Archers who regulate their emotions better have higher heart rate variability after shooting
1 study · 86 archers measured
The summary today
There is a single study, of 86 Turkish university students who had just finished a fourteen-week archery course. After ten arrows at 18 metres their heart rate variability was recorded for four minutes: those who report regulating their emotions better have more power in the low- and high-frequency bands (correlations of 0.30 and 0.33) and a lower ratio between the two, and the difference holds when the group is split in half, with effects between 7 and 11 per cent of the variance. The questionnaire's other two parts, appraising and using emotions, are related to nothing. The picture stops early for three reasons: these are beginners, not competitive archers; there is no measurement before shooting, so the study compares levels rather than how far each person recovered; and arrow scores were not recorded. The paper also contains an inconsistency in the sign of the ratio between the bands, negative in the text and positive in the table.
Also phrased as: "emotional intelligence and heart rate variability"; "hrv after shooting"; "managing emotions in archery"; "cardiac recovery between ends"
In practice
It is said that archers who can manage their emotions recover sooner between ends, and that heart rate variability is the sign of a nervous system that is recovering.
Evidence
-
2019
For Archers Published later
86 beginner university students, heart rate variability for 4 minutes after 10 arrows at 18 metres: emotion regulation correlates with low-frequency power at r=0.30 (p=0.005), with high-frequency power at r=0.33 in the text and 0.321 in the table (p=0.002), and with the ratio between the two at r=-0.29 (p=0.007), which in the table, however, appears with a positive sign.
-
2019
For Archers Published later
Splitting the sample at the median of regulation, those above it have after shooting higher low-frequency power (F(1,84)=6.38, p=0.013, η²=0.07), higher high-frequency power (F=9.73, p=0.002, η²=0.10) and a lower ratio (F=9.93, p=0.002, η²=0.11); the multivariate analysis gives V=0.156, F(3,82)=5.04, p=0.003.
-
2019
Context Archers Published later
The questionnaire's other two parts are not related to variability after shooting: appraising emotions from r=-0.075 to 0.002, using them from r=-0.147 to 0.020, all non-significant.
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2019
Context Archers Published later
Overall emotional intelligence explains a small share of variability: adjusted R² 0.11 for low frequency, 0.13 for high frequency and 0.07 for the ratio, with regulation the only significant predictor (β=0.38, 0.44 and -0.32).
Status history
- 2008 Not studied Heart rate variability enters the research on archers, set beside the score, but nobody has yet set it beside the way archers handle their emotions: there is no evidence on the question.
- 2019 Reported The first study on the question arrives: 86 beginner students after a fourteen-week course, with heart rate variability measured for four minutes straight after ten arrows at 18 metres. Those who report regulating their emotions better have higher low- and high-frequency power and a lower ratio between the two, and the difference holds when the group is split at the median. Appraising and using emotions are related to nothing, so what counts is regulation, not emotional intelligence as a whole. It is a single cross-sectional study, on beginners and with no measurement before shooting: reported.
Related
Related articles
Research lines
Cite
Campagna, M. (2026). Archers who regulate their emotions better have higher heart rate variability after shooting (Version 1). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/emotion-regulation-heart-rate-variability
@misc{campagna2026_regolazioneemotivahrv,
author = {Campagna, Matteo},
title = {Archers who regulate their emotions better have higher heart rate variability after shooting},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/emotion-regulation-heart-rate-variability},
note = {Version 1; accessed 2026-10-16}
}
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