@youielue You completely right...and I am not Asian, but my friends who are Asian aim always to perfection....and me...I believe that always there a room for improvement!...Greetings!
A japanese archer can shoot up to 8-10 arrows a minute. (There is a video at youtube: Inagaki sensei - heki to ryu - shoots 6 arrows in 40 seconds.) The normal yumi has 10-20 kg (nearly 22-44 lbs). Only "warbows" are shorter and they have more lbs. You can hit a man at 30 meters with every arrow.
@lakshwadeep I watched "old kyudo movie" - they got a nice idea with ducking while loading an arrow. But overall they aren't fast enough. How acurate can a kyudo shooter be? I can't imagine drawing a 100lbs bow this way :)
This method of drawing is actually not even that different to western methods, so you can really draw just as much weight. It just looks odd because of how the draw starts, but once the main part of the draw begins you are using your back to do it, just the same as if you were shooting a european longbow.
@lakshwadeep I checked out some yabusame vids and I think that if it was in actual battle those guys would get destroyed insanely fast... I'm trying to find some movies of actual shooting, without all the fuss, and all I watch are just archers shooting like they were in slow motion. Is there anyone using this technique and doing it as fast as, ie. mr. Kassai?
Nah, there is plenty to keep you busy. There is a lot of mental work required to align the body correctly and use your muscles correctly to attain perfect form. You will find that your shooting with anything, be it other kinds of bows or even rifles, can be improved greatly if you take the time to concentrate on the minutia of what you are doing. Or, indeed, any activity at all. That is the lesson of kyudo.
You do understand that no one is actually using bows in battle. As such would it not make sense that the part of the art that is still currently practiced is done for other reasons? Also in no combined arms army of the ancient world is fast shooting of any value. You do not make fast inaccurate shots into the backs of your own infantry men. The only time it was ever used was from horseback in armies that were almost entirely mounted.
