Stronger archers are also the most consistent ones

The summary today

Three independent samples, all cross-sectional, say the same thing: as the level rises, the spread of scores narrows. Across the four skill groups of 188 American archers the standard deviation of the annual FITA average runs from 21 points at world level to 38 in the weakest group, with one exception, the national and college group, the tightest of all at 14. In the Greek national squad the standard deviations of competition scores sit between 27 and 40 points against 69 to 77 for non-selected archers with three to five years of competition: two to three times more spread out, and with lower averages. In twenty young Swedish archers the score and the standard deviation of the series move together, with a correlation of minus 0.65; the difference between the elite group and the weaker archers, 1.28 against 3.43, appears only after a flotation tank session, though, while in the normal condition the groups cannot be told apart. A fourth study, on four young Korean archers, finds the same in the consistency of the movement: the two with the highest scores repeat the movement of the bow arm more faithfully, but with four people it is a description. No study points the other way. One thing has to be said, though: the link is partly geometric, because an archer shooting close to the ten has little room above, so consistency is not a quality separate from the score but largely the same phenomenon seen from another side. And nobody has yet followed the same archers as they improve.

Also phrased as: "the strongest archers are also the most consistent"; "consistency is what sets good archers apart"; "less spread, more score"; "a strong archer drops fewer arrows"; "consistency and an archer's level"

Evidence

• 1986
  For Archers Published later

  188 amateur American recurve archers between 1982 and 1984, split into four skill groups by their annual FITA average: world level (9 archers) mean 1272 with a standard deviation of 21.38; high national and college level (32) 1221 with 13.53; college level (28) 1157 with 27.56; weakest (12) 1054 with 38.49. The spread grows as the level drops, but not evenly, since the second group is the tightest of all. The sample also included the world record holder, with an average of 1308.

  A Psychobiological Study of Archery Performance · Daniel M. Landers, Stephen H. Boutcher, Min Q. Wang

• 1991
  For Archers Published later

  Nine Greek national squad archers and nine non-selected archers with three to five years of competition, competition scores out of 600 before and after a mental training programme: the standard deviations are 40.2 and 27.0 in the national squad and 69.0 and 77.1 in the non-selected group, two to three times more spread out, against means of 498 to 513 compared with 434 to 454. The figures come from the table of a study aimed at something else, and the spread was never put to a statistical test.

  Visuomotor Behavior Rehearsal in Archery Shooting Performance · Yannis Zervas, Vassilis Kakkos

• 1999
  For Archers Published later

  Twenty young Swedish archers, score and standard deviation of the series measured in both conditions of the study: the correlation between the two is minus 0.65 (p < 0.05) in the control condition and minus 0.77 (p < 0.001) after the flotation tank session. In the tank the elite group has a deviation of 1.28 (standard deviation 0.41) against 3.43 (1.87) for the weaker archers, F(2,17) = 3.00 with p = 0.046, while in the armchair condition the groups do not differ (p = 0.988). It is the first direct measurement of the association between score and consistency, in a small sample.

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

• 2017
  For Archers Published later

  Four Korean middle-school archers aged 14 to 16, 36 arrows each at thirty metres with an inertial sensor on the bow-arm forearm; consistency of the movement is measured as the distance between each shot's signal and that of a reference shot that landed in the ten. The two with the highest season scores, around 59 out of 60, have the smallest distances, 13.87 (standard deviation 0.9) and 16.72 (1.3), against 23.53 (2.2) and 23.30 (2.3) for the other two, who sat between 53.5 and 55; the algorithm picks out on its own 35 and 35 shots as similar to the reference in the first two, 29 and 31 in the others. It measures the consistency of the movement rather than of the scores, in four people, with season scores rather than the scores of those arrows: it is a description, not a test.

  Analysis of Shooting Consistency in Archers: A Dynamic Time Warping Algorithm-Based Approach · Cheng-Hao Quan, Zia Mohy-Ud-Din, Sangmin Lee

Status history

1. 1986 Reported The first figures were not gathered for this question. In a sample of 188 American archers split into four skill groups, the standard deviation of the annual FITA average grows as the level drops, from 21 points at world level to 38 in the weakest group, with the national and college group the tightest of all at 14. It is cross-sectional and collected for other purposes, so reported.
2. 1991 Reported A second sample points the same way: in the Greek national squad the standard deviations of competition scores sit between 27 and 40 points, against 69 to 77 for non-selected archers with three to five years of competition, and with lower averages. Here too, though, the figures are a by-product of a study on mental training and nobody put the spread to a statistical test, so the status stays reported.
3. 1999 Reported The third independent sample also brings the first direct measurement of the association: in twenty young Swedish archers the score and the standard deviation of the series move together, minus 0.65 in the normal condition and minus 0.77 after a flotation relaxation session, while the difference between the elite group and the weaker archers, 1.28 against 3.43, appears only after the tank. Three independent samples point the same way and no study points the other, but they are all cross-sectional associations in small groups, and in two cases the figures were collected for other purposes: the direction is consistent, and the status stays reported. Part of the link, moreover, is geometric.
4. 2017 Reported The first figures on consistency of the movement rather than of the score arrive: in four young Korean archers, the two with the highest season scores repeat the movement of the bow arm more faithfully than the other two, as measured by a sensor on the forearm. It points the same way as the three earlier samples, but four people and a description with no test add no firmness: the status stays reported.

Related

Related articles

• How many points does it take to tell two archers apart?Two identical top archers finish five points apart on average over 72 arrows, by chance alone. How big a gap you need, and how many competitions prove a gain.
• Repeatability and consistency: measuring the steadiness of your shotHow repeatable an archer's shot is: what studies say about level, good and bad days, arrows outside the 10, and how to measure consistency on the range.

Related studies

• Theoretical workIl pavimento (The floor): how much of archery is real

Research lines

• 102 studiesFrom the total on the scorecard to the arrow's coordinates
• 52 studiesMental training: what has been tested on archers since 1979

Other claims in this domain

• CorroboratedAbout 150 points on a FITA round separate a club archer from a national-team archer13 studies · 492 archers measuredStatus since 2003
• CorroboratedAn archer's arousal rises with what is at stake, and keeps rising as the competition goes on3 studies · 23 archers measuredStatus since 2011
• CorroboratedArchers are more aroused in competition than in training5 studies · 50 archers measuredStatus since 2025
• CorroboratedAt 70 metres a top archer averages about nine points per arrow7 studies · 72 archers measuredStatus since 2012
• CorroboratedEven in competition at the highest level, most arrows are not tens4 studies · 3,212 archers measuredStatus since 2024

See all claims on competition and scoring