Expert archers repeat the shot with less variability than beginners

34 studies · 425 archers measured

Each circle is a study: its position gives the year, its row whether it is for, against or context, its size how many participants it measured. Light circles are studies on other populations or without archers.

In the comparison between experts and beginners the direction is not in doubt. In 15 archers measured with electromyography, the Olympians repeated the same muscle pattern on 92% of shots, the national-level archers on 41%, the beginners on none; in 28 Chinese archers the variability of activation during the draw is around 10% in the experts and 21% in the beginners on most of the muscles measured; among high-school kyudo practitioners the elbow position changes between two shots by seven tenths of a millimetre in a third-year practitioner and by more than thirty millimetres in a beginner. Variability does fall, then, but three things stop the matter being settled. First, these are all comparisons between different groups measured once, in tiny samples and often with no statistical test: nobody has followed the same archers while they learned. Second, the fall does not cover everything: in that same Chinese sample the consistency of activation while aiming and of elbow angles does not distinguish the levels, and on two measures of movement complexity the experts come out less regular rather than more. Third, among archers who are already skilled the picture turns over: as early as 1990, in eight elite and good county-standard archers, the consistency of posture at release did not separate the two groups; among elite archers the consistency of the movement does not separate arrows in the 10 ring from the rest, and the precision with which positions are reproduced does not say who is best. What falls, then, is not variability in general: it is the variability of what matters for where the arrow goes.

Also phrased as: "consistency of the shot in archers"; "repeatability of the shot"; "experts compared with beginners"; "movement variability in archery"; "the same shot every time"

In practice

Archers are taught that learning to shoot means repeating the same movement every time, and that what separates an archer from a beginner shows in consistency before it shows in the score.

Evidence

1971
For Kyudo archers Published later

3 kyudo archers (fourth dan, second dan, beginner) with the force on the bow picked up by a strain gauge: the loading curve rises smoothly in the fourth-dan archer and fluctuates in the beginner. It is purely descriptive, three people and no numerical values, but it is the first time the repeatability of the movement appears in the bibliography.

An Electromyographic Analysis of Japanese Archery · Sadatsugu Kamei, Hideji Matsui, Mitsumasa Miyashita
1990
For Archers Published later

15 archers from the United States national squad with a mean FITA score of 1,211 out of 1,440: the coefficient of variation of the release's muscle pattern is 16.2 per cent in the flexors and 14.9 in the extensors within the same archer, against 52.5 and 51.2 between different archers. Each repeats himself very consistently, and none resembles the others.

Electromyographic analysis of bow string release in highly skilled archers · Philip E. Martin, William L. Siler, Dean Hoffman
1990
For Archers Published later

In the third of the four experiments, 15 archers at three levels: muscle patterns identical from shot to shot run at 92 per cent in the Olympians, 41 in the national-level archers and none in the beginners, who reach 79 per cent only of merely conforming patterns. The index of muscular economy separates the Olympians from the other groups with p below 0.01. Three Olympians, six national-level archers and six beginners.

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.
1990
For Archers Published later

In the same work, the result on the arrow: between Olympians and national-level archers the mean speed does not change, 56.0 metres per second with a standard deviation of 0.4 against 53.1 with 0.6, and the difference is not significant. What changes is the consistency: in the Olympians the arrow's speed is steadier, with p below 0.01. At equal mean performance, the difference lies in the dispersion.

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.
1990
Context Archers Published later

Where the remaining variability ends up, in the same 15 archers: in the three Olympians the 8 per cent of non-identical shots is all in the bow arm's brachioradialis; in the six national-level archers the 48 per cent of analogous patterns and 11 of merely conforming ones concern the string arm's finger extensor and flexor, before and during the release; in the six beginners the 21 per cent of different patterns sits mainly in the trapezius. As the level rises the variability does not disappear, it moves.

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.
1990
Against Archers Published later

9 skilled archers, 8 analysed, split by handicap into an elite group of national and international level and a group of good county standard, two ends of three arrows at 15 m with a three-dimensional analyser on the head, the drawing elbow and the bow: the correlations between level and consistency of position at release are not different from zero, except the lateral variability of the head in the first end (r = -0.85), which falls to -0.14 in the second, and analysis of variance separates the two groups on no variable (P > 0.05). The distance between bow and elbow varies more in the elite archers, with a within-end standard deviation of 45 mm against 11 (P < 0.01), and in almost every other comparison the elite archers come out more variable, not less. It compares two high levels, not experts with beginners.

Postural consistency in skilled archers · Jonathan Stuart, John Atha
1990
Context Archers Published later

Same study, two archers from the same elite group: the standard deviation of the head-to-bow distance at release runs from 7 mm in one to 161 in the other, head-to-elbow from 6 to 87 and bow-to-elbow from 2 to 79. At the same level, the repeatability of posture differs twentyfold from one archer to another.

Postural consistency in skilled archers · Jonathan Stuart, John Atha
1994
For Archers Published later

12 recurve archers put through six sets of ten 20-second holds at full draw, with 20 seconds of recovery between sets, and electromyography normalised against maximal isometric contractions: the authors report that every subject showed a highly repeatable muscular action both before and after the fatigue protocol. No numerical value on the repeatability, and no control group.

Fatigue effects on shooting archery performance · Roberto Squadrone, Renato Rodano, C. Gallozzi
1994
Context Archers Published later

7 intermediate archers with FITA scores between 1,180 and 1,300 and 5 high-level ones above 1,300, 20 shots at 12 m each with motion analysis, electromyography and a force plate: the traces of the finger flexors, biceps and back muscles are almost identical between trials of the same archer, but there is no typical pattern across archers, and the normalised peaks differ widely from person to person. What falls is the individual's own variability, not the distance from a shared model.

Multifactorial analysis of shooting archery · Roberto Squadrone, R. Rodano
1994
Context Kyudo archers Published later

4 experienced university kyudo archers and one beginner, 4 shots each: in the more experienced the path of the gaze is almost superimposable from shot to shot and the end point almost identical, while between one archer and another the paths differ. It is descriptive, a conference abstract, and it extends repeatability to a measure no other study touches.

Eye movements of kyudo player · Takaomi Saito, Tadahiko Fukuda
2005
Context Review Published later

A review chapter that brings together three electromyographic studies already in the registry, from 1990 and 1993, and concludes that what the score is linked to is the consistency of the movement more than the pattern or the intensity with which the muscles are used. It reports no numerical values of its own.

Psychological Aspects of Archery · Kathleen M. Haywood
2006
For Archers Published later

7 elite archers with a FITA score of 1,303, 6 beginners with 1,152 and 10 non-archers, 12 shots each with electromyography of the forearm muscles around the clicker: the variance ratio of the finger extensor is lower in the elite than in the non-archers with p below 0.001, and that of the flexor digitorum superficialis is lower in both archer groups with p below 0.05. Those who shoot repeat, those who do not, do not.

Archery performance level and repeatability of event-related EMG · A.R. Soylu, H. Ertan, F. Korkusuz
2006
For Archers Published later

In the same study, the link to the score: the repeatability of forearm activity at release correlates with the FITA score at 0.72 for both the extensor (p below 0.0002) and the flexor (p below 0.0003). The figure comes with a heavy caveat, though: the non-archers were assigned a score of 250 by default, which inflates the correlation.

Archery performance level and repeatability of event-related EMG · A.R. Soylu, H. Ertan, F. Korkusuz
2006
Context Archers Published later

The detail the average hides, in the same 23 subjects: the variation between group medians is significant for both muscles (p below 0.002), but the pairwise comparisons show that the repeatability of the finger extensor separates only the elite from the non-archers, while that of the flexor digitorum superficialis separates the beginners too. Two muscles, two different thresholds.

Archery performance level and repeatability of event-related EMG · A.R. Soylu, H. Ertan, F. Korkusuz
2007
Against Archers Published later

In the archer ranked second in the world, before the release, the consistency of the shoulder's vertical angle does not follow the score: the coefficient of variation is 7.34 per cent on the arrows scoring 8, that is the lowest of the three, 8.91 on the 10s and 15.27 on the 9s. Within a single top archer, steadier does not mean closer to the centre.

Evaluation on Motion Features of the World's Second Archer during Back-Tension in Archery · J.-H. Yi, C.-K. Hah, J.-S. Ryu, K.-C. Kim
2007
Context Archers Published later

The other side of the same archer: after the release the coefficient of variation of the shoulder's horizontal angle is 5.87 per cent on the arrows scoring 10, 14.01 on the 9s and 11.53 on the 8s, and vertically 6.36, 7.68 and 10.77, while the means are almost identical. Through the follow-through consistency follows the score; before the release it does not.

Evaluation on Motion Features of the World's Second Archer during Back-Tension in Archery · J.-H. Yi, C.-K. Hah, J.-S. Ryu, K.-C. Kim
2007
Context Archers Published later

In the same top archer the mean shoulder and trunk angles change very little between arrows scoring 8, 9 and 10: trunk angle 31.42 degrees with a standard deviation of 0.95, shoulder vertical angle 7.59 with 0.29 before release and 29.08 with 0.98 after, with no differences by score. What separates the arrows is not the mean position.

Evaluation on Motion Features of the World's Second Archer during Back-Tension in Archery · J.-H. Yi, C.-K. Hah, J.-S. Ryu, K.-C. Kim
2007
Context Archers Published later

The figure that explains why consistency has to be measured where the movement is large: through the follow-through the top archer's trunk rotates by 1.03 degrees with a coefficient of variation of 59.75 per cent, while before the release it rotates by 6.87 degrees with a coefficient of 14.11. A tiny movement is by definition highly variable in percentage terms, and that should be kept in mind when reading this whole page.

Evaluation on Motion Features of the World's Second Archer during Back-Tension in Archery · J.-H. Yi, C.-K. Hah, J.-S. Ryu, K.-C. Kim
2012
For Archers Published later

One archer with three years of practice against one with a year, 36 repeated draws without a bow recorded with a depth sensor: the standard deviation of the joint coordinates is smaller in the more experienced archer, above all at the bow arm's hand and elbow and at the string arm's hand and elbow in the lateral direction. Two people, no statistical test.

Approach to Improve Archery Competence through Creative Engineering Practice · Hajime Miyauchi
2012
For Archers Published later

The same comparison, looked at joint by joint across fifteen points: the differences in repeatability are marked laterally at the hands, elbows and right foot, and vertically at the shoulder, neck and hip, while along the axis of distance from the sensor they are small. So repeatability does not grow across the board: it grows where the movement has to be precise.

Approach to Improve Archery Competence through Creative Engineering Practice · Hajime Miyauchi
2012
For Archers Published later

7 archers from the German junior and senior national squads, 30 arrows each at 18 m with timings taken by microphone: the coefficient of variation of the clicker-to-release time explains 66% of the variance in mean score (F = 12.78, p = 0.02), and the value runs from 3.94% in the archer who placed second to 7.25%. It measures consistency in time, not in space, and it is a comparison between archers of similar level rather than between experts and beginners.

Evaluation of arrow release in highly skilled archers using an acoustic measurement system · Mario Heller
2012
Against Archers Published later

3 elite archers with electromyography and radar arrow by arrow: a muscle's standardised activity, with 1.0 as the mean of that archer's shots, runs from 0.71 to 1.34 in the first archer and 0.85 to 1.60 in the second for the right triceps, 0.70 to 1.26 for the left deltoid and 0.79 to 1.22 for the right trapezius. Even at the top, variability from arrow to arrow stays large.

Influence of Muscle Activity on Shooting Performance in Archery: Preliminary Findings · Edin Suwarganda, Ruhil Razali, Barry Wilson, Ahmad Pharmy
2012
Context Archers Published later

In the same 3 elite archers, the muscle with the widest range of variability is the drawing side's trapezius in two archers out of three: 0.12 to 0.21 in the first and 0.09 to 0.56 in the third, who is also the best of the three. The muscle the technique asks you to hold still is the one that varies most.

Influence of Muscle Activity on Shooting Performance in Archery: Preliminary Findings · Edin Suwarganda, Ruhil Razali, Barry Wilson, Ahmad Pharmy
2014
Against Archers Published later

27 Turkish recurve archers across three levels: the angles of fingers, wrist and elbow at release do not differ significantly between elite, intermediate and beginner archers (p > 0.05), and the differences show only by looking at the graphs. In the same sample muscle activation distinguishes the levels, the angles do not.

Kinetic and Kinematic Analysis of Recurve Archery Shooting Technique · Deniz Simsek, Ali Onur Cerrah, Hayri Ertan, A. Ruhi Soylu
2017
For Archers Published later

4 Korean secondary-school girls aged 14 to 16, 36 arrows at 30 m with an inertial sensor on the bow forearm and the distance between traces as an index of consistency: the two with the highest scores, 59 and 59.5 out of 60, have distances of 13.87 and 16.72, the two with the lowest 23.53 and 23.30. Four people and no statistical test.

Analysis of Shooting Consistency in Archers: A Dynamic Time Warping Algorithm-Based Approach · Cheng-Hao Quan, Zia Mohy-Ud-Din, Sangmin Lee
2017
For Archers Published later

In the same group, a detail worth noting: the steadier archers were not only more repeatable on average, they were also steadier in their own degree of repeatability, with standard deviations of 0.9 and 1.3 against 2.2 and 2.3. Consistency, here, is itself consistent.

Analysis of Shooting Consistency in Archers: A Dynamic Time Warping Algorithm-Based Approach · Cheng-Hao Quan, Zia Mohy-Ud-Din, Sangmin Lee
2017
For Archers Published later

A third result from the same study: in the two archers with the highest scores 35 shots out of 36 were recognisable as similar to the reference ten, in the other two 29 and 31. Some of the weaker archers' shots could not be matched to any template, that is they were off pattern.

Analysis of Shooting Consistency in Archers: A Dynamic Time Warping Algorithm-Based Approach · Cheng-Hao Quan, Zia Mohy-Ud-Din, Sangmin Lee
2017
Context Kyudo archers Published later

9 kyudo practitioners with electromyography of 8 trunk muscles and synergy analysis: in the less experienced group, 5 people, the individual differences in the external oblique are wide, that is the way the trunk is stabilised varies more from archer to archer. It is descriptive, and on five people in the group that matters.

Comparison of Modular Control of Trunk Muscle by Japanese Archery Competitive Level: A Pilot Study · Naoto Matsunaga, Atsushi Imai, Koji Kaneoka
2018
For Kyudo archers Published later

15 secondary-school kyudo students with six months to three years of practice, two shots each on video: the difference in the right elbow's position between the two shots runs from 0.706 mm in a third-year student already in the Kokutai squad to 36.274 mm in a beginner. Two shots each and no statistical test, but it is the first measurement of repeatability outside electromyography.

Study on motion analysis of archery · Haruhi Koyama, Yuji Kawamori, Masanobu Asai, Nobuyuki Kida
2018
For Kyudo archers Published later

In the same 15 students, the repeatability of timing: the difference in duration between the two shots, from raising the bow to the closing phase, is between zero and one second in the more experienced and between zero and seven in the first year, over a sequence lasting from 12 to 26 seconds.

Study on motion analysis of archery · Haruhi Koyama, Yuji Kawamori, Masanobu Asai, Nobuyuki Kida
2018
Against Archers Published later

10 archers of the Brazilian national squad, 720 arrows in all: in the 50 ms around the clicker the amplitude of muscle activity has a standard deviation that often exceeds the mean, for instance triceps 73.50 with 169.25, finger flexor 44.12 with 121.16, pectoralis major 40.87 with 82.04 and upper trapezius 35.21 with 91.61 per cent of maximal contraction. In a national squad the repeatability of amplitude simply is not there.

Temporal pattern in the muscles of the upper limbs and the trunk in the archery · Nadjila Tejo Machado
2018
Context Archers Published later

30 Japanese secondary-school and university archers split into three levels by their 70 m scores: over five shots in quick succession the intraclass correlation coefficients between trials are above 0.97 for the kinematic data and above 0.82 for the electromyographic ones. It serves as a warning about method: over a few consecutive shots everybody looks repeatable, and the measure decides the result.

Analysis of Muscular Activity in Archery: A Comparison of Skill Level · Hiroshi Shinohara, Yukio Urabe
2018
Context Archers Published later

6 archers of the Belgian national squad, 90 arrows at 18 m each: on the arrows scoring 9 and 10 the variance that does not alter the arrow's orientation is significantly greater than the variance that does, over most of the aim, while on the arrows scoring 6 to 8 the thresholds are largely not reached. The elite do not minimise every movement: they let the segments vary so that the variations cancel out.

The Uncontrolled Manifold Concept Reveals That the Structure of Postural Control in Recurve Archery Shooting Is Related to Accuracy · Ben Serrien, Elout Witterzeel, Jean-Pierre Baeyens
2020
Against Archers Published later

5 intermediate and experienced recurve archers, 104 to 177 shots each at 50 m, with a gyroscope on the bow: the same archer's shots split into 11 to 16 movement clusters per phase, across the draw, the aim and the release. What looks from outside like a repeated movement is, seen through a sensor, a set of variants.

Archery shots visualization by clustering and comparing from angular velocities of bows · Midori Kawaguchi, Hironori Mitake, Shoichi Hasegawa
2020
Against Archers Published later

In the same study, in archer C the bow's rotation speed at release was about double in one cluster of shots compared with the other, even without marked rotation about the other two axes in the comparison cluster. Within the same experienced archer, in the same session, two different ways of releasing.

Archery shots visualization by clustering and comparing from angular velocities of bows · Midori Kawaguchi, Hironori Mitake, Shoichi Hasegawa
2020
Context Archers Published later

What tells the variants apart, in the same 5 archers: an arm extended in two stages in one archer, a draw in two stages with the bow raised higher in another, a hand that catches the string and more shake at aim in a third. These are differences a sensor sees and a coach struggles to catch by eye.

Archery shots visualization by clustering and comparing from angular velocities of bows · Midori Kawaguchi, Hironori Mitake, Shoichi Hasegawa
2021
For Archers Published later

28 Chinese recurve archers at three levels, electromyography of 13 muscles and synergy analysis: the activation centre of the follow-through synergy falls at 91.4 per cent of the cycle in the elite with a standard deviation of 3.7, at 87.9 with 5.7 in the intermediates and at 71.9 with 29.5 in the beginners (p=0.00). The beginners' standard deviation is about eight times the elite's: it is the most telling figure on the page.

Muscle coordination during archery shooting: A comparison of archers with different skill levels · Zhang Baifa, Zhou Xinglong, Luo Dongmei
2021
Context Archers Published later

15 archers of the Polish national squad and 15 people holding a bow for the first time, recorded with an optoelectronic system while raising the bow and drawing the string: in the archers the shoulder angles and moments are regular and similar across subjects, in the beginners the moments oscillate chaotically between -0.02 and 0 newton metres per kilogram. It is a qualitative observation, with no measure of variability at all, in a journal with doubtful editorial standards: it confirms the direction and does not decide the status.

Torque Power and Angle Movement of the Shoulder Joint in Archery Questionable venue · Andrzej Kępczyński, Michalina Błażkiewicz
2021
Context Archers Published later

In the same 28 archers, the overlap between muscle activations is more frequent in the beginners halfway through the follow-through, and that is where the maximum falls for every group. The width of the activations, by contrast, does not separate the levels, with p between 0.22 and 0.84.

Muscle coordination during archery shooting: A comparison of archers with different skill levels · Zhang Baifa, Zhou Xinglong, Luo Dongmei
2021
Context Archers Published later

Where consistency does not change, in the same data: the activation centre of the draw synergy sits at 31.9 per cent of the cycle in the elite, 37.3 in the intermediates and 30.4 in the beginners (p=0.31), and that of the aim at 57.4, 57.8 and 57.8 (p=0.97). Learning stabilises the end of the shot, not the beginning.

Muscle coordination during archery shooting: A comparison of archers with different skill levels · Zhang Baifa, Zhou Xinglong, Luo Dongmei
2021
Context Archers Published later

The duration of the activations is the same at every level too: the full width at half maximum is 29.0, 31.2 and 33.7 per cent for the draw synergy (p=0.84), 52.8, 48.3 and 50.8 for the aim (p=0.46) and 25.8, 23.8 and 33.6 for the follow-through (p=0.22). What changes is when the activations fall, not how long they last.

Muscle coordination during archery shooting: A comparison of archers with different skill levels · Zhang Baifa, Zhou Xinglong, Luo Dongmei
2022
For Review Published later

A systematic review of 41 studies: it names the ability to reproduce identical muscle patterns as the main factor separating the better archers, leaning on Clarys 1990, Soylu 2006 and Squadrone 1994, and flags the variability of the clicker reaction as the best predictor in a 2017 study. It is the claim's broadest support, and it summarises studies already present here.

Performance assessment in archery: a systematic review · Eleonora Vendrame, Valeria Belluscio, Luigi Truppa, Lorenzo Rum, Aldo Lazich, Elena Bergamini, Andrea Mannini
2022
Against Review Published later

The same systematic review also reports the limit: according to a 1990 study of high-level archers, the postural consistency of head, elbow and bow at the moment of release may not be the main characteristic distinguishing performance between archers of similar level. Among peers, repeatability does not rank.

Performance assessment in archery: a systematic review · Eleonora Vendrame, Valeria Belluscio, Luigi Truppa, Lorenzo Rum, Aldo Lazich, Elena Bergamini, Andrea Mannini
2022
Against Archers Published later

9 recreational recurve archers, 5 with more than five years of practice and 4 with less than one, with a bow of 0.45 kg: the comparison between the two groups finds no significant difference in muscle activation, and the values are not reported. With a load this far from real shooting the result says little, but it counts.

Archery's signature: an electromyographic analysis of the upper limb · Tabitha Dorshorst, Gillian Weir, Joseph Hamill, Brigitte Holt
2022
Context Review Published later

A review of 21 studies on precision sports: in pistol shooters the coordination patterns between the weapon's movement and posture are more variable in beginners than in experts, and with learning the aim organises itself on fewer degrees of freedom. It is evidence from another sport, with no sample sizes reported, and it serves only to say that the phenomenon is not peculiar to archery.

The Role of Neuromuscular Control of Postural and Core Stability in Functional Movement and Athlete Performance · Erika Zemková, Ludmila Zapletalová
2023
For Archers Published later

14 archers of the Polish national squad against 14 people who had never shot, with the draw described as a phase portrait: the volume occupied is 7.0 against 8.3 for the bow hand, 7.3 against 8.0 for the string hand and 6.3 against 11.2 for the centre of mass, all with p below 0.01 over a thousand resamplings. Almost all of the difference is in the whole body, not in the hands.

Dynamical Analyses Show That Professional Archers Exhibit Tighter, Finer and More Fluid Dynamical Control than Neophytes · Hesam Azadjou, Michalina Błażkiewicz, Andrew Erwin, Francisco J. Valero-Cuevas
2023
Context Archers Published later

The result in the same study that points the other way: the exponent measuring how far a movement carries on in its own direction is 0.71 in the experts against 0.79 in the beginners for the bow hand, 0.85 against 0.86 for the string hand and 0.82 against 0.86 for the centre of mass, all with p below 0.01. Lower values mean more corrections and shorter movements: the experts correct more often, not less.

Dynamical Analyses Show That Professional Archers Exhibit Tighter, Finer and More Fluid Dynamical Control than Neophytes · Hesam Azadjou, Michalina Błażkiewicz, Andrew Erwin, Francisco J. Valero-Cuevas
2023
Context Archers Published later

The second complexity measure in the same study: sample entropy is 0.020 in the experts against 0.014 in the beginners for the string hand and 0.035 against 0.025 for the centre of mass, both with p below 0.01, while for the bow hand there is no difference. On two measures out of three the experts' draw is less regular, not more.

Dynamical Analyses Show That Professional Archers Exhibit Tighter, Finer and More Fluid Dynamical Control than Neophytes · Hesam Azadjou, Michalina Błażkiewicz, Andrew Erwin, Francisco J. Valero-Cuevas
2023
Context Archers Published later

Where the difference lies, in the same figures: the volume occupied by the movement is 7.0 against 8.3 for the bow hand and 7.3 against 8.0 for the string hand, but 6.3 against 11.2 for the centre of mass. Between experts and beginners, what changes most is not the hands: it is the whole body.

Dynamical Analyses Show That Professional Archers Exhibit Tighter, Finer and More Fluid Dynamical Control than Neophytes · Hesam Azadjou, Michalina Błażkiewicz, Andrew Erwin, Francisco J. Valero-Cuevas
2023
Context Archers Published later

The experts' extra corrections concern mainly the bow hand, 0.71 against 0.79, and the whole body, 0.82 against 0.86, while in the string hand the difference from the beginners is minimal, 0.85 against 0.86. The drawing hand is the part where experts and beginners most resemble each other.

Dynamical Analyses Show That Professional Archers Exhibit Tighter, Finer and More Fluid Dynamical Control than Neophytes · Hesam Azadjou, Michalina Błażkiewicz, Andrew Erwin, Francisco J. Valero-Cuevas
2023
Context Archers Published later

What holds for everybody, experts and beginners: the exponents measured lie between 0.71 and 0.86, that is in the range indicating a movement that carries on in its own direction, while 0.5 would correspond to a purely random one. The draw is never a random movement, at any level.

Dynamical Analyses Show That Professional Archers Exhibit Tighter, Finer and More Fluid Dynamical Control than Neophytes · Hesam Azadjou, Michalina Błażkiewicz, Andrew Erwin, Francisco J. Valero-Cuevas
2023
Context Review Published later

A review of 126 articles, ten of them on archery: it reports that among archers of similar level the precision with which the positions of head, elbow and bow at release are reproduced is not what separates the best, with wide variability in the replication of positions. It takes this from a 1990 study without reporting its values.

Sport-specific training induced adaptations in postural control and their relationship with athletic performance · Erika Zemková, Zuzana Kováčiková
2024
Context Archers Published later

28 Chinese recurve archers, 8 national-squad elite, 12 intermediates and 8 beginners: the coefficient of variation of shoulder abduction at its maximum is 1.1 per cent in the elite, 0.8 in the intermediates and 1.2 in the beginners, and at its minimum 1.0 and 0.8 against 1.5, marked with p below 0.05 against the beginners. Those four comparisons do not survive recomputation from the published means and standard deviations: at the peak the analysis of variance gives p = 0.23, so there was nothing to compare, and elite against beginners comes out at 0.71 (1.1 against 1.2 per cent); at the minimum only intermediates against beginners holds, at 0.016. Shoulder abduction, then, does not separate the levels. A regional journal, and the same data also appear in a second paper.

Comparative Analysis of Shooting Consistency Among Archers of Different Skill Levels Questionable venue · Bai-Fa Zhang, Zhi-Cheng Lin
2024
For Archers Published later

In the same 28 archers, muscle by muscle during the draw: the coefficient of variation of the integrated electromyogram is 9.8 and 10.7 per cent in the elite and intermediates against 20.5 in the beginners for the finger flexor, 10.0 and 13.0 against 21.9 for the biceps, 9.0 and 11.7 against 21.5 for the posterior deltoid, 8.6 and 11.5 against 22.5 for the middle trapezius, with p below 0.05. It is the most detailed comparison in the bibliography.

Comparative Analysis of Shooting Consistency Among Archers of Different Skill Levels Questionable venue · Bai-Fa Zhang, Zhi-Cheng Lin
2024
For Archers Published later

9 archers of national and international level with a mean of 16.6 years of practice against 9 novices, a simulated shot with a laser pointer at 10 m: the standard deviation of the bow's movement in the window from 100 ms before to 350 ms after release is smaller in the experts vertically, with t(16)=-2.99, p below 0.05 and d=1.41. A simulated shot with no arrow.

Anticipatory postural adjustments during an archery performance · Jae-Young Na, Donghyun Ryu, Ji-Hyun Ko
2024
Against Archers Published later

6 elite archers of the Chinese national squad measured with inertial sensors: the distance between traces, that is the index of movement consistency, does not differ between the arrows in the ten and those outside it (paired test, p above 0.05). Within an elite group the consistency of the movement does not separate the arrows. It is a conference abstract.

A032: Archery Consistency Assessment by Using Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) · Zengkai Lin, Xinglong Zhou
2024
Against Archers Published later

The same Chinese sample, on the side of the muscles that do not separate: during the draw the coefficient of variation does not separate the levels for the finger extensor (10.2 and 13.6 against 16.1), the long head of the triceps (14.2 and 11.5 against 17.8) and the latissimus dorsi (10.8 and 10.5 against 18.6). The fall in variability concerns some muscles and not others.

Comparative Analysis of Shooting Consistency Among Archers of Different Skill Levels Questionable venue · Bai-Fa Zhang, Zhi-Cheng Lin
2024
Against Archers Published later

The most awkward result in the same study: between the 8 national-squad elite archers and the 12 intermediates no difference in consistency emerges, in any of the kinematic or electromyographic variables in the two tables. The fall in variability separates those who shoot from those who are starting, not those who shoot well from those who shoot better.

Comparative Analysis of Shooting Consistency Among Archers of Different Skill Levels Questionable venue · Bai-Fa Zhang, Zhi-Cheng Lin
2024
Against Archers Published later

In the same data, the consistency of shoulder extension at its minimum has a coefficient of variation of 18.5 per cent in the elite, 15.7 in the intermediates and 28.5 in the beginners, with standard deviations of 61.5, 50.6 and 77.8: no significant difference and enormous dispersion in every group. At the maximum the figures drop to 3.2, 2.5 and 2.1. The measure depends on which point of the shot you look at.

Comparative Analysis of Shooting Consistency Among Archers of Different Skill Levels Questionable venue · Bai-Fa Zhang, Zhi-Cheng Lin
2024
Against Archers Published later

The same sample of 28 archers, published as a second paper and looked at through coordination between joints: the first component's loadings are -20.8 with a standard deviation of 130.2 in the international masters, 2.9 with 122.5 in the first category and 26.2 with 110.5 in the second. The standard deviations are four or five times larger than the differences between means, so the groups overlap almost completely, and the arithmetic confirms it: an analysis of variance across those twenty-eight archers gives F = 0.30 on 2 and 25 degrees of freedom, that is p of about 0.74. The reported p = 0.03 is obtained only by treating the 336 shots as 336 independent observations, that is by counting every archer twelve times. It counts once together with the other paper.

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
2024
Against Archers Published later

The same comparison between 9 experts and 9 novices, on the side of its limits: the variability of the bow's movement differs only vertically, with t(16)=-2.991, p below 0.05 and d=1.41, while fore and aft and sideways there is no significant difference at all. Sixteen years of practice show up in only one of the three directions.

Anticipatory postural adjustments during an archery performance · Jae-Young Na, Donghyun Ryu, Ji-Hyun Ko
2024
Context Archers Published later

In the same 28 archers, while aiming: the coefficient of variation of the integrated electromyogram sits between 43.7 and 62.9 per cent in all three groups, with no significant difference at all. The consistency of activation, while aiming, does not separate the experienced from the beginners.

Comparative Analysis of Shooting Consistency Among Archers of Different Skill Levels Questionable venue · Bai-Fa Zhang, Zhi-Cheng Lin
2024
Context Archers Published later

The same holds for the elbow: the coefficient of variation of elbow extension sits between 1.7 and 2.7 per cent across the three groups, with non-significant differences. Where the technique is constrained by the equipment, there is no room for the levels to differ.

Comparative Analysis of Shooting Consistency Among Archers of Different Skill Levels Questionable venue · Bai-Fa Zhang, Zhi-Cheng Lin
2024
Context Archers Published later

The comparison between the two phases of the shot, in the same data: the coefficient of variation of activation runs from 43.7 to 62.9 per cent while aiming and from 8.6 to 23.5 during the draw, at all three levels. Activation is far less repeatable while holding the aim than while pulling the string, and that holds for the elite too.

Comparative Analysis of Shooting Consistency Among Archers of Different Skill Levels Questionable venue · Bai-Fa Zhang, Zhi-Cheng Lin
2025
Context Archers Published later

18 archers the article calls elite without defining the level, 6 arrows at 18 m: the coefficient of variation of total shoulder flexion on the bow arm is between 6 and 8 per cent, on the string arm below 10, and abduction between 5.8 and 7.6, with means stable across arrows (for instance total flexion between 74.3 and 75.5 degrees). It gives the measurement that was missing on the experts' side, but with no comparison group and in a regional journal.

Study on the stability and positioning of the shoulders on the points and accuracy in archery · Iv. Ivanov
2025
Context Review Published later

A systematic review of 16 cross-sectional studies on body stability in archery: it reports that in 6 elite archers, over 100 arrows at 18 m with 5 cameras, on the arrows scoring 9 and 10 the variability that does not change the arrow's orientation is significantly greater than the variability that does, while on the arrows scoring 6 to 8 the difference does not clear the threshold over almost the whole aim. It changes how the claim should be read: on the better arrows there is not less movement, there is channelled movement.

Relationship Between Shooting Performance and Biomechanical Parameters Associated with Body Stability in Archery: A Systematic Review · João Santos, Joana Barreto, Tiago Atalaia, Pedro Aleixo
2025
Context Archers Published later

4 archers of the South Korean national squad, 5,984 complete shots from set-up to release reconstructed from video: the range of variance of the joint coordinates differs clearly between the four athletes, and the authors do not publish the values. Even among national-level archers the consistency of the trajectories is not the same, and this is a methodological study.

Deep Learning Sequence Network for Identifying and Analyzing Archery Shooting Patterns · Jihoon Park, Hyongjun Choi
2026
For Archers Published later

8 French elite recurve archers against 7 intermediates, 36 arrows each at 70 m: the standard deviation between arrows is 0.91 against 2.02 for the score, 16.16 against 34.38 for the centre-of-pressure area, 2.52 against 3.99 for the lateral range, 3.63 against 11.21 for the shoulder angle and 1.09 against 3.16 for the string-side external oblique. It is the most complete measure of dispersion in the bibliography.

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

Status history

1971 Reported The first observation is on three kyudo archers: the force curve on the bow, picked up with a strain gauge, rises smoothly in the fourth-dan archer and in jerks in the beginner. Three people, one trace, no figures. It is evidence on archers, but at the lowest level possible: reported. The question of repeatability starts here, still without a comparison between levels made with a measurement.
1990 Reported Three independent groups put figures on it in the same year, and not all in the same direction. In fifteen archers from the United States national squad the coefficient of variation of the muscle pattern at release is 16 per cent within the same archer and 52 between different archers: each one repeats himself, none resembles the others. In fifteen Belgian archers at three levels, patterns identical from shot to shot run at 92 per cent in the Olympians, 41 in the national-level archers and none in the beginners, and in the Olympians arrow speed is steadier too at the same mean speed. It is all cross-sectional and on tiny samples, and the remaining variability does not disappear: it moves, because in the Olympians it is all in the bow arm's brachioradialis and in the beginners in the trapezius. The third comparison looks higher up: among eight archers who were already skilled, elite against good county standard, the consistency of posture at release does not distinguish the levels, and the distance between bow and elbow actually varies more in the elite archers. It compares two high levels rather than experts with beginners, on a smaller sample than the two in favour: the status stays at reported, with the first sign that beyond a certain level consistency stops separating archers.
1994 Reported Three additions in the same year confirm the direction and clarify the limit. In twelve Italian archers the electromyographic traces are almost identical between trials of the same archer, and the repeatability holds even after six sets of ten holds at full draw; in four experienced kyudo archers even the path of the gaze overlaps from one shot to the next. In the same data, though, there is no pattern common to all archers: what falls as the level rises is the individual's own variability, not the distance from a shared model. Nobody has yet followed the same archers while they learned, so reported.
2005 Reported A review chapter brings together three electromyographic studies and concludes that what the score is linked to is the consistency of the movement, more than the pattern or the intensity with which the muscles are used. It is a synthesis with no figures of its own, summarising work already in the registry: the status stays at reported.
2006 Reported Twenty-three people across elite archers, beginners and non-archers: the archers repeat the forearm's activity around the clicker more consistently than those who do not shoot, and the more consistently they repeat it, the higher the FITA score, with a correlation of 0.72. The correlation, though, is inflated by the score assigned by default to the non-archers, and the detail that matters is a different one: the repeatability of the finger extensor separates only the elite from the non-archers, while the flexor's separates the beginners too. It remains a comparison between different groups at a single moment: the status does not move.
2007 Reported Within a single world-class archer, over sixty arrows, the picture turns over depending on where you look. After the release the consistency of the shoulder angles separates the arrows scoring ten from the rest, with a coefficient of variation of 5.87 per cent against 14.01 for the nines, with almost identical means. Before the release, by contrast, consistency does not follow the score: the lowest value is on the arrows scoring eight. And the trunk rotates by one degree, with a variability of 60 per cent. Within a single level, and within a single person, consistency does not always say the same thing: the status stays reported.
2012 Reported The year adds a confirmation and a limit. On one side, thirty-six repeated draws without a bow, recorded with a depth sensor, show the archer with three years of practice to be more repeatable than the beginner, above all in the hands and elbows, while along the depth axis the differences almost disappear. On the other, in three national-squad archers the mean activity of a muscle still changes a great deal from one arrow to the next, from 0.71 to 1.34 times the archer's own average, and the most variable muscle is often the trapezius on the drawing side, even in the best of the three. Variability falls but does not go to zero: reported stands.
2017 Reported Two new studies point the same way. Among four young Korean women archers, those who scored more had a more repeatable bow-forearm movement from arrow to arrow, were steadier in their own degree of repeatability too, and had almost every shot recognisable as similar to the reference ten. Among nine kyudo practitioners the way the trunk is stabilised varies more in the less experienced. Minimal samples and cross-sectional comparisons: the status stays reported.
2018 Reported The first measurement outside electromyography arrives, in kyudo: between two shots the elbow of the more experienced secondary-school practitioners repeats to within seven tenths of a millimetre against thirty-six for a beginner, and the duration of the sequence varies by one second instead of seven. The same year, though, in ten archers of the Brazilian national squad the amplitude of muscle activity changes from arrow to arrow by more than its own mean, with standard deviations larger than the mean itself; and in six Belgian elite archers it becomes visible that variability is not eliminated but channelled into the directions that do not move the arrow's orientation. A study of thirty Japanese archers adds a caution about method: over five shots in quick succession the joint angles repeat almost perfectly at every level, with a between-trial correlation above 0.97, while the muscle activity does so slightly less. The status stays reported because the measure of variability changes from study to study, and how much variability turns up depends on what is measured.
2020 Reported With a gyroscope on the bow and more than a hundred shots per archer, the shots of five intermediate and experienced archers split into eleven to sixteen movement clusters per phase, and within the same archer the bow's rotation at release can double from one cluster to another. It is the first result pulling the other way within the single archer rather than between levels, but it measures something different from repeatability compared between groups, so the status does not fall to contested.
2021 Reported Twenty-eight Chinese recurve archers, split across three levels, give the most telling figure on the whole page: the moment the follow-through synergy switches on falls at 91 per cent of the cycle in the elite with a standard deviation of four points, and at 72 in the beginners with a standard deviation of almost thirty, that is eight times as much. The same study shows where variability does not change, though: the number of synergies, the duration of the activations and the moment the draw and the aim switch on are the same at every level. What learning stabilises is the end of the shot, not the whole shot. A comparison between fifteen national-squad athletes and fifteen people with no experience describes shoulder angles and moments as far more similar to one another in the experts, with chaotic oscillations in the beginners: it is a qualitative observation, with no measure of variability at all and in a venue with doubtful editorial standards, which confirms the direction without raising it.
2022 Reported A systematic review of forty-one studies names the repeatability of the movement as the main factor separating the better archers, and this is the broadest support the claim has. The same year, though, the first two serious limits arrive: among elite archers of the same level the consistency of head, elbow and bow at release does not separate the best, and in nine recreational archers shooting a bow of half a kilo the muscle activation no longer tells experienced from beginner apart. A review of other precision sports adds that the same thing is seen in target shooting. The status stays reported because the two contrary results are weak, one on tiny samples and the other with a load that bears no resemblance to real shooting.
2023 Reported The first measurement that looks at the whole movement rather than the muscles arrives: in the fourteen archers of the Polish national squad the draw is less dispersed than in the fourteen beginners, and the difference is far wider in the centre of mass, 6.3 against 11.2, than in the hands. The status does not rise, though, because the same study finds the experts less regular in the string hand and the centre of mass, with more corrections and shorter movements, and because a review recalls that among archers of the same level the precision with which positions are reproduced does not say who is best.
2024 Reported A Chinese sample of twenty-eight archers across three levels, published as two papers from the same data, turns over half the picture. The consistency of activation during the draw separates the experienced from the beginners clearly, around ten per cent against twenty-one, but it does not separate elite from intermediate on any variable; on the finger extensor, the long head of the triceps and the latissimus dorsi it separates no level at all; the consistency of shoulder extension varies enormously from shot to shot in every group; and the groups, looked at through coordination, overlap almost completely, with standard deviations four or five times larger than the differences between means. The same year nine experts with over sixteen years of practice against nine novices show that the bow's variability differs only vertically, not fore and aft or sideways, and in six elite archers the consistency of the movement does not separate arrows in the ten from the rest. The status stays reported and does not fall to contested, because these results do not contradict the fall in variability: they say it does not cover everything that is measured, and that while aiming the activation is far less repeatable than during the draw, at every level.
2025 Reported A systematic review changes how the result should be read: in the most accurate arrows of elite archers there is not less movement, there is movement channelled into directions that do not move the arrow's orientation. And within a single level consistency still differs from archer to archer, as the comparison between four national-level athletes over almost six thousand shots shows. Eighteen high-level Bulgarian archers give the measurement that was missing on the experts' side, with shoulder flexion and abduction changing by five to eight per cent from one arrow to the next, but with no comparison group and in a regional journal. The status does not move.
2026 Reported The comparison between eight French elite archers and seven intermediates gives the figures that were missing on dispersion from one arrow to the next: standard deviation of the score 0.91 against 2.02, centre-of-pressure area 16.16 against 34.38, shoulder angle 3.63 against 11.21. It is another cross-sectional comparison between groups, so the status holds. Fifty-five years after the first trace, the direction has never been in doubt and the design that would put it to the test, following the same archers while they learn, has never been carried out.

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Cite

APA

Campagna, M. (2026). Expert archers repeat the shot with less variability than beginners (Version 3). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/technique/experts-less-variability

BibTeX

@misc{campagna2026_espertimenovariabilita,
  author = {Campagna, Matteo},
  title = {Expert archers repeat the shot with less variability than beginners},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
  url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/technique/experts-less-variability},
  note = {Version 3; accessed 2026-10-16}
}

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