Picturing a calming scene does not produce a relaxation response in kyudo archers
1 study · 35 archers measured
The summary today
The only data come from a Japanese study designed to understand kendo masters, which also included seven kyudo archers from a university club in the comparison. Seated at rest, with a sensor at the finger reading flow in the small vessels, the subjects imagine a tense situation and a relaxing one. With the relaxing image the kyudo archers' finger vessels constrict instead of dilating, down to 77.6 per cent of the resting value, more than in the kendo practitioners and untrained office workers, who drop to around 86-88 per cent, and only the kendo masters, with some thirty years of practice, dilate, up to 107.1. Heart rate and breathing do not change. The same pattern, stronger, appears with the tense image, where the kyudo archers drop to 49.6 per cent, which leaves the doubt that what constricts the vessels is the effort of imagining rather than the content of the image. Seven people, one discipline and no measurement of shooting: for the archer who pictures a quiet place before an end it is a warning, not a rule.
Also phrased as: "picturing a quiet place before shooting"; "relaxing visualisation"; "guided imagery to calm down"; "relaxation through mental images"
In practice
One of the most often recommended relaxation techniques is to picture a quiet place, a beach or a wood, to let the tension go before shooting.
Evidence
-
2004
For Kyudo archers Published later
7 kyudo archers from a university club, 7 kendo masters, 7 kendo practitioners, 5 karateka and 9 office workers, differential photoplethysmography at the finger, seated at 24 °C. With the relaxing image the P wave drops to 77.6 ± 15.3% of the resting value in the kyudo archers, 86.0 ± 9.0% in the kendo practitioners and 87.6 ± 12.7% in the office workers, a significant reduction from rest in all three (p<0.05); only the kendo masters rise, to 107.1 ± 7.3%, and they differ from each of the other groups (p<0.05; Table 3, p. 239 and p. 241).
DIFFERENTIAL DIGITAL PHOTOPLETHYSMOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF MICROCIRCULATORY RESPONSES INDUCED BY ARM POSITION CHANGE AND IMAGE LOADING IN KENDO MASTERS · Yukio Tanaka, Kazumi Eguchi, Takashi ITO, Takashi Takemiya
-
2004
Context Kyudo archers Published later
With the tense image the constriction is stronger still: P wave at 49.6 ± 14.5% of the resting value in the kyudo archers against 77.1 ± 11.3% in the kendo masters (p<0.05; p. 241). That the relaxing image constricts as well, only less, leaves open the doubt that the effort of imagining matters more than the content.
DIFFERENTIAL DIGITAL PHOTOPLETHYSMOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF MICROCIRCULATORY RESPONSES INDUCED BY ARM POSITION CHANGE AND IMAGE LOADING IN KENDO MASTERS · Yukio Tanaka, Kazumi Eguchi, Takashi ITO, Takashi Takemiya
-
2004
Context Kyudo archers Published later
The constriction of the vessels happens without any significant change in heart rate or breathing: with the relaxing image no cardiorespiratory change, with the tense image a slight, non-significant rise in heart rate and breathing in the kyudo archers (Table 3, lower part, p. 239). The response shows in the fingers before it shows in the heart.
DIFFERENTIAL DIGITAL PHOTOPLETHYSMOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF MICROCIRCULATORY RESPONSES INDUCED BY ARM POSITION CHANGE AND IMAGE LOADING IN KENDO MASTERS · Yukio Tanaka, Kazumi Eguchi, Takashi ITO, Takashi Takemiya
Status history
- 2004 Reported The first and only study: seven kyudo archers, compared with kendo masters, kendo practitioners, karateka and untrained office workers. Faced with a relaxing image, the flow in the kyudo archers' fingers drops to 77.6 per cent of the resting value, meaning the vessels constrict, and more than in the kendo practitioners and office workers, who stay around 86-88; only the kendo masters dilate, to 107.1. Heart rate and breathing stay put. A single cross-sectional study, on seven people, all of them kyudo archers: reported.
Related
Related articles
- Does imagining the shot raise your score? What the studies measuredDoes imagining the shot raise your score? Forty years of studies on archers, from a 1986 correlation to controlled trials, and where the evidence stops.
- 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.
- 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.
Research lines
Cite
Campagna, M. (2026). Picturing a calming scene does not produce a relaxation response in kyudo archers (Version 2). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/calming-imagery-no-relaxation-response
@misc{campagna2026_immaginerilassantenonrilassa,
author = {Campagna, Matteo},
title = {Picturing a calming scene does not produce a relaxation response in kyudo archers},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/calming-imagery-no-relaxation-response},
note = {Version 2; accessed 2026-10-16}
}
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