In a para archer the muscle synergies of the shot resemble those of an archer without a disability, but the muscles are weighted differently

2 studies · 2 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.

The finding comes from a single exploratory study of two experienced archers, a 47-year-old man without a disability and a 34-year-old W1 Paralympic athlete who shoots seated in a wheelchair. Electromyography of five shoulder muscles yields three synergies in both, with similar time courses (correlations between 0.87 and 0.91), but two are shifted in time by 12 and 14 per cent of the shot cycle, and the muscles carry different weights: during drawing and aiming, on the string side, the archer without a disability relies mainly on the posterior deltoid and the Paralympic archer on the biceps. The authors themselves present the work as a test of the method, and with one archer on each side the disability cannot be separated from the seated position and personal style. A 2024 scoping review takes up the comparison without adding data.

Also phrased as: "para archery and technique"; "wheelchair archers"; "muscle coordination in para archers"; "muscle synergies in archery"; "para archer technique"

In practice

Among those who coach archers with a disability it is said that the shot stays the same and only the adaptations change, meaning the muscles the archer uses to get there.

Evidence

2021
For Archers Published later

Two archers with more than ten years' experience, a 47-year-old man without a disability and a 34-year-old W1 Paralympic athlete, three ends of six arrows at 10 m with electromyography of five muscles: three synergies are enough to describe the shot in both, with similar time courses (0.87, 0.91 and 0.90) but the second and third shifted by 12 and 14 per cent of the cycle. During drawing and aiming, on the string side, the first relies mainly on the posterior deltoid and the second on the biceps, and on the bow side the Paralympic archer keeps the upper trapezius active until release. No scores, and the authors present it as a test of the method.

Muscle synergies in archery: an explorative study on experienced athletes with and without physical disability · E. Vendrame, L. Rum, V. Belluscio, L. Truppa, G. Vannozzi, A. Lazich, et al.
2024
Context Review Published later

A scoping review of adaptive shooting disciplines reports the 2021 comparison: three synergies in both athletes, with different synergy vectors and activation coefficients, and the biceps counting for more than the posterior deltoid in the para archer during drawing and aiming. It describes the Paralympic athlete as having spastic paraparesis, whereas the original paper refers to spina bifida with spastic tetraparesis, and it adds no data.

Adaptive Shooting Disciplines: A Scoping Review of the Literature with Bibliometric Analysis · Luca Puce, Carlo Biz, Halil Ibrahim Ceylan, Nicola Luigi Bragazzi, Matteo Formica, Khaled Trabelsi, et al.

Status history

2021 Reported The first and only comparison, between a W1 Paralympic archer and one without a disability, finds three muscle synergies in both, with similar but time-shifted patterns and muscles carrying different weights, the biceps taking the place of the posterior deltoid in the draw. Two archers, five muscles and no scores: reported, only just.
2024 Reported A scoping review of adaptive shooting disciplines takes up the 2021 comparison with no new data, so the status does not change.

Research lines

Cite

APA

Campagna, M. (2026). In a para archer the muscle synergies of the shot resemble those of an archer without a disability, but the muscles are weighted differently (Version 2). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/technique/para-archer-muscle-synergies

BibTeX

@misc{campagna2026_sinergieparaarcieri,
  author = {Campagna, Matteo},
  title = {In a para archer the muscle synergies of the shot resemble those of an archer without a disability, but the muscles are weighted differently},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
  url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/technique/para-archer-muscle-synergies},
  note = {Version 2; accessed 2026-10-16}
}

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