Holding arrows in the bow hand
Arrows may be held on either outer or inner side of a bow. Then arrowheads may point either up or down. And at last you may hold arrows in the fist together with a bow, or carry them between your fingers.
1) Inner or outer side of a bow. This is easy - you have to hold arrows on the other side than where you nock the arrow you are going to shoot. Otherwise they would stay in the way. The one exception is a bow with a window; if window is sufficiently deep, then you may hold arrows on the same side you nock. It also should be noted that it is easier to grab arrows held on the outer side, because nothing stands in the way of the string hand.
2) Arrowheads up or down. Here it depends just on your preference from where it is more comfortable for you to draw arrows. You always grab your arrow by three (or two) fingers by its nock. If arrow nocks are at the bottom, you have to raise your bow hand a bit before you are able to grab the arrow. If nocks are on the top, you have first to lower it.
3) In the fist or between fingers. You can hold more arrows between fingers, and they are neatly separated in groups. If you draw your arrows by leaning out, then group separation may help to take arrows in correct order. So leabed arrow does not catch on the others. Holding between fingers may also help if you want to hold arrows in an angle to bow.
On the other side, when drawing a stronger bow may fingers be painfully jammed by arrows - just when bow hand grips the handle tightly. This happened often to me until I saw how Lajos Kassai holds it. I used to hold it in this way - I embaraced a bunch of arrows by index and middle finger of a bow hand (it is in the photo somewhere on the bottom of page). It works, but only with a few arrows. If you have more of them, they start to jam the fingers.
Lajos Kassai uses following trick. First you put several arrows to a bow, and grip them with a whole bowhand (as if holding arrows in the fist). Then you can raise your small finger and put some more arrows under it. You may then raise also your index finger, and add some additional arrows there. As long as middle and ring fingers are at the bottom (resp. no arrow is held by any of these fingers and then above other), then fingers will not be jammed.
Drawing an arrow
Arrow may be drawn by pulling out or by leaning out.
1) By pulling out. Just take arrow with 3 fingers by its nock, and pull it out of the bow hand just as you would pull it from a quiver.
2) By leaning out. Take the arrow with 3 fingers by its nock, and lean it from vertical position against the target. Arrow should separate from the bunch and slip between fingers to the shooting position. It is fater than pulling out, but the order of arrows is important. If you try to lean out an arrow from the mniddle of bunch, it will catch by the other arrows, and will not be drawn. Because of this, it is useful to keep arrows between fingers. Or hold them spead in just one layer.
Video shows drawing by pulling out and leaning out.
Advantages of arrows in the bow hand
It is possible to draw arrows from the bow hand quite quickly, and also it is very firm and well controlled holding. Arrows are under good control duriong any movement. I did not like this technique at the begining, but then I found that it works best of all methods when running fast.
Disadvantages of arrows in the bow hand
Capacity. Lajos Kassai can hold approximaltelly 15 arrows, but it is quite difficult to shoot with something lika that. You will probably have problems to hit the target if you don't learn it damn good. I can comfortably hold 5 arrows in this way, after that I have problems. Small capacity may be compensated by prepared groups of arrows in the structured quiver / when you run out of arrows in the bow hand, you draw and grip another bunch and continue shooting.
Next disadvantage is that it depends on the sabe of bow's handle. I you have ergonomically shaped grip, it will not fit well as soon as you take just a small amount of arrows with it. Traditional bows with narrow center are best for this type of holding.
Historical matter of interest
I usually connet arrows in the bow hand with African or American natives, or with ancient horse archers. So I was quite surprised when I found archer with arrows held in this way on a well-known tapisery from Bayeux.
