Bill Skinner
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Well, the longbow archer has a bad pluck, he's also shooting solid ash arrows that look like war bow arrows, way over spined for a 45 pound draw weight bow.
The arrow is barely starting to spin just as it hits the target, it hasn't had time for the fletching to bring the back of the arrow in line with the point and start rotating.
If the guy with the longbow had properly spined arrows, his would look just like the Yumi bow's when coming off the rest. You'd see the arrow flexing as it recovered from Archers' Paradox. You see less with the Yumi, it's a narrower bow, but it's still there. That Pacific Yew longbow is about twice as thick as the Yumi.
I don't know if what the commentator was saying is just the script or if they saw the results and drew the completely wrong conclusions.
And English War Bows are noted for firing arrows that weigh well over twice as much as the Japanese bows did, the Japanes used bamboo, which is hollow and tougher than the ash that was preferred by the English. That's why Yumi bows firing their arrows went further than English longbows. BTW, both pulled to their ear or corner of their jaw. As soon as the arrow leaves the string, it starts decelerating, so the longer the draw, the higher the acceleration, all else being equal. And, according to Jaap, both the English and the Japanese were shooting bows that drew over 100 pounds. (50kg)
Two things give you penetration in a projectile, speed or weight. The Japanese used speed, the English used weight. Comparing the two is comparing apples and oranges.
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