Matteo Campagna
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Kinesiology tape on the shoulder improves scores

3 studies · 60 archers measured

ForContextAgainst201820202022202420262019, for, n = 302025, for, n = 222018, context, n = 8
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.

Three small studies of archers find higher scores after taping, and none of them can say the tape is what made the difference. In eight young recurve archers, after four weeks of training with tape on the deltoid of the bow arm, 30 arrows at 18 metres go from 224.6 to 248.4 points; in 30 women archers with tape on the deltoid and supraspinatus of the drawing arm, three arrows are worth two to four points more straight after the tape goes on; in 22 adolescent barebow archers, after four weeks of taping, three arrows at 18 metres reach 26.4 out of 30. None has a sham tape for comparison, in all of them the tape goes on after the first test, and in the last one the archers were selected precisely because they scored 25 or less on the first test, so some improvement was to be expected anyway. The three studies tape different muscles on different arms and appear in regional journals or, in the case of the first, a journal of doubtful quality, which is why it stays as context and does not count towards the status. There is evidence in favour, and it is weak.

Also phrased as: "shoulder taping to shoot better"; "kinesio taping in archery"; "tape on the shoulder and accuracy"; "kinesiology tape for shoulder stability"

In practice

Coloured tape on the shoulder is a common sight at competitions, on the idea that it stabilises the joint and makes the archer more aware of it, and therefore more accurate.

Evidence

  • 2018
    Context Archers Published later

    8 young Turkish recurve archers, 3 girls and 5 boys aged 15.6 ± 1.9, four weeks of training with a Y tape on the deltoid and an I tape over the acromioclavicular joint of the bow-arm shoulder, applied by a physiatrist: 30 arrows at 18 metres go from 224.6 ± 37.8 to 248.4 ± 26.0 points (t = -4.07, p < 0.01). No control group, and the journal has doubtful editorial standards. Under rule D7 a journal of doubtful standing does not decide a status: the study stays as context.

    The Effect of 4-Week Training with Shoulder Kinesio-Taping on Shooting Accuracy of Young Archers Questionable venue · Olcay Mülazımoğlu, Yakup Akif Afyon, Selçuk Sayılır, Ayşe Salgın

  • 2019
    For Archers Published later

    30 women recurve archers from Tehran clubs, with at least a year of experience: three arrows per distance before and straight after tape on the deltoid and supraspinatus of the drawing arm. Medians before and after: at 18 metres from 26 to 28 (p = 0.004), at 30 metres from 23 to 27 (p < 0.001), at 50 metres from 23 to 26 (p = 0.004). The tape always goes on after the first test and there is no sham tape for comparison.

    The Effects of Shoulder Kinesio Taping on Shooting Accuracy and Joint Position Sense in Female Archery Athletes · Banafsheh Rajabzadeh, Ali Amiri, Behnoosh Vasaghi-Gharamaleki, Seyed Hassan Saneii

  • 2025
    For Archers Published later

    22 barebow archers aged 14 to 18 from an Indonesian club, randomly split between tape only and tape with Flexi-bar exercises, three times a week for four weeks: in the tape-only group three arrows at 18 metres are worth 26.36 ± 1.36 out of 30 after the intervention, significantly different from the first test (Wilcoxon, p = 0.03), but the starting values are not reported. To enter the study archers had to score 25 or less on the first test, so some improvement was to be expected even without tape, and there is no untaped group.

    Effectiveness of Combination Flexi-Bar Shoulder Exercise to the Kinesiotaping Application on Increasing Upper Extremity Proprioceptive Ability and Shooting Accuracy in Archery Athletes at Gandawa Archery Club · Embun Dinihari, Indira Vidiari Juhanna, Syahmirza Indra Lesmana

Status history

  1. 2018 Not studied The first study of archers appears in a journal with doubtful editorial standards: in eight young recurve archers the score over 30 arrows at 18 metres rises from 224.6 to 248.4 after four weeks of training with tape on the deltoid of the bow arm, with no control group. Young archers can improve over four weeks anyway, and a result published in a journal of this kind is not enough to give a status: the question remains without evidence that counts.
  2. 2019 Reported The first study that counts arrives: 30 women archers with tape on the deltoid and supraspinatus of the drawing arm score two to four points more over three arrows straight after the tape goes on, at 18, 30 and 50 metres. The journal is regional, there is no sham tape for comparison and the tape always goes on after the first round, so the study cannot separate the tape from expectation and from the order of the tests. A single study in favour, before and after with no control: reported.
  3. 2025 Reported The second study that counts, on 22 Indonesian adolescent barebow archers, finds three arrows at 18 metres at 26.4 out of 30 after four weeks of taping on the shoulder, significantly different from the first test, but it does not report the starting values and had deliberately chosen archers who scored 25 or less on the first test. Two studies point the same way, neither has a sham tape or an untaped group, and a before-and-after without a control goes no further: reported.

Related

Related articles

Research lines

Cite
APA

Campagna, M. (2026). Kinesiology tape on the shoulder improves scores (Version 2). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/health/kinesiology-tape-shoulder-score

BibTeX
@misc{campagna2026_kinesiotapeprecisione,
  author = {Campagna, Matteo},
  title = {Kinesiology tape on the shoulder improves scores},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
  url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/health/kinesiology-tape-shoulder-score},
  note = {Version 2; accessed 2026-10-16}
}

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