Catching Arrows

I'm a Mythbusters fan, and they had a recent episode (the "Ninja" episode)that sought to prove/disprove that ninjas could catch arrows.
They decided it would be pretty well impossible.

However, many fans have cried foul, and pointed out that various people can, and do, catch arrows. The following is my thought on this question.

First, I am an archer, and have been for quite a while. As some of my other posts indicate, I recently got into building my own tackle. I've been shooting bows and arrows since I was a kid back in the 50s, and have read rather a great deal on the art, science, and history of archery. Also the history of Feudal Japan, the Samurai culture, the Bushido, and Japanese martial archery or Kyujutsu.

So....

First, let's define what we're talking about. Yes, junior, people can catch arrows. A variety of martial artists, stage magicians, "strongman" guys, and others catch arrows.
They do this under well-controlled conditions that I'll discuss further. However, that isn't what the myth is about.
The myth is about a warrior of some sort catching an arrow that's intended to kill him. Presumably shot by a trained archer on the battlefield with equipment meant for warfare.

That's not remotely what contemporary "arrow catchers" are doing. I've watched a variety of film clips and TV segments of the various people doing this. They all cheat.
The first thing an archer notices is the arrow. Non-archers just see an arrow, but an archer notices right away that invariably these arrows are equipped with what we call "Flu-Flu" fletching. (Fletching is the feathers that stabilize the arrow in flight)
Flu-flu fletching looks like this:



And there are other styles. These bulky, oversized feathers are designed to slow the arrow down. They are used normally for upland game shooting or aerial targets.
They keep you from chasing the arrow into the next county.
For the would-be arrow catcher, they not only slow the arrow down, but they provide an easy-to-see visual "target" that the guy can track.

Second, it's obvious that modern arrow-catchers are using underpowered bows. One guy says his arrows travel at "over 100 miles per hour". Sounds impressive to the non-archer, perhaps, but full-powered bows cast arrows at 250 mph and more.

Some of these guys use "traditional" longbows or recurve bows; these invariably appear to be very light; target bows in the 30-pound draw range. This is easy to gauge by the arrow's trajectory, which is invariably very steep. At the ranges these guys are working at, an arrow from a full-powered bow would have little or no trajectory.
If the shooter is using a modern compound bow (the ones with the little wheels and cams and such) it's even more suspect. It's very easy to "gimmick" such a bow by substituting different cams, different limbs (the part that supplies power), or whatever. The bow would look quite normal, but be much weaker than it could be.

Finally, the shooter always shoots off to one side of the "catcher". This does several things; first it's less dangerous. Second, it's easier for the catcher to "track" the arrow visually.

So, what we're looking at with the modern types who catch arrows is a sideshow trick. It's not particularly easy, and requires practice. However, it cannot even remotely be compared to our original premis, that is a warrior catching an arrow that's about to kill him.

Let's take our "ninja" as in the Mythbusters episode. Let's say he's sneaking into an enemy camp, perhaps to assassinate one of the generals. Suddenly, he's spotted by an enemy sentry, an archer.
This guy would be a Samurai warrior well-practiced in Kyujutsu, the art of killing with the bow. He would have been trained since childhood, and would have likely fired around 1000 arrow shots per day in training. (Yes, that was the standard)
He is fast, accurate, and has excellent equipment.

His "Yumi" bow:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://eclay.netwiz.net/translat/kyudo10.jpg&imgrefurl=http://eclay.netwiz.net/translat/kyudo.htm&h=476&w=420&sz=22&hl=en&start=20&tbnid=Zkf35VX3NqDx9M:&tbnh=129&tbnw=114&prev=/images%3Fq%3DYumi%2Bbow%26gbv%3D2%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26channel%3Ds%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DG

Would have had a draw weight of 70-80 pounds, and at full 34" draw (The Japanese drew to the shoulder, unlike the to-the-chin draw of Western archers) it would send the long, heavy bamboo arrow downrange with a velocity of 170 feet per second or so.
The arrow would have been equipped with one of a variety of razor-sharp forged arrowheads:

These were made with the same care and forging techniques as the famous Japanese swords and other battlefield weapons of the period.

The sentry comes to a full draw and looses in a flash, and the arrow speeds straight to the unfortunate ninja's chest. Remember, this arrow is a full 36" in length....
Our ninja desperately tries to catch the arrow, and he's dead lucky, he succeeds in grabbing the shaft right before the fletching!
This leaves about one foot of arrow penetrating his chest, unfortunately....

An arrow like this coming straight at you gives you very little visible cue; all you'd see is a little dot coming at you very fast indeed. In twilight conditions, you wouldn't see it at all.

In reading histories of archery in warfare, with accounts of thousands of soldiers killed at Agincourt, Crecy, the Indian wars, the Mongols, etc, etc,...I can't think of a single account of anyone in combat catching an arrow.
Not one.

My conclusion:
Yes, Virginia, it is possible to "catch an arrow", but this is little more than a trick.
If it's possible for some sort of warrior to defend his life by catching an arrow that's enroute to kill him....Ain't happened yet.