Mental skills training improves the score

The summary today

Studies of archers with a comparison group are few, and they split two and two. In favour: twelve archers of the Hong Kong squad gain 11.3 points over seventy-two arrows after twelve weeks of mindfulness while the matched controls drop by three, and thirty-six Turkish beginners gain more with eight weeks of imagery or slow breathing than a group doing training alone. Against: eighteen Greek archers with two official competitions as the measure show no difference after four weeks of imagery and relaxation, with adherence checked, and sixteen Ukrainian archers randomised to autogenic training are indistinguishable from controls after one week, with the score data unpublished. The rest weighs less: a meta-analysis of seventeen Korean studies gives a mean effect of 0.47 but pools anxiety, questionnaires and performance; a well-documented single case gains nine percentage points across nine competitions, and an older one improves with hypnosis on tests at 25 metres; the before-and-afters with no control show nothing on their own; and two Indian randomised trials in favour sit in journals with questionable editorial standards, with the shooting test barely described, if at all, while a third, from 2016, adds shoulder strengthening to the mental work and reports no means. What can be glimpsed, and nobody has yet tested, is that duration matters: the two null results come from the shortest programmes and the two favourable ones in reliable venues from eight and twelve weeks, even though one of the Indian trials finds a large effect after four.

Also phrased as: "mental training improves archery scores"; "does psychological skills training work in archery"; "sport psychology training for archers"; "mindfulness and archery performance"; "imagery and competition score"

Evidence

• 1986
  Context Archers Published later

  In the study of 188 American archers, the weekly hours they say they devote to mental training are not linked to their yearly average score: r = 0.15 on the 115 with complete data, below the threshold the authors had set themselves. These are reported habits, not an assigned programme.

  A Psychobiological Study of Archery Performance · Daniel M. Landers, Stephen H. Boutcher, Min Q. Wang

• 1991
  Against Archers Published later

  Eighteen Greek archers, nine trained and nine controls, four weeks of imagery combined with relaxation, eight sessions plus practice at home, with two official sixty-arrow competitions at eighteen metres as the measure: the trained group goes from 498 ± 40.2 to 513 ± 27.0 and the controls from 434 ± 69.0 to 454 ± 77.1, and the analysis of covariance on the post-test gives F = 0.11, p above 0.05. Both improve to the same degree.

  Visuomotor Behavior Rehearsal in Archery Shooting Performance · Yannis Zervas, Vassilis Kakkos

• 1991
  Context Archers Published later

  The absence of an effect in that study is not explained by poor adherence: at the manipulation check, seven archers out of nine said they had many times felt fully absorbed in their own performance and two out of nine always. The programme was eight sessions over four weeks, two a week, with daily practice at home.

  Visuomotor Behavior Rehearsal in Archery Shooting Performance · Yannis Zervas, Vassilis Kakkos

• 1995
  Context Archers Published later

  A thirty-one-year-old archer with seventeen years of practice and junior national experience, twenty weeks of mental training with active-alert hypnosis during practice and traditional hypnosis afterwards, one session a week: in the six tests of thirty arrows at 25 metres taken during the programme his score rises above the two baseline tests, and variable and total error fall, so the group tightens. The values are only in a graph, with no statistics, and competition results are not reported. As a single case measured on practice tests, the registry keeps it as context.

  A Case Study of Improved Performance in Archery Using Hypnosis · Claudio Robazza, Laura Bortoli

• 2005
  Context Review Published later

  The chapter reports, second hand, an archer with seventeen years' experience who improves his score after twenty weeks of a cycle combining hypnosis after training and active-alert hypnosis during it. It is the same single case published in 1995, cited with no numbers.

  Psychological Aspects of Archery · Kathleen M. Haywood

• 2005
  Context Review Published later

  The same chapter reports the other side: experienced young archers can be taught to change their arousal level before the shot, but at group level neither the heart-rate deceleration nor the scores change, and the effect shows only in individual archers. No values are given.

  Psychological Aspects of Archery · Kathleen M. Haywood

• 2008
  Context Archers Published later

  Six recurve archers of the Taiwanese Olympic team, about eighteen months of support with breathing, imagery, competition simulation, sleep deprivation and outdoor activities: the psychological skills questionnaire improves on four subscales out of five. Figures only, no test, and the score is not among the outcomes.

  Provision of sport psychology services to Taiwan archery team for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games · Tsung‐Min Hung, Tse‐Chuan Lin, Chia‐Ling Lee, Ling‐Chun Chen

• 2008
  Context Archers Published later

  In those same six archers the skill that improves most is concentration, while motivation is the only subscale that does not move. The post-test falls about a month before the Games.

  Provision of sport psychology services to Taiwan archery team for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games · Tsung‐Min Hung, Tse‐Chuan Lin, Chia‐Ling Lee, Ling‐Chun Chen

• 2008
  Context Archers Published later

  After the programme those same archers come out more oriented both to the task and to the outcome, on a scale running from 3.2 to 4.0, although the motivation subscale does not change. Six people and no comparison.

  Provision of sport psychology services to Taiwan archery team for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games · Tsung‐Min Hung, Tse‐Chuan Lin, Chia‐Ling Lee, Ling‐Chun Chen

• 2008
  Context Archers Published later

  The report records a practical obstacle that matters for anyone trying to run these studies: across ten selection trials spread between mid 2003 and mid 2004, with the team settled only four months before the Games, the archers refused to change their routine and the full programme was cut back to a few elements.

  Provision of sport psychology services to Taiwan archery team for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games · Tsung‐Min Hung, Tse‐Chuan Lin, Chia‐Ling Lee, Ling‐Chun Chen

• 2008
  Context Archers Published later

  The same report gives the outcome of the 2004 Athens Games: silver in the men's team event, bronze in the women's, fourth and sixth places in the women's individual event and seventh in the men's, for a team that had won no Olympic medals for several Games. The authors present it as a result worth studying, but with no comparison it cannot be credited to the programme.

  Provision of sport psychology services to Taiwan archery team for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games · Tsung‐Min Hung, Tse‐Chuan Lin, Chia‐Ling Lee, Ling‐Chun Chen

• 2010
  Context Archers Published later

  Three archers from the Korean national reserve squad, eight weeks of mental training with biofeedback, cognitive restructuring and a shot routine: competitive anxiety measured with the CSAI-2 before, during and after the programme does not change. At the 2009 World Youth Championships, straight afterwards, two of them finish qualification within one or two points of their own average, 1344 and 1339, and the third drops to 1335 from an average of 1359 (the text says fifteen points below, the table gives twenty-four); they place first, second and third, and in the twelve-arrow head-to-head matches ten scores out of fourteen reach 110 or more, the threshold the authors treat as normal performance. Three cases with no comparison, in a national journal: it tells how things went, not what produced them.

  The Effects of Psychological Skills Training in the Archery Field · Byung Hyun Kim, Chang Hwon Yang

• 2011
  For Archers Published later

  Three recurve archers in line for the Korean national squad, twenty-four weeks of arousal control with heart-rate biofeedback: in training they scored between 1315 and 1338 out of 1440, the first competition after ten weeks gave 1295 to 1320 in cold and rain, and the two competitions after the final phase 1336 to 1371. Three people, no control, no test, and a whole season inside the interval.

  Effect of Arousal Control Training Conjugated Heart Rate Biofeedback for National Substitute Archery Players · Seong-Taek Hong

• 2016
  Context Archers Published later

  Thirty Indian archers of national and international level, recurve and compound, allocated to groups by the toss of a coin: six weeks, five days a week, of imagery, progressive relaxation, rational emotive behaviour therapy and attention control in the morning, and of shoulder strengthening with dumbbells in the evening, against usual training alone. According to the authors the score over twelve arrows at 50 metres improves more in the experimental group than in the control group, but the article reports no means or standard deviations, only one figure per group, 56.97 and 3.67, without saying which statistic it is. With two interventions added together there is no telling which one worked, and the journal has questionable editorial standards: the registry keeps it as context.

  Effect of psycho-physiotherapeutic approach in enhancing performance among elite archers Questionable venue · Namrita Dhillon, Narkeesh Arumugam, Harprit Kaur, Shefali Gambhir

• 2017
  For Archers Published later

  A British national-level archer, forty-four years old, with competition anxiety: seven sessions of rational emotive behaviour therapy, nine competitions before and nine after. The average goes from 75.64 to 84.88 per cent of the available score, a rise of 9.24 percentage points, with no statistical test.

  Developing Performance Using Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT): A Case Study with an Elite Archer · Andrew G. Wood, Jamie B. Barker, Martin J. Turner

• 2017
  For Archers Published later

  In the same archer the score did not only rise: it became steadier from one competition to the next, with the standard deviation between competitions going from 0.09 to 0.05. Nine competitions before and nine after make the figure firmer than a single before and after, but it is still one person.

  Developing Performance Using Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT): A Case Study with an Elite Archer · Andrew G. Wood, Jamie B. Barker, Martin J. Turner

• 2017
  Context Archers Published later

  In the same archer, irrational beliefs fell and rational ones rose, and the change held for up to six months, with the scale given at the start, middle and end of the work and at the follow-ups. The values appear only in a figure.

  Developing Performance Using Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT): A Case Study with an Elite Archer · Andrew G. Wood, Jamie B. Barker, Martin J. Turner

• 2017
  Context Archers Published later

  The same archer reports more self efficacy and more sense of control on all ten aspects of the shot assessed, from accuracy to composure, on a scale from 1 to 100 measured session by session and at six months. All of it is self reported.

  Developing Performance Using Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT): A Case Study with an Elite Archer · Andrew G. Wood, Jamie B. Barker, Martin J. Turner

• 2020
  Context Archers Published later

  Thirty-four beginner students in Jakarta, seventeen on imagery and seventeen on progressive muscle relaxation: after the programme the spread of scores narrows by almost half in the first group, standard deviation from 23.54 to 12.27, and falls in the second too, from 15.91 to 12.52, with final averages of 107.47 and 106.23 out of a hundred and fifty. A group with no intervention is missing, so the two can only be compared with each other.

  Perbandingan Metode Latihan Visualisasi dan Relaksasi terhadap Peningkatan Skor Jarak 10 Meter pada Atlet Panahan Tingkat Pemula · Ferry Wattimena

• 2020
  Context Archers Published later

  In those same thirty-four beginners the gain concerns mainly those who started at the bottom: in the imagery group the archers below seventy-five points go from six out of seventeen to none, and in the relaxation group those below eighty-four from five to one. It is a hypothesis about who responds, not evidence.

  Perbandingan Metode Latihan Visualisasi dan Relaksasi terhadap Peningkatan Skor Jarak 10 Meter pada Atlet Panahan Tingkat Pemula · Ferry Wattimena

• 2021
  For Review Published later

  Meta-analysis of seventeen Korean studies on archers, from 1990 to 2017, random effects: g = 0.469 (interval 0.347 to 0.591), Q = 47.68, I² = 66.4 per cent. The outcome pools anxiety, reported psychological skills and performance, so the effect on score alone is not isolated.

  The Effects of Psychological Skills Training for Archery Players in Korea: Research Synthesis Using Meta-Analysis · Eui Jae Kim, Hyun Wook Kang, Seong Man Park

• 2021
  For Review Published later

  Correcting for publication bias does not overturn the result: with trim and fill the effect falls from 0.469 to 0.398 with three studies added, and the funnel plot shows no marked asymmetry.

  The Effects of Psychological Skills Training for Archery Players in Korea: Research Synthesis Using Meta-Analysis · Eui Jae Kim, Hyun Wook Kang, Seong Man Park

• 2021
  For Archers Published later

  23 competitive university archers in Taiwan, before-and-after design with no control group: after 8 mindfulness sessions over 4 weeks the score over 72 arrows at 70 m rose, with a small effect (d = 0.27). The authors warn that without a control group no causal reading is possible.

  The Effects of Mindfulness-Based Intervention on Shooting Performance and Cognitive Functions in Archers · Tsung-Yi Wu, Jui-Ti Nien, Garry Kuan, Chih-Han Wu, Yi-Chieh Chang, Hsueh-Chih Chen, Yu-Kai Chang

• 2021
  Context Review Published later

  In the same meta-analysis the effect is larger in secondary school archers, g = 0.666, than in adults, g = 0.338, with Q = 11.33 and p = 0.001. The paper's abstract says the opposite of its own table: the results are followed here.

  The Effects of Psychological Skills Training for Archery Players in Korea: Research Synthesis Using Meta-Analysis · Eui Jae Kim, Hyun Wook Kang, Seong Man Park

• 2021
  Context Review Published later

  In the same meta-analysis the theses report effects about twice those of the published articles, g = 0.746 against 0.384, with Q = 12.95 and p below 0.001. It depends on where the work is published, so the average estimate has to be read with caution.

  The Effects of Psychological Skills Training for Archery Players in Korea: Research Synthesis Using Meta-Analysis · Eui Jae Kim, Hyun Wook Kang, Seong Man Park

• 2021
  Context Review Published later

  There is no single value to expect: two thirds of the variance between studies is genuine heterogeneity, I² = 66.4 per cent with Q = 47.678 on sixteen degrees of freedom, and the random-effects estimate, 0.469, is higher than the fixed-effects one, 0.427.

  The Effects of Psychological Skills Training for Archery Players in Korea: Research Synthesis Using Meta-Analysis · Eui Jae Kim, Hyun Wook Kang, Seong Man Park

• 2021
  Context Review Published later

  The literature behind that estimate is made of very small studies: seventeen studies from 1990 to 2017, between eight and forty archers each, two hundred and seventy-three archers in all, fourteen articles and three theses, all Korean.

  The Effects of Psychological Skills Training for Archery Players in Korea: Research Synthesis Using Meta-Analysis · Eui Jae Kim, Hyun Wook Kang, Seong Man Park

• 2021
  Context Review Published later

  For the same kind of intervention the same team had found an effect almost twice as large in golf, 0.898 against 0.469: mental training yields less in archery, and the effect depends on the sport. This is a comparison between two meta-analyses by the same authors, not a direct study.

  The Effects of Psychological Skills Training for Archery Players in Korea: Research Synthesis Using Meta-Analysis · Eui Jae Kim, Hyun Wook Kang, Seong Man Park

• 2021
  For Other sport Published later

  Thirty-four Turkish athletes from target sports, fourteen curlers, thirteen bowlers and seven archers from the national leagues, randomised into three groups for four weeks: imagery in virtual reality, relaxation with imagery and video, or no mental work. The mean shooting score goes from 4.68 to 7.33 with virtual reality, from 5.21 to 6.60 with relaxation and video, and from 5.06 to 5.37 in the control group, with a clear time-by-group interaction (F = 8.51, p < 0.001). There are two or three archers per group and their data are not reported separately, so the registry counts it as a study of other sports.

  The Effect of Virtual Reality Technology on the Imagery Skills and Performance of Target-Based Sports Athletes · Deniz Bedir, Süleyman Erim Erhan

• 2022
  Context Archers Published later

  Forty-five archers from a Malaysian sports school, about fifteen years old, three groups by technique and six weeks: the final scores are 271.40 with imagery alone, 287.93 with imagery plus self-talk and 280.00 with self-talk alone, and the authors find no significant difference between the groups. No control group and a venue with questionable editorial standards.

  Effects of Imagery Training and Self-Talk towards State Anxiety and Archery Performance Questionable venue · Mohammad Amir Hakim Mat Isar, Nelfianty Mohd Rasyid, Shaharudin Abdul Aziz

• 2022
  Context Archers Published later

  In those same three groups the spread moves: the standard deviation of the score falls from 51.72 to 29.13 with self-talk alone and from 31.82 to 29.24 in the combined group, while it rises from 21.65 to 34.96 with imagery alone. The group grows more uniform where self-talk is involved.

  Effects of Imagery Training and Self-Talk towards State Anxiety and Archery Performance Questionable venue · Mohammad Amir Hakim Mat Isar, Nelfianty Mohd Rasyid, Shaharudin Abdul Aziz

• 2022
  Context Archers Published later

  61 archers from the Chinese national team, cross-sectional questionnaire study: confidence and attention predict performance, while cognitive reappraisal has a negative direct effect and a nil total effect (-0.007, p = 0.96). It measures skills and strategies, not the effect of training.

  Effect of Cognitive Reappraisal on Archery Performance of Elite Athletes: The Mediating Effects of Sport-Confidence and Attention · Dongling Wang, Ti Hu, Rui Luo, Qiqi Shen, Yuan Wang, Xiujuan Li, et al.

• 2024
  For Archers Published later

  Twenty-four archers of the Hong Kong squad, twelve on a twelve-week mindfulness programme and twelve controls matched for sex, ranking and competition: over seventy-two arrows the treated group goes from 626.83 to 638.17 (plus 11.3, p = 0.013) and the control from 625.67 to 622.67, with a group by time interaction of F(1,22) = 5.861, p = 0.024. No random assignment and twelve people per group.

  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
  For Archers Published later

  Ten youngsters from an after-school course in Sleman, eighteen meditation sessions over six weeks: the average goes from 260.60 to 276.10 out of three hundred and sixty, a rise of 15.5 points, and the gain is similar in all ten, between plus eleven and plus twenty, with no non-responders. No comparison group and a regional journal, so the gain may simply be ordinary training.

  Pengaruh latihan meditasi terhadap akurasi memanah siswa ekstrakurikuler panahan SMP di Kabupaten Sleman · Muh Batistuta Fitoni Nuradila, Yudik Prasetyo, Heru Prasetyo

• 2024
  Against Archers Published later

  Sixteen Ukrainian national-level archers randomised into eight on autogenic training and eight controls: in the training phase, after a single week of autogenic training, its contribution to the score is not significant. The authors claim an average gain of ten or eleven points but do not report the score data, and the statistics are written up anomalously.

  Comparative analysis of the lactate and urea changes in the athletes-archers urine under different physical and psychological loads · M. Sybil, Ya. Svyshch, A. Vynogradskyi, M. Bura, R. Pervachuk

• 2024
  Context Archers Published later

  Two hundred archers aged thirteen to twenty at the European Youth Championships: 121 out of 200 use concentration techniques, 114 use breathing and 109 relaxation, with no differences between sexes. It says how widespread the practice is, not whether it works.

  Injuries and Persistent Pain in Elite Adolescent Archery Athletes: A Cross-Sectional Epidemiological Study · Nikolaos Vasilis, Athanasios Kyriakides, George Vasilopoulos, Maria Chatzitimotheou, Grigorios Gonidakis, Athanasios Kotsakis, et al.

• 2024
  Context Archers Published later

  What makes that study readable is the control: the twelve archers with no intervention go from 625.67 to 622.67, that is, they do not improve over twelve weeks, and the two groups started level, group effect F(1,22) = 0.153, p = 0.699. This is the comparison missing from every before and after listed here.

  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

  Thirty-six beginner archers aged fourteen to eighteen, Olympic recurve, three groups of twelve for eight weeks, two fifteen-minute sessions a week: the imagery group gains 4.92 points over nine arrows at eighteen metres (p < 0.001, d = 1.99) while the control loses 0.42, with a between-group comparison of F(2,33) = 17.37. The score is over nine arrows only and assignment is sequential, not random.

  Effects of breathing and imagery exercises on postural sway and shooting performance in Olympic archers · Cansu Keskin, Ayşe Nur Tunali Van Den Berg

• 2025
  For Archers Published later

  In the same study the third group, eight weeks of slow alternate-nostril breathing, also beats training alone: plus 2.25 points over nine arrows (p = 0.003, d = 1.10), with the comparison against the control at p < 0.001. It is the only study of the set that puts two different techniques against the same control.

  Effects of breathing and imagery exercises on postural sway and shooting performance in Olympic archers · Cansu Keskin, Ayşe Nur Tunali Van Den Berg

• 2025
  Context Archers Published later

  In the same Turkish study, attention and reaction time improve in all three groups over eight weeks, with an advantage for those adding imagery or breathing. That the training-only group improves as well is a reminder: over eight weeks beginners get better anyway.

  Effects of breathing and imagery exercises on postural sway and shooting performance in Olympic archers · Cansu Keskin, Ayşe Nur Tunali Van Den Berg

• 2025
  Context Archers Published later

  Ten provincial archers in South Sulawesi, a self-hypnosis programme: the attention control scale goes from 55.7 ± 4.8 to 67.7 ± 5.9. No control group, no score measured, and a before-after correlation of 0.990, meaning almost everyone improves by the same amount, which is hardly plausible.

  The Effect Of Self-Hypnosis Training On Improving The Ability To Concentrate And Emotions Of South Sulawesi Archery Athletes · Nur Islam, Nukhrawi Nawir, Himad Hakim, Muh. Adnan Hudain, Sahabuddin Sahabuddin

• 2025
  Context Archers Published later

  In those same ten archers the emotion regulation scale goes from 52.0 ± 3.7 to 71.3 ± 2.9, with the same anomaly, a before-after correlation of 0.986. These are self-report questionnaires, and nobody counted the arrows.

  The Effect Of Self-Hypnosis Training On Improving The Ability To Concentrate And Emotions Of South Sulawesi Archery Athletes · Nur Islam, Nukhrawi Nawir, Himad Hakim, Muh. Adnan Hudain, Sahabuddin Sahabuddin

• 2025
  Context Archers Published later

  Fifteen adolescent archers at an Indonesian club, a single session of cognitive behavioural modification: reported mental toughness goes from 54.53 ± 4.34 to 60.13 ± 6.20 immediately afterwards. No control, no measure of shooting, and a single session.

  Efforts to increase mental toughness through cognitive behaviour modification for paser club archery athletes · Fitri Nur Shouma, Rizma Fithri, Estri Kusumawati

• 2025
  Context Archers Published later

  In those same fifteen archers the intervention does not reverse the order: the correlation between the before and after scores is 0.637, so those who started higher stay ahead. The best responders are not those who started worst.

  Efforts to increase mental toughness through cognitive behaviour modification for paser club archery athletes · Fitri Nur Shouma, Rizma Fithri, Estri Kusumawati

• 2025
  Context Archers Published later

  The same study gives a baseline worth comparing against: the mental toughness of adolescent club archers sits around 54 or 55 points on the scale used, with an average rise of 5.6 points after the session.

  Efforts to increase mental toughness through cognitive behaviour modification for paser club archery athletes · Fitri Nur Shouma, Rizma Fithri, Estri Kusumawati

• 2025
  Context Archers Published later

  In that group, after the session, the differences between archers widen rather than narrow: the standard deviation goes from 4.340 to 6.198. It is the opposite of what is seen in the Jakarta beginners, where the group grew more uniform.

  Efforts to increase mental toughness through cognitive behaviour modification for paser club archery athletes · Fitri Nur Shouma, Rizma Fithri, Estri Kusumawati

• 2025
  For Archers Published later

  Thirty Indian national-level archers aged 16 to 21, randomised to imagery, self-regulation or training only, three sessions a week for twelve weeks: with analysis of covariance on the baseline score, imagery beats the control by 17.03 points and self-regulation by 13.64, p < 0.001 for both, while the two techniques differ by 3.40 points, p = 0.791. The control group rises too, from 293.2 to 302.8, against 299.7 to 324.0 and 297.2 to 319.0 in the two treated groups. The control receives no alternative activity, the article gives neither the distance nor the number of arrows, and the journal has questionable editorial standards: on its own it decides nothing.

  Effect of a 12 week psychological skills intervention on performance of national-level archers Questionable venue · Punyu Thepfukolie, Bhowmik Sanyal Saon

• 2025
  For Archers Published later

  Twenty archers from the Malang squad preparing for the provincial games, one group with four weeks of calmness training, meaning deep breathing, mindfulness and imagery, and a control group: accuracy in the trained group reportedly rises from about 60 to 82 per cent of shots on target, while the control improves by 5 per cent on average. The group sizes, the standard deviations and any statistical comparison between the two are missing, and the journal has questionable editorial standards: it points a direction rather than measuring an effect.

  Analysis of Calmness Training for Archery Sports for PORPROV Athletes in Malang Regency Questionable venue · Ratno Susanto, Dwi Cahyati Anggraeni, Bangkit Seandi Taroreh, Achmad Afandi

• 2025
  Context Archers Published later

  Thirty-four beginner students in Jakarta, seventeen doing imagery and seventeen progressive muscle relaxation: in the relaxation group too the score rises, from 86.76 to 106.23 (t = 5.442 with 16 degrees of freedom), and in both groups the lowest bands empty out, below 75 points from six archers out of seventeen to none with imagery. The figures are the same as in the same author's 2020 study, so in all likelihood this is that sample republished in English, and it counts only once. There is still no group without an intervention, and the journal has questionable editorial standards.

  Mental Imagery and Relaxation Methods of Novice Archers: A Comparative Analysis Questionable venue · Ferry Yohannes Wattimena, Tomoliyus Tomoliyus, Abdul Alim, Burhan Basyiruddin, Yovhandra Ockta

• 2026
  For Archers Published later

  Thirty competitive archers aged 18 to 30 at the SMS Stadium in Jaipur, randomised to imagery, self-talk or training only, fifteen minutes three times a week for four weeks: the shooting test score rises from 85.1 to 100.5 with imagery and from 84.0 to 97.2 with self-talk, while the control goes from 83.5 to 84.3 (t = 0.55, p = 0.59). The shooting test is not described, neither the arrows nor the distance, the repeated-measures analysis announced in the methods appears in the table as a plain comparison between groups, and the journal has questionable editorial standards.

  Cognitive Arrows: Exploring the Power of Psychological Skills Training in Competitive Archery Questionable venue · Himalaya Tiwari, Pragati Chaturvedi, Bodhraj Kumkaria

Status history

1. 1984 Not studied No study in the registry's bibliography had yet measured the effect of mental skills training on archers' scores.
2. 1986 Not studied No one has yet put a mental programme to the test against the score. The only figure available is the weekly hours archers say they devote to it, which in the 115 with complete data are not linked to the yearly average score, r = 0.15: this is an association between reported habits, and says nothing about the effect of a programme.
3. 1991 Contradicted The first attempt with a comparison group arrives, and finds nothing: four weeks of imagery and relaxation, eight sessions plus practice at home, in eighteen Greek archers, with two official competitions as the before and after measure. Both groups gain about fifteen points out of six hundred and the analysis of the post-test finds no difference. One study only, and it points the other way: contradicted, which is as much as a single paper can carry.
4. 1995 Contradicted The first signal in favour on archers is a single case. A thirty-one-year-old archer with seventeen years of practice follows twenty weeks of mental training, with active-alert hypnosis during practice and traditional hypnosis afterwards, and in the six tests of thirty arrows at 25 metres taken during the programme his score rises above the two baseline tests, while variable and total error fall. The values appear only in a graph, there are no statistics and no comparison, the score is from practice tests and the hypnosis cannot be separated from the rest of the work with the psychologist: the registry keeps it as context. The only study that counts is still the Greek one from 1991, which points the other way, and the status stays contradicted.
5. 2005 Contradicted A review chapter takes up, second hand, the same archer who improved with hypnosis and adds a null finding: a group of young archers is taught to regulate their arousal with no change in either the heart-rate deceleration or the scores. A review brings no new studies to count, and the status stays contradicted.
6. 2008 Contradicted Eighteen months of psychological support for six archers of the Taiwanese Olympic team improve four psychological skills out of five, with concentration first and motivation unmoved. The score, though, is not measured as an outcome and there is no comparison group: in Athens the team wins a silver and a bronze in the team events, its best Olympic result in decades, but nothing allows it to be credited to the programme. The status stays contradicted. The same report records something useful to anyone designing these studies: during a long Olympic selection the archers refused to change their routine, and the planned programme had to be cut back.
7. 2010 Contradicted Three archers from the Korean national reserve squad do eight weeks of biofeedback, cognitive restructuring and a shot routine, and at the 2009 World Youth Championships they finish qualification first, second and third, with ten head-to-head matches out of fourteen above the threshold the authors call normal performance. Competitive anxiety measured before, during and after does not change, though, two of the three shoot within one or two points of their own average in qualification while the third drops by twenty-four, and there is no comparison: three well-told stories, not a test. The only study with a control group is still the Greek one from 1991, which found nothing, and the status stays contradicted.
8. 2011 Contested Three archers from the Korean junior national pool follow twenty-four weeks of arousal control with heart-rate biofeedback and close the season above their scores from the start of the year, with two final competitions at 1336 and 1371 out of 1440. They are three cases with no comparison group, in a regional journal and across a whole season, but with competition scores reported: this is the first signal in favour on archers that the registry counts, and it is limited. Against it stands the Greek study of 1991, which is still the only one with a control group: contested, even though one side holds three uncontrolled cases and the other a controlled study.
9. 2016 Contested An Indian randomised trial on thirty national-level archers reports that after six weeks the score at 50 metres has improved more than in the control group, but the mental training comes bundled with shoulder strengthening, and the results are one number per group with no means: it does not isolate the effect of the mental work, and the journal has questionable editorial standards. The registry keeps it as context, and the picture stays as it was in 2011: three uncontrolled cases in favour, the Greek study with a control group against. Contested.
10. 2017 Contested The best documented single case of the series: a British national-level archer with competition anxiety does seven sessions of rational emotive behaviour therapy, and across the following nine competitions her average goes from 75.6 to 84.9 per cent of the available score, with the variability between competitions almost halved and irrational beliefs falling for up to six months. Nine competitions before and nine after are worth far more than a single before and after, but it is still one person with no comparison at all, and it does not weigh as much as the Greek controlled study of 1991: the status stays contested.
11. 2020 Contested The status does not change, but a detail arrives that the average usually hides: in thirty-four beginners in Jakarta, after a few weeks of mental work the spread of scores narrows by almost half and the lowest bands empty out, in the imagery group from six archers out of seventeen below seventy-five points to none. The programme seems to lift mainly those who started at the bottom. A group with no intervention and the length of the programme are both missing, so this is a hint about how, not evidence about whether.
12. 2021 Contested The meta-analysis of the seventeen Korean studies run between 1990 and 2017 arrives: a mean effect of g = 0.47, falling to 0.40 once publication bias is corrected and still positive. It is not enough to raise the status, for four reasons the meta-analysis states itself: the studies are all Korean and very small, from eight to forty archers, two hundred and seventy-three in all; two thirds of the variance between studies is genuine heterogeneity; the theses report effects almost twice those of the articles; and the outcome is a pooled measure of anxiety, reported skills and performance, not the competition score. The same year, twenty-three university archers in Taiwan improve their score over seventy-two arrows after eight mindfulness sessions, but with no control group and a small effect. Also in 2021, a Turkish study of curlers, bowlers and archers finds that four weeks of imagery, especially in virtual reality, raise the shooting score more than in a group that only watched videos of their sport; but the archers are seven out of thirty-four and are not reported separately, so it counts as other sports and does not move the status for archers. The status stays contested: the only study of archers with a control group that isolates the mental work, in a reliable venue, is still the Greek one, which found nothing.
13. 2022 Contested Forty-five young Malaysian archers split into three groups do eighteen sessions over six weeks, and between imagery, self-talk and their combination no difference in score shows up: under one label sit techniques that here turn out to be indistinguishable. What does show up is that the group's scores grow more uniform where self-talk is involved, with the standard deviation going from 51.7 to 29.1, while they spread out where imagery alone was practised. It is a before and after with no control, in a journal with questionable editorial standards: it does not move the status.
14. 2024 Contested The year the disagreement moves to controlled studies, because the first controlled study in favour in a reliable venue and a randomised trial that finds nothing arrive together. Twelve archers of the Hong Kong squad follow twelve weeks of mindfulness and gain 11.3 points over seventy-two arrows, while the twelve controls matched for sex, ranking and competition drop by three, with a group by time interaction of p = 0.024; the two groups started level, so the comparison holds, but these are twelve people per group and the assignment is not random. The same year, sixteen Ukrainian national-level archers randomised to autogenic training are, after a single week, indistinguishable from controls on their training scores, with the authors claiming a gain of ten or eleven points without showing the data. Ten Indonesian youngsters gain 15.5 points out of three hundred and sixty after eighteen sessions, but with no comparison group at all. The status was already contested and stays so, but now both sides rest on studies with a comparison group. Finally, a survey of two hundred young archers at the European Youth Championships shows how widespread the practice is: concentration, breathing and relaxation techniques are each used by more than half of them.
15. 2025 Contested The second controlled study in a reliable venue points the opposite way from the null and separates the techniques: thirty-six Turkish beginners split into three groups for eight weeks, and both imagery, plus 4.92 points over nine arrows, and slow alternate-nostril breathing, plus 2.25, beat the group doing technical training only, which stays put. Among reliable venues the studies with a comparison now stand at two in favour and two against, and the oldest of the contrary ones, the Greek study of 1991, has the same kind of design and a better outcome, the score of an official competition: it is not a weak result to be set aside, so the status stays contested. The same year brings three studies in journals with questionable editorial standards, which by rule do not decide the status: a randomised trial on thirty Indian national-level archers, where twelve weeks of imagery or self-regulation beat training alone by seventeen and fourteen points; a comparison on twenty archers in Malang with accuracy rising from about 60 to 82 per cent but no test between the groups; and the English republication of the 2020 Jakarta study, with the same figures. The year's other trials, self-hypnosis and a single cognitive behavioural session in Indonesia, measure questionnaires rather than arrows and stay out of the count.
16. 2026 Contested Another randomised trial in a journal with questionable editorial standards: in thirty competitive archers in Jaipur, four weeks of imagery or self-talk raise the score by fifteen and thirteen points while the control stays put. The shooting test is not described and the tables do not match the stated design. The duration stands out, four weeks like the Greek study that found nothing, but with a venue and a report like these it is not enough to unsettle the idea that duration matters. Among studies in reliable venues the count stays at two in favour and two against, and the status remains contested.

Related

Related articles

• Does imagining the shot raise your score? What the studies measuredDoes imagining the shot raise your score? Forty years of studies on archers, from a 1986 correlation to controlled trials, and where the evidence stops.
• 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.
• EEG and neuroscience in archery: the brain of the elite archerWhat EEG studies on archers show about the best arrows, differences between levels, theta in beginners and neurofeedback, and how far each finding holds.

Research lines

• 52 studiesMental training: what has been tested on archers since 1979
• 56 studiesAnxiety and confidence in archery competition since 1986

Other claims in this domain

• ReportedA larger working memory does not make an archer more accurate3 studies · 79 archers measuredStatus since 2012
• ReportedA longer quiet eye improves shooting accuracy3 studies · 58 archers measuredStatus since 2017
• ReportedA mental profile tells archers apart from athletes in other sports only in part5 studies · 550 archers measuredStatus since 2018
• ReportedA mental training programme improves the elite archer's mood1 study · 16 archers measuredStatus since 2023
• ReportedA mental training programme reduces burnout in elite archers1 study · 16 archers measuredStatus since 2023

See all claims on mind and attention