Yoga and archery shooting ability: Sahu 2020 study

A hundred Indian male archers at national level were split into two groups of 50: one added six months of a yoga programme to its usual training, the other carried on as before. Before and after the six months each archer shot two ends of six arrows at 70 metres, for a maximum of 120 points.

The yoga group went from an average of 75.60 to 82.80 points and the control group from 76.38 to 79.08: both improved, the first by 7.20 points and the second by 2.70. After adjusting for the starting score, the final means were 83.04 and 78.83, a difference of 4.20 points that the authors report as significant. Over twelve arrows that comes to about 0.35 points per arrow. The study measures nothing apart from the score: not balance, attention or strength.

The archers, with a mean age of 22.89, came from training camps held in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand and were allocated to the groups at random, although the paper does not say how. The programme, drawn up by Patanjali Yogpeeth in Haridwar, ran for 30 minutes a day, five days a week: postures such as vrikshasana, vajrasana, shashankasana, ushtrasana and makarasana, sun salutations, trataka (fixing the gaze on a point) and meditation with OM chanting. Both groups kept up their normal shooting practice.

The test followed recurve rules: a target at 70 metres, six arrows in four minutes, done twice, with the scores added together. The groups were compared with a t test on the gain in points and with an analysis of covariance using the starting score as covariate.

The paper runs to three pages and leaves out much of what would be needed to judge it: how the randomisation was done, whether anyone dropped out, how many yoga sessions actually took place, what bows and draw weights were used, what the wind was like on the two test days, and whether the people recording the scores knew which group each archer was in. The control group did nothing in place of the yoga, so the difference may come from the extra half hour of commitment and attention rather than from yoga itself.

Twelve arrows are few for measuring an archer's level: the standard deviation of the scores was between 8.43 and 10.18 points, more than twice the difference found between the groups. The means, just over 6 points per arrow at 70 metres, are a long way from those of top archers, so the label "national level" should be read with care. The conclusion speaks of a short programme, although the yoga lasted six months. The journal has questionable editorial standards.

For an archer the study says little. It shows that those who added six months of yoga to their training finished the final test about 4 points ahead out of 120 compared with those who did not, but the comparison is with a group that did nothing different, over twelve arrows, in a journal with questionable standards. It therefore does not allow anyone to say that yoga improves shooting more than another half hour of work would, or which part of the programme matters: the postures, the meditation or the gaze exercise.

Archers who already practise yoga for their wellbeing will find nothing here against it; those looking for a reason to add it in order to score more will not find solid evidence. In the registry the study counts as weak evidence.