Competitive archers' training volume varies enormously from one setting to another

The summary today

Yes, by an order of magnitude, but this is known by adding up descriptions, not because anyone set out to measure it. Seventy-five German competitive archers report 2.4 sessions and 4.3 hours a week; fifteen national-level university compound archers in Taiwan report 36 hours; thirty-one Chinese professionals train at least four days a week for at least six hours a day. Even within one country the spread is wide: among 58 Korean competitive archers the length of team training runs from 66 minutes in high school to 122 in middle school, nearly double from one level to the next. In between sit national-level Cypriot archers, with five or six days of two or three hours, and Turkish club teenagers, with eight hours a week; at the bottom are a Polish club and a group of Brazilian competitive archers, who compete while training less than twice a week. Since 2024 a few studies count arrows as well, and they show that hours are not the whole story: traditional archers at a Polish club shoot 111 arrows a session in fewer than two sessions a week, and within the same club one group averages 86 and another 157. All these figures are sample characteristics in studies designed for something else, almost always reported by the archers themselves, and none says whether the hours are spent shooting or simply at the range: the picture is consistent, but nobody has measured it with the same yardstick.

Also phrased as: "how many hours archers train"; "how many arrows a day archers shoot"; "training hours in archery"; "archers' training load"; "how much Asian national teams train"

Evidence

• 2015
  Context Archers Published later

  160 Indian university archers aged 18 to 25, selected for their universities' teams at the inter-university championship, in a study of peak expiratory flow: according to the methods they trained 60 to 90 minutes in the morning and two hours in the evening, three to four hours a day, six days a week. It is a background figure, in a journal with questionable editorial standards.

  Comparative study of peak expiratory flow rate of archery players participated in all India inter university archery competition Questionable venue · Vishwajit Thakare

• 2017
  Context Kyudo archers Published later

  9 kyudo practitioners at a Japanese university, aged 22 on average with 7 years of practice, in a study of trunk muscle activation: despite an advanced grade they trained once or twice a week. This is university kyudo, not competitive target archery, but it marks the low end of the range.

  Comparison of Modular Control of Trunk Muscle by Japanese Archery Competitive Level: A Pilot Study · Naoto Matsunaga, Atsushi Imai, Koji Kaneoka

• 2020
  Context Archers Published later

  10 national-level Cypriot archers, aged 22 on average, with at least two seasons in the top division of the national championship, in a study of dehydration: they trained five or six days a week for two to three hours a day, between 10 and 18 hours a week. The volume describes the sample, it is not a measurement.

  Effects of Dehydration on Archery Performance, Subjective Feelings and Heart Rate during a Competition Simulation · Alexandros Savvides, Christoforos D. Giannaki, Angelos Vlahoyiannis, Pinelopi S. Stavrinou, George Aphamis

• 2021
  For Archers Published later

  75 German competitive archers from target, 3D and field archery, in a study of neck and shoulder movement: 2.4 sessions and 4.3 hours of training a week on average (standard deviation 2.7 hours), with 10.4 years of experience; only 22 per cent add archery-related strength work, and 68 per cent have a mainly sedentary job. It is the low end among competitive archers, on self-reported data.

  Unilateral and bilateral training competitive archers differ in some potentially unhealthy neck-shoulder region movement behaviour characteristics · Mareike Schmitt, Lutz Vogt, Jan Wilke, Daniel Niederer

• 2021
  For Archers Published later

  58 Korean competitive archers, from middle school to company teams, in a study of shoulder pain: Table 1 reports an average team training length of 101 minutes, with large differences between levels, 122 minutes in middle school, 66 in high school, 116 at university and 70 on company teams. The table labels those minutes as minutes a day and gives alongside them a frequency of 3.3 sessions a day (5.7 on company teams), but the two figures do not square with each other and the text does not explain them: only the comparison between levels is used here, since it holds whatever the unit. Even within a single system the length nearly doubles from one level to another; the journal is regional.

  Shoulder Pain Caused by Injuries in Korean Elite Archers · Young-Sook Kim, Doo-Sup Kim, Ji-Su Shin, Sung-Hwa Kim, Bum-Seok Lee, Ji-Su Park, Won-Gil Cho

• 2021
  Context Archers Published later

  16 Turkish recurve archers, teenagers aged 16.6 on average, in a study of reaction time: all trained four days a week for two hours, eight hours in all, for at least two years. A youth club volume, between the extremes; regional journal.

  Reaction Time in Target Shooting Sports: Perspective of Bocce and Archery · Gülten Geçitli, Seda Kavak, Hüseyin Metiner, Meryem Esmece, İnci Kesilmiş

• 2021
  Context Archers Published later

  Wheelchair para archers compared with wheelchair basketball players, in a study of upper-limb fitness: the archers report 28.7 hours of training a week against 8.7 (p < 0.001), despite fewer years in their sport, 4.2 against 14.1. Another setting, para archery, sitting in the high band; regional journal.

  Comparison of Upper Extremity Physical Fitness Levels in Wheelchair Archery and Basketball Athletes · Ayşe Büşra Erten, Gülay Aras Bayram, Candan Algun

• 2022
  For Archers Published later

  31 Chinese professional archers from the national team and the Beijing team, in an electroencephalography study: all trained at least four days a week for at least six hours a day before the experiment, at least 24 hours a week. It is a minimum stated in the methods, not a measured average, and it sits in the high band.

  Research on Top Archer's EEG Microstates and Source Analysis in Different States · Feng Gu, Anmin Gong, Yi Qu, Hui Xiao, Jin Wu, Wenya Nan, et al.

• 2022
  For Archers Published later

  15 national-level university compound archers in Taiwan, in a study of insoles: 7.4 years of compound experience and 36 hours of training a week, the highest figure given as a sample average, eight times the 4.3 hours of the German competitive archers. The number comes with no standard deviation and no word on how it was collected.

  Arch-Support Insoles Benefit the Archery Performance and Stability of Compound Archers · Ting-Ting Wu, Shin-Liang Lo, Hui Chen, Jeng-Sheng Yang, Hsien-Te Peng

• 2022
  Context Archers Published later

  22 Indian competitive recurve archers aged 15 to 19, in a study of shoulder position sense: the discussion says they trained seven or eight hours a day, while the inclusion criterion asked for at least seven hours a week. The two figures do not square, and the journal has questionable editorial standards: it stays as context.

  Comparison of Joint Position Sense in Competitive Recurve Archers and Non-Archers in the Age Group of 15-19 Years Old: A Cross Sectional Study Questionable venue · Shreeya Athavale, Namrata Sidhaye-Bhadbhade

• 2024
  Context Kyudo archers Published later

  15 university kyudo archers at Tsukuba, in a study of mood and sleep: on average 5.8 days a week, 3.7 hours a day and 52 arrows a day, with almost six years of practice. It puts the arrow count next to the hours, and describes university kyudo far more loaded than the one of 2017.

  Relationship between mood and sleep status with performance accuracy in university kyudo athletes · Masaki Yoshioka, Misato Takada, Makinori Matsuo, Seiji Maeda, Keisei Kosaki

• 2024
  Context Archers Published later

  20 adult traditional archers from a regional Polish club, in a study of muscle fatigue: 111 arrows a session on average but only 1.6 sessions a week, with 5.5 years of experience. Within the same club the authors separate a group reporting 86 arrows a session on average from one reporting 157: in a single club, volume in arrows per session nearly doubles.

  Analyzing the Impact of Accumulated Training Shots on Electromyography Parameters in Trained Archery Athletes: Exploring Fatigue and Its Association with Training Practices · Weronika Naderza, Bartłomiej Niespodziński, Rafał Studnicki

• 2024
  Context Archers Published later

  20 archers from a regional Polish club, in a study of shoulder manipulation after fatigue, on the same group and by the same authors as that year's study of muscle fatigue, so it counts only once: the men train 1.6 times a week with 102.1 arrows a session, the women 1.7 times with 131.7 arrows. The difference between the sexes lies in the arrows, not in the number of sessions.

  Effects of shoulder manipulation on electromyography measures in archery athletes during recovery from fatigue: a comparison between sexes · Rafał Studnicki, Weronika Naderza, Bartłomiej Niespodziński, Rita Hansdorfer-Korzon, Adam Kawczyński

• 2025
  Context Archers Published later

  10 registered archers from a Turkish club, with at least two years of continuous activity, in a methods study on the quiet eye: they trained four days a week for two hours. The same volume as the Turkish teenagers of 2021, eight hours a week.

  Automated detection of quiet eye durations in archery using electrooculography and comparative deep learning models · Fatma Söğüt, Hüseyin Yanık, Evren Değirmenci, İnci Kesilmiş, Ülkü Çömelekoğlu

• 2025
  Context Archers Published later

  38 registered archers aged 9 to 15 in the province of Rize, Turkey, all competing: on average 2.7 training days a week (from 2 to 5) and 1.8 years of practice. Youth club level, in a journal with questionable editorial standards.

  The Contribution of Fine Motor Skills and Isometric Hand Strength to Competitive Archery Performance: A Cross-Sectional Study Questionable venue · Arslan Kalkavan, İsa Kavalcı, Nihan Azra Kayıkçıoğlu

• 2026
  Context Archers Published later

  10 Brazilian archers with competitive experience, aged 36 on average, in a study of social media use: 1.8 training sessions a week (from 1 to 3) and 8.4 competitions in the past year (from 3 to 12). It is possible to compete regularly while training less than twice a week; regional journal.

  Efeitos do uso das redes sociais no desempenho do tiro com arco · Willyan Pagliuso Mafra, Otávio Joaquim Barrato de Azevedo, Loiane Cristina de Souza, Guilherme Torres Vilarino, Suzana Matheus Pereira

Status history

1. 2015 Not studied The first figure appears: Indian university archers at an inter-university championship train three or four hours a day for six days, according to a breathing study published in a journal with questionable editorial standards. A single number says nothing about how much volume varies from one setting to another, and nobody has asked yet.
2. 2017 Not studied Japanese university kyudo provides a figure at the opposite end: practitioners with an advanced grade who train once or twice a week. Set beside the Indian figure it suggests a huge spread, but these are two different disciplines, described in passing in studies about something else, and one of the two sources is questionable: still no evidence that answers the question.
3. 2021 Reported Two competitive samples described with means and standard deviations are already far apart: 75 Germans report 2.4 sessions and 4.3 hours a week, while among 58 Koreans the length of team training runs from 66 to 122 minutes depending on level, nearly double. The same year Turkish club teenagers train eight hours a week and wheelchair para archers almost 29. These are sample descriptions in studies designed for something else, on self-reported data, but two independent studies show the same thing: evidence in favour, and limited.
4. 2022 Reported Two top-level samples widen the spread to an order of magnitude: 31 Chinese professionals train at least six hours a day on at least four days, and 15 national-level university compound archers in Taiwan report 36 hours a week, eight times the Germans. The picture is consistent, but it is still made of self-reported hours or minimums written into the methods, and an Indian study that speaks of seven or eight hours a day contradicts its own inclusion criterion: the status does not rise.
5. 2024 Reported Arrows arrive alongside hours. Traditional archers at a Polish club shoot 111 arrows a session in fewer than two sessions a week, and within the same club one group averages 86 and another 157; a second paper by the same authors on the same group separates the sexes and finds 102.1 arrows a session in the men and 131.7 in the women, with the same number of sessions. University kyudo archers at Tsukuba shoot 52 arrows a day on almost six days a week. The spread shows up in arrows too, and it shows that the number of sessions alone does not describe the load, but no study has yet compared different settings with the same method: the status stays at reported.

Related

Related articles

• How many arrows per week: what the research says about training volumeHow many arrows archers really shoot, from club to elite, and what research says about hours and score, fatigue after 100 arrows, injury and load progression.
• How to improve your archery score: where to start and what to work onHow to measure your level, what sets better archers apart and the levers on your score, from release to mind and load, and how well the evidence holds.

Research lines

• 45 studiesTraining volume and load: from 1966 to today
• 102 studiesFrom the total on the scorecard to the arrow's coordinates

Other claims in this domain

• ReportedA battery of physical tests identifies the most promising young archers7 studies · 373 archers measuredStatus since 2018
• ReportedA few weeks of archery improves children's balance1 study · 32 archers measuredStatus since 2009
• ReportedA mobility and stretching programme improves an archer's flexibility1 study · 30 archers measuredStatus since 2025
• ReportedA spell of reduced training makes the score drop1 study · 9 archers measuredStatus since 2021
• ReportedA strength programme away from the range increases an archer's measured strength15 studies · 316 archers measuredStatus since 2018

See all claims on physical training