Dumbbell and band training for archers: Yachsie 2019

Twelve archers at the Beji shooting centre, in the Indonesian regency of Banyumas, repeated the drawing movement with a dumbbell and an elastic band in place of the bow, and by the end of the period both their holding time and their score had improved. The score over 36 arrows at 30 metres rose on average from 288.33 to 299.33, that is by eleven points, with a spread that stays very wide in both measurements (standard deviation 43.07 before and 41.41 after) because the group runs from an archer scoring 188 to one scoring 325. The bow holding test went from 21.87 to 27.87 on average, with the standard deviation falling from 6.61 to 6.33.

Both improvements hold for all twelve archers rather than for part of the group: in the table of individual data every single archer improves on both measures. The paired-samples t test gives 9.869 for the score and 8.812 for holding, on 11 degrees of freedom and with p reported as 0.000. The author concludes that work with a dumbbell and band has an effect on arm endurance and on accuracy, and presents the exercise as preparation for archers who do not yet own a bow or who are moving from a light draw weight to recurve or compound.

The design is a before-and-after on a single group with no comparison, which the author calls quasi-experimental. The twelve participants were drawn from the 85 athletes and officials of archery in Banyumas regency, and shoot in the Indonesian national division. The training imitates the shooting sequence with the dumbbell in place of the grip and the band in place of the string: the sequence of stance, set-up, draw, anchor, hold and aim is repeated for 5 sets of 15 to 20 repetitions, with a hold of 15 to 30 seconds on each repetition and a recovery of twice the holding time.

The two measurements are described in the conclusions. Accuracy is the total score over 36 arrows, shot in six ends of six on a target at 30 metres, adding up the value of every arrow left in the boss. Arm endurance is the Holding Bow Test, that is how long the archer can hold the bow at draw, measured individually: the individual values run from 11.67 to 32.57 at the first measurement, so they are times in the order of tens of seconds. The comparison between before and after is a paired-samples t test at the 5% level. How many weeks the programme lasted and how many sessions it involved is not written down.

Twelve archers, a single group, no comparison: a before-and-after of this kind does not separate the effect of the exercise from that of the shooting practice done over the same days, from familiarity with the test and from the simple passing of time in athletes who are not at a high level and improve anyway. The missing figure that matters most is the duration: without knowing how many weeks the five sets were spread over, the programme can neither be repeated nor judged, and eleven points cannot be called many or few.

The group is very mixed. With scores running from 188 to 325 out of 360 the standard deviation exceeds 40 points, that is four times the mean improvement, and the author reports no confidence interval for the difference. The paper does not say who administered the tests, nor whether whoever administered them knew the programme was under way, and it gives no draw weight, age or sex for the participants. The Holding Bow Test is not described as a protocol (with which bow, at what draw length, with what criterion for stopping), and the unit of measurement is not stated in the tables. Finally, the two measurements are not independent of shooting: the same 36 arrow session is both the accuracy test and a load on the arm. The journal is a regional university publication and the peer review status is not stated.

Anyone who already owns a band and a dumbbell will find here the description of an exercise many archers know: the shooting sequence is repeated without a bow, holding the anchor position for fifteen to thirty seconds, for five sets. The study observes that after a period of this work twelve archers out of twelve held the bow for longer and scored a few more points at 30 metres. It is the kind of result almost any training produces in a group of middling standard, and without a comparison group it cannot be credited to the band.

The interesting part lies elsewhere: holding time, measured in seconds, moves a good deal (from 21.9 to 27.9 seconds on average) and moves in the same direction as the score. In the registry the source counts as weak evidence for the idea that specific arm endurance and score go together in beginners, not as a demonstration that training it raises the score. The day that idea is tested properly will need a group that shoots without doing the exercise, and a stated programme length.