Shooting seated, in a more stable position, does not produce higher scores than shooting standing
1 study
The summary today
Nobody has had the same people shoot seated and standing to compare their scores. The only figure that touches the question sits in a 2021 review written for a different issue, the inclusion of transgender women in archery and shooting: the authors add the Paralympic records to their tables, where some athletes shoot from a wheelchair, to see whether a steadier position changes the result, and the numbers show no advantage, since in recurve open at 70 metres the Paralympic record is 637 out of 720, the same for men and women, against 700 for the men's Olympic record and 673 for the women's. The sentence in which the authors close the point, though, sits in a paragraph on the gap between men and women and may refer to that; the record does not say from which position it was shot, and the comparison mixes position with disability and with a much smaller pool of athletes. It is a table of records inside a review, not a study of position, so the question remains not studied.
Also phrased as: "shooting seated is easier"; "do wheelchair archers have an advantage"; "seated position and aiming stability"; "seated and standing records compared"; "shooting from a stool"
In practice
You hear that archers who shoot seated, in a wheelchair or on a stool, have an advantage because the body does not sway, and that without the legs to unsettle the aim the shot ought to come more easily.
Evidence
-
2021
For Review Published later
Narrative review comparing World Archery records: the Paralympic records are included to see whether a steadier position, such as a wheelchair, changes the result. In recurve open at 70 metres the Paralympic record is 637 out of 720 for both men and women (2016), against 700 out of 720 for the men's Olympic record (2016) and 673 for the women's (1996). The authors write that the Paralympic scores do not differ from each other and infer that a steadier hold plays no part, but the sentence sits in the paragraph on the gap between men and women. No archer was measured in both positions.
Integrating transwomen athletes into elite competition: The case of elite archery and shooting · Blair R. Hamilton, Fergus M. Guppy, James Barrett, Leighton Seal, Yannis Pitsiladis
Status history
- 1990 Not studied No one in the registry's bibliography has yet compared the scores of archers shooting seated with those of archers shooting standing, either with the same people or through records: the question is not asked.
- 2021 Not studied A review of the participation of transgender women in archery and shooting adds the Paralympic records to its tables, to see whether a steadier position, such as a wheelchair, raises the result. In recurve open at 70 metres the Paralympic record is 637 out of 720, the same for men and women, against 700 for the men's Olympic record and 673 for the women's. The sentence in which the authors close the point can also be read as a comment on the parity between men and women, the record does not say from which position it was shot, and disability and the number of athletes change from one table to the other. It is a comparison between records inside a review, not a study of position: the question remains not studied.
Related
Research lines
Cite
Campagna, M. (2026). Shooting seated, in a more stable position, does not produce higher scores than shooting standing (Version 2). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/competition/seated-shooting-scores
@misc{campagna2026_tirosedutopunteggio,
author = {Campagna, Matteo},
title = {Shooting seated, in a more stable position, does not produce higher scores than shooting standing},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/competition/seated-shooting-scores},
note = {Version 2; accessed 2026-10-16}
}
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