Grip strength in archers: Lau 2025 study

Twenty young Malaysian archers from the Kelantan state sports council, mean age 14.7 years, were compared with twenty age-matched and sex-matched secondary school peers who took part in no sport: 11 boys and 9 girls per group. The two measures were grip strength on a dynamometer and a seated medicine ball throw.

In the results table the archers have a stronger grip in both hands: a median of 35.00 kg against 25.00 in the dominant hand (p = 0.006) and 29.00 against 23.67 in the non-dominant one (p = 0.012). On the 3 kg medicine ball throw they reach 3.18 metres against 2.78 (p = 0.033). In both groups the dominant hand was stronger than the non-dominant.

The two groups, however, were not matched for body size. The archers weighed 63.1 kg against 48.7 (p = 0.003), with a body mass index of 23.6 against 19.1 (p = 0.003) and a body fat percentage of 26.7 against 20.5 (p = 0.046); height did not differ significantly, 163.2 against 159.0 cm (p = 0.062). Fourteen kilos of difference between two groups of fourteen-year-olds bear on grip strength at least as much as training does, and neither measure was adjusted for body mass.

A cross-sectional study with purposive sampling. The sample size was calculated with G Power for a power of 0.8, giving 36 participants, raised to 40 to allow for a ten per cent dropout rate. The archers were in the state development programme and had competed at national level; the comparison group were students who represented no sport. Anyone with an injury in the previous three months was excluded.

Height was measured with a stadiometer, and weight, body mass index and body fat percentage with a foot-to-foot bioimpedance analyser. Grip strength was measured with a Jamar hand dynamometer, arm by the side and elbow at 90 degrees, with a maximal isometric contraction held for five seconds, three trials per hand alternating hands, and the mean of the three. For upper body strength the participants sat on the floor, legs extended and about 60 cm apart, backs pressed against a wall, with a 3 kg medicine ball held at the centre of the chest and the forearms parallel to the ground, and threw it as far forward as possible without lifting the back off the wall; again three trials and the mean. Physical characteristics were compared with an independent samples t-test and the two strength measures with the Mann-Whitney test, as they were not normally distributed.

The article's numbers do not agree with each other. The abstract gives a dominant grip of 32.5 plus or minus 4.1 kg in the archers against 25.8 plus or minus 3.9 in the sedentary group, and a throw of 5.4 metres against 4.1; the results table gives medians of 35.00 and 25.00 kg and throws of 3.18 and 2.78 metres. Neither set can be derived from the other, and on the throw the distance changes by more than two metres. This record uses the table. In the discussion, moreover, the medians with interquartile range are rewritten with a plus-or-minus sign, as though they were means with standard deviations, and the sample size calculation is reported with an alpha level of 0.5 rather than 0.05.

On substance, the limit is a comparison between two groups differing in weight, body mass index and body fat percentage: grip strength rises with body mass, and no adjustment was made. This is a cross-sectional study, so the article's conclusion, which speaks of the positive impact of archery training on strength development, goes beyond the design; the authors also write that they have demonstrated the result conclusively. The mechanisms cited in the discussion, local blood flow, hypertrophy and an increased proportion of slow fibres, were not measured, and neither was the muscle activity mentioned at the close. Years of practice, draw weight, bow type and any score are not reported.

The measure in question is grip strength, and it is worth remembering that in shooting neither hand grips. The bow hand rests and pushes, with the grip as slack as it can be; the string hand works with the fingers in isometric flexion, and the draw is held with the back. A dynamometer asks for something different from both, so a stronger grip in young archers is a descriptive fact about who they are, not a quality whose usefulness the study demonstrates.

The seated medicine ball throw measures a fast two-armed push forward, a movement that does not occur in shooting. What remains is a difference between state-level archers and peers who take part in no sport, which this study cannot attribute to archery: the two groups also differ in weight and body composition, and nobody was followed over time. To know whether the bow builds strength would take a group measured before and after, with a comparison matched for body size as well.