Matteo Campagna
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The body moves the same way in recurve and in compound

2 studies · 57 archers measured

ForContextAgainst2000200520102015202020252025, for, n = 372025, against, n = 371999, against, n = 20
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.

There is only one direct comparison, from 2025: 19 recurve and 18 compound pre-elite archers, measured in Taiwan on a regulation field at 70 and 50 metres, and it says two things at once. Of the fourteen balance and movement measures compared, seven do not change: among them the angular velocity of the lower back before and after the release, the forward-backward sway in the half-second before, and the total and sideways displacement of the centre of pressure in the tenth of a second after. The other seven do. Before the release the centre of pressure travels 51.9 millimetres in recurve and 61.6 in compound, sideways sway is 1.1 against 1.5 millimetres, and the drawing wrist moves more than twice as much in recurve; after the release the compound archers sway less forwards and backwards, 3.2 millimetres against 5.4, and have lower angular velocities at the ankle and both wrists. What predicts the score also changes from one bow to the other. As early as 1999 a Swedish study of twenty young archers had noticed, in passing, that the finger extensor of the drawing arm was far less tense before the release with the compound than with the freestyle bow. The measures that come out equal rest on small groups, where moderate differences can slip through, and some of the differences are large; but the two bows were shot at different distances, 70 and 50 metres, and with a single study pointing both ways the picture remains contested.

Also phrased as: "recurve and compound same technique"; "differences between recurve and compound"; "posture in compound"; "training recurve and compound together"; "postural stability by bow type"

In practice

In many clubs recurve and compound archers train together, with the same conditioning and the same posture drills, on the assumption that from the pelvis up the body does the same job and only the bow changes.

Evidence

  • 1999
    Against Archers Published later

    20 young Swedish archers, mean age 15.75: between 0.5 and 0.1 seconds before the release the finger extensor of the drawing arm is at 11.71 per cent of maximal contraction in the 5 compound archers (standard deviation 5.36), at 19.71 in the 3 classic-bow archers and at 26.37 in the 12 freestyle archers (standard deviation 9.56); the difference is significant only between compound and freestyle (p=0.020). It is a secondary finding of a study on flotation tanks, and the paper does not say how the string was held.

    Primary process in competitive archery performance: Effects of flotation REST · Torsten Norlander, Henrik Bergman, Trevor Archer

  • 2025
    For Archers Published later

    19 recurve and 18 compound pre-elite archers on a regulation field: the angular velocity of the lower back does not differ between the two bows either half a second before the release (4.1 ± 2.3 against 3.4 ± 1.3 degrees per second, p=0.194) or a tenth of a second after it (29.3 ± 22.1 against 19.8 ± 18.1, p=0.107). The effect sizes, 0.4 and 0.5, are moderate: in 37 archers a difference of that size may not show up. In the same archers, before the release the forward-backward sway is the same (3.3 ± 2.4 millimetres in recurve, 3.0 ± 1.3 in compound, p=0.628), and neither do the angular velocities of the left ankle (1.8 ± 1.1 against 1.7 ± 0.3 degrees per second, p=0.716) and the bow wrist (12.4 ± 26.5 against 3.5 ± 1.6, p=0.115, with an effect size of 0.5); a tenth of a second after the release so are the total displacement of the centre of pressure (13.5 ± 3.8 against 14.0 ± 3.8, p=0.629) and the sideways one (1.5 ± 0.9 against 1.5 ± 0.6, p=0.922).

    Associations of Scoring Accuracy with Postural Stability and Strength Measures in Archers on a Standard Archery Site · Chun-Hao Fan, Chien-Nan Liao, Wei-Hsiu Hsu

  • 2025
    Against Archers Published later

    In the same study, half a second before the release the centre of pressure travels 51.9 ± 12.7 millimetres in recurve and 61.6 ± 16.4 in compound (p=0.022), sideways sway is 1.1 ± 0.9 against 1.5 ± 0.6 millimetres (p=0.043) and the drawing wrist moves at 7.5 ± 8.5 against 3.1 ± 1.0 degrees per second (p=0.018). A tenth of a second after, the compound archers sway less forwards and backwards (3.2 ± 0.9 against 5.4 ± 2.2 millimetres, p=0.001) and have lower angular velocities at the left ankle (2.2 against 3.9), the bow wrist (104.7 against 132.6) and the drawing wrist (215.5 against 271.4). What predicts the score also changes from one bow to the other: in recurve the displacement of the centre of pressure and the angular velocity of the bow side after the release, in compound the displacement of the centre of pressure in the half-second before the release and the shaking of the drawing side (the text says sideways, the equation uses the forward-backward axis). The mean score per arrow is 9.1 in compound and 8.3 in recurve, at different distances and on different target faces.

    Associations of Scoring Accuracy with Postural Stability and Strength Measures in Archers on a Standard Archery Site · Chun-Hao Fan, Chien-Nan Liao, Wei-Hsiu Hsu

Status history

  1. 1999 Contradicted The first data arrive in passing, inside a Swedish study on flotation tanks. In twenty young archers, in the moment before the release, the finger extensor of the drawing arm works at 11.7 per cent of maximal contraction in the five who shoot compound and at 26.4 in the twelve who shoot freestyle, with the classic bow in between. It is a difference, so it goes against the idea of a body working the same way, but it concerns a single muscle, groups of five and twelve young archers, and very probably the different way of holding the string, which the paper does not describe: contradicted, with a great deal of caution.
  2. 2025 Contested The first comparison designed for this question arrives: 19 recurve and 18 compound pre-elite archers on a regulation field, with a force plate and inertial sensors. Half of the fourteen measures do not change, such as the angular velocity of the lower back before and after the release and the total and sideways displacement of the centre of pressure just after it. The other half do: before the release the centre of pressure travels 51.9 millimetres in recurve and 61.6 in compound, and after the release the compound archers sway less forwards and backwards and have steadier wrists and ankle. The same study therefore points both ways, and together with the 1999 figure the picture is contested, and the clearest differences are also the ones with the largest effects.

Related

Related articles

Research lines

Cite
APA

Campagna, M. (2026). The body moves the same way in recurve and in compound (Version 2). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/technique/recurve-compound-same-body-movement

BibTeX
@misc{campagna2026_ricurvocompoundstessocorpo,
  author = {Campagna, Matteo},
  title = {The body moves the same way in recurve and in compound},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
  url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/technique/recurve-compound-same-body-movement},
  note = {Version 2; accessed 2026-10-16}
}

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