Elite archers during Ramadan fasting: Roy 2011 study

Eleven Malaysian Muslim archers with national and international competition experience described in interviews how they had experienced training during Ramadan 2010, distinguishing the first two weeks from the last two. From their accounts the authors drew five groups of experiences (physical, emotional, behavioural, mental and spiritual), with 15 themes in the first half of the month and 15 in the second.

In the first half the body and mood came first. Eight of the 11 archers (73%) talked about tiredness and some about dizziness; 36% reported anger and 27% irritation. In the second half nobody mentioned general tiredness or dizziness any more, although sleep, thirst and exhaustion were still part of their accounts, and several said they had got used to it. The mental side, on the other hand, grew: 45% of the archers spoke about it for the first half and 73% for the second, and six of them named distraction as the main problem, along with lethargy, reluctance and difficulty keeping to routines. Spiritual elements, such as taking pleasure in fasting or willpower, were mentioned by 63%. The authors conclude that towards the end of the month the difficulty shifts from the body to concentration.

The archers were 9 men and 2 women, with a mean age of 20.1, who trained together as a squad for six hours a day, three before lunch and three after, and had fasted during that Ramadan: they were chosen precisely for that reason. The interviews took place in the second and third weeks after Ramadan ended, because in the first week many had gone home. The question asked them to describe training and competition in the first two and last two weeks of the fast, with follow-up prompts and no time limit; all the interviews were conducted and recorded by the same member of the research team.

The transcripts, 11 pages in all, were analysed using grounded theory: relevant statements were isolated as units of meaning, coded and then grouped into broader themes. The researchers coded independently and then compared their results, with 89% agreement, and the archers were asked to confirm or correct the interpretation. As a theoretical frame the authors use Zimmerman's model of self-regulation, with its three phases of forethought, performance control and self-reflection.

This is a retrospective account: the archers were recalling the month two to three weeks later, and the split between the first and second half of Ramadan depends on their memory, as the authors acknowledge. Eleven people from a single squad, with the same coach and the same programme, are not enough to speak about Muslim archers in general, and the Malaysian setting, with its climate and customs, matters. The percentages show how many people mentioned a theme, not how much it weighed: an archer who does not mention tiredness may still have felt it.

There is no measure of shooting at all, neither scores nor arrows counted, so the study does not say whether performance dropped; sleep, diet and hydration are not measured either. There is also a small inconsistency: tiredness in the first half is 73% in the results and 80% in the discussion, a figure that cannot be reached with eleven people. The practical advice in the discussion (drinking more during the permitted hours, going to bed early, cutting back on social activities) comes from the authors and the literature, not from the interviews.

For a Muslim archer training or competing during Ramadan the study offers a description, not a rule: in this squad physical fatigue and irritability weighed more in the first two weeks, while difficulty staying focused grew towards the end. If the experience is similar, one can expect the problem to change shape over the month rather than disappear, and the last weeks to call for attention to concentration even once the body has adapted.

For a coach the most useful finding is the variety: the archers experienced the fast in different ways, some with discomfort and others with pleasure, and the authors stress fitting training loads and times to the individual. Whether any of this changes scores, the study does not measure. For diet and hydration during the fast, the person to consult remains a sports nutrition professional.