RE: Compound or recurve?
everyone is different as far as strength. My buddy can bench press 3 times what I can but can't handle a 57# bow very well - go figure.
go to a local shot that has some recurve and longbows and try them. Its a very simplistic way to shoot - focus, draw, hit your anchor and release. If you're not cross-dominant in eye vs hand, you can use a sighting method lik eusing the shaft as a point of aim. if you are cross dominant like I am, its impossible to do, and you'll have to create your own method, something like Howard Hill had.
Some people shoot target style (Yen) some people shoot head bent to side (Hill) some people look gorgeous in their form (Bear) and some people hunch up like their pooping (Fred Asbell) - develope your own.
Its tough. Your first arrows will go EVERYWHERE and I mean not within 2 feet of where you wanted them to.
But when you get it down, and go into the woods stump shooting and pop a clump of grass that you didn't know was 34 yards away by simply focusing, drawing and releasing using no sights, no mechanical devices - just you the string and the bow - its a magical thing. Taking a deer with trad equipment is the a whole different ballgame