Elite archers' anxiety rises from the ranking round to the matches, and stays high in the team event too
1 study · 57 archers measured
The summary today
There is a single study, but it was done in the field on a high-level sample: fifty-seven national-team recurve archers from twenty-two countries at the 2011 Asian Championships, questioned five to ten minutes before each stage on a nine-point grid. Cognitive anxiety, that is how worried they are, goes from 3.67 in the ranking round to 5.21 in the individual matches and 5.05 in the team event, a clear effect (eta squared 0.22). The authors expected the team event to weigh less, because the pressure is shared three ways; instead the team event stands apart from the ranking round just as the individual matches do, but the paper does not report a direct comparison between the matches and the team event, so it cannot say whether the team event weighs less, the same or more. Felt arousal, by contrast, stays high and nearly constant across the stages, and the women report more anxiety than the men in all three. The limits are clear: one competition, one question per dimension, and at that championship everyone went through to the matches, so the ranking round only decided the bracket. Nobody has set this anxiety alongside the arrows.
Also phrased as: "anxiety in head-to-head matches"; "pressure in the team event"; "nerves in the ranking round and matches"; "anxiety in the elimination rounds"; "the team takes the pressure off"
In practice
Archers say the ranking round is shot alone against the target and the matches against an opponent, and that the team event takes some weight off because mistakes are shared by three; which is why archers going into the matches are told to change nothing from the morning.
Evidence
-
2021
For Archers Published later
57 national-team recurve archers (28 men, 29 women, mean age 26) at the 2011 Asian Championships, measured on the Sport Grid-Revised five to ten minutes before each stage: mean cognitive anxiety 3.67 in the ranking round, 5.21 in the individual matches and 5.05 in the team event; effect of stage F(2,110) = 15.27, p < 0.001, eta² = 0.22. The authors' hypothesis was lower pressure in the team event, because the stress is shared.
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
Felt arousal, out of nine, stays high and nearly flat: in the men 7.11 in the ranking round, 6.82 in the matches and 6.61 in the team event, in the women 7.37, 7.66 and 7.72. What rises is worry, not the level of activation.
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 women report more cognitive anxiety than the men at every stage (means 5.61 against 3.64; men 2.57, 4.32 and 4.04; women 4.60, 6.07 and 6.03), but the rise from the ranking round to the matches is the same in both sexes: the interaction between sex and stage is not significant (F = 0.22).
Sex-based differences in cognitive anxiety and felt arousal of elite archers: a field study · Maryam Abdoshahi, Miran Kondric, Chung-Ju Huang
Status history
- 2021 Reported The first comparison between the stages of a single international competition arrives. Fifty-seven recurve archers from twenty-two national teams, measured in the field five to ten minutes before each stage at the 2011 Asian Championships: cognitive anxiety goes from 3.67 in the ranking round to 5.21 in the individual matches and 5.05 in the team event (F = 15.27; eta squared 0.22). The authors expected the team event to weigh less because the stress is shared; the team event also stands apart from the ranking round, but no direct comparison with the individual matches is reported. Felt arousal, by contrast, stays high and nearly constant across the stages. A single study, field-based and on a good-level sample as it is: reported.
Related
Related articles
- 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.
- Head-to-head matches and qualification: how much more pressure, and what it costs the arrowsBefore head-to-head matches, national squad archers are more anxious than before qualification. What it costs the arrows, and why matches produce upsets.
Research lines
Cite
Campagna, M. (2026). Elite archers' anxiety rises from the ranking round to the matches, and stays high in the team event too (Version 2). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/anxiety-ranking-round-matches-team-event
@misc{campagna2026_ansiafasegara,
author = {Campagna, Matteo},
title = {Elite archers' anxiety rises from the ranking round to the matches, and stays high in the team event too},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/anxiety-ranking-round-matches-team-event},
note = {Version 2; accessed 2026-10-16}
}
Follow this claim
RSS is an address you paste into a feed reader: each time this claim changes status, adds a year to its history or is revised, a new item appears there.
Registry updates by email
At most one email a month, sent only when something has changed: claims that change status, new claims, Lab predictions registered or resolved, new studies and new books.
Sign-ups are handled by Systeme.io, the service that runs the newsletter. Every email has a link to unsubscribe with one click.
Other claims in this domain
- ReportedA larger working memory does not make an archer more accurate3 studies · 79 archers measuredStatus since 2012
- ReportedA longer quiet eye improves shooting accuracy3 studies · 58 archers measuredStatus since 2017
- ReportedA mental profile tells archers apart from athletes in other sports only in part5 studies · 550 archers measuredStatus since 2018
- ReportedA mental training programme improves the elite archer's mood1 study · 16 archers measuredStatus since 2023
- ReportedA mental training programme reduces burnout in elite archers1 study · 16 archers measuredStatus since 2023