Arrow positions can be recorded by hand from a photograph of the target face
1 study
The summary today
There is only one study, from 2012, and it uses neither archers nor coaches but ten people with no shooting experience. An archer shoots 72 arrows at 70 metres, every end is photographed and every hole measured to the millimetre; the ten operators then mark the arrows from the photographs on a target face drawn on a computer. Correlations with the measured positions exceed 0.977 and those between one operator and another 0.969, and of 720 arrows marked only four change score. The mean error on each axis is about 1.1 per cent of the target radius, around seven millimetres, and it is almost entirely random, so it cancels out in the average of the group more than on the single arrow. That is why, among the indices calculated from the group, the position of the centre suffers little (0.57 per cent error) and the size more (1.53 per cent on the mean radius). The method works without any knowledge of archery, and fits within the four minutes of a qualification end. What is missing is a test with the people who would actually use it, archers and coaches, on photographs taken in competition: that is why the status is transferred.
Also phrased as: "plotting arrows from a photo"; "group from a phone picture"; "arrow scatter diagram"; "recording arrow positions"
In practice
Many archers photograph the target face with their phone at the end of each end and then copy the arrows into an app or onto a sheet, to see where the group goes instead of looking only at the score.
Evidence
-
2012
For General population Published later
Ten operators with no shooting experience mark from 12 photographs the 72 arrows shot by one archer at 70 m on a 122 cm face: correlations with the measured coordinates above 0.977, inter-operator reliability above 0.969, mean error per axis of 1.13 per cent (X) and 1.17 per cent (Y) of the radius, 0.74 per cent on the distance from the centre; 4 arrows out of 720 in the incorrect scoring zone. The tables give the mean absolute error as 6.92 and 7.17 cm, but set against the 61 cm radius, as the study itself does, it corresponds to about 7 mm.
Inter-Rater Reliability and Criterion Validity of Scatter Diagrams as an Input Method for Marksmanship Analysis: Computerised Notational Analysis for Archery · J. Andrew Callaway, A. Shelley Broomfield
-
2012
Context General population Published later
The error is almost entirely random: the systematic part is -0.12 on the horizontal axis and +0.82 on the vertical, the random part about ±7 (±7.02 and ±7.12 in the tables' units). Operators tend to pull arrows towards the centre horizontally and to spread them vertically, and the largest errors come from arrows hiding the hole of another.
Inter-Rater Reliability and Criterion Validity of Scatter Diagrams as an Input Method for Marksmanship Analysis: Computerised Notational Analysis for Archery · J. Andrew Callaway, A. Shelley Broomfield
-
2012
Context General population Published later
Group indices add up the input errors: mean percentage error of 0.57 per cent on the constant error (position of the centre), 0.58 on the variable error and 1.53 on the mean radius. Only the centre index fluctuates over the first four ends before settling; every operator completes each end within the 4 minutes of a qualification round, and knowledge of archery turns out not to be needed.
Inter-Rater Reliability and Criterion Validity of Scatter Diagrams as an Input Method for Marksmanship Analysis: Computerised Notational Analysis for Archery · J. Andrew Callaway, A. Shelley Broomfield
Status history
- 2012 Transferred The first and only study has ten operators with no shooting experience mark 72 arrows from photographs: correlations with the measured positions above 0.977, agreement between operators above 0.969, a mean error per axis of about one per cent of the target radius and almost entirely random, with the size of the group suffering more from it than the position of its centre. The operators are neither archers nor coaches, so the claim rests on a test made outside archery: transferred.
Related
Related articles
Research lines
Where there are no studies on archers, every decision starts from a written hypothesis and is checked against the data over time.
See the full assessmentCite
Campagna, M. (2026). Arrow positions can be recorded by hand from a photograph of the target face (Version 2). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/competition/arrow-group-from-a-photograph
@misc{campagna2026_rosatadafotografia,
author = {Campagna, Matteo},
title = {Arrow positions can be recorded by hand from a photograph of the target face},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/competition/arrow-group-from-a-photograph},
note = {Version 2; accessed 2026-10-16}
}
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