Is archery a fighting art?

[Starturtle]

Getting away from eastern use of the bow.....The British used a 6ft bow named the longbow to fire arrows farther than any other army. British law dictated Archery would be the best sport available (like soccer is now to much of the world) to take advantage of the weapons long range. British armies would conqure foes with a litterall sky of arrows before their oppones archers could even retailiate.

 

So is the bow a fighting art? yes. Is there a MA developed specifacly around the bow? I doubt it.

 

Oh yes, and the mental state of mind that Eastern archers were in is called Atari. It is the mental discipline of litteraly seeing only your target. For example (and this is a cut down version of the whole story):

 

There was a contest to see who was the best archer. The target was a brightly painted Koi (fish) on a flag atop a high pole. The object was to shoot the arrow through the eye. Every archer fired and misses, except one.

 

Later, when asked what they saw, every archer that missed said they saw a koi against the blue sky. The one that hit the eye simply said, "the eye".

 

A japanese philosopher would remark that since all that existed was the eye, how could he miss?

 

That is an example of atari.

[KoreanTiger30]

I know like said earlier that Kuk Sool Won has archery I alos know that Tukong Musool, Hwa Rang DO , some style sof Hapkiod also have archery. There is also a separate archery fighting art called Kung Sul whic derives form the Hwa rang warrior style of archery it used to be included in the military martila arts in ancient times but in modern kOrean arts it seems to have fallen out of the picture.

[KaratekaAikidoist]

My idea of a fighting art is something that has a history of being practiced and studied for the purpose of war or fighting. I want to know this because the main reason I am taking it is to extend my Martial Arts expierence although a plain bow is not art by itself.