered an antiquated form of combat taken and a forgotten aspect explored.
While I doubt that we will be seeing the army leaping about armed with bows any time soon, as tabletop gamers this sort of historical rediscovery only adds another realistic facet we can refer to when creating and playing.
Website Reference: Lars Andersen: a new level of archery