Short sport psychology questionnaires do not tell archers apart

The summary today

The problem shows clearly in two Indonesian studies. In the first, thirty-two young archers answer twenty-four yes-or-no questions: thirty-one land in the top band, all of them score the maximum on adaptation and none comes out as lacking in anything. In the second, 269 archers in competition fill in a mental toughness questionnaire: every score falls between 32 and 40, with means between 36.6 and 37.6 and standard deviations between 1.3 and 1.9, and the paper does not even say what the maximum possible score is. Bunched, though, does not mean blind. The same questionnaire separates, by barely a point, those shooting at 40 metres from those at 50 and 70, and in seventy Greek archers competing at national level, aged 12 to 49, the ACSI-28, with four items per scale and internal consistency between 0.60 and 0.76, tells those with six or more years of competition from those with one or two on concentration, confidence and freedom from worry. These instruments separate something between groups, but little between individuals, and the only study claiming a link to the score derives it from a test that cannot show one.

Also phrased as: "psychological tests for archers"; "mental skills questionnaires"; "the ACSI-28 in archery"; "measuring an archer's mental side"; "mental toughness in archers"

Evidence

• 2011
  For Archers Published later

  32 junior archers from the Yogyakarta region, a 24-item yes-or-no questionnaire on six components: 31 out of 32 (96.88 per cent) in the very good band, mean 88.28 per cent, minimum 75 and maximum 100, SD 6.21. Unvalidated instrument, regional journal.

  IDENTIFIKASI KONDISI PSIKOLOGIS (MENTAL) PEMANAH JUNIOR DI DIY · Suryanto

• 2011
  For Archers Published later

  In the same study one of the six components, adaptation, distinguishes nothing at all: 32 archers out of 32 at 100 per cent, standard deviation zero. Initiative is close to the ceiling, with a mean of 97.92 per cent and 30 archers out of 32 in the top band.

  IDENTIFIKASI KONDISI PSIKOLOGIS (MENTAL) PEMANAH JUNIOR DI DIY · Suryanto

• 2011
  For Archers Published later

  The questionnaire never flags a problem: none of the 32 archers falls into the lacking band, 0 to 25 per cent, on any of the six components.

  IDENTIFIKASI KONDISI PSIKOLOGIS (MENTAL) PEMANAH JUNIOR DI DIY · Suryanto

• 2011
  Context Archers Published later

  The lowest components are cooperation (76.88 per cent) and communication (83.59), after motivation (86.72). The authors write that communication is the lowest, contradicting their own table.

  IDENTIFIKASI KONDISI PSIKOLOGIS (MENTAL) PEMANAH JUNIOR DI DIY · Suryanto

• 2015
  Context Archers Published later

  70 Greek archers competing at national level (aged 12 to 49), ACSI-28 before the national championships: the internal consistency of the seven scales, four items each, runs from 0.60 (coachability) to 0.76 (peaking under pressure). A noisy measure, though that alone does not say whether the instrument separates archers.

  Psychological skills of elite archery athletes · Evangelos Bebetsos

• 2015
  Against Archers Published later

  In the same study the ACSI-28 separates archers by experience: six or more years of competition against one or two, concentration 5.4 against 4.7 (F = 9.2), confidence 4.7 against 3.9 (F = 14.4), freedom from worry 4.4 against 3.7 (F = 3.1). By age two scales differ, including peaking under pressure, 3.1 in the 12 to 16 group against 4.1 from 25 upwards.

  Psychological skills of elite archery athletes · Evangelos Bebetsos

• 2018
  Context Archers Published later

  Young archers split into two groups by a clustering algorithm that uses fitness tests, shooting score and ACSI score together: in the box plot the high-potential group has higher coping scores. The chapter reports no values and no test and, above all, the ACSI is one of the variables used to form the groups, so the difference is partly built in by the method and says nothing about whether the questionnaire tells archers apart.

  Psycho-Fitness Parameters in the Identification of High-Potential Archers · Rabiu Muazu Musa, Zahari Taha, Anwar P. P. Abdul Majeed, Mohamad Razali Abdullah

• 2018
  Context Archers Published later

  50 young Malaysian archers, ACSI filled in before a shooting test, with internal consistency between 0.67 and 0.82 in the pretest. A clustering algorithm splits the archers into high and low potential, and a neural network with eight input variables recovers the group in 94% of cases with one activation function and in 84% with the other, which classes eight archers from the low group as high potential. In the box plots the high group scores higher on six scales out of seven, and lower on freedom from worry. The groups, however, are formed from the same variables the network then recognises, so the separation is largely built by the method, and the chapter gives no values or tests for the individual scales: context.

  Psychological Variables in Ascertaining Potential Archers · Rabiu Muazu Musa, Zahari Taha, Anwar P. P. Abdul Majeed, Mohamad Razali Abdullah

• 2025
  For Archers Published later

  269 archers at official Indonesian championships, SMTQ mental toughness questionnaire before competing: scores from 35 to 40 at 40 metres, 33 to 40 at 50 metres and 32 to 39 at 70 metres, with means of 37.56, 36.92 and 36.57 and standard deviations of 1.28, 1.93 and 1.82. The spread is very narrow, and the paper does not state the questionnaire's maximum score.

  The impact of mental toughness on accuracy in archery athletes: a comparative study across distances · Febriansyah Dwi Cahyo, Yudik Prasetyo, Bernadeta Suhartini, Mar’atul Afifah, Asyidika Vito Indarto, Achmad Zakaria

• 2025
  Against Archers Published later

  In the same study the questionnaire still separates the distance groups: F(2,266) = 9.55, p below 0.001, with the 40-metre group differing from the 50 and 70-metre groups in the post hoc comparison. The difference is barely one point, and the distance groups also differ in age and experience.

  The impact of mental toughness on accuracy in archery athletes: a comparative study across distances · Febriansyah Dwi Cahyo, Yudik Prasetyo, Bernadeta Suhartini, Mar’atul Afifah, Asyidika Vito Indarto, Achmad Zakaria

• 2025
  Context Archers Published later

  The effect on accuracy claimed by the authors comes from a t-test on the difference between the questionnaire score and the arrow score (mean differences from -254 to -274, t from -162 to -256): they are two different scales, so the test says nothing about how they are related.

  The impact of mental toughness on accuracy in archery athletes: a comparative study across distances · Febriansyah Dwi Cahyo, Yudik Prasetyo, Bernadeta Suhartini, Mar’atul Afifah, Asyidika Vito Indarto, Achmad Zakaria

Status history

1. 2011 Reported The first piece of data comes from Yogyakarta: thirty-two young archers answer twenty-four yes-or-no questions on their psychological condition. Thirty-one out of thirty-two land in the top band, all thirty-two score the maximum on adaptation, with a standard deviation of zero, and none comes out as lacking in any of the six components. The instrument never flags a problem. A single study, in a regional journal, with an unvalidated questionnaire: reported.
2. 2015 Contested Seventy Greek archers competing at national level, aged 12 to 49, fill in the ACSI-28, a seven-scale mental skills questionnaire, before the national championships. The internal consistency of the seven scales is only modest, between 0.60 and 0.76 with four items each, and yet the instrument discriminates: those with six or more years of competition score higher than those with one or two on concentration (5.4 against 4.7), confidence (4.7 against 3.9) and freedom from worry (4.4 against 3.7). One short questionnaire that separates archers by experience against another that puts them all at the top: contested.
3. 2018 Contested Two chapters of the same book, on young Malaysian archers, use the ACSI. The first combines it with fitness tests and shooting score to split young archers into high and low potential, and the high group turns out to have better coping skills. The comparison is circular, though: the questionnaire was used to form the groups, and the chapter shows only a graph, with no figures and no test. The second splits fifty archers into two groups with a clustering algorithm, and a neural network recovers each archer's group in 94 per cent of cases; but here too the groups are formed from the same answers the network then recognises. Neither adds anything to the count, and the studies remain divided as they have been since 2015: contested.
4. 2025 Contested In Indonesia 269 archers fill in a mental toughness questionnaire before official competitions: every score falls between 32 and 40, with means between 36.6 and 37.6 and standard deviations under 2 points, so the instrument separates one person from another very little; the paper does not state the maximum score. It still separates the groups, by barely a point, between those shooting at 40 metres and those at 50 and 70 (F = 9.55). The link to score that the authors claim comes from a test comparing the questionnaire score with the arrow score as if they were the same measure, and it shows nothing. The studies remain divided: contested.

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