&gt; I&#x27;m not sure if this is covered, but the longbow requires huge amounts of practice from a young age to be effective.<p>It is covered, the paper lists a number of measure the English crown took to force people to train with the longbow in their spare time.<p>&gt; the French simply couldn&#x27;t find enough trained men?<p>The French could have taken the same measures of mandating longbow ownership and strongly &quot;encouraging&quot; longbow training (by setting up tournaments and forbidding other types of leisure)