Shooting in virtual reality does not load the archer the way a real bow does

The summary today

Only one study has compared them, in twenty-two university students who had never shot before a fourteen-week course and who, at the end of it, shot ten arrows at eighteen metres with a bow and ten in virtual reality, using a headset and a game, in counterbalanced order. The body responds differently: with the bow heart rate reaches 109 beats per minute against 97 in the headset (d = 0.95), that is 32.5% above rest against 17.5%, and RMSSD, the index most closely tied to vagal tone, rises by 10.3% over rest when shooting for real and falls by 19.8% in virtual reality. Perception changes too: real shooting is rated harder, 5.43 against 4.00, and more effortful, 4.86 against 2.90. The mind, by contrast, seems to work the same way: reported anxiety is identical, 4.76 in both conditions, and confidence does not change. Breathing rate, SDNN and low and high frequency power do not differ, and the score is even higher in the headset, although the game may not count points the way a target face does. Two things weigh on the reading. The bow test was the course's final exam, with a minimum score needed for the credits, while the headset test did not count; and for someone who has been shooting for a few months, drawing a bow is still a real physical effort, which a controller with no draw weight does not ask for. So it is impossible to say how much of the difference is muscular load, how much is the exam and how much is virtual shooting itself. And they are students at the end of a course, not archers who have been shooting for years: the registry counts them as the general population, as in the other entries that use the same study, and the comparison has not been made in trained archers.

Also phrased as: "archery simulator"; "virtual reality archery"; "training with a headset"; "virtual shooting and heart rate"

Evidence

• 2024
  For General population Published later

  22 university students with no experience before a 14-week archery course (8 women, aged 20 to 24), ten arrows at 18 metres with a bow, as the course's final exam, and ten in virtual reality in counterbalanced order: heart rate 109.13 ± 14.50 against 96.96 ± 14.56 beats per minute (p < 0.001, d = 0.95), a rise over rest of 32.5% against 17.5%; RMSSD 38.15 ± 13.49 against 30.94 ± 18.25 milliseconds (p = 0.04, d = 0.43), with a change from rest of +10.3% for real shooting and -19.8% for virtual shooting (p = 0.02).

  Comparison of Heart Rate Variability Psychological Responses and Performance in Virtual and Real Archery · Nihal Dal, Serdar Tok, İlker Balıkçı, Said Enes Yılmaz, Erdal Binboğa

• 2024
  For General population Published later

  In the same study, the self-reports: real shooting is rated harder (5.43 against 4.00, p = 0.01) and more effortful (4.86 against 2.90, p < 0.01), while anxiety (4.76 against 4.76, p = 1.00) and confidence (7.62 against 7.90, p = 0.44) do not change.

  Comparison of Heart Rate Variability Psychological Responses and Performance in Virtual and Real Archery · Nihal Dal, Serdar Tok, İlker Balıkçı, Said Enes Yılmaz, Erdal Binboğa

• 2024
  Context General population Published later

  What does not change between the two conditions: breathing rate (21.64 against 22.57 breaths per minute, p = 0.33), SDNN (54.02 against 55.58 milliseconds, p = 0.60) and low and high frequency power (p = 0.44 and 0.16). The score over ten arrows is higher in virtual reality, 86.9 against 78.8.

  Comparison of Heart Rate Variability Psychological Responses and Performance in Virtual and Real Archery · Nihal Dal, Serdar Tok, İlker Balıkçı, Said Enes Yılmaz, Erdal Binboğa

Status history

1. 2024 Transferred Twenty-two students at the end of a fourteen-week archery course try both in counterbalanced order, and the difference is clear. With the real bow heart rate reaches 109 beats against 97 in virtual reality (p < 0.001, d = 0.95), a rise over rest of 32.5% against 17.5%, and vagal activity moves in opposite directions: with real shooting it rises by 10.3% over rest, in virtual shooting it falls by 19.8%. Real shooting is rated harder and more effortful, while anxiety and confidence stay identical. A single study, on students at the end of a course rather than trained archers, with a crossover in which the bow test counted as the final exam and the headset test did not: the claim rests on a different population, so transferred.

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Research lines

• 102 studiesFrom the total on the scorecard to the arrow's coordinates
• 48 studiesThe heartbeat and the shot: heart rate and HRV since 1981

Other claims in this domain

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• 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