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Arrow groups are wider horizontally than vertically

4 studies · 40 archers measured

ForContextAgainst200520102015202020252014, for, n = 292014, against, n = 292006, context, n = 72010, context, n = 42014, for2014, context
Each circle is a study: its position gives the year, its row whether it is for, against or context, its size how many participants it measured. Light circles are studies on other populations or without archers.

The firmest finding comes from competition: at the 2013 Shanghai World Cup, with almost no wind, most of the elite archers' groups at 50 m were wider than they were tall, with an average ratio of 1.15 between the horizontal and vertical standard deviations in both recurve and compound, and at the windy World Championships of the same year the ratio rose to 1.25. Wind therefore spreads the group sideways, but the asymmetry is there even in still air. Indoors at 18 m a 2014 abstract finds the spread wider horizontally in high-level archers (2.20 against 1.94) and middle-level ones (5.80 against 4.26), and wider vertically in beginners (11.80 against 14.34), without a test on the two dispersions. The mechanism is plausible, because while aiming the bow sways more sideways than up and down, as seven Junior World Championship archers and four elite women archers show. Two limits remain: in experienced archers the asymmetry is modest, about 15%, and some groups are elongated vertically; and the indoor finding is an abstract with few archers at each level.

Also phrased as: "groups wider than tall"; "arrows spreading sideways"; "horizontal dispersion"; "horizontally elongated group"

In practice

It is often said that arrows spread more sideways than up and down, and that a horizontally wide group comes from the wind or from the bow hand.

Evidence

  • 2006
    Context Archers Published later

    7 junior recurve archers who had competed at the Junior World Championships, 66 arrows each at 30 m indoors, with the movement of the aim tracked on the target: over the last second before the release the horizontal sway exceeds the vertical one in all 7 archers (Wilcoxon, p < 5%). It is the movement of the bow while aiming, not where the arrows land, but it points to where a group wider than it is tall could come from.

    On‐target trajectories and the final pull in archery · Jürgen Edelmann‐Nusser, Mario Heller, Martin Hofmann, Nico Ganter

  • 2010
    Context Archers Published later

    4 elite women archers, 108 arrows at 18 m with optical tracking of the aim: the amplitude of sway on the target is 13.7, 12.6 and 12.7 cm horizontally on arrows scoring 8, 9 and 10, and 12.0, 11.6 and 11.3 cm vertically. While aiming the bow moves a little more sideways, by about a centimetre, but again this is the aim and not the group.

    Shooting Dynamics in Archery · M. Emre Erkek, Cevdet Tinazci

  • 2014
    For Archers Published later

    Groups at 50 m of elite recurve and compound archers at the first World Cup stage of 2013 in Shanghai, held in a sheltered stadium with very little wind: most groups are elongated horizontally, some vertically, with an average ratio of 1.15 between the horizontal and vertical standard deviations in both divisions, and similar values for recurve at 30 m. The authors write that with the air nearly still the cause must lie elsewhere. At the World Championships in Belek the same year, with a quartering wind of up to about 5 m/s in the afternoons and gusts above 20 m/s in the head-to-head matches, the ratio rises to 1.25.

    Analysis of scores and arrow grouping at major international archery competitions · James L Park, James E Larven

  • 2014
    Context Archers Published later

    In the same study, in Shanghai, the lateral and vertical positions of the holes have an average correlation of 0.1 in recurve, a slight tilt of the group from upper right to lower left, with most of the archers right-handed, while in compound the correlation is -0.03, practically nil. This concerns the shape of the group, not its width.

    Analysis of scores and arrow grouping at major international archery competitions · James L Park, James E Larven

  • 2014
    For Archers Published later

    29 Turkish recurve archers at three levels, 72 arrows each at 18 m indoors, hits photographed and placed on a coordinate system: in the high-level archers (9) the standard deviation is 2.20 on the horizontal axis and 1.94 on the vertical one, in the middle level (13) 5.80 against 4.26. Indoors, with no wind, the groups of experienced archers are slightly wider than they are tall. The two dispersions are not compared with a test, the abstract does not say whether the standard deviation is computed over all the hits of each group of archers pooled together, and so whether it includes differences in centring from one archer to another, and it is a conference abstract.

    Hit distribution patterns in recurve archery · H. Ertan

  • 2014
    Against Archers Published later

    In the same abstract the 7 beginners go the other way: standard deviation 11.80 horizontally and 14.34 vertically, that is groups taller than they are wide, and they are also the only group in which the mean position of the hits differs between the two axes (p < 0.002). Archers with little experience scatter their arrows mainly in height.

    Hit distribution patterns in recurve archery · H. Ertan

Status history

  1. 2006 Not studied Nobody has yet measured the shape of arrow groups, but there is a finding on the mechanism: in seven Junior World Championship archers, indoors at 30 m, the bow sways more horizontally than vertically over the last second of aiming in all seven. It is the movement of the aim, not where the arrows land, so it says nothing yet about the group.
  2. 2010 Not studied Four elite women archers, indoors at 18 m, show the same asymmetry in the aim: the bow moves 12.6-13.7 cm horizontally against 11.3-12.0 vertically. Again this is the aim and not the group, and the shape of the groups is still to be measured.
  3. 2014 Reported The groups arrive. At the Shanghai World Cup, with almost no wind, most of the elite archers' groups at 50 m are wider than they are tall, with an average ratio of 1.15 between horizontal and vertical spread, rising to 1.25 at the windy World Championships of the same year. Indoors at 18 m an abstract finds the same direction in high- and middle-level archers, and the opposite one in beginners. Two studies in favour among experienced archers, one of them an abstract without a test, and an exception among beginners: the evidence is there and it is limited.

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Research lines

Studies describe groups of archers, and your own numbers show how far the finding applies to your shooting.

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Cite
APA

Campagna, M. (2026). Arrow groups are wider horizontally than vertically (Version 1). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/competition/groups-wider-than-tall

BibTeX
@misc{campagna2026_gruppopiulargoinorizzontale,
  author = {Campagna, Matteo},
  title = {Arrow groups are wider horizontally than vertically},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
  url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/competition/groups-wider-than-tall},
  note = {Version 1; accessed 2026-10-16}
}

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