A camera diagonally behind the archer measures the vertical sway of the aim well, but not the horizontal
1 study · 3 archers measured
The summary today
A single comparison between measuring systems says so, on three women archers from the German national squad shooting twelve arrows each at thirty metres. Over the last second before the release, the vertical deviation of the sight read from a camera placed diagonally behind the archer agrees with that of an optoelectronic system mounted on the bow, with correlations from 0.69 to 0.97, while the horizontal one does not agree at all, with coefficients between -0.31 and 0.25 and none significant. Three-dimensional video, with two cameras, agrees vertically for all three archers and horizontally for two out of three. The most likely reason shows in the archer with the worst horizontal agreement, who is also the one whose bow rotates most in the frontal plane: from behind, a rotation of the bow around the sight and a sideways shift look the same. Three people are not enough to know how much of the error depends on where the camera stands and how much on the way each archer holds the bow.
Also phrased as: "video analysis of aiming"; "filming the aim from behind"; "sight movement on the target"; "2D video of the archer"
In practice
In video analysis the archer is often filmed from behind, or diagonally from behind, and the movement of the sight on the target is used to judge how steady the aim is.
Evidence
-
2010
For Archers Published later
3 women archers from the German national squad, 12 arrows each at 30 metres indoors, last second before the release: against the optoelectronic system mounted on the bow, 2D video filmed diagonally from behind at 25 frames per second gives correlations of 0.69, 0.97 and 0.89 for the vertical deviation, all significant, and of -0.23, 0.25 and -0.31 for the horizontal one, none significant.
Comparing three methods for measuring the movement of the bow in the aiming phase of Olympic archery · Nico Ganter, Karl Christoph Matyschiok, Marcel Partie, Börge Tesch, Jürgen Edelmann-Nusser
-
2010
For Archers Published later
The archer with the weakest horizontal agreement, -0.31 with the optoelectronic system and -0.14 with 3D video, is also the one with the widest bow rotation in the frontal plane measured in three dimensions: from behind, rotation around the sight is mistaken for sideways movement.
Comparing three methods for measuring the movement of the bow in the aiming phase of Olympic archery · Nico Ganter, Karl Christoph Matyschiok, Marcel Partie, Börge Tesch, Jürgen Edelmann-Nusser
-
2010
Context Archers Published later
3D video with two cameras agrees better with the optoelectronic system: 0.80, 0.51 and 0.92 horizontally (the second not significant), 0.60, 0.91 and 0.69 vertically. Even between two good systems the horizontal component is not uniform from one archer to the next, and the ratio between horizontal and vertical can look similar in different aiming strategies if the system is not suited to the task.
Comparing three methods for measuring the movement of the bow in the aiming phase of Olympic archery · Nico Ganter, Karl Christoph Matyschiok, Marcel Partie, Börge Tesch, Jürgen Edelmann-Nusser
Status history
- 2010 Reported Three women archers from the German national squad, twelve arrows each at thirty metres, three measuring systems compared over the last second before the release: two-dimensional video, filmed diagonally from behind, agrees with the optoelectronic system on the vertical deviation, with correlations from 0.69 to 0.97, and does not agree at all on the horizontal one, where the coefficients range from -0.31 to 0.25. Three-dimensional video, by contrast, holds on both components in two archers out of three, and the reason for the gap shows in the archer with the widest bow rotation in the frontal plane. A single study on three people: reported.
Related
Related articles
- Muscle synergies in archery: the motor patterns of elite archersMuscle synergies in archery: what changes between elite and novice archers, and what happens on the best arrows, at the clicker and at the release.
- Video analysis and self-coaching in archery: the practical guideHow to film your own shot and what to look for, what the camera measures badly, when sensors help, and what research says about video, feel and the training journal.
Research lines
Studies describe groups of archers, and your own numbers show how far the finding applies to your shooting.
See the full assessmentCite
Campagna, M. (2026). A camera diagonally behind the archer measures the vertical sway of the aim well, but not the horizontal (Version 1). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/technique/camera-aiming-sway-vertical-horizontal
@misc{campagna2026_video2doscillazionemira,
author = {Campagna, Matteo},
title = {A camera diagonally behind the archer measures the vertical sway of the aim well, but not the horizontal},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/technique/camera-aiming-sway-vertical-horizontal},
note = {Version 1; accessed 2026-10-16}
}
Follow this claim
RSS is an address you paste into a feed reader: each time this claim changes status, adds a year to its history or is revised, a new item appears there.
Registry updates by email
At most one email a month, sent only when something has changed: claims that change status, new claims, Lab predictions registered or resolved, new studies and new books.
Sign-ups are handled by Systeme.io, the service that runs the newsletter. Every email has a link to unsubscribe with one click.
Other claims in this domain
- CorroboratedBetween one and a half and two tenths of a second pass between the clicker sounding and the arrow leaving7 studies · 94 archers measuredStatus since 1990
- ReportedA continuous final pull through the clicker leads to better shots9 studies · 56 archers measuredStatus since 1993
- ReportedA sound or light cue about the angle of the bow arm tightens beginners' groups2 studies · 1 archers measuredStatus since 2012
- ReportedA thumb grip on the string is less tiring than a finger grip3 studies · 9 archers measuredStatus since 1990
- ReportedA two-finger string grip is about as accurate as a three-finger one1 study · 9 archers measuredStatus since 1990