TESTING KHATRAH(Increasing the shooting velocity)

TESTING KHATRAH (Increasing the shooting velocity) It seems that the most controversial aspect connected with khatrah is about the possibility of increasing (or not) the arrow speed by using this technique. By using this method, many archers has claimed already an obvious increase of the arrow velocity (at different rates, depending on the archer’s skill, the bow poundage, drawing length, weight of the arrow, etc). This is a clear confirmation of the statements found in the medieval Middle East archery treatises about the khatrah technique: “WE CAN TESTIFY FROM EXPERIENCE THAT THIS MOVEMENT INCREASES BOTH CAST AND RANGE in the same way as a rider driving a horse can bear witness to an extra burst of speed when he gives his mount a lash in full career“. (Grandmaster archer Ashrafi Taybugha,14th century, Saracen Archery, p. 68) Nevertheless, some archers, (clearly less convinced by the efficiency of this shooting method), are not connecting the evident increase of velocity (“apparent“ for them), with the “f