Head-to-head matches put more pressure on archers than the qualification round

The summary today

A single field study compares the stages of one competition: at a continental championship, national-team recurve archers report more cognitive anxiety before individual and team matches than before qualification, 5.21 and 5.05 against 3.67 on a one to nine scale. Felt arousal, measured alongside it, does not change between stages, and scores were not analysed. Before that figure there were only the archers' own words: three young members of the South Korean national reserve squad describe the tension of the first bracket match and of a tie with the opponent, and eight members of the Olympic squad name the shoot-off, and shots that drag on out of indecision, as the moments of greatest pressure. Two limits matter. At that championship every archer went through to the matches anyway, so qualification cut nobody and the comparison is between a stage without elimination and a knockout stage; and qualification always comes first, so the stage is tangled up with the point in the tournament. Where scores have been looked at, inside the matches rather than between stages, the picture is mixed: across more than six thousand international sets what is at stake in the set does not on its own lower them, while across more than three thousand shoot-offs the deciding arrow is worth about one per cent less than the mean of the first set. More reported anxiety does not necessarily mean poorer arrows.

Also phrased as: "elimination matches are more stressful than qualification"; "anxiety is higher in head-to-head matches"; "qualification is shot under less pressure than the matches"; "knockout matches weigh more on the mind"; "the shoot-off is the moment of greatest pressure"

Evidence

• 2010
  Context Archers Published later

  Three eighteen-year-old archers from the 2009 South Korean national reserve squad, interviewed before and after eight weeks of mental training: among the moments of greatest tension they name the individual bracket matches, a first-round match against a younger opponent, the first end of the matches after the qualification round, a tie with the opponent and, for one of them, the first end of the competition as well. Nobody asked them to compare the stages, and they are three people.

  The Effects of Psychological Skills Training in the Archery Field · Byung Hyun Kim, Chang Hwon Yang

• 2015
  Context Archers Published later

  Seventy archers at the Greek national championship, ACSI-28 questionnaire: the adults over twenty-five report performing better under pressure than the twelve to sixteen year olds, 4.1 ± 0.99 against 3.1 ± 1.32, with F = 5.7. In the same comparison, though, the younger archers describe themselves as freer from worry, 4.4 against 3.7, contrary to what the authors write. It is a general self-rating, not tied to any stage of a competition.

  Psychological skills of elite archery athletes · Evangelos Bebetsos

• 2020
  Context Archers Published later

  Eight archers from the South Korean Olympic squad, semi-structured interviews read by theme: among the situations of psychological crisis the archers place the shoot-off and shots that drag on because they are undecided about their own technique. The only moments it names are head-to-head ones, never qualification; but these are words, from eight people, and nobody asked them to compare the two stages.

  "Coach Really Knew What I Needed and Understood Me Well as a Person": Effective Communication Acts in Coach-Athlete Interactions among Korean Olympic Archers · Youngsook Kim, Inchon Park

• 2020
  Context Archers Published later

  Head-to-head matches from 120 events between 2013 and 2019, from World Championships and World Cups down to continental and national competitions, taken from the World Archery results: across 3,645 shoot-off arrows by adult recurve and compound archers, the deciding arrow is worth 1.1 per cent less than the mean of the first set (p < 0.001), and at World Championships and World Cups the shoot-off is worth 0.9 per cent less than at lesser events. There is no further drop in quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals. This is scoring under pressure inside the match, not the comparison between qualification and the matches.

  Choking under pressure in archery · Alessandro Bucciol, Alessandro Castagnetti

• 2021
  For Archers Published later

  57 national-team recurve archers at the 2011 Asian Championships, 28 men and 29 women, rating themselves five to ten minutes before each stage on two separate items of the Sport Grid-Revised: cognitive anxiety 3.67 before qualification, 5.21 before the individual matches and 5.05 before the team event, with an effect of stage of F(2,110) = 15.27, p < 0.001 and eta squared 0.22. It is the only study in the bibliography comparing the stages of one competition.

  Sex-based differences in cognitive anxiety and felt arousal of elite archers: a field study · Maryam Abdoshahi, Miran Kondric, Chung-Ju Huang

• 2021
  Context Archers Published later

  In the same sample two measures do not move. Felt arousal is identical across the three stages, F(2,110) = 0.13: it is the worry that rises, not the sense of being keyed up. And the difference in anxiety between men and women stays the same across all stages, with an interaction of F(2,110) = 0.22 for anxiety and 1.56 for arousal. Those who feel more pressure feel it more or less everywhere.

  Sex-based differences in cognitive anxiety and felt arousal of elite archers: a field study · Maryam Abdoshahi, Miran Kondric, Chung-Ju Huang

• 2021
  Context Archers Published later

  The format of that competition changes how the result reads: at the 2011 Asian Championships in Tehran all 64 men and 49 women in individual recurve went through to the matches after the 72 arrows of qualification, which only served to set the brackets. So the comparison is between a stage where nobody is eliminated and a knockout stage, and it says nothing about competitions in which qualification cuts the field. The individual matches were in sets of three arrows, first to six points; the team matches in sets of six arrows.

  Sex-based differences in cognitive anxiety and felt arousal of elite archers: a field study · Maryam Abdoshahi, Miran Kondric, Chung-Ju Huang

• 2024
  Context Archers Published later

  6,374 sets of three arrows from individual recurve matches at three Olympic Games, the 2021 World Championships and a European Grand Prix, taken from the official results: compared with sets that decide nothing, what is at stake in the set alone does not significantly move the score of the last arrow (coefficients from -0.02 to 0.004, none significant). This is pressure inside the match rather than the comparison between stages, and sets from the same archer are treated as independent.

  Gender differences in skilled performance under failure competitive environments: evidence from elite archers · Chunhua Li, Yangqing Zhao

Status history

1. 2010 Not studied The first archers' own words in the bibliography come from three eighteen-year-olds in the South Korean national reserve squad, interviewed for a mental training study: when they describe competition tension they mostly talk about the matches, meaning the first round of the bracket, the first end after qualification and a tie with the opponent. These are three accounts, and none of them sets the stages of one competition against each other with a measurement: the question has not yet been asked.
2. 2015 Not studied In the registry's bibliography there is still no measurement comparing the stages of a competition. The closest figure is a questionnaire on seventy Greek archers, in which the adults report performing better under pressure than the twelve to sixteen year olds, 4.1 against 3.1: it is about who holds up under pressure, not about which stage produces it.
3. 2020 Not studied A second piece of qualitative evidence on archers arrives, this time from the very top, and it is not enough to move the status: eight archers from the South Korean Olympic squad, interviewed one by one, name the shoot-off and shots that drag on out of indecision about technique as the moments of greatest pressure. The only moments they name are head-to-head ones and never qualification, so they point the same way as the claim; but these are interviews with eight people and nobody asked them to compare the stages of one competition. It stays context. The same year brings the first figure on scores under pressure in matches: across 3,645 shoot-off arrows from World Archery events the deciding arrow is worth about one per cent less than the mean of the first set, and less again at World Championships and World Cups. This is pressure inside the match rather than the comparison with qualification, so it too stays context, and the question stays open.
4. 2021 Reported The field measurement arrives: 57 national-team recurve archers at the Asian Championships report more cognitive anxiety before individual and team matches than before qualification, 5.21 and 5.05 against 3.67. Felt arousal does not change between stages and scores were not analysed. At that championship, besides, everyone went through to the matches anyway, so qualification cut nobody. It is the first supporting evidence on archers, but it is self-rating at a single competition: the status rises to reported and stops there.
5. 2024 Reported A second figure on scores arrives, and here the pressure does not show: across 6,374 sets of international head-to-head matches, what is at stake in the set does not on its own significantly change the score of the last arrow, whereas in 2020 the shoot-off arrow fell by about one per cent. Both concern pressure inside the match rather than the comparison between stages of a competition, so they stay context and the status holds. They help to separate the two things: the anxiety reported before a stage and what happens to the arrows do not necessarily move together.

Related

Related articles

• Five-all in archery: why it happens, and to whomOne match in five between equals ends five-all, and not by chance: it happens to archers who are alike. How often, where in the bracket and why.
• The shoot-off in archery: what one arrow decidesHow the shoot-off works after a five-all, how often it picks the more precise archer (55 to 57 times in 100) and what that arrow is worth in competition.
• Competition anxiety: what it costs an archer's score, and when it arrivesDoes competition anxiety cost archers points? What the studies measured, when in a competition the tension arrives and where the research stops.

Research lines

• 7 studiesThe arrow that decides
• 8 studiesChoking and competitive pressure in archers

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