Matteo Campagna
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Archers aim better than other people even in an aiming task without a bow

1 study · 30 archers measured

ForContextAgainst2016201820202022202420262017, for, n = 302017, context, n = 20
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.

There is a single study, from 2017, and its result is clear but narrow. Ten Olympic archers from the British team, ten archers from a university club with about two years of shooting and ten students who had never shot did the same computer task: raise a sight towards a target with a joystick, hold it in the centre while the program made it shake, and press the button to shoot. Both groups of archers erred less than the non-archers (p = 0.009 for the Olympians, p = 0.015 for the club archers), but there was no difference in accuracy between them (p > 0.999), even though the Olympians held their gaze on the target for longer. The advantage therefore seems to arrive with the first years of shooting and stop there, or to belong to the people who choose to shoot: with thirty people compared once, there is no telling which.

Also phrased as: "archers have better aim"; "an archer's aim transfers"; "archers and aiming games"; "aiming with a joystick"; "aim can be trained without a bow"

In practice

You hear that archers have an aim that works anywhere, from target shooting to video games, as if archery trained a general ability to bring one point onto another.

Evidence

  • 2017
    For Archers Published later

    10 Olympic archers from the British team, 10 university club archers with about two years of shooting and 10 students who had never shot, in a computer aiming task with a joystick and two levels of sight disturbance: both the Olympians and the club archers erred less than the non-archers (p = 0.009 and p = 0.015, group effect F = 6.91, p = 0.004).

    Exploring the quiet eye in archery using field- and laboratory-based tasks · Claudia C. Gonzalez, Joe Causer, Michael J. Grey, Glyn W. Humphreys, R. Chris Miall, A. Mark Williams

  • 2017
    Context Archers Published later

    In the same task the Olympians and the club archers did not differ at all in accuracy (p > 0.999), while the Olympians held their gaze on the target for longer, especially under strong disturbance (p = 0.002). Under strong disturbance all three groups erred more (F = 34.48, p < 0.001).

    Exploring the quiet eye in archery using field- and laboratory-based tasks · Claudia C. Gonzalez, Joe Causer, Michael J. Grey, Glyn W. Humphreys, R. Chris Miall, A. Mark Williams

Status history

  1. 2017 Reported The only study on this record arrives. In a computer aiming task with a joystick, ten Olympic archers and ten club archers erred less than ten students who had never shot, but they could not be told apart from each other at all: the advantage seems to come early and then stop. It is a single study, comparing different groups of people with no measurement over time: reported.

Related

Related articles

Research lines

Cite
APA

Campagna, M. (2026). Archers aim better than other people even in an aiming task without a bow (Version 1). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/archers-aiming-without-bow

BibTeX
@misc{campagna2026_arcierimirasenzaarco,
  author = {Campagna, Matteo},
  title = {Archers aim better than other people even in an aiming task without a bow},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
  url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/archers-aiming-without-bow},
  note = {Version 1; accessed 2026-10-16}
}

Other claims in this domain

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