One trial is not enough: strength and muscle activity measurements on archers need repeating

The summary today

It depends on what is being measured, and the only evidence that decides the status goes against the claim. For draw force, as early as 1967 three repeated trials in the same session on 49 university beginners gave very close values: the best trial and the mean of the other two correlated at 0.91 to 0.98, so a single trial ranked the archers almost as well as three. For the electrical activity of muscles the picture changes: in 2021, in twenty experienced archers, an isometric electromyographic measurement taken once has a reliability of 0.745, while the mean of five trials reaches 0.936; over the five maximal trials, however, the signal falls trial after trial, from 5.87 to 4.64 mV, and the hip angle at which it is measured counts almost four times as much as the differences between people. That study appears in a journal with questionable editorial standards, which by rule does not decide the status, and covers a single muscle, rectus femoris. Repeating helps when the signal is noisy, as long as there is time to recover and the measurement is always taken in the same position; for draw force a single well-run trial already says a great deal.

Also phrased as: "how many trials a strength test needs"; "reliability of tests on archers"; "repeating dynamometer measurements"; "test-retest in archery"

Evidence

• 1967
  Against Archers Published later

  49 university beginners, men and women, three draw trials 30 seconds apart at the start of the course and after 24 lessons: the correlation between the best trial and the mean of the other two is 0.930 and 0.963 in women and 0.907 and 0.978 in men for maximum draw, and 0.899 and 0.946 in women and 0.770 and 0.923 in men for the draw that feels comfortable. It is a correlation, not an agreement index, but it says that for draw force a single trial ranks the archers almost as well as three.

  Relationship between Perception of Pull and Draw in Archery · Helen M. Eckert, Dorothy M. Wendt

• 2021
  Context Archers Published later

  20 experienced male archers aged 23 to 28, electrical activity of rectus femoris in isometric hip flexion at six angles: the reliability of a single trial is ICC(1,1) = 0.745, that of the mean of five ICC(1,5) = 0.936, and error accounts for 23.3 per cent of total variability (p < 0.001). It points the way the claim does for electromyography, but the journal has questionable editorial standards and under rule D7 it does not decide the status: that is why it is context.

  Reliability of Testing of the Electrical Activity of Muscles during Isometric Contractions in Archery Questionable venue · Ihor Zanevskyy, Romana Sirenko, Oksana Shukatka, Natalia Bashavets, Ivan Rybchych

• 2021
  Context Archers Published later

  Same study, the cost of repeating: over the five maximal trials the group means fall from 5.87 to 5.80, 5.62, 5.25 and 4.64 mV (slope -0.30 mV per trial, R² = 88.4 per cent, p = 0.017) and the spread grows as the signal drops, with the standard deviation rising from 1.52 to 2.51. Several trials close together tire the very muscle being measured.

  Reliability of Testing of the Electrical Activity of Muscles during Isometric Contractions in Archery Questionable venue · Ihor Zanevskyy, Romana Sirenko, Oksana Shukatka, Natalia Bashavets, Ivan Rybchych

• 2021
  Context Archers Published later

  Same study: in the variability of the measurement the hip angle accounts for 60.9 per cent (F = 49.63, p < 0.001) and differences between archers for 15.8 (F = 3.40, p < 0.001); peak activity runs from about 6.6-6.7 mV with the hip extended to 2.69 mV at 70 degrees, and the standard deviation stays proportional to the mean (ratio 4.0 ± 0.1, r = 0.996). Where the measurement is taken matters more than how many times.

  Reliability of Testing of the Electrical Activity of Muscles during Isometric Contractions in Archery Questionable venue · Ihor Zanevskyy, Romana Sirenko, Oksana Shukatka, Natalia Bashavets, Ivan Rybchych

• 2026
  Context Archers Published later

  20 experienced archers measured with a portable myotonometer (MyotonPRO, two points per muscle and three impulses per point): the coefficient of variation between repeated trials on the same archer is 2.3 per cent for tone, 2.9 for stiffness, 3.2 for elasticity, 3.5 for relaxation time and 2.8 for creep. It is a different measurement, one that already averages several impulses.

  Changes in the mechanical properties of myotonometric muscles following manual therapy during archery: a single-group, single-session repeated measurement study · Rafał Studnicki, Weronika Naderza, Krzysztof Dudziński, Dariusz Mroczek, Aleksandra Kisilewicz, Małgorzata Smoter

Status history

1. 1960 Not studied No study of archers had yet checked how repeatable strength or muscle activity measurements were, or how many trials were needed.
2. 1967 Contradicted The first data on how repeatable a measurement on archers is go against the idea, at least for strength. In 49 university beginners, three draw trials in the same session give very close values: the best trial and the mean of the other two correlate at 0.91 to 0.98 for maximum draw, a little less for the draw that feels comfortable (down to 0.77 in men at the first test). For draw force a single trial already says almost everything. A single study, on beginners, and it points against: contradicted.
3. 2021 Contradicted For the electrical activity of muscles the picture is different. In twenty experienced archers an isometric electromyographic measurement of rectus femoris taken once has a reliability of 0.745, and the mean of five trials rises to 0.936. Repeating has a cost, though: over the five maximal trials the signal falls from 5.87 to 4.64 mV, and the hip angle at which it is measured weighs almost four times as much as the differences between archers. The study, however, appears in a journal with questionable editorial standards, which by rule does not decide the status: it stays as context, and the only evidence that counts is still the 1967 finding on force, which goes against the claim. Contradicted.
4. 2026 Contradicted In twenty experienced archers portable myotonometry, repeated on the same muscles with three impulses per point, varies by less than 4 per cent between trials for every parameter. It is a different measurement, one that already averages several impulses in its protocol: it confirms that how many trials are needed depends on the instrument, and the status stays contradicted.

Related

Related articles

• Talent identification: tests and assessment batteriesWhat talent tests in archery actually measure: coaches' ratings, physical tests, attention, years of practice and predictive models, and where their limits lie.
• Repeatability and consistency: measuring the steadiness of your shotHow repeatable an archer's shot is: what studies say about level, good and bad days, arrows outside the 10, and how to measure consistency on the range.

Research lines

• 21 studiesFatigue, arrow volume and recovery: the dated trail
• 63 studiesThe archer's physical profile: strength, endurance and size

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