Physical conditioning improves shooting accuracy

The summary today

On this question the direction is almost unanimous and the quality of the designs is where it falls short. From 2017 onwards a dozen studies on archers, from strength work with grip exercises to plyometrics, from the Indonesian circuits to the weights used by Malaysian archers, all report a higher score after the programme, and none reports a decline. The two results that carry the most weight are also the ones whose limits teach the most. In sixty Indian national-level archers, twelve weeks of gym strength work are worth 36.5 points more than the control over seventy-two arrows, and the control does not move in twelve weeks, but each group trained at a different academy. In thirty-eight randomly assigned competitive archers, twelve weeks of circuit training take the score per arrow from 7.1 to 8.6, with arrow spread down by a quarter, while the group training as usual stays where it is; that circuit, however, also involved shooting, and the comparison between the groups is not reported. Where a comparison between groups does exist, it does not always back the claim: in twelve Indonesian district archers the trained group gains almost nine points and the control stays put, but the difference between the groups is not significant, with six archers on each side and a journal of questionable editorial standards. The other controlled studies are small, lack a direct comparison or had groups that already differed at the start, and the rest is single-group before-and-after work, much of it from the same research setting. Two things should be said to the reader. The first is that the score does not follow the physical qualities: in a circuit on thirty children, balance, concentration and holding at draw improve by between seven and seventeen per cent while the score rises by two and a half, and in another, also on children, the score keeps rising after fitness has already levelled off. The second is that shooting on its own also raises the score: in an experiment on traditional archers, eight weeks of ordinary practice raised it in all twelve archers of the control group. That is why studies without a control inflate the gains, and why the claim stays reported.

Also phrased as: "does gym work improve archery scores"; "physical training and archery accuracy"; "circuit training for archers"; "strength training for better scores"

Evidence

• 1986
  Context Archers Published later

  American recurve archers of mixed level, with sixty-two measures set beside the yearly average score: grip strength does not go with the score, r = -0.03 on the right and r = -0.01 on the left in 107 people, while relative quadriceps strength does, r = 0.48 in 108. It is the registry's first large group to put physical condition beside the score, but it is a photograph taken once: nobody had yet trained anything, so it stays context.

  A Psychobiological Study of Archery Performance · Daniel M. Landers, Stephen H. Boutcher, Min Q. Wang

• 2017
  Context Archers Published later

  30 male archers aged 18 to 20 from a youth squad in Elazığ, fifteen per group, twelve weeks of general strength work with grip exercises, three times a week for an hour: the score over 12 arrows at 18 m goes from 68.1 ± 3.9 to 89.7 ± 3.2 (p<0.001), while the control group goes from 64.4 ± 5.3 to 67.7 ± 3.4 (p=0.481). In the trained group the heart rate under load falls from 130.6 to 126.5 beats a minute (p=0.022) and the resting rate does not change (p=0.070). The two groups are never compared directly, and the journal has questionable editorial standards: under the registry's rules a venue of that kind does not settle the status, so it stays context.

  The Impact of Hand Grip Strength Exercises on the Target Shooting Accuracy Score for Archers Questionable venue · Süreyya Yonca Sezer

• 2018
  For Archers Published later

  Indian archers aged 18 to 30 of both sexes, upper-limb plyometrics three times a week for six weeks: accuracy goes from 4.93 ± 0.73 to 8.13 ± 0.86 (p=0.0001) in the trained group, while the control stays at 4.5. The report is weak on several counts: participant numbers are reported inconsistently (thirty per group in the table, fifteen in the text), the two groups already differed at the start in age (21.1 against 23.4 years, p=0.0069), accuracy and functional stability (p=0.030), and in the control group a value declared significant (p=0.0042) corresponds to identical means.

  Effect of Upper Extremity Plyometric Training on Strength and Accuracy in Archery Players · Tushar Dhawale, Ujwal Yeole, Vaishnavi Jedhe

• 2019
  For Archers Published later

  6 Iraqi archers from a club in Diyala province, eight weeks and twenty-four ninety-minute sessions with bands, dumbbells and machines: the score over 36 arrows at 70 m goes from 127.3 ± 5.0 to 191.3 ± 15.9 points, a difference of 64 ± 11.8 (t=-13.3, p<0.001). Six people and no control group, for a gain far too large to be put down to the strength work alone.

  Special exercises and their effect on endurance, arm strength and aiming accuracy for bow and arrow players · Saif Harith Ibrahim, Mohammed Abdul Shaheed Hassan, Mohammed Abdel Moneim Taher

• 2020
  For Archers Published later

  20 male archers aged 15 to 17, ten per group, eight weeks: the score over 12 arrows at 18 m goes from 93.5 ± 10.7 to 105.5 ± 6.4 out of 120 in the strength group (t=-6.83, p<0.001), while the control goes from 94.1 ± 7.1 to 95.4 ± 7.4 and does not change (p=0.070). What makes this study useful is the control group staying put over eight weeks, since in single-group studies that comparison does not exist. The between-group test is missing, though, the assignment is not random and the venue is regional.

  Erkek Okçularda Reaksiyon Süratinin Hedef Atış İsabet Puanına Etkisi · Baha Engin Çelikel, Süreyya Yonca Sezer, Mustafa Karadağ

• 2021
  For Archers Published later

  20 novice archers aged 10 to 12, ten boys and ten girls, a circuit with visualisation slotted between the exercises: over 36 arrows at 20 m the boys go from 145.6 to 204.7 and the girls from 155.3 to 214.5 (p<0.001). The study also shows that the two curves do not move together: in the second half of the programme the boys' score still rises from 171.8 to 204.7 (p=0.002) while their fitness no longer changes significantly (p=0.071). No control group.

  The effect of circuit training on physical fitness and archery accuracy in novice athletes · Susanto, Siswantoyo, Yudik Prasetyo, Himawan Putranta

• 2022
  Context Archers Published later

  14 university recurve archers in non-randomised groups: with 12 weeks of lower trapezius work the simulated-round score rose from 628 to 639 out of 720 in the trained group, but at the end the difference from controls was not significant (p = 0.062), and the authors note that the extra training time may explain part of it.

  Twelve-Week Lower Trapezius-Centred Muscular Training Regimen in University Archers · Chien-Nan Liao, Chun-Hao Fan, Wei-Hsiu Hsu, Chia-Fang Chang, Pei-An Yu, Liang-Tseng Kuo, et al.

• 2022
  Context Archers Published later

  12 male high-school archers from Banyumas Regency, a single group with no control, sixteen bodyweight circuit sessions: the score at 50 m goes from about 219 ± 38 to about 284 ± 29 and the bow hold from 12.33 ± 0.88 to 14.08 ± 1.16. Three things keep this result out of the support for the claim. The article's introduction says that because of the pandemic those archers «had never practised» and that their score was in the poor category, so the first measurement falls at the lowest point of a lay-off and the improvement cannot be attributed to the circuit. The two published t values, 34.019 for the hold and 41.894 for accuracy on eleven degrees of freedom, cannot come from those means and standard deviations: the highest possible, with a perfect before-and-after correlation, is 21.7 and 24.8, and for the hold, which is measured in whole numbers, it falls to 13.4; 41.894 would require a correlation of 1.024. And the circuit's eight exercises are eight variants of the push-up, that is eight pushes, while the outcome to be improved is an isometric pull. In the descriptive table, finally, accuracy's means are printed as 2.19 and 2.84 among values running from 123 to 307.

  Circuit bodyweight training: does it affect increasing arm muscle endurance and archery accuracy in pandemic conditions? · Betrix Teofa Perkasa Wibafied Billy Yachsie, Suharjana, Ridho Gata Wijaya, Ahmad Nasrulloh

• 2022
  For Archers Published later

  32 archers from the South Sumatra regional squad, sixteen sessions in a design crossing physical circuit work with mental training: the score rises at every distance, from 243.6 to 250.6 at 50 m, from 261.3 to 267.3 at 40 m and from 277.7 to 285.5 at 30 m (p ≤ 0.001). The gain is about seven points at each distance, though, less than half a standard deviation of the group (between 19.8 and 27.0), and identical in absolute terms across the three distances: it looks more like familiarity with the test than a specific transfer. There is no group that does not train, and the venue is regional.

  The Effect of Mental Exercise and Muscle Endurance on the Shots of Archery Athletes · Pijar Kuncoro Yudho, Mugiyo Hartono, Sri Surmatiningsih

• 2023
  For Archers Published later

  60 Indian national-level archers in four groups of fifteen, twelve weeks: gym strength work alone takes the score over 72 arrows from 533.4 ± 7.0 to 568.4 ± 8.6, with an adjusted advantage of 36.5 points over the control (p=0.0001, with a Bonferroni alpha of 0.0083). Of the four groups only one is a control doing no extra work, and it does not change over twelve weeks, from 531.2 ± 15.0 to 537.3 ± 9.9. The groups were not assigned at random and each trained at a different academy, so coach and field change along with the programme. The score also puts into the same mean recurve at seventy metres on a one hundred and twenty-two centimetre face and compound at fifty metres on an eighty centimetre face, without saying how many archers of each discipline were in each group.

  Isolated and Combined Effect of Strength Training and Specific Strength Training on Performance Levels Among Archers · Arun Kumar Chatla, K Venkata Narasimha Rao, Deepak Pandey, Laishram Shila Devi, Vaddepalley Satyanarayana

• 2023
  For Archers Published later

  30 Indonesian archers aged 10 to 13, eighteen sessions of a circuit that includes shooting between the stations: the score over 36 arrows at 30 m goes from 243.6 ± 10.8 to 249.6 ± 11.3 (t=8.94, p<0.001), that is six points, or 2.5 per cent. In the same study balance improves by 7.4 per cent, concentration by 16.6 and holding at draw by 8.5: the gains in the tests do not transfer to the score in proportion. No control, regional venue.

  Circuit Game Development: Implications on Balance, Concentration, Muscle Endurance, and Arrow Accuracy · Betrix Teofa Perkasa Wibafied Billy Yachsie, Suharjana, Ali Satia Graha, Amri Hartanto

• 2023
  For Archers Published later

  11 archers aged 10 to 13 from a university sports school in Yogyakarta, with their own equipment and at least three months of practice, a two-month aerobic circuit: the score over 36 arrows at 30 m goes from 287.5 ± 22.6 to 309.9 ± 14.5 (t=7.81, p<0.001) and rises in all eleven, by 12 to 39 points, while aerobic capacity rises in ten of eleven and falls in one. At the start these children were putting about 8.0 points on each arrow, with an aerobic capacity of 26.7 ± 2.8 mL/kg per minute and a side-plank hold of 42.5 ± 12.6 s. A single group, no control, and the journal has questionable editorial standards.

  The Effect of Aerobic Circuit Training on Muscle Resistance, Cardiorespiratory Endurance, and Accuracy Among Archery Athletes Questionable venue · Muh Batistuta Fitoni N, Yudik Prasetyo, Heru Prasetyo

• 2023
  Context Archers Published later

  12 male archers aged 16 to 18 from Yogyakarta, eighteen sessions of a plank circuit, a shooting test at 40 m before and after: the author reports gains in arm strength and accuracy with t values of 42.9 and 35.0, but the descriptive table has mislabelled rows and means of 444.92, 549.00, 413.58 and 437.08, which cannot be scores if the test was thirty-six arrows, with a maximum of 360. With no readable means and no control group it stays context.

  How Does Circuit Plank Exercise Affect Arm Muscle Strength and Archery Accuracy · Betrix Teofa Perkasa Wibafied Billy Yachsie

• 2024
  For Archers Published later

  Two groups of six male recurve archers from the Malaysian national games, aged 18 to 23, six weeks of weight training twice a week: the strength-oriented group goes from 279.2 ± 9.2 to 285.3 ± 8.4 points over 36 arrows at 70 m (+6.2 ± 1.7, p<0.001) and the muscular-endurance group from 287.2 ± 9.5 to 299.2 ± 5.5 (+12.0 ± 4.4, p<0.001). The second gain is about twice the first, but the two groups are not compared with each other and started from different levels. No control group, regional venue.

  The effect of 6-week different resistance training on shooting performance among elite archers · Mohd Faridz Ahmad, Muhammad Azfar Khairul Adnan, Siti Jameelah Md Japilus, Mohd Aizzat Adnan, Nurul Nadiah Shahudin, Mohd Hafzal Abdul Halim

• 2024
  Against Archers Published later

  12 district archers from West Sumbawa, Indonesia, recurve and standard bow, six per group: after eighteen sessions of specific physical training added to the usual programme the trained group rises from 288.0 to 296.7 points over 36 arrows at 30 m (p = 0.01 within the group), while the control group, training twice a week with about 300 arrows, stays put, from 278.5 to 278.7 (p = 0.96). The comparison between the two groups after the programme, however, is not significant, and that is the test that counts. With six archers per group the power is minimal, the groups already started almost ten points apart and the journal has questionable editorial standards: under the registry's rules it does not decide the status.

  The effect of specific physical training on shooting in west Sumbawa district archery athletes Questionable venue · Muhammad Fauzan

• 2025
  Context Archers Published later

  20 Indonesian under-13 standard bow archers, five fitness tests (balance, coordination, grip strength, push-ups and the beep test) set beside shooting accuracy: no test is significantly related to the score, and together they give R = 0.516 with an adjusted R² of 0.005, which is almost nothing. It is a cross-sectional association, not a conditioning programme: it says that in these children current fitness does not separate those who shoot better.

  Physical fitness and shooting accuracy: an evaluative study on early adolescent archery athletes · Rahmaniar Wahyuningtias, Indra Himawan Susanto, Ananda Perwira Bakti, Soni Sulistyarto

• 2026
  For Archers Published later

  38 Indonesian competitive archers aged 18 to 25 assigned at random, nineteen per group, twelve weeks of a fun-based physical circuit: the score per arrow goes from 7.1 ± 1.2 to 8.6 ± 1.3 (+21.1 per cent, p<0.01) and the standard deviation of the scores falls from 2.4 ± 0.6 to 1.8 ± 0.4 (-25 per cent, p<0.01). In the control group nothing moves: grip +0.6 per cent, upper-body maximum +1.1, plank +1.6, score per arrow +1.4, variability -4.0, all non-significant. Three things limit the comparison, though. The circuit included game stations in which participants shot at fixed and moving targets, so the experimental group also shot more arrows than the control, three times a week for twelve weeks. The control was not doing technical shooting alone: its usual training also included general strength exercises carried out at the club. And the comparison between the two groups after the intervention, announced in the methods, does not appear in the results, where every p-value belongs to the before-and-after within each group. It remains the only randomised controlled design on this question, but the contrast is not between physical conditioning and shooting alone. Regional venue.

  From play to performance: effects of fun-based circuit training on muscular strength, endurance, and competitive performance in Indonesian archery athletes · Rifky Riyandi Prastyawan, Yudik Prasetyo, Fathurahman Arjuna, Sabda Hussain As Shafi

• 2026
  For Review Published later

  Systematic review of 15 intervention studies on archers between 2015 and 2025, selected from 767: all report significant improvements in accuracy, balance, strength or endurance, with durations from one day to sixteen weeks, and no meta-analysis was carried out because of heterogeneity. The authors note that programmes of six to twelve weeks, two or three times a week, give the most credible results, while the only four-week study reports limited improvements. Fifteen studies all positive is also a measure of how far this literature is from publishing a null result.

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

• 2026
  Context Archers Published later

  Control group of an experiment on traditional Turkish archers, twelve male university students aged 18 to 30 with at least six months of practice: eight weeks of shooting practice alone, three days a week and at the same frequency as the experimental group, raise the score in all twelve (twelve positive ranks out of twelve, Z=-3.243, p=0.002). This is why studies without a comparison inflate their gains: shooting on its own is enough to raise the score.

  The Effect of Postural Mobility Exercises on the Athletic Performance Success, Proprioceptive Sense and Various Strength Parameters of Traditional Archers · Murat Kul, Emre Berk Hazar, Emre Boz, Muhammed Salih Uçal

Status history

1. 1986 Not studied The first study of a large group of archers sets some physical measurements alongside the score, and grip strength does not go with it. Up to that point there are only one-off associations, in samples of mixed level: nobody has yet trained the physical condition of a group of archers to see whether the score rises.
2. 2017 Not studied The first strength programme on archers with a control group arrives: twelve weeks of general work with grip exercises take the score of fifteen young archers from 68.1 to 89.7 over twelve arrows at 18 metres, while the control group stays put. The two groups are never compared with each other, though, and the journal has questionable editorial standards: under the registry's rules a venue of that kind never settles a status, and the question stays not studied.
3. 2018 Reported The first study with a comparison group that the registry can count arrives: six weeks of upper-limb plyometrics and accuracy rises, while in the control group it does not move by a tenth. That is enough to move to reported and no further, because the report is weak: the two groups already differed in age and accuracy at the start, and in the control group a value declared significant corresponds to identical means.
4. 2019 Reported Eight weeks of muscular endurance work for the arms on six Iraqi archers take the score over thirty-six arrows at 70 metres from 127 to 191. The direction is confirmed, but six people with no control group do not move the status.
5. 2020 Reported The cleanest comparison so far: in twenty young Turkish archers eight weeks of strength work raise the score over twelve arrows at 18 metres, while those doing no exercises stay where they were. The between-group test is missing and the assignment is not random, so reported.
6. 2021 Reported A circuit on twenty novice children raises fitness and score, from about 150 to about 210 out of 360, but the study also shows that the two do not move together: in the second half of the programme the score keeps rising while the boys' fitness has already levelled off. The link is there, the causal chain is not.
7. 2022 Reported Two studies add large gains and weak designs: a bodyweight circuit takes the score at 50 metres from 219 to 284 in twelve high-school archers, and a factorial study on thirty-two regional archers raises the score at every distance by combining circuit work with mental training. The second also shows the limit, since the gain is about seven points at each distance, less than half a standard deviation of the group, and neither study has a group that does not train.
8. 2023 Reported The strongest comparison so far arrives: in sixty Indian national-level archers, twelve weeks of gym strength work are worth 36.5 points more than the control over seventy-two arrows, with an adjusted comparison between the groups, and the control does not change. In the same year two single-group circuits raise the score slightly, six points at 30 metres and twenty-two over thirty-six arrows, and in one of them the physical gains are far larger than the gain in score. In that circuit, moreover, arrows were shot at every station, so there too the gain in score does not separate from the extra arrows. A third circuit, of planks on twelve secondary-school archers, claims huge gains, but its means cannot be read. The direction is unanimous, but the controls remain few and small, in the strongest comparison the groups are not randomised and each trained at a different academy, and much of the work comes from the same setting: it stays reported.
9. 2024 Reported Two groups of six elite Malaysian archers raise their score at 70 metres after six weeks of weight training, again with no control group. The same year brings the first study with a control group that finds no difference between the groups: in twelve Indonesian district archers, eighteen sessions of specific conditioning raise the trained group's score by almost nine points, but the comparison with those following the usual programme is not significant. Six archers per group and a journal with questionable editorial standards are not enough to make the picture contested, but it is the first sign that, once there is a comparison, the advantage may not show. Studies accumulate, design quality does not: the status stays reported.
10. 2025 Reported A cross-sectional study of twenty under-13 archers sets five fitness tests beside accuracy, and none is related to the score: together they explain almost none of it. It is not a training programme, so it does not test the claim, but it is a reminder that in children current fitness does not separate those who shoot better. The status stays reported.
11. 2026 Reported The picture becomes more cautious. A randomised study on thirty-eight competitive archers adds twelve weeks of circuit work to ordinary training: the score per arrow rises from 7.1 to 8.6 and arrow spread falls by a quarter, while the control does not move. That circuit, however, included stations in which arrows were shot, so the group that improves is also the group that shot more, and the between-group comparison is not reported: the gain cannot be attributed to physical conditioning. A systematic review, though, counts fifteen studies all with positive results, nearly all of them short, small and often without a control. And in the same year another controlled study shows that eight weeks of shooting alone raise the score in all twelve archers of the control group, which explains why gains inflate without a comparison. The status does not rise to corroborated: the one randomised design does not separate physical conditioning from the extra arrows, and the 2023 controlled study, which remains the closest to the question, had each group training at a different academy.

Related

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Research lines

• 39 studiesPhysical training interventions: what has been tested
• 102 studiesFrom the total on the scorecard to the arrow's coordinates

Other claims in this domain

• ReportedA battery of physical tests identifies the most promising young archers7 studies · 373 archers measuredStatus since 2018
• ReportedA few weeks of archery improves children's balance1 study · 32 archers measuredStatus since 2009
• ReportedA mobility and stretching programme improves an archer's flexibility1 study · 30 archers measuredStatus since 2025
• ReportedA spell of reduced training makes the score drop1 study · 9 archers measuredStatus since 2021
• ReportedA strength programme away from the range increases an archer's measured strength15 studies · 316 archers measuredStatus since 2018

See all claims on physical training