Caffeine improves accuracy in archery

4 studies · 26 archers measured

Each circle is a study: its position gives the year, its row whether it is for, against or context, its size how many participants it measured. Light circles are studies on other populations or without archers.

Score with and without caffeine, as a percentage of the maximum: archers without a placebo, clay target shooters double-blind

Türker et al. 2026, university recurve archers, 30 arrows at 18 m, no placebo

Without caffeine, 6.61 points per arrown = 12

66.1

With 200 mg, 8.33 points per arrown = 12

83.3

Share et al. 2009, elite double trap shooters, 200 targets, double-blind

Placebo, 155 out of 200n = 7

77.5

2 mg per kilo, 151 out of 200n = 5

75.5

4 mg per kilo, 150 out of 200n = 7

per cent of the maximum score

Each bar is the group's mean score as a percentage of the maximum possible; the whiskers are the standard deviation the studies report, brought onto the same scale. Türker's university archers shoot 30 arrows at 18 metres on the indoor three-spot face, out of a maximum of 300 points (p. 92): 6.61 points per arrow in the first session, 8.33 in the second, an hour after 200 milligrams of caffeine (tables 1 and 2, pp. 95 and 96). The caffeine session always came second and there was no placebo, so part of the jump may come from getting into the swing of it. Share's shooters, seven elite men, fire at 200 targets per trial (p. 662) and take caffeine or placebo double-blind: 155 targets with placebo, 151 with 2 milligrams per kilo and 150 with 4, differences the analysis cannot tell apart from chance (p = 0.406, p. 663); only five of them tried the 2 milligram dose. The two percentages do not measure the same thing: in archery it is the score on the rings, in clay target shooting the share of targets broken. The other study that measures archers' scores, the Korean one from 2017, is left out because it does not say what maximum the score is counted against: after a sleepless night six boys shoot 339.16 points at 30 metres with caffeine and 334.83 with a placebo given blind, a difference the analysis cannot tell apart from chance (tables 5 and 6). Data from: Türker et al. 2026, Share et al. 2009 and Park and Kwon 2017.

The numbers in the figure

Study	Group	Value (per cent of the maximum score)	Interval	n
Türker et al. 2026, university recurve archers, 30 arrows at 18 m, no placebo	Without caffeine, 6.61 points per arrow	66.1	± 12 (mean ± standard deviation)	12
Türker et al. 2026, university recurve archers, 30 arrows at 18 m, no placebo	With 200 mg, 8.33 points per arrow	83.3	± 3.9 (mean ± standard deviation)	12
Share et al. 2009, elite double trap shooters, 200 targets, double-blind	Placebo, 155 out of 200	77.5	± 7.5 (mean ± standard deviation)	7
Share et al. 2009, elite double trap shooters, 200 targets, double-blind	2 mg per kilo, 151 out of 200	75.5	± 5.45 (mean ± standard deviation)	5
Share et al. 2009, elite double trap shooters, 200 targets, double-blind	4 mg per kilo, 150 out of 200	75	± 8.55 (mean ± standard deviation)	7

There are two studies in archers and they do not agree. In 2017 six Korean middle-school boys, after a sleepless night, shot 339 points at 30 metres with 2.5 milligrams of caffeine per kilo and 335 with a placebo given blind, a difference the analysis cannot tell apart from chance. In 2026 twelve university recurve archers shot 8.33 points per arrow after two hundred milligrams against 6.61 in the session without, a huge jump. The second has the weaker design: no placebo, no randomisation and a starting score, a little over six and a half per arrow at eighteen metres, so low that simply getting into the swing of it remains an open explanation. The first is tiny and measures caffeine in boys who had not slept, which is a narrower question; in both, caffeine always came last. Outside archery, seven elite clay target shooters, double-blind with placebo, did not improve their scores and reported headache, anxiety and tremor, which in a sport of holding steady weigh more than the hoped-for gain; neither there nor in the Korean boys did caffeine raise heart rate.

Also phrased as: "does coffee before a competition help"; "caffeine and archery scores"; "caffeine for archers"; "does coffee cause tremor while aiming"; "coffee before competition"; "caffeine and archery"; "caffeine and accuracy"; "caffeine supplements at competitions"; "does coffee make the aim shake"

In practice

Archers hear both that a coffee before shooting helps hold the middle and keep concentration, and that it should be avoided because it brings on tremor.

Evidence

2009
Against Other sport Published later

7 elite male double trap shooters, double-blind with placebo, 200 targets: a total of 150 ± 17.1 with 4 mg per kilo, 151 ± 10.9 with 2 mg per kilo (in 5 shooters) and 155 ± 15.0 with placebo, p = 0.406. It is the soundest design available on this question, but in a different sport and in seven people. Two things make the null less conclusive than it looks: no sample confirms the caffeine arrived, and resting heart rate is identical in the two conditions (73 against 73), while self-reported habitual intake was about six coffees a day with an abstention of only twenty-four hours. The effect on the score, moreover, carries p = 0.102 with a partial eta squared of 0.304: with seven people an absent effect stays indistinguishable from one that cannot be seen.

Caffeine and performance in clay target shooting · Bianca Share, Nick Sanders, Justin Kemp
2009
Context Other sport Published later

In the same study caffeine does not shorten reaction time or target tracking time (the lowest p is 0.137) and does not change heart rate or blood pressure, at rest or in competition (lowest p values 0.105 and 0.193); in the closing questionnaire the shooters report headache, anxiety and tremor, with no frequencies given. In a sport of holding steady such as archery, those effects matter.

Caffeine and performance in clay target shooting · Bianca Share, Nick Sanders, Justin Kemp
2017
Against Archers Published later

6 Korean middle-school boys, mean age 14.5 with 4.7 years of shooting, at 30 m under three conditions a week apart, always in the same order: after a normal night, after a sleepless night with a placebo capsule, after a sleepless night with 2.5 mg of caffeine per kilo, given blind. Score over six ends: 339.16 ± 14.66 with caffeine, 334.83 ± 9.62 with placebo, 336.83 ± 15.98 after normal sleep; F(2,10) = 0.986, p = 0.407. Caffeine always came last, and any gain from practice would have favoured it: none shows even so. Six boys are too few to detect a few points, and the question is caffeine after a night without sleep; a regional journal.

Effect of Blood Glucose and Growth Hormone on Performance of Middle School Archery Players with Sleep Loss and Caffeine Intake · Jeong Uk Park, Tae Dong Kwon
2017
Context Archers Published later

In the same study heart rate during the 30 m test is lower with caffeine: at the first end 93.90 beats per minute against 102.25 with placebo and 111.41 after normal sleep (effect of condition F(2,10) = 5.996, p = 0.019), with no difference between measurement points and no interaction. Given the fixed order it cannot be put down to caffeine alone; of a raised heart rate, the agitation archers fear, there is no sign.

Effect of Blood Glucose and Growth Hormone on Performance of Middle School Archery Players with Sleep Loss and Caffeine Intake · Jeong Uk Park, Tae Dong Kwon
2025
Context Archers Published later

8 elite archers followed across four days of a World Cup leg: the squad's feeding routine included about 3.2 ± 0.2 mg of caffeine per kilo roughly an hour before competing and 7.5 ± 1 mmol of inorganic nitrate a day. The study does not measure score: it says the practice is common at the top, not that it produces points.

Sex differences in energy intake, sweat rate, and electrolyte loss among world-class archers during competition · Ozcan Esen, Stuart Goodall
2026
For Archers Published later

12 Turkish university recurve archers, with 6.5 ± 1.8 years of practice, 30 arrows at 18 m: 8.33 ± 0.39 points per arrow with 200 mg of caffeine, about 3 mg per kilo, against 6.61 ± 1.20 in the session without, that is 250.1 against 198.6 out of 300; F(1,11) = 30.88, p < 0.001, d = 1.90. No placebo, no randomisation, the caffeine session always 72 hours after the first.

An ergogenic approach to enhancing performance in archery: the acute effects of caffeine · Üstün Türker, Zeynep Hazal Ateş, Mümine Görgülü, Fatih Kıyıcı, Serdar Bayrakdaroğlu
2026
Context Archers Published later

In the same trial the score with caffeine also varies much less: standard deviation of the per-arrow mean 0.39 against 1.20, and of the total 11.96 against 36.09. With the design this study has, a spread that narrows so much may also come from the second session being shot on a protocol the archers already knew. The advantage is not uniform: in three ends out of ten the difference is not significant (p = 0.058, 0.055 and 0.098), in the other seven it is.

An ergogenic approach to enhancing performance in archery: the acute effects of caffeine · Üstün Türker, Zeynep Hazal Ateş, Mümine Görgülü, Fatih Kıyıcı, Serdar Bayrakdaroğlu

Status history

2009 Contradicted The first test is not in archers but in seven elite clay target shooters: at 2 and 4 milligrams per kilo, caffeine does not improve competition scores, does not shorten reaction time or target tracking time and does not change heart rate or blood pressure, while it brings headache, anxiety and tremor. The null has to be taken for what it is, though: with seven people the effect on the score carries a p-value of 0.102 and a large effect size, and no sample confirms the dose arrived. There is nothing on archers, and the only available test comes from another sport and points against: contradicted, fragile twice over, with a different sport and a sample of seven.
2017 Contradicted The first study in archers arrives, and it points the same way as clay target shooting. Six Korean middle-school boys, after a sleepless night, shoot 339 points at 30 metres with 2.5 milligrams of caffeine per kilo and 335 with a placebo given blind, a difference the analysis cannot tell apart from chance. The study is tiny, the night without sleep makes it a narrower question, and caffeine always came last, which if anything would have helped it. One study in archers, and it points against: contradicted.
2025 Contradicted An elite national squad followed across four days of a World Cup leg turns out to take about 3.2 milligrams of caffeine per kilo roughly an hour before competing, as part of its feeding routine. That says the practice exists at the top, not that it works: nobody measured the score, and the only comparison in archers is still the 2017 one, with no effect. The status holds.
2026 Contested The second study in archers arrives, and it points the opposite way to the first: twelve university recurve archers shoot 8.33 points per arrow after two hundred milligrams of caffeine against 6.61 in the session without, a large effect, although in three ends out of ten the difference is not significant. The design is weak, though: no placebo, no randomisation and the caffeine session always second, on a starting score so low that getting into the swing of it remains an open explanation. There are now two studies in archers and they disagree: the one with a blinded placebo, in six boys short of sleep, finds nothing; the one without a placebo, in twelve adults, finds a huge jump. Contestato.

Related studies

Theoretical workIl pavimento (The floor): how much of archery is real

Research lines

Cite

APA

Campagna, M. (2026). Caffeine improves accuracy in archery (Version 3). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/health/caffeine-accuracy

BibTeX

@misc{campagna2026_caffeinaprecisione,
  author = {Campagna, Matteo},
  title = {Caffeine improves accuracy in archery},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
  url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/health/caffeine-accuracy},
  note = {Version 3; accessed 2026-10-16}
}

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