Expert archers hold the draw with the shoulder and back rather than the forearm

The summary today

The evidence on archers points almost entirely the same way, but it is thinner than the advice suggests. The most direct figure is a correlation across 23 people, elite archers, beginners and non-archers: the higher the FITA score, the lower the activity of the drawing hand's forearm muscles around the release, with indices up to r = 0.74. At the other end, in 30 Japanese archers across three levels, over the second before the clicker the lower trapezius works at 54.0% of maximal contraction in the elite against 39.4% in the pre-elite and 34.0% in the beginners, and the ratio between upper and lower trapezius falls from 2.33 to 1.23 as level rises; biceps and triceps, in the same sample, work less in the experts. A similar picture appears in 27 Turkish archers, though there it is the posterior deltoid and middle trapezius that separate the levels, and the lower trapezius works harder in the less experienced. Two warnings count as much as the result. First, the load never moves across entirely: in 5 elite Russian archers the finger flexor of the drawing hand works far harder than its counterpart on the other arm, with an asymmetry coefficient of 0.86 on a scale where zero means parity and one means only one side working. Second, nobody has compared groups taught to draw with the back against groups taught otherwise, and in the 24 compound archers measured, shoulder-girdle activation does not separate the levels, most likely because the mechanical release holds the load at full draw.

Also phrased as: "drawing with the back"; "back tension"; "drawing with the arm or with the back"; "lower trapezius in archery"; "the biceps working too hard on the draw"

Evidence

• 1971
  For Kyudo archers Published later

  3 kyudo practitioners, electromyography of 14 muscles: during the opening the teres major on both sides, the deltoid and the triceps do most of the work, while the biceps is very active in the first half of the draw. Kyudo technique and the asymmetric bow are not those of the Olympic bow, and these are three people.

  An Electromyographic Analysis of Japanese Archery · Sadatsugu Kamei, Hideji Matsui, Mitsumasa Miyashita

• 1976
  For Archers Published later

  4 university archers with more than three years' practice against 6 young people who had never shot: at release the drawing side's middle trapezius increases its firing in the experts and switches off in the beginners. Electromyographic traces read descriptively, ten people.

  A STUDY OF THE PROCESS OF IMPROVEMENT IN ARCHERY · Koichiro Hayashi, Kenichi Tabuchi, Takeshi Yabuki, Kiichi Sekine, Shintaro Tachibana, Kozo Nakamura

• 1987
  For Archers Published later

  Two world-level archers compared with two beginners of three months and one intermediate of five years, electromyography of 11 muscles: in the beginners the biceps fires hard, in the experts the draw is held by the back and shoulders. Qualitative analysis of the traces, five people.

  Analysis of Archery Shooting Techniques by Means of Electromyography · H. Nishizono, H. Shibayama, T. Izuta, K. Saito

• 1990
  For Archers Published later

  8 experienced archers with competition background, 9 shots per distance at 18, 25, 50, 70 and 90 m, surface electromyography: in every participant and at every distance the trapezius shows the earliest contraction in both the bow arm and the drawing arm. It is the most systematic evidence that the draw starts from the shoulder, and it remains a description of the order of activation.

  Muscular Activity of Different Shooting Distances, Different Release Techniques, and Different Performance Levels, with and without Stabilizers, in Target Archery · J.P. Clarys, J. Cabri, E. Bollens, R. Sleeckx, J. Taeymans, M. Vermeiren, et al.

• 1993
  Context Archers Published later

  10 Japanese club archers, 3 arrows at 8 m on a 15 cm face, six bilateral sites: while aiming the highest integrated value belongs not to the trapezius but to the deltoid, in its acromial portion, on the bow side, at 987 microvolts per second. It serves as a reminder that the load sits in the shoulder complex and not in one muscle. Regional journal.

  Relationship between the muscle activity during aiming,follow-through, and the performance in archery · Hitoshi Watanabe, Koji Tsuji, Fujiko Yoneyama

• 1994
  Context Archers Published later

  A comparison between two high-level Italian archers, with FITA scores of 1,350 and 1,330: the one with aligned shoulders uses little biceps and has a symmetric back, the one with tilted shoulders uses a great deal of biceps and works more with the left side of the back. Two people, no test: it says position and activation are linked, not which of the two comes first.

  Multifactorial analysis of shooting archery · Roberto Squadrone, R. Rodano

• 2005
  For Archers Published later

  7 elite archers of the Turkish national team (FITA 1,303), 6 club beginners (1,152) and 10 people who did not shoot, with indices built on finger flexor and extensor activity around the clicker: score rank correlates with the indices at r = 0.66 before the clicker, 0.70 after and 0.74 overall, with a negative slope, that is more score and less forearm activity. The non-archers were assigned a nominal score, which strengthens the correlation, and the four time windows the indices are computed over were chosen by maximising that same correlation: 0.74 is the most that fits these twenty-three people, not what would be seen on a new archer.

  Quantification the relationship between FITA scores and EMG skill indexes in archery · H. Ertan, A.R. Soylu, F. Korkusuz

• 2010
  Context Archers Published later

  10 male beginners in six simulated draw positions, with electromyography of 8 muscles and motion sensors: the harder the scapular muscles work, the less the humerus trembles in the 8 to 12 Hz band (correlations between -0.22 and -0.57 at partial draw, -0.31 and -0.39 at full draw). At 110° of elevation, though, the sign reverses for the 3 to 7 Hz band, and the best correlation explains a third of the variance. None of those correlations is significant, though: with ten people the threshold sits at 0.632 and the study's largest is 0.573, the article publishes no p-value, and the asterisks in the tables mark bands of magnitude rather than significance. These are beginners, held statically, with no arrow shot.

  Activation and tremor of the shoulder muscles to the demands of an archery task · Jiu-Jenq Lin, Cheng-Ju Hung, Ching-Chieh Yang, Hsing-Yu Chen, Feng-Ching Chou, Tung-Wu Lu

• 2012
  Context Archers Published later

  3 elite archers of the Malaysian national team, with electromyography and arrow speed recorded for every shot: in one of the three, more activity in the drawing side's trapezius goes with higher scores (r = 0.46, 22% of variance explained, over 29 arrows). In the other two the link does not appear. A preliminary result, conference proceedings.

  Influence of Muscle Activity on Shooting Performance in Archery: Preliminary Findings · Edin Suwarganda, Ruhil Razali, Barry Wilson, Ahmad Pharmy

• 2014
  For Archers Published later

  27 Turkish recurve archers across three levels: the elite hold the draw with the posterior deltoid and middle trapezius, while the less experienced rely more on the lower trapezius, with significant differences between groups (p < 0.05) but no values reported. In the same sample the anterior deltoid and pectoralis major work the same way at every level. Two warnings that come from the article itself: all the activities are percentages of each person's maximum contraction, and the novices exceed their own maximum while aiming, so that reference had been measured too low; and the upper trapezius appears in both lists, among the significant and the non-significant, within the same sentence. The lower trapezius, moreover, is proximal too and goes the opposite way to the other two: the shift is between different proximal muscles. Conference proceedings, four pages.

  Kinetic and Kinematic Analysis of Recurve Archery Shooting Technique · Deniz Simsek, Ali Onur Cerrah, Hayri Ertan, A. Ruhi Soylu

• 2014
  Context Archers Published later

  One experienced recurve archer, surface electromyography with no statistics: the finger flexor of the drawing arm exceeds 2.5 mV between 0.7 and 1.4 s, stays at its peak at full load and while aiming and drops sharply at release, while the deltoid of the same arm follows the same course with a larger amplitude. A single case, regional journal.

  Biomechanics Measurements in Archery · Zulkifli Ahmad, Zahari Taha, Hasnun Arif Hassan, Mohd Azrul Hisham, Nasrul Hadi Johari, Kumaran Kadirgama

• 2015
  Context Model Published later

  An inverse-dynamics model built on motion capture of one archer with a 48 lb bow: peaks read from the graphs give the infraspinatus up to 15 to 20% of maximal contraction, about twice the supraspinatus, the deltoid up to 15%, the trapezius around 10% and the rhomboids 3%. It says something different and useful, that the cuff muscles do most of the work, but it is a simulation on a single subject and does not count as evidence on archers.

  Inverse Dynamic Analysis of Shoulder Muscle Activity During Archery Draw Back · Aviktha Reddy, Yahia M. Al-Smadi

• 2017
  Context Archers Published later

  Two right-handed compound archers, one trained and one who rarely shoots, surface electromyography on six muscles per arm and forces estimated by multiplying the signal by muscle cross-sections from the literature, five shots each: during the draw, on the string arm, the trained archer reaches 213.9 N in the middle deltoid and 123.4 in the middle trapezius, the occasional archer 164.9 and 163.8, with the biceps at 280 against 371.1. More deltoid and less trapezius in the trained archer, so more shoulder but not more back. One archer per group, a compound bow with a mechanical release and estimated forces: context only.

  Comparison of upper limb muscles behaviour for skilled and recreational archers using compound bow · Muhammad Shahimi Ariffin, Azmin Sham Rambely

• 2018
  For Archers Published later

  30 male Japanese recurve archers, high school and university, split into elite, pre-elite and beginners by their 70 m score, 10 per group: over the second before the clicker the drawing arm's lower trapezius works at 54.0 ± 15.7% of maximal contraction in the elite, 39.4 ± 10.6% in the pre-elite and 34.0 ± 11.1% in the beginners, and the ratio of upper to lower trapezius is 1.23 in the elite against 2.33 in the beginners. Biceps and triceps work less in the experts, and the drawing arm is less abducted (99.0° against 107.2°). The upper trapezius and the middle and posterior deltoid, by contrast, do not differ.

  Analysis of Muscular Activity in Archery: A Comparison of Skill Level · Hiroshi Shinohara, Yukio Urabe

• 2020
  Context Archers Published later

  31 elite recurve archers randomised with stratification by sex and experience, eight weeks of lower-trapezius strengthening: the ratio between upper and lower trapezius goes from 3.47 to 1.43 in the exercise group against 1.57 to 1.39 in the control, with F of 4.74 and p of 0.038, and scapular elevation falls from 81.5 to 78.9 degrees against 80.0 to 80.6, with p of 0.004. Shoulder abduction does not change. It shows the ratio can be shifted by training, and it does not measure score. Regional journal.

  Effects of Lower Trapezius Strengthening Exercise on Shoulder Pain, Function and Archery Performance in Elite Archers · Eunkuk Kim, Jinho Kim, Jinyoung You

• 2020
  Context Archers Published later

  One elite traditional archer, the best five shots out of ten, with muscle forces estimated from electromyography normalised on cadaver muscle cross-sections: the triceps comes out between 359 and 387 N in every phase, the pectoralis up to 236, the flexor carpi radialis on the string side 136 at the hold. The latissimus dorsi and middle trapezius of the drawing arm, on the other hand, come into play only with the draw and peak at the release: the latissimus from 10 N in the stance to 170, the middle trapezius from 74 to 164. In other muscles, though, starting with the triceps, the maxima already appear in the stance, meaning the method is not plausible, and the venue has doubtful editorial standards: it counts only as context.

  Upper Extremity Muscle Force for Traditional Archery using Khatrah Technique Questionable venue · Muhammad Shahimi Ariffin

• 2021
  For Archers Published later

  28 recurve archers of three levels, electromyography of 13 muscles and 12 shot cycles at 30 m: in the elite the contribution of the flexor digitorum superficialis to the release and follow-through synergy is lower than in the intermediates, p of 0.01, and than in the beginners, p of 0.02. It is read on synergy weights rather than activation levels, so it says how the movement is organised more than how hard each muscle works.

  Muscle coordination during archery shooting: A comparison of archers with different skill levels · Zhang Baifa, Zhou Xinglong, Luo Dongmei

• 2022
  For Review Published later

  Systematic review of 41 studies: it lines up three papers finding that beginners draw with the biceps rather than the back muscles, and a fourth finding that the elite use the posterior deltoid and middle trapezius. It draws partly on studies already counted here, so it confirms the reading without adding samples.

  Performance assessment in archery: a systematic review · Eleonora Vendrame, Valeria Belluscio, Luigi Truppa, Lorenzo Rum, Aldo Lazich, Elena Bergamini, Andrea Mannini

• 2022
  Context Archers Published later

  14 university recurve archers, 7 in exercise and 7 in control, 12 weeks of work aimed at the lower trapezius: on the drawing side the upper trapezius falls from 78 ± 22 to 44 ± 36% of maximal contraction, the biceps from 42 ± 15 to 29 ± 12 and the triceps from 26 ± 10 to 19 ± 14, and the ratio of upper to lower trapezius goes from 2.2 ± 0.8 to 1.1 ± 0.9 (p = 0.014). In the control group the only muscle that changes is the triceps itself, from 34 ± 13 to 23 ± 12, so its fall does not depend on the training. Shoulder angles at full draw shift by three degrees at most, with no significant difference. The load can therefore be shifted onto the right muscles without changing the position, and this is the only intervention in the bibliography to show it, on seven people allocated by preference.

  Twelve-Week Lower Trapezius-Centred Muscular Training Regimen in University Archers · Chien-Nan Liao, Chun-Hao Fan, Wei-Hsiu Hsu, Chia-Fang Chang, Pei-An Yu, Liang-Tseng Kuo, et al.

• 2023
  Context Review Published later

  A scoping review of 126 articles, ten of them on archery: it reports a sample of medal-winning archers in which better control of bow and posture goes with higher activity of the finger extensor, the opposite direction from the 2005 Turkish result on the forearm. It comes second hand and without figures.

  Sport-specific training induced adaptations in postural control and their relationship with athletic performance · Erika Zemková, Zuzana Kováčiková

• 2024
  Against Archers Published later

  24 Malaysian state-squad compound archers aged 14 to 22, split into elite, intermediate and junior by score, 9 arrows at 18 m with electromyography of six muscles: no difference between levels, with the middle deltoid at 18.9, 15.2 and 15.8% of maximal contraction (p = 0.53), the middle trapezius at 32.0, 24.4 and 29.5% (p = 0.64) and the lower trapezius at 27.3, 26.5 and 15.6% (p = 0.12). In the same sample the most used muscles are the posterior deltoid, the middle trapezius and the anconeus. The compound bow holds the draw load with the mechanical release, so the null may be a difference of equipment rather than of technique; beginners are missing too, since every group is at state level.

  Shoulder Girdle Muscles Activation of Compound Archers · Fatin Nurfatehah Mat Salleh, Mon Redee Sut Txi

• 2024
  Context Archers Published later

  28 Chinese recurve archers across three levels, analysis of the coordination between the drawing arm's shoulder and elbow: the first component, explaining 60% of the variability, is reported as differing between levels at p = 0.03, but that value is only reproduced by counting each archer's twelve shots as twelve archers: across the twenty-eight participants the means and standard deviations in their own table give F = 0.30 and p of about 0.74. What remains is the description, that in the national-team archers shoulder and elbow start together at the beginning of the draw and stop earlier, staying stiller while aiming. It is an indirect way of saying that the draw is led by the shoulder girdle. The same sample as the paper on consistency, counting once. Regional journal.

  A Comparative Study on the Joint Coordination of Archery Athletes of Different Skill Levels: Based on Functional Data Analysis Questionable venue · Baifa Zhang, Zhi-Cheng Lin

• 2025
  Context Archers Published later

  5 Russian archers of Master of Sport level, 180 arrows at 18 m, electromyography of 18 muscles on both sides across 48 channels: the asymmetry coefficient between right and left is 0.86 for the superficial finger flexor, 0.64 for the brachioradialis and the flexor carpi radialis and 0.58 for the long head of the biceps, where above 0.40 already counts as marked asymmetry. The drawing hand works hard regardless: the claim says where the load is held, not that the forearm is idle.

  Manifestation of asymmetry in muscle activity during the execution of shots from a recurve bow · A.M. Pukhov

• 2025
  For Archers Published later

  8 high-level French archers with Olympic recurve bows at 70 m: while aiming, the middle deltoid of the bow arm works between 46.5 and 65.5 per cent of maximal contraction, the middle deltoid of the drawing arm between 31.8 and 35.1 and the external oblique on the string side between 5.1 and 6.1. After release the middle trapezius on the string side sits between 41.4 and 44.7, the finger flexors between 3.9 and 6.3 and the multifidus on the bow side between 2.5 and 2.9. The load is in the shoulder girdle, not in the fingers. The same data appear in the 2026 thesis and count once.

  A multi-parameter investigation of elite archery: distinguishing individual and shared performance strategies during the aiming and follow-through phases · Raphaël Jacquot, Khaireddine Ben Mansour, Kévin Bouillet, Jean-Philippe Jehl, Gérôme Gauchard

• 2026
  For Archers Published later

  15 recurve archers, elite and intermediate: while aiming, the elite use the drawing arm's middle trapezius more (p < 0.001) and the superficial finger flexor less (p < 0.01). We report only the direction of the result and not the values, because in the thesis discussion the maximal contraction percentages for the flexors are given the other way round from the results, and that needs clearing up before those figures are used.

  Analyse multidimensionnelle de la performance en tir à l'arc · Raphaël Jacquot

Status history

1. 1971 Reported The earliest electromyography in the archive is on three kyudo practitioners, with fourteen muscles recorded: during the opening the discharge of the teres major on both sides, of the deltoid and of the triceps grows, that is the shoulder and back of both arms. In the same trace, though, the biceps works hard throughout the opening and in the drawing arm it rises further during the hold. Evidence on archers, since kyudo counts, but on three people and with one element pulling the other way.
2. 1976 Reported A comparison of four experts with six complete beginners adds the moment of release: the middle trapezius on the drawing side increases its discharge in the experts and falls silent in the beginners. These are traces without figures, on ten people: the direction is confirmed and the status stays.
3. 1987 Reported The first study with world-level archers compares two of them with two beginners and one intermediate, with electromyography of eleven muscles: in the beginners the biceps works hard, in the experts the draw is held by the back and shoulders. Five people and a qualitative analysis: the direction is there, the proof is not.
4. 1990 Reported Eight experienced archers with competition background, nine shots per distance from eighteen to ninety metres: the trapezius is the first muscle to contract in both arms, in every participant and at every distance. It is the shoulder that starts the draw, and this time the finding is systematic, though it remains a description of the order of activation with no link to score.
5. 1993 Reported A qualification worth keeping: in ten club archers measured while aiming, the muscle with the highest integrated value is not the trapezius but the deltoid on the bow side, 987 microvolts per second, the highest of the six sites. The work sits in the shoulder complex as a whole rather than in one muscle, and nobody has yet compared groups taught to draw with the back against groups who are not.
6. 2005 Reported A Turkish group relates FITA score to the activity of the forearm muscles around the clicker in 23 people across three levels, and finds the highest correlation in the whole bibliography on this point: the higher the score, the lower the forearm activity, with indices up to r = 0.74. That number, though, is built to be high, because the time windows of the indices were cut by maximising the correlation itself, on a sample in which ten scores out of twenty-three are assigned rather than measured. It remains a cross-sectional association, and the direction counts for more than its size.
7. 2010 Reported A clue about the mechanism arrives, not about score: in ten beginners, more activity of the scapular muscles goes with less tremor of the humerus, with correlations between minus 0.22 and minus 0.57 at partial draw. The link is weak, explaining at most a third of the variation, and the sign partly reverses at full draw at one hundred and ten degrees of elevation. The status does not change.
8. 2012 Reported The first figure linking the back to the target is tiny: in one of the three Malaysian national-team archers measured arrow by arrow, more activity of the trapezius on the drawing side goes with higher scores, with a correlation of 0.46 over twenty-nine arrows. A single archer, so the status stays where it is.
9. 2014 Reported Across twenty-seven recurve archers of three levels, the elite hold the draw with the posterior deltoid and the middle trapezius, while the less experienced load the lower trapezius more. A single case measured with electromyography shows the deltoid of the drawing arm more active than the finger flexor, with the flexor at its peak at full load and while aiming and dropping sharply at release. The comparison is cross-sectional and the single case comes from a regional journal, so the status stays.
10. 2017 Reported A comparison of just two compound archers, one trained and one occasional, with forces estimated from electromyography, gives the trained archer more deltoid and less middle trapezius. One case each and a mechanical release: it stays context, and the status stays reported.
11. 2018 Reported 30 Japanese archers across three levels supply the figures that were missing: over the second before the clicker the lower trapezius works at 54.0% in the elite against 34.0% in the beginners, and the ratio between upper and lower trapezius falls from 2.33 to 1.23 as level rises. The status does not rise because it is still a comparison between different groups measured once, and in the same sample the upper trapezius and the deltoids do not separate the levels.
12. 2020 Reported An intervention on thirty-one elite archers shows that the ratio can be shifted: eight weeks of lower-trapezius strengthening take it from 3.47 to 1.43 and reduce scapular elevation from 81.5 to 78.9 degrees. The same study also shows that before the intervention the ratio varies enormously from athlete to athlete, 3.47 with a standard deviation of 3.50. Estimates on one traditional archer, in a venue with doubtful editorial standards and with forces derived from cadaver muscle cross-sections, place the arm and trunk above the forearm on the drawing side. Neither measures score, so the status stays.
13. 2021 Reported The analysis of muscle synergies in twenty-eight recurve archers adds the how, not only the how much: the shot is organised into three groups of muscles, one per phase, and in beginners the middle deltoid weighs less in the aiming synergy, while in the elite the finger flexors weigh less in the release synergy. Two details consistent with the claim, read on synergy weights rather than activation levels, so the status does not move.
14. 2022 Reported A systematic review gathers three strands all pointing the same way: beginners draw with the biceps, intermediate archers and beginners lean on the lower trapezius by depressing the scapula, and the higher the FITA score the less the forearm works. In the same year a twelve-week lower-trapezius programme in fourteen university archers lowers the activity of the upper trapezius and biceps and halves the ratio between upper and lower trapezius, from 2.2 to 1.1, without any significant change in the shoulder angles; the triceps falls in the control group as well, so that part cannot be credited to the training. This is the first time the load shifts after training rather than only between groups of different level, but the group is small and score is not the outcome.
15. 2023 Reported A review reports a sample of medal-winning archers in which better control of bow and posture goes with higher, not lower, activity of the finger extensor: the opposite direction from the Turkish result of 2005. It comes second hand and without figures, so it stays context and the status holds.
16. 2024 Reported The first study on the compound bow arrives, where shoulder-girdle activation does not separate the levels. The status does not change: the claim holds for the recurve bow with a finger release, and the compound, held with a mechanical release aid, does not put it to the test.
17. 2025 Reported An asymmetry measurement on five elite recurve archers, with forty-eight electromyography channels synchronised to the clicker, shows two things at once: the forearm muscles of the drawing hand work far harder than those of the bow hand, with an asymmetry coefficient of 0.86 on the finger flexor, so the forearm does not rest at all; and the serratus anterior on the bow side gains more and more over its counterpart, with a coefficient that reaches minus 0.83 by the release, in order to hold the scapula against the push of the bow. In the same year, in eight French elite archers, the percentages of maximal contraction say where the load goes: middle deltoid of the bow arm between 46.5 and 65.5, middle trapezius on the string side between 41.4 and 44.7 after release, finger flexors between 3.9 and 6.3 and trunk muscles around five. All descriptive and on minimal samples, but the shape of the claim sharpens: the back carries the load, it does not replace it.
18. 2026 Reported In the comparison between elite and intermediate archers, the elite use the middle trapezius of the drawing arm more and the finger flexors less, which is the exact shape of the claim. It is a single cross-sectional sample, from the same laboratory as the year before, and the registry links it to that study because it reuses its elite archers: it counts once and the status does not change.

Related

Related articles

• Which muscles work in an archery shot, and at what share of their maximumWhich muscles switch on in an archery shot, in which phase and at what share of their maximum, and why studies give different figures for the same muscle.
• Barebow / instinctive vs Olympic recurve vs compound: differences in the shot, the equipment and the scoreRecurve, compound and shooting without a sight compared: draw weight, arrow speed and flex, let-off, balance, scoring and injuries in the registry's data.
• The string elbow: where it sits and what changes when it risesWhere the string elbow sits in strong archers, whether aligning it with the line of force earns more points, and what changes when it rises.

Research lines

• 46 studiesShooting EMG from 1971 to today
• 54 studiesMovement variability and individual technique since 1971

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 camera diagonally behind the archer measures the vertical sway of the aim well, but not the horizontal1 study · 3 archers measuredStatus since 2010
• 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

See all claims on technique and biomechanics