Half of elite youth archers shoot with pain that has lasted for months

The summary today

The figure comes from a single study, but it is the only one that asked the right question of the right people: two hundred archers aged thirteen to twenty at the European Youth Championships, with the questionnaire administered by physiotherapists. Half of them, 50.5%, report training-related pain that has lasted more than three months, with a mean duration of 3.9 months and a mean intensity of 5.94 out of ten, and only 32% say they shoot with no discomfort at all. This is not pain that is put up with and goes away: 45% say it stops them performing the technique as they should, almost a third have had to stop training and half have been through physiotherapy. The picture has to be read for what it is, a snapshot: the archers describe what they remember, at one point in time, and the sample is Europe's best rather than the youngsters at a club. It is still the firmest figure we have on a problem that clubs rarely discuss.

Also phrased as: "chronic pain in young archers"; "how many young archers are in pain"; "training-related pain in adolescent archers"; "shooting through pain as a junior"

Evidence

• 2018
  Context Archers Published later

  62 adult competitive archers, German and European, with a retrospective questionnaire covering their whole careers: 52 overuse injuries and 6 acute ones, with the shoulder accounting for 52.9 per cent of the overuse cases. It counts events over a career rather than pain that lasts, and it is not about young archers: it says what was missing before 2024.

  Acute and Overuse Injuries in Elite Archers · Claudia K. Niestroj, Volker Schöffl, Thomas Küpper

• 2024
  For Archers Published later

  200 archers aged 13 to 20 from 34 countries at the European Youth Championships, with the questionnaire administered by physiotherapists: 101 of 200, or 50.5%, report training-related pain lasting more than three months, and 165 of 200 report pain in at least one area of the body. The mean duration is 3.9 months and the mean intensity 5.94 out of ten.

  Injuries and Persistent Pain in Elite Adolescent Archery Athletes: A Cross-Sectional Epidemiological Study · Nikolaos Vasilis, Athanasios Kyriakides, George Vasilopoulos, Maria Chatzitimotheou, Grigorios Gonidakis, Athanasios Kotsakis, et al.

• 2024
  For Archers Published later

  In the same sample only 32% say they go through the shooting sequence with no pain or discomfort at all, 45% have difficulty performing the correct technique precisely because of the pain, and 47% report difficulty, from mild to severe, in completing their usual sessions. The pain does not stay in the background, then: it gets into the shot and into the training load.

  Injuries and Persistent Pain in Elite Adolescent Archery Athletes: A Cross-Sectional Epidemiological Study · Nikolaos Vasilis, Athanasios Kyriakides, George Vasilopoulos, Maria Chatzitimotheou, Grigorios Gonidakis, Athanasios Kotsakis, et al.

• 2024
  For Archers Published later

  The two figures that characterise the pain are its duration and its intensity: 3.9 months on average and 5.94 on a nought-to-ten scale, with 101 athletes past the three-month mark. This is not the soreness of the days after a competition but mid-intensity pain that runs alongside months of training.

  Injuries and Persistent Pain in Elite Adolescent Archery Athletes: A Cross-Sectional Epidemiological Study · Nikolaos Vasilis, Athanasios Kyriakides, George Vasilopoulos, Maria Chatzitimotheou, Grigorios Gonidakis, Athanasios Kotsakis, et al.

• 2024
  For Archers Published later

  The pain has consequences on the record: 31.8% have stopped training because of an injury, between 30 and 31% have used medication in order to train, and 52.3% have been through physiotherapy. These shares say how much the problem weighs on a season, not only how widespread it is.

  Injuries and Persistent Pain in Elite Adolescent Archery Athletes: A Cross-Sectional Epidemiological Study · Nikolaos Vasilis, Athanasios Kyriakides, George Vasilopoulos, Maria Chatzitimotheou, Grigorios Gonidakis, Athanasios Kotsakis, et al.

• 2024
  Context Archers Published later

  The pain rarely sits in one place: 165 athletes report it in at least one site, 46 in two and 5 in three, with the shoulder at 49.1%. A coach working with a youngster whose shoulder hurts stands a good chance of finding the lower back or the elbow involved too.

  Injuries and Persistent Pain in Elite Adolescent Archery Athletes: A Cross-Sectional Epidemiological Study · Nikolaos Vasilis, Athanasios Kyriakides, George Vasilopoulos, Maria Chatzitimotheou, Grigorios Gonidakis, Athanasios Kotsakis, et al.

• 2024
  Context Archers Published later

  Medication for persistent pain is used by 31%, and among those 50% report negative effects and 30.77% only mild ones; regular use of anti-inflammatories before training is not accompanied by any appreciable benefit. This is the figure a youth coach should care about most.

  Injuries and Persistent Pain in Elite Adolescent Archery Athletes: A Cross-Sectional Epidemiological Study · Nikolaos Vasilis, Athanasios Kyriakides, George Vasilopoulos, Maria Chatzitimotheou, Grigorios Gonidakis, Athanasios Kotsakis, et al.

• 2024
  Context Archers Published later

  Part of the sample shows signs of central sensitisation, that is of a pain system that stays switched on beyond the tissue damage: 16 athletes of 200, or 8%, pass the threshold of 40 on the Central Sensitization Inventory with a mean score of 47.25 ± 8.03, while 78.5% stay in the subclinical range. It is a signal rather than a diagnosis, and here it counts as context.

  Injuries and Persistent Pain in Elite Adolescent Archery Athletes: A Cross-Sectional Epidemiological Study · Nikolaos Vasilis, Athanasios Kyriakides, George Vasilopoulos, Maria Chatzitimotheou, Grigorios Gonidakis, Athanasios Kotsakis, et al.

• 2024
  Context Archers Published later

  The organisational context is in table 1: only 109 athletes of 200, or 54.5%, have an annual physical assessment, and 66 of 200, or 33%, follow a prescribed diet. Half of Europe's best juniors therefore step onto the shooting line without anyone having checked how they are.

  Injuries and Persistent Pain in Elite Adolescent Archery Athletes: A Cross-Sectional Epidemiological Study · Nikolaos Vasilis, Athanasios Kyriakides, George Vasilopoulos, Maria Chatzitimotheou, Grigorios Gonidakis, Athanasios Kotsakis, et al.

Status history

1. 2018 Not studied The only epidemiological study of competitive archers asks sixty-two adults about the injuries of their whole career, and it counts events rather than pain that lingers. Nothing is known about junior archers, and nothing about lasting pain even in adults: no relevant evidence.
2. 2024 Reported The first study on the question comes from a European youth championship: two hundred archers aged thirteen to twenty, thirty-four countries, with the questionnaire administered by physiotherapists. Half of them, 50.5%, report pain lasting more than three months, only 32% shoot with no discomfort, 45% say the pain stops them performing the technique and almost a third have had to stop training. The figures are large and carefully collected, but this is a cross-sectional study of what the athletes report, at one point in time and in an elite sample: reported.

Related

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• 25 studiesArchery injuries: what research has measured since 1971
• 28 studiesThe archer's shoulder: pain, injury and recovery

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