https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/technique/passive-release Changes to this claim in Matteo Campagna's evidence registry: its status, its year-by-year history, revisions of the page. en-gb https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/technique/passive-releaseHere the eye and the electromyograph say two different things, and the difference is the heart of the matter. On competition video, 28 elite archers out of 30 let the string go with their fingers still flexed rather than opening them, and in high-speed films of 16 world-level archers the fingers do not straighten: the string leaves them in under two milliseconds, too little time for any opening decided on the spot. Under the skin, though, the picture turns over. In 15 archers of the US national team the release falls into two stable patterns, 8 who relax the flexors and 7 who show an active burst of the extensors, and the mean score for the year is the same: 1,209 against 1,213 out of 1,440. In three Turkish samples, elite archers included, the extensors contract while the flexors ease off gradually, and in 10 archers of the Brazilian national team the two muscle groups move in opposite directions around the clicker. So the rule does not describe the ordinary mechanics of the release, and above all it does not separate the better archers: fingers that stay flexed are the result, not the instruction to follow.claim:rilascio-passivo-dita:revision:2026-09-19:3Sat, 19 Sep 2026 08:00:00 GMT https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/technique/passive-release#storiaA systematic review brings together the three electromyographic studies that have looked at the point and concludes that releasing with fingers that relax gives no better results than releasing with active extension: half the elite archers in one sample released by relaxing the flexors with no performance advantage, and two further studies describe active extension in both experts and beginners. The status was already disproved and the review confirms it without new data.claim:rilascio-passivo-dita:history_entry:2026-08-10:2022Mon, 10 Aug 2026 08:00:00 GMT https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/technique/passive-release#storiaIn ten national-team archers, around the release the flexors and extensors of the drawing hand's fingers run in opposite directions and each travels coupled to different arm muscles, the flexor with the triceps and pectoralis major and the extensor with the biceps, with correlations above 0.9. It is a description of the mechanism that confirms how far the release is a commanded movement rather than a simple letting go, so the status does not change.claim:rilascio-passivo-dita:history_entry:2026-08-10:2018Mon, 10 Aug 2026 08:00:00 GMT https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/technique/passive-release#storiaSixteen world-level archers filmed at high speed show exactly the shape the rule prescribes, fingers that relax and stay flexed, with the middle finger last off the string in eleven cases out of sixteen and the ring finger first in twelve out of sixteen. The description is confirmed, but none of these studies compares the scores of those who release one way and those who release the other, so the status does not change.claim:rilascio-passivo-dita:history_entry:2026-08-10:2012Mon, 10 Aug 2026 08:00:00 GMT https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/technique/passive-release#storiaElectromyography of four elite archers gives the physiological picture of the relaxed release: the finger flexors collapse from 83.2 to 33.3 per cent of maximal contraction in the second around the clicker, while the extensors stay active at 57.7 and the trapezius does not change. It is a description rather than a comparison of the two ways of releasing, so the status does not change.claim:rilascio-passivo-dita:history_entry:2026-08-10:2011Mon, 10 Aug 2026 08:00:00 GMT https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/technique/passive-release#storiaA second publication from the same laboratory describes the same pattern, extensors contracting and flexors giving way, in the mean traces of archers and non-archers. It is not an independent replication, since the sample partly overlaps the 2003 one, so it confirms the status without adding a new sample.claim:rilascio-passivo-dita:history_entry:2026-08-10:2005Mon, 10 Aug 2026 08:00:00 GMT https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/technique/passive-release#storiaThe study that weighs most on this point takes the fifteen archers of the United States national team, six arrows each with release and clicker synchronised. The release splits into two stable patterns, eight archers who let the activity of flexors and extensors fall away and seven who open the fingers with a burst of the extensors in the two tenths of a second before release, and each one always repeats their own. The mean FITA score for the year is the same in the two groups, 1,209 against 1,213 out of 1,440. Two ways of releasing that give the same results, in archers of that level, take the ground from under the rule, but with a sample split into groups of seven and eight and annual averages compared without a test the status does not fall yet.claim:rilascio-passivo-dita:history_entry:2026-08-10:1990Mon, 10 Aug 2026 08:00:00 GMT https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/technique/passive-release#storiaHigh-speed film at two hundred frames per second of one skilled archer shows the opposite: the fingers begin to open twenty-five milliseconds before release and the finger extensor fires just as the deltoid falls silent, with arm and shoulder still throughout the sequence. It is a single archer, but it is a direct measurement and it runs against the 1971 observation: the studies of archers contradict each other.claim:rilascio-passivo-dita:history_entry:2026-08-10:1987Mon, 10 Aug 2026 08:00:00 GMT https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/technique/passive-release#storiaThe first observation in the bibliography points the way the teaching does: in three kyudo practitioners, at the loose all the upper-trunk muscles of the beginner fire while in the expert they relax together. Three people, qualitative traces, and above all a measurement of the trunk rather than the fingers: on the fingers, which are what the claim is about, there is still nothing.claim:rilascio-passivo-dita:history_entry:2026-08-10:1971Mon, 10 Aug 2026 08:00:00 GMT https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/technique/passive-release#storiaTwo observational studies of elite archers describe fingers that relax and stay flexed, the very shape the rule prescribes: 28 out of 30 on competition video and all 16 in high-speed film. They stay as context, and the status does not change, because they look at the visible shape of the hand rather than at what the claim prescribes: the extensor can fire without the fingers straightening, and among the elite archers measured the two ways of releasing score the same.claim:rilascio-passivo-dita:history_entry:2026-06-01:2024Mon, 01 Jun 2026 08:00:00 GMT https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/technique/passive-releaseclaim:rilascio-passivo-dita:new_claim:2026-03-25:smentitoWed, 25 Mar 2026 08:00:00 GMT