For Rocket Launcher Fans

[Orda Khan]

Scroll through the photos of the recent World Traditional Archery Festival in Korea.
http://www.horsebackarcherygr.com/2007wtafkorea.htm

.....Orda

[Shahed]

EXCELLENT. Thanks for sharing. Very interesting link.

[Eng]

Cool
nice rocket launcher pics

[trickydicky]

Niiiice. Wouldn't like to be on the end of one of those. Ouch!

[Shahed]

Have you guys seen that horse archery video posted in the "cavalry commanders" thread ? If not check it out, it's awesome.
Just thought of that looking through the link posted by Orda.

[Whacker]

On a side note. I regret to inform the .Org that I have killed our very own senior member Orda in battle as he assaulted my citadel at Samandar. Died like a true man, took a cannonball to the head.

Seriously though that's a nice read, and some good pics. The thumb-draw makes a more sense now after I saw some of those images.

[Orda Khan]

Glad you liked the link and that it shed more light on the thumb technique. I really wish I could have attended but I am going to Lake Garda in a week (ofc cashflow doesn't help either) Maybe next year.
Btw, did you notice the Korean crossbows too?

....Orda

[Whacker]

I didn't see the xbows until you mentioned it and I went back and looked again. A shame that I couldn't find any links to the article in english, would have been nice to *actually* 'read' as opposed to just stare at the nice pics.

Also, was it historically accurate for arrows to be clutched in the bow hand like the gent in the very first pic? I would have thought it would have been easier, just as fast, and less obstructing to just leave them in the quiver.

[Shahed]

It's faster in the bow hand. You can redraw as you shoot, it's also linear.

[Whacker]

It's faster in the bow hand. You can redraw as you shoot, it's also linear.

OK, I can somewhat see this, but it would also seem that it might cause a degradation in one's ability to grip the bow. Of course I'm not even remotely close to expert, much less 'novice', so this is entirely my own uneducated guesswork. Thanks mate

[Shahed]

I think we'll have to hear Orda on this one.
I'm guessing/extrapolating from my own logic as well.

I don't think it would be hard to hold the bow, with years of practice even easier. It might be harder in battle, because you would also be getting shot at and attacked. Hence they may have been more prudent to have the hands free faster, but I doubt it.

While riding at close range, you would want to get the shot off quick. Close range could mean a few meters.
They would'nt necessarily be shooting from range, they'd also just ride right up to you.

[Orda Khan]

Kassai excels at this technique. Spare arrows were also held in the drawing hand, especially in the east where the thumb draw was more prevalent.
The use of the thumb draw can be seen in this link....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEUTfsYdHBI
The Korean bow you see is 86# draw weight, being made to look like a toy

..........Orda

[Whacker]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhyE...elated&search=

This one is pretty illustrative of the thumb draw and use of a thumb ring. Didn't have sound on, but just watching it was helpful. Thanks again guys.

[Shahed]

Thanks for the links guys.
Damm that 86 bow would be a hard to shoot on horseback. Even though that guy looks slow to the untrained eye, I think that's a decent draw speed.

I can't help but think how these people make knights, cataphracts and all that, look like abominations.
There's just no comparison in skill, bravery, sheer gut to do this on horseback in battle.

[Orda Khan]

Don't think of grasping the bow, the grip is very light pressure. In fact, as you begin to draw, right through to release you can actually open the fingers of the bow hand, a technique used by many/most modern recurve archers who rely on a bow sling to prevent the bow flying forward out of their hand on release. One free finger is enough to do this, leaving the rest to hold arrows. Kassai can hold up to ten arrows in this manner

........Orda

[Husar]

I can't help but think how these people make knights, cataphracts and all that, look like abominations.
There's just no comparison in skill, bravery, sheer gut to do this on horseback in battle.

A knight would say there's no honour in it I guess.
Well, I'm inclined to agree with you, but I still like knights and I guess they also had quite a lot of skill, bravery and gut, we just haven't seen a video about them yet.

Though I have to visit that horse archery school sometime, the video was quite amazing.

[Shahed]

ROFL.

There's "honor" in all that armor and that "charge" ?
... is what one of those guys would say.

Indeed I'd love to visit that school too, added to my long wish list.

[Philbert]

Can you guys actually read the text? I can only read the menu, the body text is in strange characters. It seems something has gone wrong with the encoding, but I can't find out which encoding to use.

[Orda Khan]

Philbert
It's a site of the Kassai Horseback Archery school in Greece, the text is Greek

....Orda

[Philbert]

I see, it's supposed to be ISO-8859-7. When I change the charset to that meaningful stuff comes up.
That was not specified in the HTML, but probably Greek readers have that as their default encoding.

[horsebackarcherygr]

I see, it's supposed to be ISO-8859-7. When I change the charset to that meaningful stuff comes up.
That was not specified in the HTML, but probably Greek readers have that as their default encoding.

Hallo dear Friends!
Upon discovering your kind visit in our website we followed your traces in order to clear out that, unfortunately, our server doesn't support Greek language (it means, our language) so you need to encode in GREEK WINDOWS in order to enable reading our text.
We are a very special Team of real "War players" dedicating our time to Horseback Archery as martial art under the instruction of Hungarian World-Master Kassai Lajos. In order to act better, we travel around world participating in several Organizations (like Korea World T.A.F.) as well as visiting special places to study the instict of warrior (Mongolia) or visiting Museums of Archery etc.
The rocket-launcher you have seen in our website is one traditional Korean archery-launcher dated since previous century. Actually it is a replica working exactly like its predecessor and was used during last year WTAF 2007 in opening ceremony.
We will happy to answer any question toy have concerning our Team and pictures.
Nice to meet people like you with all those positive interests!
Warmest Greetings from Athens-Hellas!

[Bartholemew-Varath]

Are you people reading the same thing i am reading, or i have i got the wrong end of the stick, he said rocket laucher, which i took as the modern mettalic one, and on the link it shows pictures of horse back archery!? I think i got the wrong link there....