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Danish archer takes aim at 'Hollywood archery' myths

Lars Anderson said he rediscovered ancient archery techniques by studying written accounts and ancient artworks.

By Ben Hooper
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COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Jan. 26 (UPI) -- A Danish archer posted a YouTube video showing how he busted the myth of "Hollywood archery" by rediscovering ancient techniques.

Lars Anderson, whose archery video went viral with more than 4.5 million views in its first 24 hours on YouTube, demonstrated in the video how he used ancient depictions of archers and written accounts to rediscover the technique of holding his arrows in his firing hand and placing the arrow on the outside of the bow, instead of the more common position on the inside of the bow.

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Anderson said practicing the ancient ways allows him to fire off three arrows in .6 seconds.

"Many people have accused me of being fake or have theories on how there's cheating involved. I've always found it fascinating how human it is, to want to disbelieve anything that goes against our world view -- even when it's about something as relatively neutral as archery," Anderson said. "At one of our combat archery tournaments last year, I ended up in a one-on-one duel against a friend. Every time he shot an arrow at me, I'd shoot it out of the air with one of my own. After five arrows, he just gave up in good-natured disgust. Sure, it was showing off, but it was also a lot of fun!"

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Anderson concluded the video posted Friday by demonstrating how he can split an arrow shot at him while it is traveling through the air.

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