Aiming time: how long to hold, when to release.

Part of the complete guide: How to improve your archery score

Ask ten archers how long they hold and you will get ten different answers, nearly all of them vague. And yet aiming time, the number of seconds between anchor and release, is one of the most consequential variables in precision shooting. Not because a single correct number exists for everyone, but because each archer has their own optimal release window, and releasing outside that window costs points.

Research on the relationship between aiming patterns and score begins from one shared premise: aiming stability is not constant over time. It rises after anchor, reaches a peak, then falls as fatigue sets in. The bell-curve model is a useful way to explain the phenomenon, not a precisely measured fact. What the research has measured most solidly is the timing: brief, averaging around 3.5 seconds. On the direction of the relationship with score, the evidence is mixed and varies a great deal from archer to archer, but one point holds: the best times are not the long ones. The good arrow leaves inside the window, not by waiting indefinitely.

This article covers where the optimal window sits, what happens at either extreme, the role the clicker plays, and how to train release timing. Because, as with everything in archery, this too is trainable.

The optimal release window

For most archers the typical window falls around 2 to 5 seconds from anchor. That is what the research shows: average measured times of just a few seconds, around 3.5. On how hold duration relates to score the picture is less clear-cut: some studies find that extending the aim hurts, others do not, and this depends far more on the individual archer than on any average. What is clear is that the good times stay short. The technical work is to know your own window and build a routine that delivers the release inside it, shot after shot.

One important detail: the window is not purely a visual question. It depends on available strength (draw weight that is too high shortens it), training level, and fatigue. The same archer has a wider window at the start of a session and a narrower one when tired, which is one reason scores fall apart in the final ends.

When you hold too long

Holding beyond the window is the most common mistake among archers who tend toward perfectionism. The reasoning seems sound: wait until the float is perfect. But it is a trap. Past the peak, the aim does not improve, it degrades. The bow arm tires, fine tremor increases, and attention held under tension for too long begins to break down.

The result is a forced release on an already deteriorated aim, often accompanied by the feeling of having to "throw it away." Worse: consistently holding too long is one of the conditions in which freezing takes root, one of the forms target panic takes. The practical rule is clear: if the aim is not ready within your window, bring the bow down and start over. Never force a release.

When you release too soon

The opposite extreme is snap shooting: the arrow leaves the moment the float grazes center, before the system has stabilized. It is a reactive release driven by the urgency of not missing the right moment, and it produces high variability because each shot departs at a slightly different point in the process.

Releasing too soon is often more a mental pattern than a technical one, and it is another entry point for target panic. The remedy is not to hold longer through willpower. That tends to make things worse. The solution is to rebuild a release that arrives as the natural consequence of a completed sequence, not as a flinch.

The clicker and release timing

In recurve, the clicker ties timing and draw length together: it fires when the arrow reaches the correct draw, and gives the signal to release. Used well, it turns the release into a response to an external event rather than a conscious decision, which, paradoxically, makes it cleaner and more repeatable.

The critical variable is latency: how much time passes between the click and the release. Short and consistent latency is a good sign. Long or variable latency signals hesitation and often foreshadows timing problems. The clicker does not solve aiming time on its own. It structures it, provided the archer arrives at the click with the aim already inside the release window.

Training your timing

The first step is to measure: have someone film a few ends and time the interval between anchor and release. Almost every archer discovers their timing is more variable than they expected, and that variability in timing is itself a source of group dispersion. Knowing your own average is the starting point.

From there, the work is about consistency. A well-built pre-shot routine makes timing automatic: same sequence, same rhythm, same window, arrow after arrow. Some archers use an internal rhythm, something close to a mental metronome, to avoid rushing under pressure. Strength training also matters: a window that shortens too quickly often reflects draw weight or endurance that has not kept pace with technical demand, not a concentration problem.