With ordinary training alone, a Paralympic archer's sense of time gets worse over the course of the preparation
1 study · 20 archers measured
The summary today
There is a single study, and it concerns twenty high-level Ukrainian Paralympic archers who shoot seated in a wheelchair. For twelve weeks half of them carried on with their usual programme and half added simulator work, more arrows, massage and swimming; at each block everyone had to reproduce a five-second interval from memory. In the group on ordinary training the estimate grew shorter from one block to the next and reached its lowest point before and after the control competition, significantly different from the first measurement: the authors describe an accelerated sense of time. In the other group, they write, time perception improved. The exact values sit in a table that cannot be read reliably in the PDF, so this entry does not give them. The finding is thin: the groups were not randomised, the timing task was built by the authors and has no reliability data, no statistical test is named and the journal is a regional one. Above all, nobody has checked that estimating five seconds well matters at all for the score.
Also phrased as: "sense of time in archery"; "losing rhythm over a training block"; "time perception and training fatigue"; "the archer's internal clock"
In practice
It is said that the tiredness of a long preparation block shows in the rhythm before it shows in the arms: the archer starts to rush, shortens the aim and loses the cadence they had built, which is why coaches suggest varying the work rather than simply adding arrows.
Evidence
-
2023
For Archers Published later
20 Paralympic archers in wheelchairs, split into two groups of 10 without randomisation and followed for 12 weeks (48 sessions): in the group that stayed on ordinary training, reproducing a 5-second interval from memory grows shorter from one block to the next and reaches its lowest point before and after the control competition, with p below 0.05 against the first measurement. The values in the table cannot be read reliably in the PDF and are not given here. The task was built by the authors, with no reliability data, and no statistical test is named. Regional journal.
Characterization of the influence of physical rehabilitation means and special physical exercises of archery on the sports performance of Paralympic athletes · A. Mahlovanyy, I. Grygus, O. Kunynets, S. Duliba, L. Strelbytskyi, O. Ivanochko, V. Homyshyn
-
2023
Context Archers Published later
In the same study the group that added simulator exercises, 30 to 35 per cent more arrows, massage and swimming improves in time perception, according to the authors' text. The intervention mixes four things, so there is no telling which one held the estimate steady, and no score is reported for the 18-metre competition: only that eight of the top ten came from that group.
Characterization of the influence of physical rehabilitation means and special physical exercises of archery on the sports performance of Paralympic athletes · A. Mahlovanyy, I. Grygus, O. Kunynets, S. Duliba, L. Strelbytskyi, O. Ivanochko, V. Homyshyn
Status history
- 2023 Reported The first and only piece of data comes from Lviv: twenty Paralympic archers in wheelchairs followed for twelve weeks, ten on their usual programme and ten on a programme that adds simulator work, arrows, massage and swimming. Reproducing a five-second interval from memory, the usual-training group's estimate grows shorter from one block to the next, down to its lowest point before and after the control competition, a significant change from the first measurement, while in the other group time perception improves. A controlled but non-randomised study, with a home-made task and in a regional journal: reported.
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Research lines
Cite
Campagna, M. (2026). With ordinary training alone, a Paralympic archer's sense of time gets worse over the course of the preparation (Version 2). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/sense-of-time-ordinary-training
@misc{campagna2026_percezionetempoallenamento,
author = {Campagna, Matteo},
title = {With ordinary training alone, a Paralympic archer's sense of time gets worse over the course of the preparation},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/sense-of-time-ordinary-training},
note = {Version 2; accessed 2026-10-16}
}
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