Matteo Campagna
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Physical conditioning takes up a minimal share of an archer's training session

2 studies · 85 archers measured

ForContextAgainst20202022202420262021, for, n = 752022, for, n = 10
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.

Two studies of archers point the same way, but they answer slightly different questions. The only one that measures time within the session films three sessions of 10 archers at a Malaysian national sports school: 82% of the time goes on technical work, the highest share among six sports, and 1% on physical work, which in that classification also includes warming up and cooling down. The other is a questionnaire of 75 German club-level competitive archers, who train a little over twice and about four hours a week: only 22% do strength work related to shooting. The limit lies in the word session itself. The Malaysian filming took place only on the shooting range, and the authors write that in some sports conditioning was kept for dedicated days, so the 1% does not rule out those archers doing physical preparation at another point in the week. With three observed sessions and a questionnaire the evidence is limited, and neither study asks whether archers who give more time to conditioning shoot better.

Also phrased as: "archers do no physical training"; "how much time to give to conditioning in archery"; "technical versus physical training"; "archers just shoot"; "gym work and archery"

In practice

It is said that archers spend almost all their training shooting arrows, and that physical preparation, when there is any, comes down to a few minutes of warming up with a band before they start.

Evidence

  • 2021
    For Archers Published later

    75 German club-level competitive archers (3D 46%, target 39%, field 14.5%), mean age 47 and 10.4 ± 7.7 years of practice, recruited for a study of the shoulder: they train 2.4 ± 1.3 times and 4.3 ± 2.7 hours a week, only 22% do strength training related to shooting, 7% practise another sport that loads the upper limb and 68% have a mainly sedentary job. It says how many do physical preparation, not how much time they give it within the session.

    Unilateral and bilateral training competitive archers differ in some potentially unhealthy neck-shoulder region movement behaviour characteristics · Mareike Schmitt, Lutz Vogt, Jan Wilke, Daniel Niederer

  • 2022
    For Archers Published later

    Video observation of three sessions per sport, in the pre-competitive season, at a Malaysian national sports school; for archery 10 archers aged 19.5 ± 1.4, on a programme of nine sessions and eighteen hours a week, with sessions of 129 minutes on average. Technical work takes up 82% of session time, the highest value among the six sports (25 to 82%), and physical work 1%; in the study's classification physical work includes warming up, cooling down and strength work. Filming took place only at each sport's own venue, for archery the range, and the authors note that in some sports conditioning was concentrated on dedicated days, three sessions out of nine a week.

    Microstructure of practice activities for team and individual sports · Angelina Li San Tan, Jeffrey Fook Lee Low

Status history

  1. 2021 Reported The first figure on the place of conditioning in archers' training comes from a questionnaire: of 75 German club-level competitors, training 2.4 sessions and 4.3 hours a week, only 22% do strength work related to shooting and 7% practise another sport that loads the upper limb. It says how many do physical preparation, not how much time they give it within the session: evidence in favour, indirect and limited.
  2. 2022 Reported The measurement of time arrives, by watching sessions rather than asking about them: at a Malaysian national sports school archery gives 82% of session time to technical work and 1% to physical conditioning, the highest technical share among six disciplines. The filming covers only the shooting range, though, three sessions of ten archers, and in some sports conditioning was kept for dedicated days. Two studies point the same way, one small and the other a questionnaire, so the status stays reported.

Related

Related articles

Research lines

Studies describe groups of archers, and your own numbers show how far the finding applies to your shooting.

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Cite
APA

Campagna, M. (2026). Physical conditioning takes up a minimal share of an archer's training session (Version 1). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/physical-training/share-of-conditioning-in-training-sessions

BibTeX
@misc{campagna2026_quotapreparazionefisicaseduta,
  author = {Campagna, Matteo},
  title = {Physical conditioning takes up a minimal share of an archer's training session},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
  url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/physical-training/share-of-conditioning-in-training-sessions},
  note = {Version 1; accessed 2026-10-16}
}

Other claims in this domain

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