https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/technique/bow-hand-does-not-grip 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/technique/bow-hand-does-not-gripThree independent measurements point the same way, from different sides. In 1992, on fifteen recurve archers, sensors on the grip show that almost all the load passes through the palm, high up and towards the finger side, while under the thumb and under the fingers the forces are low: the hand supports, it does not close, and it does so in the same way in the national squad archers and in the weaker ones. In 2009, electromyography on ten elite archers and ten beginners shows that in the experts the finger extensor works harder than the flexor over nearly the whole two-second window around the clicker, while in the beginners the two muscles sit at the same level and the flexor jumps a tenth of a second after the click. There is a detail the coaching does not mention: even in the experts the extensor's advantage disappears over the first three hundred milliseconds after the clicker, because both muscles peak at around two hundred and then relax. The difference between the two groups in the flexors only becomes clear from half a second onwards. Two master's projects from 2000 and 2001, on seven and six experienced archers with compound and traditional bows, add only a description: in the second, the finger flexors of the bow hand stay at rest for almost the whole draw and rise close to the release together with the extensors, with no way of telling which of the two prevails, and in the first the brachioradialis of the bow arm has its only peak at the release. In 2017 a third group, thirty-two young Malaysian archers, finds the finger extensor of the left arm more active in the higher scorers, but with p = 0.050, right on the threshold, and without saying which is the bow hand. Nobody in the bibliography has yet set the activity of the bow-hand muscles beside the score of the individual arrow.claim:mano-arco-non-stringe:revision:2026-10-06:3Tue, 06 Oct 2026 08:00:00 GMT https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/technique/bow-hand-does-not-grip#storiaTwo master's projects in physical therapy from the University of North Dakota, in 2000 and 2001, record electromyography of the bow arm and bow hand in seven and six experienced archers from the same club, with a compound and a traditional bow, at a foam target five feet away. The finger flexors of the bow hand stay at resting level for almost the whole draw and rise only close to the release, together with the extensors and the wrist muscles; the brachioradialis of the bow arm has its only peak at the release, which the authors read as the reaction that stops the bow from falling. These are descriptions without normalisation to maximal contraction, so they do not say whether the hand closes or opens at that moment: the status stays reported.claim:mano-arco-non-stringe:history_entry:2026-09-09:2001Wed, 09 Sep 2026 08:00:00 GMT https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/technique/bow-hand-does-not-grip#storiaA third group, independent of the previous two, sets electromyography of the bow hand beside the score for the first time. In thirty-two young Malaysian archers, split into higher and lower scorers, the finger extensor of the left arm is more active in the better group, with p = 0.050, right on the threshold of significance, and the authors conclude that those who shoot better do not grip the bow. It is a comparison between groups over six arrows, not arrow by arrow, handedness is not stated and the period after the release is not measured: the direction is the same and the status stays reported.claim:mano-arco-non-stringe:history_entry:2026-08-03:2017Mon, 03 Aug 2026 08:00:00 GMT https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/technique/bow-hand-does-not-gripclaim:mano-arco-non-stringe:new_claim:2026-06-27:riportatoSat, 27 Jun 2026 08:00:00 GMT