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On competition day an archer arrives more anxious than in training

3 studies · 214 archers measured

ForContextAgainst201820202022202420262019, context, n = 1562023, for, n = 402023, context, n = 402025, against, n = 182025, context, n = 18
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.

The two studies that measured the same archers in training and in competition point in opposite directions. At the Brazilian championships forty archers, measured half an hour before shooting, are far more anxious on the first day of the ranking round than on the official practice day at the same venue, with a large difference (d = 1.20) and salivary cortisol rising by the same margin; in eight of them, followed for four weeks, anxiety on competition day stands apart from two, three and four weeks earlier. Eighteen Turkish elite archers, on the other hand, fill in an anxiety questionnaire before a training session and half an hour before the national indoor championships and give the same answers: cognitive anxiety 19.22 and 19.27, somatic anxiety 16.55 and 16.27. Their hearts do not tell the same story, though, beating eight times a minute faster before the competition. The two studies differ in many ways, from the questionnaire to the level of the archers, and for now they do not say which result applies to a given archer, nor whether what changes is the tension or only the willingness to admit it.

Also phrased as: "competition day nerves"; "pre-competition anxiety in archers"; "more nervous in competition than in training"; "anxiety rising as the competition approaches"; "competition jitters"

In practice

Archers are told to prepare for a competition like any other training day, because on competition day they arrive more wound up than usual and the way to keep them calm is to change nothing, from breakfast to warm-up.

Evidence

Status history

  1. 2019 Not studied The first figure on archers in competition is a level, not a comparison: in one hundred and fifty-six Turkish archers at a national event, state anxiety averages 60.6, with trait anxiety at 40.9. Nobody measured them in training as well, and the article does not say when they filled in the questionnaire, so the question has not yet been put to the test. The journal, moreover, has questionable editorial standards.
  2. 2023 Reported The first comparison between a training day and a competition day in the same archers arrives. Forty male archers at the Brazilian championships are measured half an hour before shooting on the official practice day and on the first day of the ranking round: anxiety is much higher in competition, with a large difference (d = 1.20), and salivary cortisol rises by the same margin. In eight of them, followed over the previous four weeks, anxiety builds as the competition approaches and competition day differs from two, three and four weeks earlier. A single study, a master's thesis, one championship: reported.
  3. 2025 Contested The first contrary result arrives. Eighteen Turkish elite archers fill in an anxiety questionnaire before a training session and half an hour before the 2024 national indoor championships, and their answers do not change: cognitive anxiety 19.22 and 19.27 (p = 0.927), somatic anxiety 16.55 and 16.27, self-confidence 27.55 and 26.77. The body does move, though: before the competition resting heart rate rises from 67.7 to 75.8 beats a minute. There is now one study for and one against, both small and using different instruments: contested.

Related

Related articles

Research lines

Cite
APA

Campagna, M. (2026). On competition day an archer arrives more anxious than in training (Version 2). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/competition-day-anxiety

BibTeX
@misc{campagna2026_ansiagiornodigara,
  author = {Campagna, Matteo},
  title = {On competition day an archer arrives more anxious than in training},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
  url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/competition-day-anxiety},
  note = {Version 2; accessed 2026-10-16}
}

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