In expert archers the release is not a reaction to the clicker going off

The summary today

The idea rests on a single study, which compares two times: in nine national-level archers the interval between the clicker going off and the string leaving the fingers was shorter than their reaction time to a sound, so the movement must already have been under way when the click came. The weak point is exactly there, because with the simpler reaction task two archers out of nine were not faster, and the result holds only against the task that resembles shooting more closely. The rest of the bibliography measures how long that interval lasts, not what it is: between 140 and 180 thousandths of a second in two different laboratories, and about 160 thousandths in thirty-nine elite archers, with very little variation from person to person. Figures that close to a simple reaction time pull the other way, even though eight people who do not shoot, using a simulated draw, take about twice as long to release after a visual signal. Nobody has yet repeated the comparison that matters, on the same archers and with the sound of the click.

Also phrased as: "the release is not triggered by the click"; "the clicker is not a starting signal"; "the release begins before the clicker"; "time between clicker and release"; "the click is a confirmation, not a command"

Evidence

• 1998
  For Archers Published later

  9 recurve archers from the German national squads, 35 arrows each with surface electromyography: the interval between the clicker going off and the release was shorter than their reaction time to a sound in 7 archers out of 9 in the simpler task, pressing and letting go of a key, and in 9 out of 9 in the task closer to shooting, the same key while holding a laser dot on the gold, with p below 1% for each archer over 10 repetitions per condition. No value in thousandths of a second is reported, and in the traces the normal shot and the five-arrow extended shot share the same shape.

  Coordinative Aspects of Archery - An Approach Using Surface-Electromyography · Jürgen Edelmann-Nusser, Albert Gollhofer

• 2005
  Context Archers Published later

  A review chapter, reporting a study of 2 experienced archers with electrodes on seven upper-limb muscles and an analysis window from 120 thousandths before to 60 thousandths after the release: tension changes about sixty thousandths of a second before the string leaves, anticipating the unloading of forces on the joints. Second-hand evidence, two participants, no comparison with a reaction time.

  Psychological Aspects of Archery · Kathleen M. Haywood

• 2011
  Context Archers Published later

  4 elite archers from the Turkish national squad, 30 arrows each at 18 m indoors with a chronometer linked to the clicker: the release comes 143.4 ± 18.6 thousandths after the click on arrows scoring 8, 142.5 ± 15.8 on 9s and 142.3 ± 14.4 on 10s (F = 0.05; r = -0.029 over 108 arrows). It measures the length of the interval and how steady it is, not whether the release is a reaction; the same data also appear in a 2010 paper and count once.

  Shooting dynamics in archery: A multidimensional analysis from drawing to releasing in male archers · Cevdet Tinazci

• 2012
  Context Archers Published later

  7 archers from the German junior and senior national squads, 30 arrows at 18 m indoors with timings taken from a microphone: individual means between clicker and release run from 144.4 to 176.0 thousandths of a second. It confirms the order of magnitude in an independent laboratory, without testing what the release actually is.

  Evaluation of arrow release in highly skilled archers using an acoustic measurement system · Mario Heller

• 2017
  Context Archers Published later

  39 elite recurve archers from four countries, 10 arrows at 70 m at a World Cup stage: the time between clicker and release is 0.163 ± 0.017 seconds, that is 10.4% variation across the thirty-nine archers. A figure like that, uniform and close to a simple auditory reaction time, is equally compatible with the opposite reading: the study describes, it does not decide.

  Postural stability, clicker reaction time and bow draw force predict performance in elite recurve archery · Wayne Spratford, Rhiannon Campbell

• 2023
  Context General population Published later

  8 healthy men with no shooting experience, using a device that simulates the draw: when they have to release the force in response to a visual signal, an average of 318 ± 34 thousandths of a second passes between the signal and the start of the release, in line with an ordinary finger reaction time. That is about double the 140 to 180 thousandths measured between clicker and release in archers, but the signal is visual rather than auditory, the participants do not shoot and the movement is simulated: a point of comparison, not a test.

  Multi-muscle Synergies of Postural Control in Self- and External-Triggered Force Release During Simulated Archery Shooting · Junkyung Song, Kitae Kim, Jaebum Park

• 2026
  Context Model Published later

  A Ukrainian conceptual model of skill formation, built from the literature and from coaching experience, with no participants and no data: the release is described not as the response to a signal but as an event that emerges when execution reaches its critical state, and aiming is meant to set up the conditions for the shot without acting as a trigger. It is the claim's own idea put in theoretical form, not a measurement, and the model talks about the visual signal of the aim, not the click.

  The “Release Illusion”: A Conceptual Model of Motor Skill Formation in Archery · Oleksandr Kalynichenko

Status history

1. 1990 Not studied In the registry's bibliography nobody has yet compared the interval between clicker and release with the reaction time of the same archers, which is the only way to tell whether the release is a reaction to the click or a movement already under way.
2. 1998 Reported The first and so far only study to address the question measures, in nine national-level archers, the interval between the clicker going off and the release, and compares it with their reaction time to a sound: the interval is shorter, so the movement had already started. A single study, nine participants, and the comparison holds in all nine against the reaction task closest to shooting, in seven of nine against the simple one. Two things keep it at reported: the article, four pages of conference proceedings, reports no value in thousandths of a second, neither for the intervals nor for the reaction times; and the comparison sets the opening of the hand at full draw beside a finger leaving a key, two acts measured in different ways.
3. 2005 Reported A review chapter reports, from a study of two experienced archers, that the tension in the arm muscles changes about sixty thousandths of a second before the string leaves. It points the same way, since preparation ahead of the release is what you would expect if the movement is already under way, but it is second-hand evidence on two people: the status stays reported.
4. 2011 Reported The first precise figure arrives, from a different laboratory: in four elite archers the release falls 142 or 143 thousandths of a second after the click, with standard deviations of fifteen or eighteen thousandths and no difference between good and poor arrows. An interval that short and that steady is hard to explain as a voluntary choice, but it is four people and nobody measured their reaction time, so the status holds.
5. 2012 Reported A third group, independent of the other two, uses a microphone on seven archers from the German national squads and finds individual means between 144 and 176 thousandths of a second: the order of magnitude holds outside the first laboratory. It stays reported because nobody has yet compared these times with the simple reaction time of the same archers.
6. 2017 Reported The largest sample, thirty-nine elite archers from four countries, gives about 163 thousandths of a second, with barely ten per cent variation between archers. A value that close to a simple reaction time, and that uniform, pulls against the claim: it is a description, not an experiment, so the status does not fall, but the tension between the two ways of reading these figures has to go on the record.
7. 2023 Reported A point of comparison arrives from outside archery: eight people who have never shot, using a simulated draw, take an average of 318 thousandths of a second to release the force after a visual signal. That is about double the intervals measured between clicker and release in archers, which makes it a little harder to read those 140 to 180 thousandths as an ordinary reaction. But the signal is visual and the click is a sound, which is usually processed faster, and nobody has yet measured both on the same archers: the status stays reported.

Related

Related articles

• The clicker: the science of a tenth of a secondWhat research measures about the clicker: reaction time, the muscles of the release, its weight on the score and what happens to draw length without it.
• The final pull: what happens in the last millimetres before the clickerHow many millimetres and seconds the final pull takes, how it differs between better and worse arrows, and what the aim and the muscles do as the clicker drops.
• Training with a signal: tones, lights and timers that correct the shotA tone on the draw, a light on the bow arm, a timer on the release: what studies of archers have measured about signals that correct the shot.

Research lines

• 24 studiesThe passive release: fifty years to take an idea apart
• 15 studiesFinal draw, clicker and reaction time since 1993

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