Accuracy does not drop in competition compared with practice

The summary today

At the range it is taken for granted that archers shoot worse in competition, and the few data that measure both say the opposite. In five university kyudo archers followed over the five days before a competition and during it, the probability of hitting does not fall, with four out of five improving; in a second group of six kyudo archers the hit rate rises as often as it drops when they move into the competition setting, with no common direction. There is one contrary result, and it concerns one precise moment: three Korean women on the national-squad shortlist shoot below their training level at the first competition of the season and above it at the next two tournaments. Two things keep confidence in this answer low. The two supporting measurements come from kyudo, where the score is a hit or a miss rather than a score out of ten, and every sample runs from three to six people. So: nobody has found a systematic drop, but nobody has looked for one on a sample large enough to rule it out.

Also phrased as: "you always shoot worse in competition than in practice"; "competition scores are lower than practice scores"; "how much is lost between the range and the competition"; "competition lowers accuracy"

Evidence

• 1991
  Context Archers Published later

  Eighteen Greek archers, nine from the national squad and nine of good level not selected, with two real competitions as the before and after measure of a mental-rehearsal programme: in the final competition the treated group set one national record and two personal bests. The authors also note that the two groups gained almost the same amount, from a higher scoring base for the treated group. There is no comparison at all between competition scores and practice scores: it is the first hint in the bibliography that archers can shoot at their best in competition, and nothing more.

  Visuomotor Behavior Rehearsal in Archery Shooting Performance · Yannis Zervas, Vassilis Kakkos

• 1994
  For Kyudo archers Published later

  Five university kyudo archers, three women and two men aged 19 to 21, measured arrow by arrow on practice days and during the inter-university championship, at twenty-eight metres on a 36 centimetre target: the probability of hitting does not change between practice and competition, with an F below one both in the overall comparison and in the one between the last five days and the competition, and four archers out of five do not get worse. The design is strong in the part that matters, because each archer serves as his or her own reference, and weak in everything else: five people, one competition, and kyudo counts a hit or a miss rather than a score out of ten.

  Changes of Heart Rate, Somatic Anxiety, and Performance of Japanese Archers during Practices and Matches · Masakazu Miyamoto

• 1994
  Context Kyudo archers Published later

  Two figures from the same work help in reading the rest. The starting level: over the five days before the competition these archers hit between 46 and 59 per cent of their shots, so there was plenty of room to get worse and a drop would have shown. And the one archer who shot below his level in competition was also the one with the highest heart rate already in practice, between 140 and 153 beats, rising to 162 in competition. Nothing can be built on a single archer, but it shows where to look.

  Changes of Heart Rate, Somatic Anxiety, and Performance of Japanese Archers during Practices and Matches · Masakazu Miyamoto

• 2007
  For Kyudo archers Published later

  Six university kyudo archers, hit rate in the practice week and in competition: 63.5 against 77.7 per cent; 67.6 against 44.4; 67 against 91.6; 51 against 50; 79.3 against 84.7; 63.4 against 66.6. Four go up, one falls sharply, one stays put: no common direction, so no systematic drop. This is an abstract in the proceedings of an engineering symposium, and the practice rates are those of the preceding week rather than of the same sessions.

  B39 Quantification of TENOUCHI for Playing Kyudo · Sekiya Koike, Takuro Sugiura, Sakura Murata, Toshio Mori

• 2011
  Against Archers Published later

  Three Korean women on the national-squad shortlist followed for a season with an arousal-control programme, scores over 1440 rounds: mid-February practice 1332, 1328 and 1315; late March 1338, 1335 and 1320; the first national competition in late April 1320, 1303 and 1295, that is below practice for all three; the presidential cup in late July 1354, 1340 and 1336; a tournament in early August 1359, 1371 and 1340. The drop appears only at the first competition. Three cases, no control group, a programme running in the background that muddles the picture, and a regional journal.

  Effect of Arousal Control Training Conjugated Heart Rate Biofeedback for National Substitute Archery Players · Seong-Taek Hong

• 2012
  Context Archers Published later

  Nine competitive Korean archers aged sixteen and seventeen, twenty-five arrows each at fifty metres on faces of different diameter: the mean per arrow rises with the diameter, from 7.7 points on the sixty centimetre face to 8.93 on the hundred, with an r squared of 0.22 and p below 0.001. It is a reminder when practice and competition scores are compared: changing the face, the distance or the number of arrows moves the score more than any effect of the competition itself.

  An Archer's Perceived Form Scales the "Hitableness" of Archery Targets · Yang Lee, Sih Lee, Claudia Carello, M. T. Turvey

Status history

1. 1991 Not studied The first figure in the bibliography is anecdotal: in the final competition of a study on mental training, the treated group set one national record and two personal bests. Nobody compares competition scores with practice scores, so the question stays open.
2. 1994 Reported The first measurement of the comparison: five university kyudo archers followed over the five days before a competition and during it. The probability of hitting does not fall, with an F below one, and four out of five improve. The one who dropped was also the one with the highest heart rate already in practice. Evidence in favour, but on five people and in kyudo alone: reported.
3. 2007 Reported A second, independent group points the same way: in six university kyudo archers the hit rate between practice and competition rises as often as it drops, from 44 to 92 per cent in competition against 51 to 79 per cent in practice. No systematic fall, but this is a congress abstract and kyudo again: the picture widens and the status holds.
4. 2011 Reported The first result in the opposite direction, and a narrow one: three Korean women on the national-squad shortlist shoot below their practice level at the first national competition of the year, 1320, 1303 and 1295 against 1338, 1335 and 1320, and above it at the next two tournaments. Three cases with no control group, in a regional journal: they do not overturn the picture, but they show the answer depends on which competition is being looked at. The status stays reported, with a weak contrary result stated plainly.

Related

Related articles

• Choking in archery: how common it is, who it happens to and what goes with itHow many archers say they fall apart in competition, what those who choke most often have in common, and how much pressure costs on measured scores.
• Do archers shoot worse in competition than in training? The body and the target, measuredIn competition the heart beats faster, yet measured accuracy does not drop: what studies comparing competition and training show, and where they stop.
• Mental skills training in archery: what the measurements on archers showWhat has been measured on archers' mental training: score, confidence, anxiety, programme length, mock competitions and each of the tools in turn.

Research lines

• 56 studiesAnxiety and confidence in archery competition since 1986
• 27 studiesHow much the body switches on in competition

Other claims in this domain

• CorroboratedAbout 150 points on a FITA round separate a club archer from a national-team archer13 studies · 492 archers measuredStatus since 2003
• CorroboratedAn archer's arousal rises with what is at stake, and keeps rising as the competition goes on3 studies · 23 archers measuredStatus since 2011
• CorroboratedArchers are more aroused in competition than in training5 studies · 50 archers measuredStatus since 2025
• CorroboratedAt 70 metres a top archer averages about nine points per arrow7 studies · 72 archers measuredStatus since 2012
• CorroboratedEven in competition at the highest level, most arrows are not tens4 studies · 3,212 archers measuredStatus since 2024

See all claims on competition and scoring