Matteo Campagna
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Among young competitive archers the recurve is the most common bow and the compound remains a minority

5 studies · 636 archers measured

ForContextAgainst20202022202420262023, for, n = 2512024, for, n = 2002021, context, n = 1152025, context, n = 402025, context, n = 30
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.

Two counts of young competitive archers point the same way. At the European Youth Championships, among 200 archers aged 13 to 20 from 34 countries, 72.5 per cent shoot recurve and 27.5 per cent compound, in the same proportions for boys and girls; among 251 Turkish archers aged 17 to 20 who have competed nationally, the recurve stands at 61.0 per cent and the compound at 39.0. The ranking holds, the proportion much less so: across the two samples the compound goes from just over a quarter to almost two fifths, and among Turkish children aged 9 to 14 who have shot for at least six months it falls to 14.3 and 8.3 per cent, though nothing says whether they compete. Where the competition classes differ, the ranking changes too: among 30 Indonesian competitive archers the most common bow is the standard bow, at 40 per cent, ahead of the recurve at 33.3. These are all convenience samples, gathered at one event, in one federation or in one club, and none was designed to measure how common each type of bow is.

Also phrased as: "how many archers shoot compound"; "most popular bow among young archers"; "recurve or compound for juniors"; "share of bow divisions"

In practice

It is taken for granted that young people start and compete with the recurve, because it is the Olympic bow, and that the compound comes later and for a few.

Evidence

  • 2021
    Context Archers Published later

    115 Italian competitive archers with a mean age of 39 and 11 years of experience on average: Olympic recurve 68 (59.1 per cent), compound 26 (22.6), barebow 18 (15.7), longbow 3 (2.6). The recurve is just over half, and one archer in six shoots barebow. These are adults, so they say nothing about young archers: context.

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  • 2023
    For Archers Published later

    251 registered Turkish archers who have competed nationally, aged 17 to 20 (43.0 per cent are 17), described in a questionnaire study on imagery: 61.0 per cent shoot Olympic recurve and 39.0 per cent compound. Of these, 45.0 per cent have shot for one to three years and only 10.0 per cent are national team athletes. Regional journal; the sample was not designed to represent all registered archers.

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  • 2024
    For Archers Published later

    200 archers aged 13 to 20 from 34 countries interviewed at the European Youth Championships in Patras, 104 boys and 96 girls with a mean age of 16.9: 145 shoot recurve (72.5 per cent) and 55 compound (27.5), with no difference between the sexes (p = 0.87 and p = 0.92). The questionnaire was collected in 2018 and published in 2024, and it describes an elite event, not club archers.

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  • 2025
    Context Archers Published later

    Among 40 Turkish children aged 9 to 14 who have shot for at least six months, in the archery-only group 24 of 28 use the Olympic recurve (85.7 per cent) and 4 the compound (14.3); in the group that also plays another sport, 11 of 12 use the Olympic recurve (91.7) and 1 the compound (8.3). The study compares attention and school performance, does not say whether the children compete and excludes anyone with traditional bow experience: for a claim about young competitive archers this line is context. Regional journal.

    Okçuluk Yapan ve Yapmayan Çocuklarda Dikkat Seviyesi, Reaksiyon Hızı ve Akademik Başarının Karşılaştırılması Okçuluk Yapan Çocuklarda Akademik Başarı · Gökçen Akyürek, Fatma Öztürk

  • 2025
    Context Archers Published later

    30 competitive archers in West Java in 2025, 26 of whom have trained for more than a year: standard bow 12 (40 per cent), recurve 10 (33.3), compound 7 (23.3), barebow 1 (3.3). Where the national calendar has an extra class, the ranking changes. Age is not reported, so it cannot be said whether they are young: context. Regional journal.

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Status history

  1. 2021 Not studied The first count of bow types in a sample of competitive archers concerns adults: among 115 Italian archers with a mean age of 39, the Olympic recurve stands at 59.1 per cent, the compound at 22.6 and the barebow at 15.7. There are no figures on young archers yet, so the claim is unstudied.
  2. 2023 Reported The first figures on young archers arrive: among 251 Turkish archers aged 17 to 20 who have competed nationally, 61.0 per cent shoot Olympic recurve and 39.0 per cent compound. The recurve is ahead, but the compound is far more than a small minority, and the sample comes from a single country and a regional journal: reported.
  3. 2024 Reported An international sample confirms the ranking by a wider margin: at the European Youth Championships, 200 archers from 34 countries, the recurve stands at 72.5 per cent and the compound at 27.5, in the same proportions for boys and girls. Two samples agree, but both are convenience samples drawn from those who compete, so the status stays reported.
  4. 2025 Reported Two small samples widen the picture. Among 40 Turkish children aged 9 to 14 who have shot for at least six months, the compound falls to 14.3 and 8.3 per cent, but the study does not say whether they compete. Among 30 Indonesian competitive archers the most common bow is the standard bow, at 40 per cent, ahead of the recurve at 33.3 and the compound at 23.3: where the competition classes differ, the ranking changes too. Neither goes against the claim about young competitive archers in the international divisions, and the status stays reported.

Related

Related articles

Research lines

Cite
APA

Campagna, M. (2026). Among young competitive archers the recurve is the most common bow and the compound remains a minority (Version 1). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/equipment/recurve-compound-share-young-archers

BibTeX
@misc{campagna2026_diffusionetipiarco,
  author = {Campagna, Matteo},
  title = {Among young competitive archers the recurve is the most common bow and the compound remains a minority},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
  url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/equipment/recurve-compound-share-young-archers},
  note = {Version 1; accessed 2026-10-16}
}

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