In kyudo, those who develop a release problem often do not get over it

The summary today

The only data come from a Japanese questionnaire of sixty-five kyudo students, and they need reading problem by problem. For hayake, the early release and the commonest, twelve practitioners out of thirty-five say they have got over it and twenty-three have not; for the jerk while aiming one in seven got past it, for arm tremor five in seven, and for the block at release two in three. The authors note that for every problem many had not got past it, but also that outside hayake there are fewer than ten cases, so the differences between types are not demonstrated. There is also a clue about order: the jerk while aiming almost always appears after hayake, and the authors suggest it arises from the very effort of holding back the early release. The limits are those of a snapshot: students with four years of practice on average, no date of onset, anyone who had quit because of the problem was not in the club to answer, and those who developed it recently have not had time to get over it.

Also phrased as: "can hayake be overcome"; "do kyudo yips go away"; "getting over the early release"; "target panic never goes away"

Evidence

• 2021
  For Kyudo archers Published later

  41 kyudo students with yips, out of the 65 who answered the questionnaire: 12 of 35 say they have got over hayake (23 have not), 2 of 3 motare, 1 of 7 biku (6 have not) and 5 of 7 yusuri (2 have not). The authors write that for every type many had not got past it, with the highest share for hayake and biku, but that outside hayake there are fewer than ten cases and the differences between types are not demonstrated. Recovery is as reported by the respondents, with no follow-up over time.

  Yips in Kyudo (Japanese archery): prevalence, classification, and aggravating factors · Seiichiro Nishio, Yuichi Hayashi, Shinei Kato, Yoya Ono, Masahiro Waza, Yoichiro Nagao, Akihiro Mukaino, Shunya Nakane, Takayoshi Shimohata

• 2021
  Context Kyudo archers Published later

  Among the 10 practitioners with more than one kind of yips, the order of onset is not random: in the 5 with hayake and biku, hayake came first in 4 cases and in 1 they appeared together, and biku never occurs on its own; in the 4 with hayake and yusuri, yusuri came first in 3 cases. The authors suggest that biku arises from the attempt to hold back the early release, that is, on the way out of hayake: a hypothesis still to be tested.

  Yips in Kyudo (Japanese archery): prevalence, classification, and aggravating factors · Seiichiro Nishio, Yuichi Hayashi, Shinei Kato, Yoya Ono, Masahiro Waza, Yoichiro Nagao, Akihiro Mukaino, Shunya Nakane, Takayoshi Shimohata

Status history

1. 1984 Not studied Nobody in the registry's bibliography had asked kyudo practitioners who had had a release problem whether they later got over it.
2. 2021 Reported Among forty-one university kyudo practitioners with yips, hayake, the early release, had been overcome in twelve cases out of thirty-five, tremor in five out of seven and the jerk while aiming in one out of seven. The authors themselves warn that outside hayake there are fewer than ten cases, so the differences between types are not demonstrated. The jerk while aiming nearly always comes after hayake, perhaps from the effort of holding it back. One cross-sectional study, with recovery as reported by the respondents and only in kyudo: reported.

Related

Related articles

• Target panic in archery: what it is and how to manage itTarget panic in archery: what it is, its three forms, how common it is and which remedies help, with the weight each one carries in the studies.
• The arrow goes by itself: yips and premature release in archeryEarly release as the studies see it: how archers describe it, how common it is in kyudo, how many get over it and why it differs from the release block.

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• 21 studiesFatigue, arrow volume and recovery: the dated trail
• 17 studiesJapanese studies of kyudo from 1964 to 2025

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