In expert kyudo archers the gaze does not stay fixed on the target during the draw

The summary today

The only measurement comes from kyudo and is a two-page conference communication from 1994. Four students from a university club with at least six years of practice and one beginner, wearing an eye tracker, repeated the shooting sequence four times up to a five-second hold at kai. In the beginner the gaze stayed on the target from start to finish. In all four experts, by contrast, it was on the target before the draw and then dropped down and to the right, with the fixation points split into two clusters, and the shift began at the moment the body takes up the load of the bow; in each of them the path of the gaze repeated almost identically. The authors suggest aiming handed over to peripheral vision, but they call it a conjecture. There are no figures and no scores, and the comparison with the beginner rests on one person. A 2019 study of Korean recurve archers measures gaze while they watch a film of the shot from the archer's point of view, not while they shoot, and in the drawing phase finds both groups looking at the target and the sight.

Also phrased as: "looking at the centre"; "eyes fixed on the target"; "gaze during the draw"; "eye movements in archery"; "peripheral vision while aiming"

Evidence

• 1994
  For Kyudo archers Published later

  4 male university club kyudo archers with at least 6 years of practice and 1 beginner, Talk Eye eye tracker, 4 repetitions each with a 5-second hold at kai: in the beginner the fixation points stay in a single cluster on the target; in all four experts they split into two clusters, one on the target and one lower and to the right, and the shift appears during the draw, as the body takes up the load of the bow. A conference communication, with no figures or statistics.

  Eye movements of kyudo player · Takaomi Saito, Tadahiko Fukuda

• 1994
  Context Kyudo archers Published later

  The way the gaze shifts differs from one expert to another, but in each it stays almost identical across the four repetitions, and the point where the gaze settles is practically the same every time. The authors suggest aiming handed over to peripheral vision and write themselves that the discussion does not go beyond conjecture.

  Eye movements of kyudo player · Takaomi Saito, Tadahiko Fukuda

• 2019
  Context Archers Published later

  7 recurve archers from the Korean national team and 7 university archers watch a film of the shot recorded from the archer's point of view: in the waiting phase the national archers look more often at the target (5.48 ± 1.36 fixations against 3.76 ± 1.76) and at the wind flags (0.90 against 0.62), while in the set-up and the draw the two groups do not differ and at the end both look at the target and the sight. Gaze is measured on a film, not during shooting.

  Visual Scanning Behavior and Attention Strategies for Shooting Among Expert Versus Collegiate Korean Archers · Youngsook Kim, Taiseok Chang, Inchon Park

Status history

1. 1994 Reported The first measurement comes from a Japanese conference communication: four university kyudo archers with at least six years of practice and one beginner, wearing an eye tracker, repeat the shot four times up to a five-second hold. In the beginner the gaze stays on the target; in all four experts it drops down and to the right during the draw, at the moment the body takes up the load of the bow, and does so almost identically on each repetition. Five people, no figures, no statistics, only kyudo: reported, which is as far as kyudo alone allows.
2. 2019 Reported The first study of gaze in recurve archers, seven from the Korean national team and seven university archers, has them watch a film shot from the archer's point of view instead of shooting. In the early phases the national archers look more often at the target and the wind flags, while in the set-up and the draw the two groups do not differ and both look at the target and the sight. Watching a film is not drawing a bow, so the question stays where it was: the status does not change.

Related

Related articles

• Aiming with one eye shut or both eyes open: what the studies measuredDoes closing one eye tighten your group? The two studies that measured it disagree, and the few measurements of gaze while aiming say it often does not stay still.
• Aiming time: how long to hold, when to releaseHow long the aim lasts in research, whether holding longer costs points, what happens in the final seconds before release and whether the time limit is enough.

Research lines

• 14 studiesGaze and vision: quiet eye, eye dominance and oculomotor behaviour
• 55 studiesAttention and cognition in archers: research since 1986

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