On release, the string hand slides back rather than staying put

The summary today

There are two studies, thirty years apart, and they point the same way without saying much more. In 1976 a Japanese group photographed four experienced archers and six complete beginners: in the experts the drawing arm, and the hand with it, slides back at the release, in the beginners it stays where it was, but the movement was not measured. In 2007 a camera at a thousand frames per second filmed the world's second-ranked archer and a university archer in the milliseconds between the release and the arrow leaving the bow: the string hand moves 1.24 millimetres fore and aft in the first and 0.70 in the second, while the champion's bow does not move at all. That the hand does not stay put is therefore documented, and in both comparisons the movement is clearer in the better archer. Everything else is missing: nobody has measured how far the hand travels back in the following tenths of a second across several archers of the same level, or linked it to the score.

Also phrased as: "the hand travelling back at release"; "dynamic release"; "string hand along the neck"; "static versus dynamic release"

Evidence

• 1976
  For Archers Published later

  4 experienced university archers against 6 complete beginners, observed in photographs: in the experts the drawing arm shifts back at the release, in the beginners it does not (captions of figures 9 and 10). The movement was not measured.

  A STUDY OF THE PROCESS OF IMPROVEMENT IN ARCHERY · Koichiro Hayashi, Kenichi Tabuchi, Takeshi Yabuki, Kiichi Sekine, Shintaro Tachibana, Kozo Nakamura

• 2007
  For Archers Published later

  The world's second-ranked archer compared with a university archer, camera at 1,000 frames per second between the release and the arrow leaving the bow: the string hand moves 1.24 ± 0.13 mm on the fore-and-aft axis and 0.90 ± 0.09 mm vertically in the first, 0.70 ± 0.01 and 0.58 ± 0.20 mm in the second.

  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 interval the champion's bow does not move, 0.00 mm on both axes, while the university archer's bow moves 0.14 ± 0.03 mm fore and aft and 0.20 ± 0.08 vertically according to the text (the table gives 0.18 ± 0.06 and 0.14 ± 0.08). In the champion the hand travels back and the bow stays still: the text says the hand keeps moving backwards from the release on.

  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

Status history

1. 1976 Reported The first piece of data is a Japanese comparison between four university archers with more than three years of practice and six young men who had never shot, using electromyography and photographs: in the experts the drawing arm slides back at the release, in the beginners it stays put. It is an observation from photographs, with no measurement of the movement and no statistics, on ten people: reported.
2. 2007 Reported Thirty years later the first figure arrives. A camera at a thousand frames per second films the world's second-ranked archer and a university archer between the release and the arrow leaving the bow: the string hand moves 1.24 millimetres fore and aft and 0.90 vertically in the first, 0.70 and 0.58 in the second, while the champion's bow stays at zero. The movement is there and it is larger in the better archer, but the comparison is between two people, in a regional journal: the status stays reported.

Related

Related articles

• The follow-through: what happens after the arrow has goneIn the top archers measured, the arrow leaves the string in about 15 milliseconds. What the body does next, what studies have found and where they stop.
• The release in archery: anatomy of a few millisecondsHow the archery release works according to the measurements: how long it lasts, how the fingers open, what the arrow does and what you can train.

Research lines

• 48 studiesWhat predicts the score, and how talent selection tried to use it
• 35 studiesTeaching and learning archery: sixty years of instructional trials

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