Hand strength in young archers: Kalkavan 2025 study

In 38 young licensed archers from the province of Rize, in Turkey (18 boys and 20 girls, mean age 11.53), the authors related dominant-hand grip strength and manual dexterity to the result of 12 arrows at 18 metres. Grip strength was linked to score with r = 0.487 and on its own accounted for 24% of it (R² = 0.24); total dexterity on the Purdue Pegboard with r = 0.393, accounting for 15.5%. The individual dexterity tasks (right hand, left hand, both hands) gave links between 0.330 and 0.356, while the two-handed assembly task fell just short of significance (r = 0.318, p = 0.052).

Grip strength and dexterity were also linked to each other (r = 0.533): the children with a stronger grip tended also to be more skilful on the fine tasks. The authors conclude that both qualities predict score and that youth programmes should train them.

The study is cross-sectional: all measurements were taken in a single session, in an area beside the range, in no more than ten minutes per athlete. Grip strength was measured with a JAMAR hydraulic dynamometer, seated with the elbow at 90 degrees, keeping the best of three attempts per hand. Dexterity was tested on the Purdue Pegboard, which asks the subject to place small pins within a set time with the right hand, the left hand and both hands together, and to put together small assemblies of parts.

Straight afterwards each archer shot 12 arrows at 18 metres, in four ends of three with 120 seconds per end. The type of bow is not stated. The score did not come from a standard scoring face: the sheet was divided into four regions along two axes, and arrows that missed scored zero. The data were analysed with Pearson correlations and two simple linear regressions, one for strength and one for dexterity.

The main problem is that in children aged 9 to 15, age, height and maturity push grip strength, dexterity and shooting ability in the same direction: a thirteen-year-old grips harder and shoots better than a nine-year-old without any direct link between the two. The analysis does not adjust for age, sex, height or years of shooting, so the 24% attributed to grip strength may be largely age and growth. Twelve arrows are few for measuring an archer's accuracy, and the scoring system is described too vaguely to know what each arrow was worth; the paper does not even report the mean score.

There are internal inconsistencies as well: age is given as 9 to 14 in the text and 9 to 15 in the table, the share explained by strength is 24% in the results and 23% in the discussion, the two-step model announced in the methods does not appear in the results, and the power analysis is called post hoc but is calculated like one done before a study. The journal is flagged in the registry as a venue with questionable editorial standards.

For a young archer or their coach, the study does not show that strengthening the hand or training dexterity raises scores: nobody followed a programme, and the link observed may simply come from older children being stronger, more skilful and better at shooting. The authors' recommendation to add hand-strength exercises remains a hypothesis that only a training study could test.

What remains is a descriptive finding: in a group of children with under two years of shooting on average and fewer than three sessions a week, a stronger and more skilful hand went with a slightly better score over 12 arrows at 18 metres.