https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/competition-experience-mental-skills 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/competition-experience-mental-skillsThere is a single study that measures exactly this, and it says yes for three skills out of seven. Seventy Greek archers competing at national level, aged 12 to 49, filled in a mental skills questionnaire (ACSI-28, scored 1 to 6) before the 2011 national championship: those with six or more years of competition report more confidence (4.7 against 3.9), better concentration (5.4 against 4.7) and fewer worries (4.4 against 3.7) than those with one or two. For confidence and concentration the gain already shows between three and five years, and between that group and those with six or more years the difference is not significant, while coping with adversity, preparing with goals and listening to the coach do not change with the years. Three things limit how far it can be read. It is a snapshot taken at a single moment, which cannot separate archers who grew from archers who stayed in competition because they could already handle it. These are self-ratings, on four-item scales with low internal consistency, from 0.60 to 0.76. And on worries the data are odd: by age it is the youngest who report fewer of them, with the same mean and the same standard deviation (4.4 and 0.89) that the paper gives the most experienced group, while the discussion states that the older archers worry less. A Turkish paper from 2019 on 156 archers, in a venue the registry marks as questionable, finds no difference in state or trait anxiety between those who have shot for one to three years and those who have shot for seven or more: but it measures anxiety and years of practice, not worries and years of competition.claim:esperienza-abilita-mentali:revision:2026-07-25:2Sat, 25 Jul 2026 08:00:00 GMT https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/competition-experience-mental-skills#storiaA second paper touches the part about worries, but from a different angle. In 156 Turkish archers grouped by years of practice, state anxiety measured with Spielberger's inventory barely falls, from 61 to 60, between those who have shot for one to three years and those who have shot for seven or more, and the difference is not significant; trait anxiety does not change. This is anxiety, not reported worries, and these are years of practice, not of competition; the journal is also marked as a questionable venue, which under the registry's rules does not decide a status. The 2015 Greek study still stands: reported.claim:esperienza-abilita-mentali:history_entry:2026-06-02:2019Tue, 02 Jun 2026 08:00:00 GMT https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/competition-experience-mental-skillsclaim:esperienza-abilita-mentali:new_claim:2026-01-17:riportatoSat, 17 Jan 2026 08:00:00 GMT