Compound archers score higher than recurve archers, even with each shooting their own competition distance

The summary today

The most direct comparison is recent and small. In 37 pre-elite Taiwanese archers, eighteen compound archers at 50 m and nineteen recurve archers at 70 m, the mean score per arrow over a six-arrow test is 9.1 against 8.3, a large difference (d = 1.5), with less than half the spread between athletes in compound. An Indian sample of 32 archers at 18 m indoors points the same way, with the elite compound archers scoring highest of all and the non-elite recurve archers lowest, although there bow type and level overlap, and so does the smallest comparison, eight experienced archers at 18 m, where compound scores 9.17 points per arrow against 8.80 in a test that counts arrows rather than archers. The only contrary result is the oldest, and the comparison was made in passing: twenty young Swedish archers, five of them shooting compound, over twelve arrows at 18 m, with no difference by type of bow. World competition data help less than they seem to, because the recurve deficit on the shoot-off arrow is measured at the same average score in the match, so it does not compare the level of the two divisions. World records too, read on the scale of an Australian model that treats the two events as equivalent, put men's compound about ten index points above recurve, but a record is not a sample. The direction is clear but the size is not: the two events use different target faces, the 8 cm ten on an 80 cm face for compound and the 12.2 cm ten on a 122 cm face for recurve, and no study has separated how much of the difference comes from the bow and how much from the face and the distance.

Also phrased as: "compound scores more than recurve"; "it is easier to score with a compound"; "compound versus recurve scores"; "recurve scores less even at its own competition distance"

Evidence

• 1999
  Against Archers Published later

  20 young Swedish archers aged 13 to 18, 5 with compound bows, 3 with what the authors call the classical bow and 12 with the freestyle bow, four ends of three arrows at 18 m on the 40 cm face in two sessions six weeks apart: the type of bow has no influence on the score (p = 0.224). The comparison is incidental, in a study of flotation tanks, with only five compound archers.

  Primary process in competitive archery performance: Effects of flotation REST · Torsten Norlander, Henrik Bergman, Trevor Archer

• 2014
  Context Archers Published later

  The Archery Australia model turns an archer's level into an index, with 100 set at the men's world record of the time it was built, and it is calibrated so that the score at 70 m on the 122 cm face is about the same as at 50 m on the 80 cm face. On that scale the men's compound world records sit at about 125 to 130 and the recurve ones at about 115 to 120; the women's records sit about 5 points below the men's. These are records, not a comparison between samples.

  Modelling archers’ scores at different distances to quantify score loss due to equipment selection and technique errors · James L Park

• 2015
  For Archers Published later

  8 experienced archers, 4 recurve and 4 compound, with a mean season's best of 553.5 in the 18 m indoor round, fifteen arrows each (five ends of three) at 18 m on the World Archery 40 cm triple face: mean score per arrow 9.17 ± 0.53 in compound and 8.80 ± 1.02 in recurve, a significant difference (p < 0.01). The test takes the 60 arrows of each group as its unit rather than the four archers, and the paper does not say whether the compound archers scored on the smaller inner ten.

  Heart rate values and levels of attention and relaxation in expert archers during shooting · Andrea Vrbik, Raphael Bene, Ivan Vrbik

• 2020
  Context Archers Published later

  World Archery competition data from 2013 to 2019, 2,210 matches decided by a shoot-off and 3,645 individual observations, 73.7% of them recurve: on the shoot-off arrow recurve archers score lower than compound archers, by 8.1% in the whole sample (p < 0.1, so significant only at the 10% level), by 3.2% for men (p < 0.05) and by 16.1% for women (p < 0.05). The model holds the archer's average score in the rest of the match constant, so the gap concerns the shoot-off arrow relative to the archer's own level and does not compare the level of the two divisions.

  Choking under pressure in archery · Alessandro Bucciol, Alessandro Castagnetti

• 2023
  Context Archers Published later

  20 Malaysian state-squad compound archers aged 13 to 21, 36 arrows at 50 m: intermediate group 329.6 ± 6.9 points, elite group 341.8 ± 3.2, that is about 9.2 and 9.5 points per arrow. High values, but with no recurve archers in the same test.

  Comparative Characteristics of Psychophysiological and Shooting Performance Between Intermediate and Elite Compound Archers · Fatin Nurfatehah Mat Salleh, Mon Redee Sut Txi, Wan Nurlisa Wan Ahmad

• 2025
  For Archers Published later

  37 pre-elite Taiwanese archers aged 15 to 24, with at least three years of training, 19 recurve and 18 compound, each at their own distance, six arrows in a simulated competition: mean score per arrow 9.1 ± 0.3 in compound at 50 m and 8.3 ± 0.7 in recurve at 70 m, p = 0.001, d = 1.5. Compound shot on the 80 cm face with the 8 cm ten, recurve on the 122 cm face with the 12.2 cm ten.

  Associations of Scoring Accuracy with Postural Stability and Strength Measures in Archers on a Standard Archery Site · Chun-Hao Fan, Chien-Nan Liao, Wei-Hsiu Hsu

• 2025
  For Archers Published later

  32 Indian male archers, 21 recurve and 11 compound, 15 elite and 17 not, 30 arrows at 18 m indoors: against a model baseline of 279.38 out of 300, the elite compound group sits above it, and in most non-elite recurve archers both actual and predicted scores sit below, with membership of that group among the top ten predictors of score. Bow type and level are intertwined, so the finding does not isolate the bow.

  Can we predict archery performance using shooting heart rate and other biophysical parameters? A machine learning approach · Chandra Sekara Guru, Uma Mahajan, Anup Krishnan, Karuna Datta, Deep Sharma

Status history

1. 1999 Contradicted The first measurement arrives incidentally, from a study of flotation before shooting: twenty young Swedish archers, five with compound bows and fifteen with two kinds of bow without cams that the authors call classical and freestyle, shoot twelve arrows at 18 m on the 40 cm face, and the type of bow makes no difference to the score (p = 0.224). The only comparison available goes against the claim, but it is a single one, with five teenage compound archers and twelve arrows each, so the status is contradicted rather than refuted.
2. 2014 Contradicted An Australian scoring model, built so that an archer scores about the same at 70 m on the 122 cm face as at 50 m on the 80 cm face, places the men's compound world records at an index of about 125 to 130 and the recurve ones at 115 to 120. It is a pointer in the direction of the claim, but it concerns records rather than a sample of archers, and the equivalence between the two events is an assumption of the model: the only measured comparison is still the 1999 one, which goes against.
3. 2015 Contested The first comparison in favour comes from a small study of heart rate and attention during shooting: eight experienced archers, four per bow, fifteen arrows each at 18 m on the triple face, and compound averages 9.17 points per arrow against 8.80 for recurve. The difference is significant, but the test counts arrows rather than archers, of whom there are four per group. With this study in favour and the 1999 Swedish one against, both small and both indoors, studies of archers point in opposite directions: contested.
4. 2020 Contested World competition data arrive: 2,210 international matches decided by a shoot-off between 2013 and 2019. On the shoot-off arrow recurve archers score lower than compound archers, by 8.1% in the whole sample (significant only at the 10% level), 3.2% for men and 16.1% for women, but the comparison is made at the same average score in the rest of the match: it says that recurve loses more on the deciding arrow relative to its own level, not that compound scores higher. So it is not evidence in favour, and the picture is still the 2015 one, a small study in favour and a small study against: contested.
5. 2025 Reported Two studies in 2025 make the comparison within the same sample. In 37 pre-elite Taiwanese archers, eighteen compound archers at 50 m and nineteen recurve archers at 70 m, the mean score per arrow over six arrows is 9.1 against 8.3 (p = 0.001, d = 1.5), with less than half the spread between athletes in compound. In 32 Indian archers at 18 m indoors the elite compound archers sit above the model's baseline score and most non-elite recurve archers below it, although there bow type and level overlap. Studies of archers in favour now number three, against one small, incidental study pointing against, and the status moves to reported; it goes no higher because the 1999 contrary result still stands, and because nobody has separated the bow from the target face.

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Research lines

• 48 studiesWhat predicts the score, and how talent selection tried to use it
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