Longbow- the easy choice?
I think that some archers do choose
longbow because it is
the easy choice. They learn on a
recurve at the beginners' course and use one for a while as new club members. Then, they reach a point where they tell me they can't get on with all the " fuss about sights and stabs and doing it like this etc." They just want to shoot.
And when they shoot their longbow they do shoot lots of arrows in a short space of time compared to everyone else. Their shooting is like kids throwing stones into the sea, just for the fun of it. It's not the same as skimming flat stones across a pond, where you have to choose the stones with care and launch them with care, too. There is a freedom with throwing stones out into the sea;and it seems , for the guys I meet, their archery had a freedom, too. Most of them are happy and don't seem to want to improve their scores; their objective is to enjoy shooting arrows; hitting the boss simply saves them from bending down to pull arrows from the grass. They do enjoy getting golds, but missing it doesn't bring on the sulks.
Shooting like that is easier than shooting for high scores. Shooting for high scores can be done with compounds , recurves, and longbows. It's not the weapon that dictates how easy the archery is. It's the outlook of the archer. You can see
recurve archers who just pop arrows off, with no worries about scores. You can find compounders who do the same; but they are quite rare. I think that's because the
compound is usually chosen by archers who want to shoot groups. And they like how they feel when shooting the more complex machine. Groups are easier to get with compounds.
Notice I am not talking about winning competitions; winning a competition is always about being better than all the others.
The banter that goes around is nothing to do with disrespecting the longbow( or
compound) archers. It is more personal than that. Some give out banter for the fun of it; some are more serious/ hurtful.For some, the banter is saved for their special archer; the one they don't like so much. Banter, like archery, has a few different styles.
It seems to me that much banter comes from some recurve archers who don't like compounds, because they say they are cheating; and accuse longbow archers of taking the easy option because they aren't good enough with a recurve. It is very easy for that to grow into a club ethos, when others join in just for the fun of it, and don't really care one way or the other.