The arousal zone in which an archer shoots best changes with distance and with the competition format
3 studies · 4 archers measured
The summary today
Everything we know comes from two studies that share authors, and from four Brazilian archers. In 2007 a 25-year-old woman archer, second in the national ranking, rates her arousal and pleasure on a scale from 1 to 9 after every competition end: the arousal band in which she is most likely to shoot her best runs from 5.0 to 7.7 at 18 metres, from 3.9 to 5.1 at 50 and from 4.1 to 4.6 at 60, and narrows as she moves away from the target up to 60 metres. In 2008 three top archers, aged 24, 27 and 57, followed from March to December 2006 with at least forty readings per archer at each distance, show the same picture: the zones that go with their best ends differ at 18, 30, 50, 70 and 90 metres and in the Olympic Round at 70 metres, for arousal as for heart rate, some wider, others sitting higher up. The format is that of 2006 competitions: outdoors the FITA round over four distances, from 90 to 30 metres, with the knockout Olympic Round at 70 metres on top, whereas today outdoor recurve qualification is usually shot at a single distance. On pleasure the picture is subtler: for one of the three the zone that went with the best ends was almost the same at 30, 50, 70 and 90 metres, but in the Olympic Round and indoors it was wider and higher, and the paper does not say whether this also holds for the other two. In the 2007 archer, moreover, optimal heart rate sits around 121 beats at 18, 50 and 60 metres. The comparisons between distances are read off the graphs, with no test, the zones are described on the same data they were derived from, and nobody has checked that they predict later competitions, or that they apply to other archers.
Also phrased as: "optimal arousal zone and distance"; "a different arousal level for each distance"; "individual affect-related performance zones"; "ideal arousal in the Olympic Round"; "optimal heart rate by distance"
In practice
Mental preparation often talks about finding your own ideal arousal zone, usually as a single level to recover at every competition, whether you are shooting 18 metres indoors or 70 metres in head-to-head matches.
Evidence
-
2005
Context Review Published later
A review chapter reporting the case of a woman archer with six years on the Italian national team, measured fifteen minutes before two training rounds and five competition rounds at a world championship: her emotions resembled those remembered from poor performances, her heart rate did not follow the pattern considered optimal, and her performance was poor. It is a single case, cited second-hand, with no comparison between distances.
Psychological Aspects of Archery · Kathleen M. Haywood
-
2007
For Archers Published later
1 Brazilian woman archer aged 25, in her third year of shooting and second in the national ranking, who after every competition end rates her arousal and pleasure on a scale from 1 to 9; zones estimated with ordinal logistic regressions on 60 readings at 18 m, 96 at 30 and 50 m, 48 at 60 and 70 m. The arousal band in which she is most likely to shoot her best changes at every distance: 5.0-7.7 at 18 m, 5.7-7.4 at 30, 3.9-5.1 at 50, 4.1-4.6 at 60, 5.0-6.6 at 70.
Linking affect and performance of an international level archer incorporating an idiosyncratic probabilistic method · Michael B. Johnson, William A. Edmonds, Luiz Carlos Moraes, Edson S. Medeiros Filho, Gershon Tenenbaum
-
2007
Context Archers Published later
In the same archer the optimal arousal zone narrows as she moves away from the target, from 2.7 points wide at 18 m to 1.7 at 30, 1.2 at 50 and 0.5 at 60, before widening again to 1.6 at 70; the pleasure band also changes from one distance to the next (4.0-4.9 at 18 m, 5.9-7.1 at 30). Optimal heart rate, though, sits around 121 beats at 18, 50 and 60 m, at 142 at 30 m and at 126 at 70: the authors themselves note that the zones, while different, lie at similar levels.
Linking affect and performance of an international level archer incorporating an idiosyncratic probabilistic method · Michael B. Johnson, William A. Edmonds, Luiz Carlos Moraes, Edson S. Medeiros Filho, Gershon Tenenbaum
-
2007
Context Archers Published later
The data come from two competitions, one indoor, which is the only one at 18 m, and one outdoor, so format and distance cannot be separated. The authors state that they did not try to predict later competitions, and the archer trained with two members of the research team.
Linking affect and performance of an international level archer incorporating an idiosyncratic probabilistic method · Michael B. Johnson, William A. Edmonds, Luiz Carlos Moraes, Edson S. Medeiros Filho, Gershon Tenenbaum
-
2008
For Archers Published later
3 top Brazilian archers, aged 24, 27 and 57, followed from March to December 2006 with at least 40 readings per archer per distance, arousal and pleasure rated on a scale from 1 to 9 after each end and zones estimated with ordinal logistic regressions: the arousal zones linked to the best ends differ at 18, 30, 50, 70 and 90 metres and in the Olympic Round at 70 metres, some wider, others higher, and at several distances there is no band for poor or moderate ends. The comparison between distances is visual, on the graphs, with no statistical test.
Affective and Physiological States during Archery Competitions: Adopting and Enhancing the Probabilistic Methodology of Individual Affect-Related Performance Zones (IAPZs) · Edson Soares Medeiros Filho, Luiz Carlos Moraes, Gershon Tenenbaum
-
2008
For Archers Published later
In the same study the heart rate that goes with the best ends also has distinct zones for each of the three archers and for each of the six shooting conditions, measured with a monitor that averages every 5 seconds and normalised to the individual maximum heart rate obtained from an incremental test.
Affective and Physiological States during Archery Competitions: Adopting and Enhancing the Probabilistic Methodology of Individual Affect-Related Performance Zones (IAPZs) · Edson Soares Medeiros Filho, Luiz Carlos Moraes, Gershon Tenenbaum
-
2008
Context Archers Published later
On the competition format: in the Olympic Round at 70 metres and indoors at 18 metres the pleasure band compatible with the best ends is wider and sits higher than at 30, 50, 70 and 90 metres in the outdoor round. In the paper (p. 448) the sentence follows the description of archer AA, and it is unclear whether it also holds for the other two. This too is a comparison read off the graphs.
Affective and Physiological States during Archery Competitions: Adopting and Enhancing the Probabilistic Methodology of Individual Affect-Related Performance Zones (IAPZs) · Edson Soares Medeiros Filho, Luiz Carlos Moraes, Gershon Tenenbaum
-
2008
Context Archers Published later
It does not hold for every dimension and every archer: for one of the three the pleasure zone linked to the best ends was almost identical at 30, 50, 70 and 90 metres, with the exception of the Olympic Round and indoors, while for the other two it changed at every distance.
Affective and Physiological States during Archery Competitions: Adopting and Enhancing the Probabilistic Methodology of Individual Affect-Related Performance Zones (IAPZs) · Edson Soares Medeiros Filho, Luiz Carlos Moraes, Gershon Tenenbaum
-
2008
Context Archers Published later
The archers move in and out of their zone throughout the season, and sometimes within a single day of competition: in the first six readings, which make up the first day, one of the three passes through his poor, moderate and optimal zones.
Affective and Physiological States during Archery Competitions: Adopting and Enhancing the Probabilistic Methodology of Individual Affect-Related Performance Zones (IAPZs) · Edson Soares Medeiros Filho, Luiz Carlos Moraes, Gershon Tenenbaum
Status history
- 2005 Not studied A review of the psychology of archery reports the case of a woman archer with six years on the national team: measured fifteen minutes before the rounds of a world championship, her emotions resembled those she remembered from poor performances, and she shot poorly at that event. It is the idea of a personal zone, but on a single person and with no comparison between distances or formats: for this question there is nothing yet.
- 2007 Reported The first figures come from a 25-year-old Brazilian woman archer, second in the national ranking, who rates her arousal on a scale from 1 to 9 after every competition end. The band in which she is most likely to shoot her best changes at every distance, from 5.0-7.7 at 18 metres to 3.9-5.1 at 50 and 4.1-4.6 at 60, and narrows as she moves away from the target up to 60 metres; optimal heart rate, though, stays around 121 beats at three distances out of five. One archer, two competitions and a comparison read off the tables: reported.
- 2008 Reported A second study, sharing authors with the first, follows three top Brazilian archers for a whole season, with at least forty readings per archer at each distance. The arousal zone that goes with their best ends changes between 18, 30, 50, 70 and 90 metres and in the Olympic Round, the same holds for heart rate, and it differs from one archer to another; for one of the three the pleasure zone stays almost the same across the four outdoor distances and changes only in the knockout matches and indoors, where it is wider and higher. All three are men, so the 2007 archer is not among them: two studies pointing the same way on four different people, but from the same research group and with comparisons read off the graphs, with no test. Riportato, not corroborated.
Related
Related articles
- How fired up you need to be to shoot well: individual bands, distance and relaxationIs there a right level of arousal for shooting well? What the studies say about individual bands, shooting distance and relaxing before an end.
- Indoor vs outdoor archery: key differences and seasonal adaptationsIndoor vs outdoor archery: what changes between 18 and 70 metres, what the only study of the shot at both distances found, and what research says about moving between distances.
Research lines
Cite
Campagna, M. (2026). The arousal zone in which an archer shoots best changes with distance and with the competition format (Version 3). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/arousal-zone-changes-with-distance
@misc{campagna2026_zonaottimalecambiacondistanza,
author = {Campagna, Matteo},
title = {The arousal zone in which an archer shoots best changes with distance and with the competition format},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/arousal-zone-changes-with-distance},
note = {Version 3; 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