More anxious archers shoot lower scores in competition
25 studies · 1,299 archers measured
Anxiety and score: the correlation in each sample, from largest to smallest
correlation coefficient (r or rho)
The numbers in the figure
| Study or group | Value (correlation coefficient (r or rho)) | Interval | n | Stance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rhyme 2025, competitive anxiety (SAS-2) | −0.55 | 207 | for | |
| Landers 1986, cognitive anxiety; the bar adds three more scales | −0.15 | −0.15 to −0.05 (reported range, minimum to maximum) | 120 | against |
| Bhutia 2026, cognitive anxiety; the bar adds somatic | −0.057 | −0.057 to 0.075 (reported range, minimum to maximum) | 80 | against |
| Darvishi 2026, cognitive anxiety an hour before | −0.61 | 45 | for | |
| Shaari 2023, competitive anxiety (SAS-2) | −0.45 | 44 | for | |
| Souza 2023, anxiety on competition day | −0.7 | 37 | for | |
| Wan Ahmad 2023, cognitive anxiety; the bar adds somatic | 0.31 | 0.24–0.31 (reported range, minimum to maximum) | 32 | against |
| Tokmakci 2023, anxiety sensitivity before stress; the bar adds after | −0.37 | −0.513 to −0.37 (reported range, minimum to maximum) | 22 | for |
| Mat Salleh 2023, cognitive anxiety; the bar adds somatic | −0.27 | −0.4 to −0.27 (reported range, minimum to maximum) | 20 | against |
| Lim 2016, self-rated anxiety from 1 to 10 | −0.84 | 19 | for | |
| Serin 2019, state anxiety outside menstruation; the bar adds during | −0.55 | −0.55 to −0.47 (reported range, minimum to maximum) | 10 | context |
The summary today
The studies of archers split, and for years they split tidily: where anxiety is measured shortly before a competition with a competitive anxiety scale the link appears, and where trait anxiety, mood on training days or cortical activity before the release is measured instead, nothing appears at all. On the side of the link stand the largest sample the question has, two hundred and seven Malaysian archers at r = -0.55, and a run of correlations between -0.45 and -0.7 in Malaysia, Turkey and Brazil; the two highest, -0.84 and -0.86, come from one Korean laboratory and about twenty university women, all between 341 and 355 points out of 360 in 2016, so they count as a single line of evidence. On the other side stand one hundred and eighty-eight US archers of every level, where no scale reaches 0.17, the kyudo practitioners, who count as archers in this registry, and a few small samples, with two results that even run the other way. Part of the explanation comes from a study of eighteen elite Turkish archers: before a national competition the anxiety they report is identical to that before a training session, and what does not vary cannot show up in the score. In 2026, though, even the line between measures starts to crack, in two journals with questionable editorial standards: forty-five Iranian archers measured an hour before qualification confirm the link, r = -0.61, while eighty Indian juniors measured with the same family of scales before a national championship show none of it.
Also phrased as: "anxiety costs points"; "competition anxiety in archery"; "nerves and score"; "pre-competition tension and accuracy"; "competitive anxiety in archers"; "unpleasant emotions and score"
In practice
It is taken for granted that the archer who gets nervous loses points, and almost all the mental work offered on the range is built on that.
Evidence
-
1986
Against Archers Published later
188 US recurve archers, from beginners to Olympic medallists, with 117 to 120 complete records: trait anxiety r = -0.05, cognitive anxiety -0.15, somatic anxiety -0.09, and every attentional scale within 0.17, none significant. It is the largest sample among the contrary results and uses trait questionnaires, filled in away from the moment of competition.
A Psychobiological Study of Archery Performance · Daniel M. Landers, Stephen H. Boutcher, Min Q. Wang
-
1991
Context Archers Published later
Before an indoor competition, nine archers of the Greek national squad show somatic anxiety of 12.33 ± 2.96 against 16.89 ± 5.82 for nine good archers who were not selected, with cognitive anxiety identical, 16.56 in both groups. No test between the groups is reported, and the score is not set against the anxiety.
Visuomotor Behavior Rehearsal in Archery Shooting Performance · Yannis Zervas, Vassilis Kakkos
-
1994
Against Kyudo archers Published later
5 kyudo practitioners from a university club, repeated measures in training and at an inter-university competition: somatic anxiety is higher in competition than in training (p < 0.01), yet neither heart rate nor somatic anxiety is significantly related to the proportion of hits. The author describes an inverted-U pattern by eye, with no test. Five people.
Changes of Heart Rate, Somatic Anxiety, and Performance of Japanese Archers during Practices and Matches · Masakazu Miyamoto
-
1994
Context Kyudo archers Published later
In those same kyudo practitioners, heart rate and somatic anxiety are linked to each other, and it is the only significant correlation in the matrix, described by the author as moderate. What is felt in the body and what the body does coincide only in part.
Changes of Heart Rate, Somatic Anxiety, and Performance of Japanese Archers during Practices and Matches · Masakazu Miyamoto
-
1994
Context Kyudo archers Published later
The somatic anxiety of those archers is not an early peak that passes: four out of five have their highest values in the first ends, two reach the maximum, one in the first end and one in the last, and the level stays high throughout the competition. It does not burn off along the way.
Changes of Heart Rate, Somatic Anxiety, and Performance of Japanese Archers during Practices and Matches · Masakazu Miyamoto
-
2010
Context Archers Published later
24 Taiwanese pre-elite archers in simulated competitions, split by their CSAI-2 score: in the two seconds before release neither frontal theta (F = 0.120, p = 0.948) nor alpha (F = 1.445, p = 0.245) distinguishes those with high cognitive anxiety from those with low. A conference abstract: it suggests that reported anxiety and what the brain does before the release are two different things.
Effects of pre-competition cognitive anxiety on attention and emotion during archery performance · Yi-Chieh Chen, Tsung-Min Hung
-
2015
For Archers Published later
Four Malaysian Olympic-level recurve archers, three simulated rounds of 144 arrows: the intensity of unpleasant emotions experienced as harmful correlates with the total score at -0.94 across the first two trials (p < 0.01) and explains 48 per cent of the variance. Four athletes, repeated measures treated as independent, a journal with questionable editorial standards.
Archery: Emotion Intensity Regulation to Stay in the Zone during Olympic Competition Questionable venue · Jolly Roy, Edin Suwarganda
-
2015
For Archers Published later
In the same group the estimated equation gives about fifteen points out of 1440 for each step of intensity in the harmful unpleasant emotion. It is the largest estimate in the bibliography, on four people.
Archery: Emotion Intensity Regulation to Stay in the Zone during Olympic Competition Questionable venue · Jolly Roy, Edin Suwarganda
-
2015
For Archers Published later
In those same four archers those emotions do not only lower the score: they also widen the gap between the score of the end and the target the athlete had set, r = -0.93 across the first two trials and -0.69 with the third added.
Archery: Emotion Intensity Regulation to Stay in the Zone during Olympic Competition Questionable venue · Jolly Roy, Edin Suwarganda
-
2015
Context Archers Published later
The limitation of that study lies inside its own figures: the correlation goes from -0.94 across two simulated competitions to -0.69 across three. With four athletes the estimate is unstable, and that applies to every high coefficient on this page.
Archery: Emotion Intensity Regulation to Stay in the Zone during Olympic Competition Questionable venue · Jolly Roy, Edin Suwarganda
-
2015
Context Archers Published later
In those same four archers, pleasant emotions and unpleasant ones experienced as helpful are unrelated to score: the correlations run from -0.41 to 0.53, none significant. What counts is how the emotion is experienced, not whether it is pleasant.
Archery: Emotion Intensity Regulation to Stay in the Zone during Olympic Competition Questionable venue · Jolly Roy, Edin Suwarganda
-
2015
Context Archers Published later
No category of emotion, in those four archers, is related to steadiness from one end to the next: the correlations run from -0.61 to 0.28 and none is significant. The emotion would shift the level, not the regularity.
Archery: Emotion Intensity Regulation to Stay in the Zone during Olympic Competition Questionable venue · Jolly Roy, Edin Suwarganda
-
2016
For Archers Published later
19 Korean university archers with more than ten years' experience, an individual round of 36 arrows at 30 m: anxiety reported on a 1 to 10 scale correlates with score at r = -0.84 (p < 0.01), with scores between 341 and 355 (mean 349.2 ± 4.6). A very high correlation for this kind of measure, in a small and homogeneous sample.
Correlation Between Salivary Alpha-amylase, Anxiety, and Game Records in the Archery Competition · In Soo Lim
-
2016
Context Archers Published later
The correlation of -0.84 is observed inside a very narrow band: the scores of those nineteen archers run from 341 to 355 out of 360, fourteen points, and all of them had more than ten years behind them. In the same sample salivary alpha-amylase correlates with score at -0.87 and with anxiety at 0.62.
Correlation Between Salivary Alpha-amylase, Anxiety, and Game Records in the Archery Competition · In Soo Lim
-
2018
For Archers Published later
18 Korean university archers from the same laboratory, a round at 50 m: the high-scoring group reports less anxiety at every point measured (3.33 against 4.66 thirty minutes before, 4.88 against 6.14 three minutes before, 2.74 against 4.52 afterwards; p < 0.05), and among the top nine, anxiety three minutes before correlates with score at r = -0.86. The same research group and a very similar sample to 2016: the two correlations count as one line of evidence.
-
2018
Context Archers Published later
In the lower-performing group, a lower score goes with more anxiety even thirty minutes after the end, r = -0.72 on nine people. Anxiety does not only precede the result: it follows it.
-
2018
Context Archers Published later
In those same archers the difference lies in the shape of the day: in the lower performers, anxiety thirty minutes before, three minutes before and thirty minutes after is all linked together, r between 0.67 and 0.89, while in the best the three moments are unrelated. It is a hint about how, not a measure of the link with score.
-
2018
Against Archers Published later
Thirty-nine beginners after a fourteen-week course, ten arrows at eighteen metres: across the whole sample no component of the competitive anxiety scale is related to score. A venue with questionable editorial standards, a small sample and some internal inconsistencies in the text.
Somatic Anxiety May Represent Archers' Actual Autonomic Nervous System Activity But How: Moderating Role of Personality Traits Questionable venue · Nihal Dal, Serdar Tok, Erman Doğan, İlker Balıkçı, Aylin Zekioğlu, Fatih Çatıkkaş
-
2018
Context Archers Published later
Fifty-four elite Chinese male archers from three provinces, with the 16PF personality and SIQ imagery questionnaires reduced to nine factors: in the regression on score, the factor that groups tension, apprehension and suspiciousness carries a positive sign (beta 0.18, p = 0.039), so the more tense archers score slightly higher. The authors conclude the opposite and advise selecting archers low in tension. These are personality traits, not competition anxiety, the score used is not described and the venue has questionable editorial standards: context.
Research on personality characteristics and presentation characteristics of Elite Archers Questionable venue · Jiahuan Lin
-
2019
Context Archers Published later
Ten compound women at club level measured during menstruation and in the rest of the cycle: state anxiety is unrelated to score, r = -0.47 and -0.55, neither significant. The sign is that of the claim, with ten people the size says nothing, and the journal's editorial standards are doubtful.
Investigation factors that effect shooting performance in the menstrual period of female archery athletes Questionable venue · Sevinc Serin, Yakup Akif Afyon
-
2021
Context Archers Published later
115 competitive archers of the Italian federation, aged 10 to 74 and across all divisions, with questionnaires and a structural model: somatic anxiety, social anxiety and concentration difficulty together feed the archer's worry, which the model explains to 63.8%. It tells us how an archer's anxiety is built, not whether it lowers the score: in this sample the score is not measured. The point about the design holds here too: the questionnaire is taken once, choking is a self-assessment recalled over six months, no score was collected and the authors write that they did not verify individual results in competition. The structural model's arrows are hypotheses put in by the researcher, so the direction between rumination and choking is not settled by the data.
An Exploratory Pilot Study on Choking Episodes in Archery · Pierluigi Diotaiuti, Stefano Corrado, Stefania Mancone, Lavinia Falese, Fábio Hech Dominski, Alexandro Andrade
-
2022
Context Archers Published later
37 under-12 archers in West Jakarta, with a path model: the Sport Anxiety Scale score comes out related to shooting score with a positive coefficient of 0.398 (p < 0.001), that is in the direction opposite to the claim, and the authors do not discuss the sign. It is hard to say whether this is a finding or a coding error, so it stays as context.
The effect of eye-hand coordination, kinesthetic perception and anxiety on the results archery scoring of athlete u-12 west jakarta · Nurikhwan Aziz Arifin, Ika Novitaria Marani, Mansur Jauhari
-
2023
For Archers Published later
44 Malaysian recurve archers at state and national level (24 men and 20 women, 7.8 years of practice), 36 arrows at 70 m: the SAS-2 total correlates with score at r = -0.45 (p = 0.002), with mean scores of 286.9 ± 25.2 out of 360. A sample independent of the 207, the same measure, a result in the same direction and half the size.
Relationship Between Competitive Anxiety and Performance: A Study of the Archers at the National Competition · Jamatul Shahidah Shaari, Nur Farah Diyana Mohd Nizam, Mohad Anizu Mohd Nor, Nur Asmidar A Halim, Suhana Aiman, Yudik Prasetyo
-
2023
For Archers Published later
37 male recurve archers at the Brazilian championship, each with at least five years of practice: anxiety measured before the competition correlates with score at r = -0.7, and morning salivary cortisol at r = -0.5. In a subgroup of 8 national-team athletes followed for four weeks, how fast anxiety rose as the competition approached also goes with lower scores (r = -0.7 on 8 people). A master's dissertation, in Portuguese, not peer reviewed.
A quantificação do estado emocional em ambiente competitivo: estudo de caso no tiro com arco · Darlan Souza
-
2023
For Archers Published later
22 Turkish archers aged 11 to 14, 10 arrows at 18 m before and after a mental-arithmetic stress task: total anxiety sensitivity goes with lower scores above all after the stressor (r = -0.370 before, not significant, and -0.513 after, p = 0.021), and the component that carries the weight is fear of others' judgement (r = -0.454 and -0.634, p = 0.003), while the physical and cognitive components do not show. It measures a predisposition, not anxiety in the moment.
Anxiety sensitivity, stress, and postural control: their implications on archery performance in 11-14-year-olds · Hayrettin Hayri Tokmakci, Serkan Özgür, Tuncay Varol
-
2023
Against Archers Published later
20 Malaysian compound archers aged 13 to 21, split into two groups of 10 by their 50 m score: cognitive anxiety is 10.9 against 9.8 (p = 0.45) and somatic 11.6 against 11.0 (p = 0.67), and the correlations with score fall short of significance (r = -0.27 and -0.40, p = 0.23 and 0.07). The directions are those of the claim, the size is not: statistically this is a null result.
Comparative Characteristics of Psychophysiological and Shooting Performance Between Intermediate and Elite Compound Archers · Fatin Nurfatehah Mat Salleh, Mon Redee Sut Txi, Wan Nurlisa Wan Ahmad
-
2023
Context Archers Published later
In those same twenty-two young archers, fear of physical symptoms and fear of losing control of one's thoughts are unrelated to score, before or after the stress task, with correlations between -0.26 and -0.40, none significant. In the regression only fear of judgement survives.
Anxiety sensitivity, stress, and postural control: their implications on archery performance in 11-14-year-olds · Hayrettin Hayri Tokmakci, Serkan Özgür, Tuncay Varol
-
2023
Context Archers Published later
In the same Brazilian sample the link changes with the day: anxiety and score go from moderate on a practice day to strong on competition day, r = -0.7, and salivary cortisol from small to medium, r = -0.5. It is the comparison that supports the reading on which anxiety has to vary at all.
A quantificação do estado emocional em ambiente competitivo: estudo de caso no tiro com arco · Darlan Souza
-
2023
Against Archers Published later
Thirty-two Malaysian junior recurve archers during the COVID-19 isolation, training at home with the coach on a video link: neither cognitive nor somatic anxiety measured with the CSAI-2R is linked to the shooting score, and the correlations are in fact positive, r = 0.31 and r = 0.24. The p values reported, 0.55 and 0.49, do not fit thirty-two people, which for r = 0.31 would give about 0.08. The lower-level archers report slightly higher anxiety, 2.5 against 2.1 for cognitive and 3.1 against 2.75 for somatic, but with no test. Training at home rather than competition, in a journal with questionable editorial standards.
Anxiety status of junior archers in COVID-19 during training isolation period towards the shooting performance Questionable venue · Wan Nurlisa Wan Ahmad, Mohd Azrul Hisham Mohd Adib, Irdayanti Mat Nashir, Mon Redee Sut Txi, Fatin Nurfatehah Mat Salleh, Jing Rui Tang
-
2024
Against Kyudo archers Published later
15 university kyudo practitioners, half of them placed at national competitions, comparing within each one the days with more hits and the days with fewer: tension and anxiety before shooting are 47.7 against 47.4 (p = 0.93), fatigue 50.3 against 52.2 (p = 0.23), total mood disturbance 48.8 against 51.4 (p = 0.20). It is the cleanest of the contrary comparisons, because each archer serves as his own control, but it measures mood on training days rather than anxiety at a competition.
Relationship between mood and sleep status with performance accuracy in university kyudo athletes · Masaki Yoshioka, Misato Takada, Makinori Matsuo, Seiji Maeda, Keisei Kosaki
-
2024
Context Archers Published later
In the twelve archers of the Hong Kong squad, confidence in competition goes with less cognitive anxiety, r = -0.717, and total mindfulness with less cognitive anxiety, r = -0.413. These are correlations between questionnaires, with no arrow involved.
Examining the Feasibility of a Mindfulness Flow Program for the Hong Kong Archers · Ka K. Lo, Mimi M. Y. Tse, Joanne W. Y. Chung, Queenie P. S. Law, Fenghua Sun
-
2024
Context Archers Published later
In those same twelve archers, mental and physical anxiety travel almost always together, r = 0.868. It is worth remembering when studies report the two scales as though they were independent measures.
Examining the Feasibility of a Mindfulness Flow Program for the Hong Kong Archers · Ka K. Lo, Mimi M. Y. Tse, Joanne W. Y. Chung, Queenie P. S. Law, Fenghua Sun
-
2025
For Archers Published later
207 Malaysian competitive archers from the national and university games, across 14 states: the SAS-2 score correlates with the score over 72 arrows at r = -0.55 (p < 0.001). It is the largest sample in the bibliography, and the only one to say which component of anxiety runs highest in archers: worry (2.56) ahead of concentration disruption (2.41) and somatic anxiety (2.22). Conference proceedings, regional venue, two pages.
Exploring the relationship between competitive anxiety and archery performance: evidence from Malaysian athletes · Muhammad Farhan Hakim Rhyme, Rozita Abdul Latif
-
2025
Against Archers Published later
32 Indian archers of mixed levels, with a machine-learning model trained on one session and tested on the other: on the concentration-disruption subscale of the SAS, higher values push the predicted score upwards, that is in the direction opposite to expectation, and the authors themselves recall that in the literature the relationship is negative. It is a weight inside a model, not a direct correlation.
Can we predict archery performance using shooting heart rate and other biophysical parameters? A machine learning approach · Chandra Sekara Guru, Uma Mahajan, Anup Krishnan, Karuna Datta, Deep Sharma
-
2025
Context Archers Published later
18 elite archers of the Turkish national squad, measured before a training session and before a national indoor competition: reported cognitive anxiety is 19.27 against 19.22 (p = 0.927), somatic 16.27 against 16.55 (p = 0.367), confidence 26.77 against 27.55 (p = 0.090). If reported anxiety in elite archers does not change between training and competition, those samples lack the variation a link with score would need in order to appear. Regional journal.
Elit Okçularda Antrenman ve yarışma Öncesinde Kalp Atım Hızı Değişkenliği ile Kaygı Düzeylerinin İncelenmesi · Melis Aksüy, Melek Makaracı
-
2025
Context Archers Published later
The authors write that the drop runs mainly through worry and concentration disruption rather than bodily symptoms. But the article reports no link between the single components and the score: only the overall coefficient of -0.55. It is their reading, not a finding.
Exploring the relationship between competitive anxiety and archery performance: evidence from Malaysian athletes · Muhammad Farhan Hakim Rhyme, Rozita Abdul Latif
-
2025
Context Archers Published later
Of the three components of competitive anxiety, the bodily one is the least present in archers: worry 2.56, concentration disruption 2.41, somatic anxiety 2.22 on a four-point scale. These are means of presence: they say which component is felt most, not which weighs most on the score.
Exploring the relationship between competitive anxiety and archery performance: evidence from Malaysian athletes · Muhammad Farhan Hakim Rhyme, Rozita Abdul Latif
-
2025
Context Archers Published later
In those same eighteen elite archers, the confidence reported half an hour before a national competition is also the same as before a training session, 26.77 ± 5.78 against 27.55 ± 5.27. It is not only anxiety that does not move: it is the whole reported picture.
Elit Okçularda Antrenman ve yarışma Öncesinde Kalp Atım Hızı Değişkenliği ile Kaygı Düzeylerinin İncelenmesi · Melis Aksüy, Melek Makaracı
-
2026
For Archers Published later
189 young Indonesian archers at provincial competitions, with the CSAI-2R questionnaire before the event and the official score: the regression gives negative coefficients at all three distances (-9.58 at 40 m, -10.46 at 50 m, -14.47 at 70 m, p between 0.016 and 0.026). It must be cited with a warning, though, because the standardised coefficients reported (-1.14, -2.04, -2.21) are mathematically impossible, and the journal's editorial standards are doubtful: the direction is useful, the figures are not. Three more checks, besides the impossible standardised coefficients. In the 40 m group, aged 12 to 19, training experience is given as 7.2 ± 9.4 years, and a standard deviation like that is not possible on values that cannot exceed age: the arithmetical maximum is 9.22, the realistic maximum 6.46. Levene's test has df1 = 3, the degrees of freedom of four groups rather than three, and from its result the article concludes that the three samples come from the same population, while that test compares variances and not means. And the p values do not follow from the t values: at 40 m a t of 2.031 on 101 degrees of freedom gives 0.045 two-tailed and 0.022 one-tailed, against the published 0.026. Finally all the descriptive statistics are missing, so there is no knowing what one unit of anxiety is worth.
Analysis of Differences in Nervous Levels and Their Implications for Archery Accuracy (Comparison at 40-Meter, 50-Meter, 70-Meter Distances) Questionable venue · Febriansyah Dwi Cahyo, Yudik Prasetyo, Bernadeta Suhartini, Trisnar Adi Prabowo
-
2026
Context Archers Published later
In the same study the estimated loss grows with distance: minus 9.58 points per unit of anxiety at forty metres, minus 10.46 at fifty, minus 14.47 at seventy. The direction fits the idea that error is amplified, but the standardised coefficients in the same paper are impossible, so the size cannot be used. And the comparison between the three distances is not a comparison between distances: at 40 m the shooters are youngsters aged 12 to 19, at 50 and 70 adults aged 17 to 26, so the three distances are also three age classes and three competition categories.
Analysis of Differences in Nervous Levels and Their Implications for Archery Accuracy (Comparison at 40-Meter, 50-Meter, 70-Meter Distances) Questionable venue · Febriansyah Dwi Cahyo, Yudik Prasetyo, Bernadeta Suhartini, Trisnar Adi Prabowo
-
2026
For Archers Published later
Forty-five Iranian recurve archers at provincial level, cognitive anxiety measured an hour before qualification and the official score over thirty-six arrows at seventy metres, between 241 and 341 out of 360: r = -0.61, p < 0.001. In a regression anxiety adds 16 per cent of explained variance to what dietary tryptophan already explains, beta = -0.44. The scale reported, from 7 to 28, does not match the standard scoring of the questionnaire, the design is cross-sectional and the journal has questionable editorial standards.
Relationship between dietary tryptophan intake, pre-competition cognitive anxiety and shooting accuracy in archers Questionable venue · Yalda Darvishi
-
2026
Against Archers Published later
Eighty Indian junior recurve archers at a national championship, fifty men and thirty women, anxiety measured with the CSAI-2R before competition and the qualification score: neither somatic nor cognitive anxiety is linked to the score, with Spearman coefficients of 0.075 and -0.057, and the link is missing when men and women are taken separately too. It is a measure taken shortly before a real competition, exactly where other studies find the link, but the journal has questionable editorial standards.
Exploring Gender Differences in Competitive Anxiety and Performance in Junior Recurve Archers Questionable venue · Namchan Norbu Bhutia, Atanu Ghosh, Snehunsu Adhikari
Status history
- 1986 Contradicted The first study in the bibliography measures trait anxiety and attentional styles in 188 US archers, from beginners to Olympic medallists, and finds no link with score: no correlation exceeds 0.17. A single study, well conducted and on a large sample, finding no effect at all: contradicted, because refuted asks for studies in the plural. And it should be read for what it is: it measures anxiety as a trait, with questionnaires filled in away from the moment of competition.
- 1994 Contradicted Five kyudo practitioners followed between training and an inter-university competition, who count as archers in this registry: somatic anxiety rises sharply in competition and stays high from the first end to the last, yet neither it nor heart rate is related to the proportion of hits. The second study on archers points the same way as the first, and none is in favour. The status stays contradicted rather than moving to refuted, because this second paper rests on five people and the pattern its author describes is not tested: there are two studies, but only one is built to carry the weight.
- 2010 Contradicted A Taiwanese group looks for anxiety not in the questionnaire but in the brain: in the two seconds before release, frontal theta and alpha activity in twenty-four pre-elite archers with high and low cognitive anxiety are the same. It is a different kind of null, with no score involved, and the picture does not move.
- 2015 Contested The first result in favour, and it comes from four people. In four Malaysian Olympic archers the intensity of unpleasant emotions experienced as harmful explains almost half the difference in score between one trial and the next, with r = -0.94 across two simulated competitions. The correlation collapses to -0.69 as soon as the third competition is added, repeated measures are treated as independent and the journal's editorial standards are doubtful. A questionable venue does not decide a status on its own, but from this point the bibliography holds studies of archers pointing both ways, and contradicted no longer describes the picture: contested, with the warning that the side in favour rests on four athletes.
- 2016 Contested A Korean laboratory measures anxiety three minutes before a national competition in nineteen university archers and finds r = -0.84 with score. It is the first strong correlation in favour that does not come from four people, and it clarifies where the difference lies: not in the sample but in the measurement, competitive anxiety close to the shot on one side, trait anxiety and mood on the other. It has to be read with the range in mind: in that cohort even the lowest placed was above 341 points out of 360, so the correlation is observed inside fourteen points, among athletes with more than ten years behind them.
- 2018 Contested The two sides grow in the same year. The same Korean laboratory repeats the study on eighteen archers at a fifty-metre event: those who place better report less anxiety thirty minutes before, three minutes before and thirty minutes after, and among the best, anxiety three minutes before correlates with score at -0.86. In the lower-performing archers, by contrast, anxiety stays high all day, linked from one moment to the next. On the other side, thirty-nine Turkish beginners, with a competitive anxiety scale, show no link with score at all. A third study the same year, on fifty-four Chinese archers, even finds that the personality factor tied to tension goes with slightly higher scores, but it measures personality traits rather than competition anxiety, and it sits in a venue with questionable editorial standards: it stays as context. Contested: the strong correlations keep coming from one laboratory and about twenty university archers.
- 2019 Contested The picture was split and stays split. On the null side comes a study of ten compound women at club level, where state anxiety is unrelated to score either during menstruation or in the rest of the cycle: the correlations have the right sign, -0.47 and -0.55, but with ten people that is what chance produces. A journal with questionable editorial standards and a tiny sample: on its own this evidence moves nothing.
- 2022 Contested A cross-sectional study of thirty-seven under-12 archers in West Jakarta finds a link, but a positive one: more reported anxiety and a higher score, a path coefficient of 0.398 with p below 0.001, and the authors do not comment on the sign. It clarifies nothing, and the picture stays split.
- 2023 Contested The largest batch of evidence on archers arrives, and it splits along the same line. In favour: forty-four Malaysian recurve archers at state and national level, r = -0.45 on a thirty-six arrow score at seventy metres; thirty-seven Brazilians measured on the morning of their championship, r = -0.7, with the link stronger on competition day than on a practice day; twenty-two young Turkish archers, where fear of judgement carries the weight, r = -0.63 after a stress task. Against: twenty Malaysian compound archers, where cognitive and somatic anxiety do not separate the better from the less good, and, in the young Turkish archers, the physical and cognitive components, which are related to nothing. On the same side, in a journal with questionable editorial standards, thirty-two Malaysian juniors training at home during the COVID-19 isolation, where anxiety is not linked to the score and the correlations even come out positive. The status stays contested, and where the link does appear it is now clearer what it runs through: worry and fear of judgement, not bodily symptoms.
- 2024 Contested The cleanest null of all, because each archer serves as his own control: in fifteen university kyudo practitioners, tension and anxiety before shooting are identical between their better and worse days, 47.7 against 47.4. It measures mood on training days, though, not anxiety at a competition. The same year brings no new measurement of the link, only a confirmation of how the scales hang together: in the twelve Hong Kong archers, confidence goes with less cognitive anxiety, r = -0.717, and mental and physical anxiety travel almost always together, r = 0.868. The contrary side widens, the status does not change.
- 2025 Contested The largest sample the question has arrives: two hundred and seven Malaysian competitive archers, the SAS-2 scale against a score over seventy-two arrows, r = -0.55 with p below 0.001, and it is the firmest association in favour, even though it is published as an extended conference abstract. The same year, two results run the other way. In thirty-two Indian archers a predictive model finds that higher concentration-disruption anxiety pushes the predicted score up rather than down, and the authors themselves note that this runs against the literature. And in eighteen elite Turkish archers, the anxiety reported half an hour before a national competition is identical to that before a training session: this is the most useful explanation of the split, because what does not vary cannot show up in the score. Contested.
- 2026 Contested In competition, across one hundred and eighty-nine Indonesian archers, one extra point of anxiety is worth nine to fourteen fewer qualification points, and the cost grows with distance, from forty to seventy metres. But the standardised coefficients published are mathematically impossible, and that evidence, the year's largest, is also the least reliable. The year's other two studies, both in journals with questionable editorial standards, split on precisely the ground where the link seemed to hold: forty-five Iranian archers measured an hour before qualification give r = -0.61, while eighty Indian juniors measured with a competitive anxiety scale before a national championship show no link at all. Contested, and the line separating measures taken close to competition from the rest grows less sharp.
Related
Related articles
- Competition anxiety: what it costs an archer's score, and when it arrivesDoes competition anxiety cost archers points? What the studies measured, when in a competition the tension arrives and where the research stops.
- Mental skills training in archery: what the measurements on archers showWhat has been measured on archers' mental training: score, confidence, anxiety, programme length, mock competitions and each of the tools in turn.
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See the full assessmentCite
Campagna, M. (2026). More anxious archers shoot lower scores in competition (Version 4). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/anxiety-and-score
@misc{campagna2026_ansiapunteggio,
author = {Campagna, Matteo},
title = {More anxious archers shoot lower scores in competition},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/anxiety-and-score},
note = {Version 4; accessed 2026-10-16}
}
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