Matteo Campagna
ITEN
Menu
Menu

Archers hold back blinking after a stimulus less than kendo practitioners do

1 study · 36 archers measured

ForContextAgainst201220142016201820202022202420262012, for, n = 362012, context, n = 36
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.

A single Japanese study has looked at archers' blinking as a sign of attentional control, and it did so to understand kendo, not archery. Eighteen male university students from archery and kyudo clubs and eighteen kendo practitioners carry out a computer task in which they must respond to some signals and hold back from others, while an electrooculogram records their eyelids. The difference lies in the second after the stimulus: in the kendo group the first blink is held back through the whole first second and arrives in the following second far more often than in the archers, 18.2 against 10.6 per cent of trials requiring a response and 15.3 against 7.4 of those requiring restraint. During the wait between the warning signal and the stimulus the two groups are the same, and the first blink just after the stimulus depends on the type of trial in the same way for everyone. In the archers none of these measures is linked to competitive level, whereas in the kendo group they are. The task is a laboratory one, far removed from the seconds spent aiming, and the archers' group mixes two disciplines: it says how two groups of students differ, not how an archer keeps their eyes still on the gold.

Also phrased as: "archers blink less"; "blinking and concentration"; "blinking while aiming"; "attentional control in aiming sports"

In practice

People say archers should not blink while aiming, and that being able to keep the eyes still is a sign of trained concentration.

Evidence

  • 2012
    For Archers Published later

    18 male university archery and kyudo students against 18 kendo practitioners, a Go/NoGo task with a warning signal and 260 trials, electrooculography. Share of trials in which the first blink comes between 1000 and 2000 ms after the stimulus, that is, held back through the whole first second: archers and kyudo archers 10.6 ± 6.7% on response trials and 7.4 ± 4.3% on no-response trials, kendo practitioners 18.2 ± 11.5% and 15.3 ± 7.9%; group effect F(1, 34) = 10.78, p < 0.01 (p. 123).

    A study of eyeblinking and attention concentration in Kendo practitioners · Masayuki Hamaguchi, Hiroshi Asada, Kaoru Kitagawa

  • 2012
    Context Archers Published later

    The other measures do not separate the groups. In the first second after the warning signal, which comes two seconds before the stimulus, blinking is similar, 18.6 ± 20.3% in the archers and kyudo archers and 21.5 ± 16.9% in the kendo group (t(34) = 0.47, not significant). In the first second after the stimulus the first blink comes more often after a signal requiring no response than after one requiring a response (archers 52.9 against 45.6%, kendo 52.9 against 42.9%; task effect F(1, 34) = 9.26, p < 0.01), with no group difference (F = 0.03) and no interaction (F = 0.23).

    A study of eyeblinking and attention concentration in Kendo practitioners · Masayuki Hamaguchi, Hiroshi Asada, Kaoru Kitagawa

  • 2012
    Context Archers Published later

    In the 18 archers and kyudo archers (10 from archery and 8 from kyudo) competitive level within the club is not linked to blinking: r = -0.22 with blinking during the wait, r = -0.18 and -0.17 with an early first blink on response and no-response trials, all non-significant (table 5, p. 124). In the kendo group, by contrast, holding the blink back beyond the first second is linked to level, and the authors read it as zanshin, the alertness that continues after the strike.

    A study of eyeblinking and attention concentration in Kendo practitioners · Masayuki Hamaguchi, Hiroshi Asada, Kaoru Kitagawa

Status history

  1. 2012 Reported The first and only study: in a computer task with signals to respond to and signals to hold back from, eighteen kendo practitioners hold their first blink back beyond the first second after the stimulus far more often than eighteen university archery and kyudo students, 18.2 against 10.6 per cent on response trials. During the wait before the stimulus the groups are the same, and in the archers blinking is not linked to competitive level. A single study, with a laboratory task and a group that mixes two disciplines, and it says the opposite of what one might expect from an aiming sport: the evidence in favour is there and it is limited.

Related

Related articles

Research lines

Cite
APA

Campagna, M. (2026). Archers hold back blinking after a stimulus less than kendo practitioners do (Version 1). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/blinking-archers-kendo

BibTeX
@misc{campagna2026_ammiccamentoattenzionearcieri,
  author = {Campagna, Matteo},
  title = {Archers hold back blinking after a stimulus less than kendo practitioners do},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
  url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/blinking-archers-kendo},
  note = {Version 1; accessed 2026-10-16}
}

Other claims in this domain

See all claims on mind and attention