HH bug got me ... Part One!

[rushlush]

Thanks Rik, I like it.

[RC]

Cool stuff Rik.RC

[tradlongbow]

Rik-

Good stuff, I like this part of the quote.

"When one has no form, one can be all forms; when one has no style, he can fit in with any style."


When you look at Howard Hill drawing the bow it looks so natural and he looks comfortable. This is because he reached his maturity in the art of archer.

"When one has reached maturity in the art, one will have a formless form."

Darren

[dragonheart]

Rik,

That is some interesting and thought provoking information.  Archery is a martial art.

[Ben Maher]

Mr Hinton ...
Are you sure we ain't related ?

[Nate Steen .]

we do this repetitious shooting into the bales and long shooting to develop our form until the shooting act is almost 'thoughtless'....only then can we concentrate on the target with the intensity needed for very accurate instinctive shooting.  And we respond to the target/shot scenario much like a martial artist responds to the situation faced.

when I am shooting well,  and I try to get into this shooting state every time now,  I see the arrow being drawn back by my hand in my peripheral vision....but once I'm at full draw, the string and hand are not visible (but they feel as if they're behind me) and my mind and body are now the arrow and where I look is where my mind is aimed, and I will leap forward at the shot to bury myself into the target.  And I will not miss because I have control over my body.  Kinda like feeling myself run into the target, I won't miss...

I think this is what Byron means when you 'become the arrow'...I shoot very accurately for me when I shoot this way and any target out to about 80 yards is in grave danger.

[Jon Powell]

Rik,

I'm impressed. I didn't think anyone even remembered Bruce Lee anymore. He's one of those people I'd like to have met.

Well done.  

[Nate Steen .]

My friend's grandfather was one of Bruce Lee's students...his stories are incredible.

[Ben Maher]

Jon ... he is still a hero of mine ... my search for fluidity and adapatability [JKD]  is one of the things that tends to lead me to the swing draw ...

On a side note ... I have two new Hill style bows on order ...

Not tellin' which but ....

Originally posted by sunset hill:
we do this repetitious shooting into the bales and long shooting to develop our form until the shooting act is almost 'thoughtless'....only then can we concentrate on the target with the intensity needed for very accurate instinctive shooting.  

I think this is what Byron means when you 'become the arrow'...

Yes....that is true and very clearly communicated Nate.  I can remember back in 1976 when I took a long ride out to Wyoming with a couple of buddies for a two week Whitetail hunt.  I was hunting/scouting some gorgeous territory one morning and ran across a string of barbed wire.  I remember looking down the strand to my right as I pushed the wire down and stepped over it with my left leg.  Holding my bow with my finger curled around the knocked arrow I began to push the wire down to clear my right leg to continue but caught a movement to my left and turned to see a nice eight pointer lookin at me about 25 yards away...slightly up a steep grade through some young saplings.  

Without even thinking, while straddling the barbs, I swung to the left and up at the same time drawing and the arrow was gone.  The buck jumped vertically taking two bucking leaps up the grade, turning towards me and did an amazing mid-air flip over on his back.  Never moved after that.   And I stood there with that barbed wire in my crotch for what seemed to be an eternity wondering what happened.

For several years prior to that experience I shot my bow every day and seemingly all day long on the weekends religiously for that moment.

Truly magic and dumbfounding...truly instinctive and unforgettable.

[dragonheart]

Tony thank you for that story.  Wow!

[Nate Steen .]

Ben,  mate....

if you are adding on to the house to accomodate the new bow collection, don't do it....save the remodel money for hunting!

you must be getting tight quarters for the bowstash by now....how they all getting along?  crocs rubbing shoulders with wesleys and redmen?

[Ben Maher]

Nate ... I had a bit of a give away and fire sale  over the past few months ...
the bow rack is back to the  barest of  essentials ... 3 bows and a bunch of arrows

Until "Hood" turns up .......  

quote:Originally posted by Ben Maher:
.....Until "Hood" turns up .......    

[Ben Maher]

Mmmmm ... well I would ... but I won't.

Y'all just have to wait !

[Jon Powell]

I hear you Ben. I still read parts of the Tao of JKD when I'm struggling with a rough spot. It's like renewing your perspective.

Anyway, enough of that. About your two new acquisitions, it's just cruel to make us wait. Hints only make it worse.

[Ben Maher]

Jon ...
lets just say that one of these bows will be the culmination of years of suggesting, hinting and begging ...
And it will be a bow that'll take pride of place in my bow rack ... a bow bred to hunt the Sambar stags that live in our high country ... the flighty but beautiful fallow bucks of our low hills ... the dusty angry boars of our plains ... and a companion for this ol' Robin Hood nerd to take a rovin across the pine plantations and fields loosing well made wooden shafts "at the mark" over yonder .....

[Jon Powell]

beautifully stated sensei:)

[dragonheart]

This article is about a special visit Howard Hill took to Japan.

 

 


 

[David Mitchell]

To shift gears a moment--this week I went stumping with a buddy who was shooting a "new to him" Hill bow he bought here on the classifieds.  It was carmelized boo, and the lams were laminated boo--vertically laminated like actionwood.  Is that what all the carmelized boo limbs are from Hill?  Just hadn't heard they are vertically laminated.