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Archery practice spends less time on breaks than other sports

1 study · 67 archers measured

ForContextAgainst2022202420262022, for, n = 672022, context, n = 67
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 observational study, published in 2022: at a Malaysian national sports school three sessions per sport were filmed and timed across six sports, with 67 athletes aged 16 to 20, and for archery a squad of ten elite youth archers with their coach. In archery the transition time, meaning rest, breaks for water or prayer and general briefings, is 17 per cent of sessions lasting 129 minutes on average, the lowest of the six sports, against 43 per cent in hurdling; the remaining 83 per cent is technical drilling with a minimal share of physical work, and there are no competition-like situations at all. The ranking does not survive the statistics, though: among the three individual sports the difference in transition time is not significant (p = 0.09), and neither is the difference between individual and team sports (p = 0.10). With three sessions from a single squad, the figure describes how one group and its coach work more than how a sport works.

Also phrased as: "dead time in practice"; "density of an archery session"; "how much archers actually shoot in practice"; "breaks during archery practice"

In practice

It is said that archery practice is more waiting than work, between collecting arrows and chatting on the line, while others reply that an archery session is one of the densest there is, because archers are shooting almost all the time.

Evidence

  • 2022
    For Archers Published later

    Video observation of three sessions per sport across six sports, 67 athletes at a Malaysian national sports school, including 10 elite youth archers with sessions of 129 minutes on average: in archery transition takes 17 per cent of the time, against a range of 17-43 per cent across the six sports. Among the three individual sports the difference in transition is not significant: F(2,6) = 3.80, p = 0.09.

    Microstructure of practice activities for team and individual sports · Angelina Li San Tan, Jeffrey Fook Lee Low

  • 2022
    Context Other sport Published later

    Across the six sports, session structure does not separate individual from team sports: transition t(16) = -1.77, p = 0.10; overall means of 59 per cent technical and physical drills, 15 per cent competition-like play and 26 per cent transition.

    Microstructure of practice activities for team and individual sports · Angelina Li San Tan, Jeffrey Fook Lee Low

Status history

  1. 2022 Reported A single video-based observation, three sessions per sport across six sports and 67 athletes: in archery the time without sport-specific activity, between rest, breaks and briefings, is 17 per cent of the session against 43 per cent in hurdling, the lowest of the six. Among the three individual sports, though, the difference is not significant, and session structure does not separate individual from team sports. One coach and ten archers: evidence in favour, and limited.

Related

Related articles

Research lines

Cite
APA

Campagna, M. (2026). Archery practice spends less time on breaks than other sports (Version 1). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/physical-training/breaks-in-archery-practice

BibTeX
@misc{campagna2026_strutturasedutapause,
  author = {Campagna, Matteo},
  title = {Archery practice spends less time on breaks than other sports},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
  url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/physical-training/breaks-in-archery-practice},
  note = {Version 1; accessed 2026-10-16}
}

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