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Did That Danish Archer Fool The Whole Internet?

Last week we shared a video of Lars Anderson, a Danish archer who supposedly bulleyes all the Hollywood myths of archery with his incredible skill. Anderson is undoutedly fast, but is he really revolutionizing anything? Is he even a good archer? Maybe not.

writing at GeekDad offers a detailed analysis of the historical and physical claims of Anderson and the video’s narrator, and finds most of it to be “nonsense.” Here’s an excerpt:

Andersen’s quick-shooting technique is obviously effective (if speed is the goal), in that he is able to fire a lot of arrows at a very rapid pace. It’s worth noting that the narrator goes to great pains to explain why shooting at close-up distances is so important and denigrates “warrior archers only shooting at long distances,” (just one of many totally false claims) in order to paper over the fact that the man obviously can’t hit anything that’s more than about 20 feet away. No doubt there are literally hundreds of failed attempts that were cut out of the carefully-edited video. His gimmick is speed, not accuracy, and it’s obvious to anyone who actually knows anything about archery that his complete lack of any kind of consistent form is going to require camera tricks and a lot of luck, which is exactly what’s on display here. He may in fact be the fastest archer in the world; he just shouldn’t pretend to be accurate.

MacQuarrie’s findings boil down to a few main points: Almost all of the historical information offered is wrong, Anderson may be fast but he is horrendously sloppy, and the trick shots that Anderson shows off are clearly edited and have been known to the archery community for years. The whole piece is pretty convincing, if a bit vociferous, and is worth a read if you were initially blown away by the video like I was.

Head over to GeekDad to read the rest of the scathing critique.

What do you think? Does Lars Anderson really have Hollywood archer in his sights, or is he just as guilty?

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Comments

  1. lncredibad says:

    So, some turd is arguing the truthfulness of this guy’s video, using Pixar movies as evidence. Also, camera tricks?? Where? point them out. I want my 30 seconds back.

  2. Robert Courtland says:

    I found the GeekDad piece to be nonsense. 

  3. Its nothing more than entertainment.  There is no practical application that can be learned from shooting arrows off of a motorcycle or roller skates. If the video is a work of satire then it’s pure genius.  

  4. http://youtu.be/IU4PSENakKw  Finally a critique by a real archery expert explaining eastern archery as well as western archery.  He actually documents and researches his reply to Lars Andersen video in a clear and concise manner.  Take note geekdad this is how it should be done

  5. medievalmilliner says:

    http://youtu.be/IU4PSENakKw  Here is a critique of Lars Andersen that is actually written by an eastern archery expert, with professionalism and documentation that MacQuarrie fails to do.

  6. Paco says:

    Great, so, I’m pretty sure I still couldn’t do that after a hundred trys. 
    Maybe he is that got, and of he’s not. Well I doubt he’s not practicing. 

  7. tallrob says:

    Jealous much?

  8. ClkWrkCuttlfish says:

    What about the arrow split at the end? I believed it until I saw him pull that stunt. Most of what I saw on the video looked legit,although most was impractical. The claim that Bows weren’t used for long range combat as much as we thought is absurd for obvious reasons.

  9. Michael Lind says:

    The GeekDad post quite frankly seems mean and ridiculous. There are no more references or actual documentation in that post than there is in the video, but unlike the video the author at GeekDad had every opportunity to write complete and elaborate references to everything he claimed. He could have made a compelling case.. Instead he just tried to ridicule Lars’ for looking “geeky” and ackward (i.e. not like a Hollywood star)… Oh yeah, and the Brave reference?? Really? You want to claim Lars’ physics are full of shit by referencing an animated Disney movie.. Wow.

  10. johan says:

    i know him personally and i promise he´s for real

  11. mccrimm says:

    I’ve used a bow and arrow only on a few occasions, but feel quite certain that on a castle turret I could fling an arrow a few hundred feet into a horde of thousands and hit somebody. Skill? Your shooting an arrow into a few thousand people…odds are you will hit someone. Now whether or not this fellow is accurate, who cares, accuracy will come with practice and good form, but the shots he pulled off where no less than spectacular. I’ve seen many others also perform amazing trick archery shots. So it is possible, and unless this jim has observed this fellow in person to see the truth of the matter, then he only has his opinion on the subject, professional or otherwise.

  12. Søren P. says:

    As a dane, I can assure you all that he’s completely capable of hitting things on a larger distance aswell. Man’s been a legend among LARPers for quite some time.

  13. Upyours says:

    KYLE HILL, WHY ARE YOU SO JELLY ON HIS MAD SKILLZ! eVERYONE CAN SEE HIS SKILL BEATS EVEN LEGOLAS. STAY MAD. We love him

  14. Joseph says:

    If the critique is true, I’d like to see the failed attempts of shooting an arrow that is shooting at him.

  15. Viewer says:

    Geek dad sounds like a jealous little kid who’s passion used to be archery before people like lars came along and defeated his will to continue. Some people can some people can’t, deal with it. 

  16. Ivan Alldridge says:

    Me thinks the author of this article has little talent for journalism, let alone Archery lol. Go home Mummy!BOY.  

  17. If the last shot, where he split the incoming arrowin in half, is real. well, then this guy is a flippin’ ninja. 

  18. John thomas says:

    If you haven’t looked yet, the author of that hate mail is an archery instructor, says right on nerdist. His behavior is understandable, his whole world was just shattered. Lol.

  19. John says:

    jwlynn64 

  20. John says:

    jwlynn64

  21. K.C says:

    But can he 360 no scope cross map? … 

  22. Fin says:

    I have been training with a bow my whole life, am a tenth degree black belt ninja master and my LARP wizard is level 23, so I know what I’m talking about you guys. And I can say, without question, that this guy could NOT beat Green Arrow in a fight. Because science. I’m important!

  23. What is up with this site? I try to scroll the comments and it just jumps back up to the article. Seems to me this is total b.s. guess free speech and free opinion reading is taboo here. This guy just hat in on Lars and not want to hear/read the rebuttals to his re-butt-al?

  24. Kurt says:

    How do you know it took several shoots or was edited were you there did you run the camera and honestly I don’t give a shit if the history is wrong it was the shooting I was interested in

  25. Brian says:

    Jim is an archery consultant and has been running a wildly successful children’s archery program in Pasadena for years. He’s spoken at conventions, helped coach a youth to the Junior Olympic Dream Team, and currently coaches a JOAD team that had a handful of medalists at the indoor state nationals in Tulare, California.Funny what two minutes of research can help you find out about a guy…

  26. matt says:

    You might want to realize the snopes article only mentions that the video wasn’t digitally altered, which Jim never claims it was. He claims his historical facts are either false or already known by regular archery people, and that he isn’t accurate,  just fast.

  27. John says:

    None of which qualifies him to make unsubstantiated accusations.  If he was wrong, prove it otherwise keep you trap closed.

  28. growup says:

    Shut. The fuck. Up.

  29. sgriggl says:

    yeah, but mythbusters didn’t test with a headless bamboo arrow. Lars freely admits that is what he used. they tried to split an arrow from behind, which is harder b/c there is a clasp binding the feathers to the shaft that holds it together… 

  30. lncredibad says:

    Do we have to send you jelly school, f461ips?