Giving an experienced archer a bow other than their own does not change their precision
2 studies · 28 archers measured
The summary today
The question has been asked sideways, in two studies built for something else, and the answer they give runs against the common view. In 1990 eight archers with FITA competition experience shot with their own bow and with an imposed standard bow, lighter than theirs at the short distances and heavier at 70 metres: neither muscle activity nor group precision changed significantly. In 1999, in twenty young Swedish archers, bow type did not separate score, perceived exertion or mean muscle tension; what changed was a detail of the movement, the finger extensor contracted before the release at 11.71 per cent of maximum with the compound against 26.37 with the freestyle bow. The picture is fragile for three reasons. The arrows are very few, nine per distance in 1990, and precision is the contour of the best three. In 1999 bow type was not assigned but was a feature of whoever was shooting, so it says nothing about what happens when the bow changes in the same person's hands. And in 1990 the average hides the individual cases: the archer with the weakest pull had the worst precision with the heavier imposed bow, while the strongest did best with the heaviest bows. That the bow does not matter is therefore a result on a handful of shots, not a refutation of the opposite view.
Also phrased as: "shooting someone else's bow"; "every archer has their own bow"; "changing bow costs points"; "standard bow versus personal bow"; "getting used to a new bow"
In practice
It is said that every archer shoots well only with their own bow, and that switching to a different one, even of the same standard, costs points for weeks before the group comes back.
Evidence
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1990
For Archers Published later
Eight archers with FITA competition experience, nine arrows per distance, electromyography on six shoulder and arm muscles, on both the bow arm and the drawing arm: shooting with an imposed standard bow instead of their own produced no significant difference in either muscle activity or precision, measured as the contour of the best three arrows out of nine. The imposed bow drew 235.4 newtons at 70 and 90 metres, 174.6 at 50, 145.2 at 25 and 133.4 at 18, against personal bows of 178.5 to 214.8 newtons: lighter at the short distances, heavier at the long ones.
Muscular Activity of Different Shooting Distances, Different Release Techniques, and Different Performance Levels, with and without Stabilizers, in Target Archery · J.P. Clarys, J. Cabri, E. Bollens, R. Sleeckx, J. Taeymans, M. Vermeiren, et al.
-
1990
Context Archers Published later
In the same experiment arm pulling force bears no relation to the draw weight of the personal bow, which the authors read as an arbitrary choice even among capable archers. Beneath the average there are cases pointing the other way: the archer with the weakest pull had the worst precision both with his own bow and with the heavier imposed bow, the one with the strongest pull did best with the heaviest bows, and the authors conclude that arm strength matters in choosing a bow for a given distance.
Muscular Activity of Different Shooting Distances, Different Release Techniques, and Different Performance Levels, with and without Stabilizers, in Target Archery · J.P. Clarys, J. Cabri, E. Bollens, R. Sleeckx, J. Taeymans, M. Vermeiren, et al.
-
1999
Context Archers Published later
Twenty young Swedish archers, mean age 15.75, five compound, three classic bow and twelve freestyle, within a study of flotation in a sensory deprivation tank: bow type, which is a feature of the archer rather than an assigned condition, does not change the score (p 0.224), perceived exertion (p 0.208) or mean muscle tension while shooting (p 0.562). What changes is the contraction of the finger extensor between half a second and a tenth of a second before the release, measured over twelve arrows in the control condition: 11.71 per cent of maximal contraction with the compound, 19.71 with the classic bow and 26.37 with the freestyle (F 5.04, p 0.020), with the difference significant only between compound and freestyle.
Primary process in competitive archery performance: Effects of flotation REST · Torsten Norlander, Henrik Bergman, Trevor Archer
Status history
- 1990 Reported Eight experienced FITA-level archers shoot with their own bow and with an imposed standard bow, lighter than theirs at the short distances and heavier at the long ones: no significant difference in either muscle activity or group precision. There are nine arrows per distance and precision is the contour of the best three, and beneath the average the weakest archer does worse with the heavier imposed bow. A single study, on eight people, with the claim written in the direction of its result: reported.
- 1999 Reported In twenty young Swedish archers bow type does not change the score (p 0.224), perceived exertion (p 0.208) or mean muscle tension while shooting (p 0.562). Something does change, but in the movement rather than the result: in the moment before the release the finger extensor is contracted at 11.71 per cent of maximum with the compound against 26.37 with the freestyle bow. Here, though, bow type is a feature of whoever is shooting, not a bow put in the same person's hands, so the study adds context rather than a second test: the status stays reported.
Related
Related articles
- Does better equipment put points on the scorecard? What shooting machines and archers showShooting machines, archers handed a bow that is not theirs and blind ratings: what the studies say about how much equipment counts towards your score.
- Bow tuning in archery: how to tune your bow, backed by scienceBow tuning and the research: spine, centre shot, button, nocking point, brace height and tiller. What models and machine tests show, and how precise you need to be.
- Which bow to buy when you start, and when to buy itWhich bow to buy when you start archery: why wait, the take-down recurve, draw weight, arrows, and the FITARCO, World Archery, FIARC and IFAA rules.
Research lines
Cite
Campagna, M. (2026). Giving an experienced archer a bow other than their own does not change their precision (Version 1). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/equipment/shooting-a-different-bow-and-precision
@misc{campagna2026_arcodiversoprestazione,
author = {Campagna, Matteo},
title = {Giving an experienced archer a bow other than their own does not change their precision},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/equipment/shooting-a-different-bow-and-precision},
note = {Version 1; accessed 2026-10-16}
}
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