Matteo Campagna
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In competitive archers shoulder pain is common but almost always mild, and it comes back

4 studies · 320 archers measured

ForContextAgainst2016201820202022202420262017, for, n = 1562017, context, n = 1562021, for, n = 752021, for, n = 582021, context, n = 582020, context, n = 31
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.

How many competitors have shoulder pain, how strong it is and how often it returns, in two samples

Each bar is a share, but the bases change and the label says which. In the Korean sample pain and severity are taken over all 58 athletes, and the three severity bars add up to the 69.0% in pain; severity is what the archers mark on a scale from 0 to 10, mild from 1 to 3, moderate from 4 to 6, severe from 7 to 10. Recurrence and return are taken over those who answered that question: 41 for recurrence, one more than the 40 in pain, and 30 for return. Two out of 58 would be 3.4%: the chart keeps the 3.5 of the table, which brings the total back to a hundred. In the Indian sample pain on the day and recurring pain are taken over all 156, limited shooting over the 85 in pain. The Indian study gives 54.4% in its results and 54.48% in its discussion, and 85 out of 156 is 54.49%: the chart keeps the 54.4 of the results. Its abstract says the pain limits shooting in 20% of archers, while the results refer it to those in pain: the chart follows the results. Left out of the chart are the figures that make severity less reassuring: among the Korean archers 75.9%, 44 of 58, had non-surgical treatment in the past year, and among the Indian archers in pain 40% think the pain keeps them from higher scores, while among the Korean ones 8.5%, 4 of 47 answers, link the injury to a drop in results. Also left out is the German sample of 2021, which counts past shoulder complaints but measures neither their severity nor their return. Both studies in the chart are cross-sectional surveys, built on what the archers recall and report, and neither gives an interval for these shares, so the bars have no whiskers. Data from: Kim et al. 2021 and Kaur Grover & Sinha 2017.
The numbers in the figure
StudyGroupValue (per cent)Intervaln
Kim et al. 2021, 58 Korean recurve archers, from middle school to corporate teamsShoulder pain, 40 of 5869
Kim et al. 2021, 58 Korean recurve archers, from middle school to corporate teamsMild, 30 of 5851.7
Kim et al. 2021, 58 Korean recurve archers, from middle school to corporate teamsModerate, 8 of 5813.8
Kim et al. 2021, 58 Korean recurve archers, from middle school to corporate teamsSevere, 2 of 583.5
Kim et al. 2021, 58 Korean recurve archers, from middle school to corporate teamsPain came back, 23 of 41 answers56.1
Kim et al. 2021, 58 Korean recurve archers, from middle school to corporate teamsBack within a week, 26 of 30 answers86.7
Kaur Grover & Sinha 2017, 156 Indian competitive archers, interview and clinical examinationPain on the day of the examination, 85 of 15654.4
Kaur Grover & Sinha 2017, 156 Indian competitive archers, interview and clinical examinationPain that keeps returning, 101 of 15664.74
Kaur Grover & Sinha 2017, 156 Indian competitive archers, interview and clinical examinationShooting limited, among the 85 in pain20

On how common it is there are three independent samples and they agree: among a hundred and fifty-six Indian competitors more than half are in shoulder pain on the day of the survey and 82.69% have had it at some point, among fifty-eight Korean competitors sixty-nine in a hundred report shoulder pain, and among seventy-five adult German competitors 43% report a history of shoulder complaints. On whether the pain comes back, the two samples that measure it also agree, with 64.74% of the Indian archers and 56.1% of the Korean ones. On how severe it is the picture is half reassuring: among the Korean archers the pain is mild in more than half the cases, 86.7% are back to activity within a week and 91.5% say it did not affect their results, and four in five of the Indian archers in pain feel it only while shooting; yet three Korean archers in four have had non-surgical treatment in the past year, and four in ten of the Indian archers in pain think it costs them points. The weak point is how the data were gathered: cross-sectional surveys and retrospective questionnaires, with archers recalling. The most useful detail for anyone planning a season is where the share rises: in the Korean university squad, the one that shoots most, it affects nine archers in ten, and that is where the few severe cases sit.

Also phrased as: "how many archers have shoulder pain"; "how severe is an archer's shoulder pain"; "archers' shoulder pain comes back"; "recurrence of shoulder pain in archers"

In practice

In clubs shoulder pain is treated as an occupational ache, to be handled with a few easy days and then forgotten.

Evidence

  • 2017
    For Archers Published later

    156 Indian competitive archers (91 men and 65 women, mean age 20.3, 4.3 years in the sport) at the inter-university tournament in Amritsar in February 2013, with an interview and a clinical examination of both shoulders: 54.4% have shoulder pain on the day of the survey, 82.69% have had it at some point and for 64.74% it is pain that keeps coming back. Among the 85 in pain, 80% feel it only while shooting and find it clears between sessions, 20% carry it with them and are limited in their shooting, and 8.25% cannot shoot; 40%, though, think the pain costs them points, far more than the 8.5% in the Korean sample.

    Prevalence of Shoulder Pain in Competitive Archery · Jasleen Kaur Grover, Akhoury Gourang Kumar Sinha

  • 2017
    Context Archers Published later

    The same sample, the clinical examination: in archers with pain the impingement and tendon tests come out positive far more often than in the others (Hawkins-Kennedy 80.00% against 38.02%, lift-off 51.76% against 15.49%), but even among those who report no pain more than a third have a positive subacromial impingement test. Those who had pain in the past have it more often now as well (OR 2.57), with a significance the table marks as p ≤ 0.001 while the reported chi-square, 4.56, corresponds to about 0.03.

    Prevalence of Shoulder Pain in Competitive Archery · Jasleen Kaur Grover, Akhoury Gourang Kumar Sinha

  • 2020
    Context Archers Published later

    31 Korean elite archers, 18 men and 13 women aged 18.9 with 8.5 years in the sport, recruited for a strengthening study because they had shoulder pain: at baseline the pain scores 4.56 ± 2.45 out of ten in the exercise group and 3.20 ± 1.47 in the control group. It says such pain coexists with ordinary elite training, but being a selected sample it does not measure how widespread it is: it counts as context.

    Effects of Lower Trapezius Strengthening Exercise on Shoulder Pain, Function and Archery Performance in Elite Archers · Eunkuk Kim, Jinho Kim, Jinyoung You

  • 2021
    For Archers Published later

    58 Korean competitive recurve archers, from middle school to corporate teams, with the OSTRC questionnaire, clinical scales, dynamometry and ultrasound: 40 of 58, or 69%, report shoulder pain, mild in 30 cases (51.7%), moderate in 8 (13.8%) and severe in 2 (3.5%). Of those, 86.7% return to activity in under a week, 91.5% say the pain did not affect their results and 56.1% have seen it recur.

    Shoulder Pain Caused by Injuries in Korean Elite Archers · Young-Sook Kim, Doo-Sup Kim, Ji-Su Shin, Sung-Hwa Kim, Bum-Seok Lee, Ji-Su Park, Won-Gil Cho

  • 2021
    For Archers Published later

    The three figures that give the problem its shape are in table 4 and have to be read together: recurrence affects 56.1%, that is 23 archers of 41, return within a week 86.7%, or 26 of 30, and only 8.5%, 4 of 47, link the injury to a drop in results. A pain that often comes back and that archers nonetheless do not count among the reasons for lost points.

    Shoulder Pain Caused by Injuries in Korean Elite Archers · Young-Sook Kim, Doo-Sup Kim, Ji-Su Shin, Sung-Hwa Kim, Bum-Seok Lee, Ji-Su Park, Won-Gil Cho

  • 2021
    For Archers Published later

    75 adult German competitive archers, mean age 47, across target, field and 3D: 43% report a history of shoulder complaints, against 26% for the trunk and 15% for the neck, and the share is essentially the same among those who train on one side only and those who train on both (42% and 44%). This is the second independent sample on frequency, collected with a different questionnaire from the Korean one.

    Unilateral and bilateral training competitive archers differ in some potentially unhealthy neck-shoulder region movement behaviour characteristics · Mareike Schmitt, Lutz Vogt, Jan Wilke, Daniel Niederer

  • 2021
    Context Archers Published later

    The share changes with the bracket and rises where the load rises: in the university squad 90.0%, 9 archers of 10, report a shoulder injury, against 66.7% in the corporate team, 63.0% in middle school and 50.0% in high school. This is the most useful figure for anyone planning a season.

    Shoulder Pain Caused by Injuries in Korean Elite Archers · Young-Sook Kim, Doo-Sup Kim, Ji-Su Shin, Sung-Hwa Kim, Bum-Seok Lee, Ji-Su Park, Won-Gil Cho

  • 2021
    Context Archers Published later

    In that same university bracket almost nobody is pain-free and the severe cases cluster there: of ten archers, one with no pain (10.0%), seven with mild pain (70.0%), one moderate and one severe (10.0% each), whereas across all 58 the figures are 31.0% pain-free, 51.7% mild, 13.8% moderate and 3.5% severe.

    Shoulder Pain Caused by Injuries in Korean Elite Archers · Young-Sook Kim, Doo-Sup Kim, Ji-Su Shin, Sung-Hwa Kim, Bum-Seok Lee, Ji-Su Park, Won-Gil Cho

  • 2021
    Context Archers Published later

    Mild pain does not mean pain ignored: 75.9%, or 44 archers of 58, had non-surgical treatment in the past year, while surgery concerns 5.2%, 3 of 58. The burden on care is therefore real, even though the athletes describe the symptom as light.

    Shoulder Pain Caused by Injuries in Korean Elite Archers · Young-Sook Kim, Doo-Sup Kim, Ji-Su Shin, Sung-Hwa Kim, Bum-Seok Lee, Ji-Su Park, Won-Gil Cho

  • 2021
    Context Archers Published later

    Ultrasound of the 58 archers shows where the finding sits when it is looked for with an instrument rather than a question: tendinosis of the long head of the biceps in 22.4% and subacromial bursitis in 10.3%. These are findings of tissue overload rather than a diagnosis of the reported pain, which is why they stay as context.

    Shoulder Pain Caused by Injuries in Korean Elite Archers · Young-Sook Kim, Doo-Sup Kim, Ji-Su Shin, Sung-Hwa Kim, Bum-Seok Lee, Ji-Su Park, Won-Gil Cho

Status history

  1. 2017 Reported The first sample to measure the thing for what it is comes from India: among a hundred and fifty-six competitive archers, examined as well as interviewed, more than half are in shoulder pain on the day of the survey, 82.69% have had it at some point and for nearly two in three it keeps coming back. Among those in pain, four in five feel it only while shooting and find it clears between sessions. Common, mostly mild and recurrent, as the claim says, but it is a cross-sectional survey on a single sample: reported.
  2. 2021 Reported Two independent samples join the Indian one. Among fifty-eight Korean competitors, from middle school to corporate teams, 69% report shoulder pain, mild in more than half the cases, with 86.7% back to activity within a week, 91.5% saying they lost no results and 56.1% having seen it return; in the same year seventy-five adult German competitors report past shoulder complaints in 43% of cases. On frequency three samples point the same way, and recurrence now rests on two studies; on severity the picture is less compact, because four in ten of the Indian archers in pain think it costs them points, against fewer than one in ten of the Korean ones. All of them are cross-sectional surveys with retrospective questionnaires: reported.

Related

Related articles

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). In competitive archers shoulder pain is common but almost always mild, and it comes back (Version 2). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/health/shoulder-pain-common-but-mild

BibTeX
@misc{campagna2026_dolorespallafrequentelieve,
  author = {Campagna, Matteo},
  title = {In competitive archers shoulder pain is common but almost always mild, and it comes back},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
  url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/health/shoulder-pain-common-but-mild},
  note = {Version 2; accessed 2026-10-16}
}

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