Fitness tests in Indonesian archers: Handayani 2024

The study compares three groups of nine male archers from the regional centres of East Java, West Java and Jakarta, with mean ages between 22 and 23, on four fitness tests: holding the prone "superman" position, right and left hand grip strength, and static balance. The East Java group had the highest values on all four: 54.56 seconds of hold against 44.25 and 44.44; left grip of 72.44 kg against 63.50 and 64.89; right grip of 76.56 kg against 70.00 and 69.67; balance of 55.67 seconds against 47.13 and 48.89. East Java's differences from the other two regions are significant in every comparison, those between West Java and Jakarta in none.

The authors link these values to East Java having topped the archery medal table at the Indonesian National Sports Week (PON) held in Papua in 2021, and urge other regions to train these qualities to improve their results.

It is a cross-sectional study: each archer did each test once, with no intervention. The superman hold is the longest time held lying prone with arms and legs raised, grip is measured with a hand dynamometer in kilograms, and static balance with a test on a beam, in seconds. The groups were compared with a one-way analysis of variance followed by Tukey's test, after checking normality and homogeneity of variance, using R 4.2.1. The athletes are described as healthy, uninjured professionals; the paper does not give their division (recurve, compound or the Indonesian national bow), their individual competitive level or their scores.

The title asks whether physical qualities improve performance, but the study measures no performance at all: there are no scores and no comparison between the archers' fitness and their own results. The link with the medal table is an association between regions, not between people, and it is weak in the details too: the seven East Java gold medals the authors list came in women's and mixed events, while the archers tested were all men.

The groups are small, nine per region, and we are not told how they were selected. The test protocols get one line each: there is no indication of which dynamometer was used, how many attempts were allowed or how the beam test was done. Mean grips above 70 kg are high values, and without a description of the instrument they cannot be compared with other studies. The text contradicts itself at one point, giving the highest superman hold to West Java when the table gives it to East Java, and it reports a single p = 0.005 for four separate analyses of variance.

For anyone who shoots, the study says little. That archers from a strong region have a firmer grip, a more enduring back and better balance than those from two neighbouring regions fits many explanations: more structured physical training, different selection, or simply chance, with nine athletes per group. The study gives no grounds for saying that improving grip or the superman hold raises scores, or for judging how much these tests matter compared with technique.

The dynamometer measures a clenched-fist squeeze, whereas in shooting the fingers of the string hand hold the load in a different position and the bow hand pushes without gripping: the relationship between the two is not measured here. Coaches who use these tests with their own archers can take the paper's values as a point of comparison, bearing in mind that they come from adult Indonesian men at national level and from protocols that are not described.