Framing training as a game raises beginners' scores

3 studies · 71 archers measured

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.

Only one study has measured what happens to the score when beginners are offered shooting practice framed as a game. In 2022 ten club beginners train for accuracy with a points game: at the start half the group sat in the lowest band, at the end nine out of ten sit in the highest, between 139 and 158 points. The study has no group doing the same work in the usual form, and beginners improve anyway in their first weeks, so what can be said today is that beginners improve with the game, not that they improve because of it. A 2018 study of children aged 10 to 12 finds the score higher after a core stability circuit framed as a game, but there the body is trained rather than the shooting, and it stays as context. The firmest finding is a different one: in these studies the young people like the training a great deal, with ratings between 82 and 98 per cent depending on the group.

Also phrased as: "game-based archery training"; "archery games for beginners"; "learning to shoot through play"; "gamified archery practice"

In practice

In youth courses the saying is that a game keeps attention up and gets more arrows shot without them feeling like work, which is why a child who is having fun learns faster than one repeating drills.

Evidence

2018
Context Archers Published later

36 children aged 10 to 12 from a school and a club in Yogyakarta, eight sessions of a core stability circuit framed as a game, with holds rising from 15 to 30 seconds, and the score at 15 metres before and after: the improvement is significant in both groups (p = 0.001 and p = 0.002). The programme, however, is physical work rather than shooting practice, the children are young archers who may or may not have been beginners, and there are no means, no differences and no control group: that is why it stays as context and does not count in favour.

Developing Core Stability Exercise Model of Playing Approach for Children Aged 10-12 Years to Improve Accuracy in 15 Meters Archery · Oktita Indah Pratiwi, Mansur
2018
Context Archers Published later

In the same study, enjoyment: 82 per cent in the 10 children of the small-scale trial, 97.77 per cent in the 36 of the large one, 95 per cent in the two coaches, 86 and 88 per cent in the experts who assessed the model. It is the measure the work was most concerned with, and it is a judgement on the programme, not on the score.

Developing Core Stability Exercise Model of Playing Approach for Children Aged 10-12 Years to Improve Accuracy in 15 Meters Archery · Oktita Indah Pratiwi, Mansur
2022
For Archers Published later

10 beginners from an Indonesian club, accuracy training with a points game over two action-research cycles: across the poor, fair and good bands the group goes from 50, 40 and 10 per cent at the start to 0, 50 and 50 per cent after the first cycle and to 0, 10 and 90 per cent after the second, with nine archers out of ten between 139 and 158 points. There is no control group and no statistical test, and the time between one cycle and the next is not given.

Penerapan Permainan AVShoot untuk Meningkatkan Akurasi pada Pemanah Pemula di Klub Blue Feather Archery · Aviesena Aria Fierera, Hernawan, Kuswahyudi
2022
Context Archers Published later

A game-based shooting training model, tried on primary school pupils in three successive rounds: mean enjoyment is 95 per cent with 2 pupils, 92 with 12 and 89 with 25, two meetings per round. It measures how much the training is liked, not how much is learned, and it drops a little as the group grows.

Pengembangan Model Latihan Memanah Berbasis Permainan F-One Archery pada Peserta Didik Sekolah Dasar · Indra Sukma, Zurweni Zurweni, Muhammad Ali
2022
Context Archers Published later

The same study, the validation: content experts give the model 96 per cent, media experts 87. There is no measure of learning or of score in any of the rounds.

Pengembangan Model Latihan Memanah Berbasis Permainan F-One Archery pada Peserta Didik Sekolah Dasar · Indra Sukma, Zurweni Zurweni, Muhammad Ali

Status history

2018 Not studied The first work close to the question offers a core stability circuit as a game to thirty-six children aged 10 to 12 who shoot at a school and a club: after eight sessions the score at 15 metres rises in both groups, and the programme goes down very well, with 97.77 per cent enjoyment among the children. But what is trained is the body, not the shooting, it is not known whether the children were beginners, and the authors report only p values, with no means and no control group. On shooting practice framed as a game for people who are starting out there is no data yet.
2022 Reported The first study to try a shooting game on beginners arrives. Ten club beginners train for accuracy with a points game over two cycles: the lowest band, half the group at the start, empties after the first cycle, and after the second nine out of ten sit in the top band, between 139 and 158 points. There is no control group, no statistical test and not even the time elapsed between cycles. Another study from the same year, on primary school pupils, measures only enjoyment, between 89 and 95 per cent. A single study in favour, a before and after with no control: reported.

Research lines

Cite

APA

Campagna, M. (2026). Framing training as a game raises beginners' scores (Version 2). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/physical-training/game-based-training-beginners

BibTeX

@misc{campagna2026_allenamentoagiocoprincipianti,
  author = {Campagna, Matteo},
  title = {Framing training as a game raises beginners' scores},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
  url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/physical-training/game-based-training-beginners},
  note = {Version 2; accessed 2026-10-16}
}

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