Matteo Campagna
ITEN
Menu
Menu

Training at the longer distances improves resistance to fatigue

1 study · 40 archers measured

ForContextAgainst202420262024, for, n = 402024, against, n = 402024, context, n = 40
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 study, and what it shows concerns the way of shooting more than the distance. Forty sub-elite archers from East Java, aged 14 to 20, were randomly split into four groups of ten for twelve weeks: three shot at 20, 50 or 70 m under a fixed protocol, 108 arrows a session and no more than ten seconds per arrow, while the fourth kept to its usual training, also at 70 m. The fatigue index in a repeated-sprint test falls at 50 m (from 3.29 to 1.68) and at 70 m (from 4.84 to 2.95), while it does not change significantly at 20 m or in the usual-training group, and the differences between the three protocol distances are not significant. The archers who shot at 70 m without the protocol did not improve, so distance alone is not enough, and in any case a running sprint is not the ability to hold a score over the last ends of a competition.

Also phrased as: "shooting long for endurance"; "training at 70 metres builds stamina"; "long distances build staying power"; "long-range practice for competition fatigue"

In practice

The saying goes that staying power is built at the long distances: shooting at 70 m is more tiring, gets the body used to holding the bow for longer and prepares for competition fatigue better than short-range ends.

Evidence

  • 2024
    For Archers Published later

    40 sub-elite archers aged 14-20, randomly divided into four groups of ten for twelve weeks (20 m, 50 m and 70 m under a protocol of 108 arrows a session and no more than ten seconds per arrow, plus a usual-training group), endurance measured as the fatigue index in a repeated-sprint test (six maximal 35 m runs with 10 s recovery): at 50 m from 3.29 to 1.68 (p=0.037), at 70 m from 4.84 to 2.95 (p=0.018), at 20 m from 3.58 to 3.07 (p=0.480). Against the usual-training group, 50 m p=0.028 and 70 m p=0.012.

    The Impact of Training Distances (20 m, 50 m, and 70 m) on Concentration and Anaerobic Endurance in Archery Sub-Elite Athletes · Lilies Handayani, Nurhasan, Hari Setijono, Oce Wiriawan, Dwi Cahyo Kartiko, Mochamad Purnomo, et al.

  • 2024
    Against Archers Published later

    In the same study, the usual-training group was also shooting at 70 m, but without the ten-seconds-per-arrow protocol: over twelve weeks its fatigue index goes from 3.71 to 3.47 (p=0.777). Training at the long distance, with nothing else, did not change the measure.

    The Impact of Training Distances (20 m, 50 m, and 70 m) on Concentration and Anaerobic Endurance in Archery Sub-Elite Athletes · Lilies Handayani, Nurhasan, Hari Setijono, Oce Wiriawan, Dwi Cahyo Kartiko, Mochamad Purnomo, et al.

  • 2024
    Context Archers Published later

    In the same study, the comparisons between groups: 50 against 70 m p=0.731, 20 against 50 m p=0.182, 20 against 70 m p=0.096, usual training against 20 m p=0.362, with an overall ANOVA at p=0.044. The two longer protocol distances beat usual training but not the 20 m group, and cannot be told apart from each other.

    The Impact of Training Distances (20 m, 50 m, and 70 m) on Concentration and Anaerobic Endurance in Archery Sub-Elite Athletes · Lilies Handayani, Nurhasan, Hari Setijono, Oce Wiriawan, Dwi Cahyo Kartiko, Mochamad Purnomo, et al.

Status history

  1. 1990 Not studied In the registry's bibliography no study on archers had compared different training distances on a measure of fatigue resistance.
  2. 2024 Contested The first study arrives, and it points two ways. Forty sub-elite archers aged 14-20, randomly divided into four groups: twelve weeks of a protocol at 50 and at 70 m, with 108 arrows a session and no more than ten seconds per arrow, lower the fatigue index in a repeated-sprint test (from 3.29 to 1.68 and from 4.84 to 2.95), while at 20 m it does not change significantly. The usual-training group, however, was also shooting at 70 m, and its index stays put (from 3.71 to 3.47, p=0.777). With one case for and one against in the same study, ten archers per group and a running measure rather than a shooting one, the picture is contested.

Related

Related articles

Research lines

If this idea shapes your training or your coaching, look at what your own data say before you change anything.

See the programme
Cite
APA

Campagna, M. (2026). Training at the longer distances improves resistance to fatigue (Version 2). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/physical-training/long-distance-training-fatigue-resistance

BibTeX
@misc{campagna2026_distanzelungheresistenza,
  author = {Campagna, Matteo},
  title = {Training at the longer distances improves resistance to fatigue},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
  url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/physical-training/long-distance-training-fatigue-resistance},
  note = {Version 2; accessed 2026-10-16}
}

Other claims in this domain

See all claims on physical training