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A few weeks of archery improves children's balance

1 study · 32 archers measured

There is a single study, and it is a conference abstract. Sixteen children shoot for forty minutes three times a week for eight weeks, and another sixteen, with no regular physical training, act as controls. In the group that shoots, centre of pressure sway falls in both positions measured: in normal standing the radius drops from 0.40 to 0.31 cm and the area from 1.56 to 1.05 cm²; in the shooting stance the radius drops from 1.86 to 1.12 cm and the area from 12.26 to 7.19 cm². In absolute terms almost all of the gain lies in the trained position, where the area falls by 5.07 cm² against 0.51 in normal standing, although that stance started from sway about eight times wider: it may partly be learning that stance rather than better balance in general. The abstract does not say the groups were randomised; in the shooting stance the test is a before and after within the shooting group alone, and in normal standing the authors state a comparison between the groups but report only the values for the children who shoot, so nobody knows how much children growing two months older would have changed anyway.

Also phrased as: "archery improves children's balance"; "archery at school and balance"; "children and postural stability"; "archery and posture in children"; "archery course and balance"

In practice

Archery is said to be good for children's balance and posture, and this is one of the arguments used to bring it into schools.

Evidence

  • 2009
    For Archers Published later

    32 children, 16 shooting for 40 minutes three times a week for 8 weeks and 16 controls with no regular physical training, randomisation not stated: in the shooting group the centre of pressure radius in normal standing drops from 0.40 to 0.31 cm and the area from 1.56 to 1.05 cm²; in the shooting stance the radius drops from 1.86 to 1.12 cm and the area from 12.26 to 7.19 cm² (p < 0.05). In the shooting stance the test is a before and after within the trained group only; in normal standing a comparison between the groups is stated, but the control data are not reported; a conference abstract. For this question children learning to shoot count as beginner archers.

    The effect of 8 weeks archery training on postural stability in children · Alex J.Y. Lee, Yu-Chi Chiu, Ying-Fang Liu, Wei-Hsiu Lin

Status history

  1. 2009 Reported The first and only study on the question: sixteen children who shoot for forty minutes three times a week for eight weeks reduce their sway both in normal standing, where the area drops from 1.56 to 1.05 cm², and in the shooting stance, where it drops from 12.26 to 7.19 cm². There was a control group of another sixteen children, but its data do not appear in the abstract, and in the shooting stance the test is a before and after within the shooting group alone. A single study with no stated randomisation: reported.

Related

Related articles

Research lines

Studies describe groups of archers, and your own numbers show how far the finding applies to your shooting.

See the work with clubs and federations
Cite
APA

Campagna, M. (2026). A few weeks of archery improves children's balance (Version 1). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/physical-training/archery-children-balance

BibTeX
@misc{campagna2026_arcoequilibriobambini,
  author = {Campagna, Matteo},
  title = {A few weeks of archery improves children's balance},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
  url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/physical-training/archery-children-balance},
  note = {Version 1; accessed 2026-10-16}
}

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