Archers with more competitions behind them do not shoot the shoot-off arrow better
1 study · 3,645 archers measured
The summary today
There is a single study, and it runs against the idea that experience is what counts in a shoot-off. In World Archery competition data from 2013 to 2019, 2,210 matches decided by a shoot-off, doubling the number of matches already played goes, at the same average score in the rest of the match, with a shoot-off score 1.4% lower, while the number of shoot-offs already faced makes no difference, and neither does age. The drop is concentrated in women, minus 2.2%, while in men, minus 0.7%, it is not significant. The effect is small, a little over a tenth of a point on roughly nine, and the measure of experience is narrow: it counts only the matches in the database for those years, not the whole career, and it does not separate experience from an athlete's sporting age, changes of equipment or a declining phase. So the claim is written in the direction of the finding but remains reported: it says experience does not help, not that it makes the arrow worse.
Also phrased as: "the more experienced archer wins the shoot-off"; "you learn shoot-offs by shooting lots of them"; "experience and the shoot-off arrow"; "archers with more competitions handle shoot-off pressure better"
In practice
On the range people say a shoot-off is a matter of experience, and that someone who has shot many of them knows better how to handle that single arrow.
Evidence
-
2020
For Archers Published later
World Archery competition data from 2013 to 2019, 2,210 matches decided by a shoot-off and 3,645 individual observations, recurve and compound: doubling the number of previous matches is associated with a shoot-off score 1.4% lower (p < 0.05), in a model that holds the archer's average score in the rest of the match constant, while the number of previous shoot-offs is not significant. On average athletes had 28.6 matches (up to 200) and 4.3 shoot-offs behind them in the database.
Choking under pressure in archery · Alessandro Bucciol, Alessandro Castagnetti
-
2020
Context Archers Published later
Split by sex, the link between matches already played and the shoot-off arrow is minus 2.2% for women (p < 0.05) and minus 0.7% for men, not significant: the overall drop comes mainly from the women.
Choking under pressure in archery · Alessandro Bucciol, Alessandro Castagnetti
-
2020
Context Archers Published later
In the same model age is not related to the shoot-off arrow: coefficient -0.004 (standard error 0.007) in the whole sample, -0.004 for men and +0.001 for women, none significant, on a mean age of 25.9 years (13 to 65).
Choking under pressure in archery · Alessandro Bucciol, Alessandro Castagnetti
Status history
- 2010 Not studied Under the set system, adopted in 2010, individual recurve matches that end five-all are decided by a single arrow each. The registry's bibliography does not yet contain any study relating competition experience to the score of that arrow.
- 2020 Reported The only study on the question runs against the common idea: in world competition data from 2013 to 2019, doubling the matches already played goes with a shoot-off score 1.4% lower, and the drop is concentrated in women, minus 2.2%. The number of shoot-offs played before makes no difference, and neither does age. It is a single study, with a small effect and experience counted only over the matches in the database, so the claim, written in the direction of the finding, is reported.
Related
Related articles
Research lines
Studies describe groups of archers, and your own numbers show how far the finding applies to your shooting.
See the work with clubs and federationsCite
Campagna, M. (2026). Archers with more competitions behind them do not shoot the shoot-off arrow better (Version 1). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/competition/experience-and-the-shoot-off-arrow
@misc{campagna2026_esperienzaspareggio,
author = {Campagna, Matteo},
title = {Archers with more competitions behind them do not shoot the shoot-off arrow better},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/competition/experience-and-the-shoot-off-arrow},
note = {Version 1; accessed 2026-10-16}
}
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