Slow breathing exercises improve the score
1 study · 36 archers measured
The summary today
A single study with a comparison group has tried to measure this, and the gain is there, but it is small: twelve Turkish beginners added eight weeks of alternate nostril breathing, two quarter-hour sessions a week, and rose by two and a quarter points over nine arrows at 18 m, while those who only trained stayed where they were. In the same study imagery did more than twice as much, and that is the figure worth keeping in mind before moving training time onto the breath. The archers were beginners, the groups were not drawn by lot, and the score was measured over nine arrows: enough to record the effect, not enough to rely on it.
Also phrased as: "slow breathing and archery score"; "breathing exercises for archers"; "alternate nostril breathing"; "breathing slowly before shooting"
In practice
Beginners' courses teach slow, deep breathing before stepping onto the shooting line, and using the breath to come back when a series starts going badly.
Evidence
-
2025
For Archers Published later
36 beginner archers aged 14 to 18 split into three groups of twelve, eight weeks, sequential rather than random allocation: the alternate nostril breathing group gains 2.25 points over nine arrows at 18 m (p = 0.003, d = 1.10) and pulls away from the control group (p < 0.001), while the imagery group gains 4.92 points and does better than breathing (p < 0.001). On standing balance with the eyes closed the two techniques are level and both improve more than training alone (p < 0.001; between them p = 0.562), a sign that part of the gain may come through stability and not only through the mind.
Effects of breathing and imagery exercises on postural sway and shooting performance in Olympic archers · Cansu Keskin, Ayşe Nur Tunali Van Den Berg
Status history
- 1984 Not studied No one in the registry's bibliography had yet had a group of archers breathe slowly for weeks and then looked at what happened to their scores.
- 2025 Reported The first study with a comparison group on this question finds a real but small gain: twelve Turkish beginners add eight weeks of alternate nostril breathing, two fifteen-minute sessions a week, and rise by 2.25 points over nine arrows at 18 m, while those who only train stay put. The comparison with the control group is clear, but in the same study imagery does more than twice as much. A single study, with groups not drawn by lot and in beginners: the status stops at reported.
Related
Related articles
- Thoracic mobility, diaphragmatic breathing and HRVThoracic mobility, diaphragmatic breathing and HRV for archers: the exercises, an eight-week protocol and what the studies on archers show.
- How to breathe before you draw: what the studies have measuredHow much and how fast to breathe before the shot: measurements on the range, where the six-breaths figure comes from, and what changes for anxiety and score.
Research lines
Cite
Campagna, M. (2026). Slow breathing exercises improve the score (Version 1). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/slow-breathing-score
@misc{campagna2026_respirazionelentapunteggio,
author = {Campagna, Matteo},
title = {Slow breathing exercises improve the score},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/slow-breathing-score},
note = {Version 1; accessed 2026-10-16}
}
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