Matteo Campagna
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Shifting work from maximal strength to coordination improves the archer's technical precision

1 study · 70 archers measured

It is known only at second hand. A 2026 systematic review of fifteen exercise studies in archery summarises a 2017 Ukrainian study of 70 archers, 25 at national level and 45 in basic training, in which a programme with 80 per cent of the work on coordination and technical skill and reduced maximal strength work did better than usual training: coordination tasks improved by 50 to 72 per cent, muscle-sense errors fell, and elbow angle, hand position and shoulder speed improved by 5 to 40 per cent, all with p below 0.01. The review classes it as non-randomised without describing how the comparison was made, one of the percentages is impossible as written, and accuracy on the target, although it is among the declared measures, has no result of its own. A review reporting a study is not enough to give a status: without the study's own figures, the question has no direct evidence.

Also phrased as: "coordination instead of strength"; "less weights, more coordination"; "coordination training for archers"; "maximal strength and technical precision"

In practice

It is said that archers need control more than strength, and that physical preparation time pays off better on balance, coordination and feel than on maximal loads.

Evidence

  • 2026
    For Review Published later

    Systematic review of 15 exercise studies in archery (2015 to 2025), without meta-analysis. In Table 6 it summarises a non-randomised 2017 Ukrainian study of 70 archers (25 at national level and 45 in basic training, sex and age not given): with 80 per cent of the work on coordination and technical skill and reduced maximal strength work, against usual training, coordination tasks such as holding a laser in the target field improved by 50.55 to 72.18 per cent, muscle-sense deviations fell by 29.42 to 146.59 per cent (a fall of more than 100 per cent makes no sense as written), elbow angle, hand position and shoulder speed improved by 5.05 to 39.94 per cent (p < 0.01), and shooting exercises such as "Shooting 18x18" together with tests in difficult conditions, on a platform or with eyes closed, by 1.41 to 24.49 per cent, all lumped together with no separate figure for accuracy. The figures are those reported by the review.

    Systematic Review of Exercise Interventions in Archery: Injury Management and Performance Outcomes · Ambusam Subramaniam, Fairus Fariza Zainudin, Mon Redee Sut Txi

Status history

  1. 2026 Not studied The first figure arrives at second hand, from a systematic review that takes up a 2017 Ukrainian study of 70 archers: with four fifths of the work on coordination and technique and less maximal strength, coordination and position tests improve more than with usual training. The review does not say how the comparison was made, one percentage does not add up and accuracy on the target has no result of its own. A review on its own does not decide a status, and the figures are the ones it reports: not studied.

Related

Research lines

Where there are no studies on archers, every decision starts from a written hypothesis and is checked against the data over time.

See the programme
Cite
APA

Campagna, M. (2026). Shifting work from maximal strength to coordination improves the archer's technical precision (Version 2). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/physical-training/coordination-instead-of-maximal-strength

BibTeX
@misc{campagna2026_coordinazionealpostodellaforza,
  author = {Campagna, Matteo},
  title = {Shifting work from maximal strength to coordination improves the archer's technical precision},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
  url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/physical-training/coordination-instead-of-maximal-strength},
  note = {Version 2; accessed 2026-10-16}
}

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