https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/heart-rate-slows-before-release Changes to this claim in Matteo Campagna's evidence registry: its status, its year-by-year history, revisions of the page. en-gb https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/heart-rate-slows-before-releaseThe heart slowing before the release is one of the oldest observations on the physiology of shooting, but studies do not agree on when it happens or in whom. In 1990 two papers came out together and contradicted each other: in four elite archers the cardiac cycle lengthened from at least six beats before the release of good arrows, while on some average or poor arrows it shortened (from 678 to 558 ms); in twenty-eight elite archers recorded with electrocardiogram and electroencephalogram over sixteen shots, the heart did not slow in the 3 to 4 seconds before the release but sped up, from 100.7 to 104.2 beats per minute, and the average while aiming was the same as when holding the bow at full draw without shooting. In 2015 a small study of eight experienced archers sees no fall in the two seconds before the shot: in compound the heart rate rises throughout, and in recurve it dips by a third of a beat before climbing again. The direct measurements of 2020 and 2025, both from the same Indian group, do see the fall: in seven elite archers and 210 arrows at 18 m heart rate drops significantly from five seconds before to one second after the release, and in thirty-two archers over two sessions of thirty arrows the lowest point comes two or three seconds after the release, with the arrow already gone. Reviews also report a sharper slowing before the best arrows in beginners followed for fourteen weeks, but at second hand and without numbers. Heart rate around the release therefore tends to fall in most measurements, yet the largest study of elite archers finds the heart speeding up in the last seconds of aiming, and the most recent data put the minimum after the shot, where it may simply be the end of the effort of drawing rather than a preparation of attention.claim:decelerazione-cardiaca-rilascio:revision:2026-07-01:3Wed, 01 Jul 2026 08:00:00 GMT https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/heart-rate-slows-before-release#storiaEight experienced archers measured around the release, a hundred and twenty arrows at eighteen metres: in the two seconds before the shot the heart rate does not fall, rising throughout in compound and dipping by a third of a beat in recurve before climbing again. It is the second study that sees no fall in the final part of aiming; it is small, with no test of the trend and in a regional journal, so it strengthens the contrary side without settling the question, and the status stays contested.claim:decelerazione-cardiaca-rilascio:history_entry:2026-06-12:2015Fri, 12 Jun 2026 08:00:00 GMT https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/heart-rate-slows-before-releaseclaim:decelerazione-cardiaca-rilascio:new_claim:2026-02-06:contestatoFri, 06 Feb 2026 08:00:00 GMT