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Strength training shortens an archer's reaction times

1 study · 20 archers measured

ForContextAgainst20202022202420262020, for, n = 202020, context, n = 20
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.

A single study says so, on twenty Turkish male archers aged 15-17 from the same provincial squad. Ten did eight weeks of strength exercises, three one-hour sessions a week, and ten did not. In the group that trained, simple reaction times to a light and to a sound shorten by 40-55 milliseconds in both hands, for example right-hand visual reaction from 0.407 to 0.352 seconds, and the score at 18 m rises from 93.5 to 105.5; in the group without exercises no measure changes significantly. The control makes it unlikely that the gain comes only from repeating the test, but the authors compare each group with itself rather than the two groups with each other, allocation was not random, and reaction time to a light is not the response to the click of the clicker. How strength could shorten a simple reaction, the study does not explain.

Also phrased as: "strength makes you more reactive"; "faster reflexes from the gym"; "clicker reaction and conditioning"; "training reflexes with weights"

In practice

It is said that conditioning makes an archer more reactive: stronger muscles respond sooner, and a trained body reacts faster to the click of the clicker.

Evidence

  • 2020
    For Archers Published later

    20 male archers aged 15-17 from a Turkish provincial squad, 10 with eight weeks of strength exercises (three one-hour sessions a week) and 10 without: in the trained group auditory reaction falls from 0.397 to 0.343 seconds with the right hand and from 0.366 to 0.316 with the left, visual from 0.407 to 0.352 and from 0.382 to 0.343 (all p≤0.002), and the score at 18 m rises from 93.5 to 105.5. The tests are paired t-tests within each group.

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

  • 2020
    Context Archers Published later

    In the control group, 10 archers with no strength exercises, no measure changes significantly over eight weeks: right auditory reaction from 0.411 to 0.403 seconds (p=0.058), left from 0.387 to 0.380 (p=0.111), right visual from 0.402 to 0.397 (p=0.162), left from 0.393 to 0.381 (p=0.087), score from 94.1 to 95.4 (p=0.070).

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

Status history

  1. 1990 Not studied In the registry's bibliography no study had yet measured archers' reaction times before and after strength work.
  2. 2020 Reported A single study, on twenty young Turkish archers: after eight weeks of strength work simple reaction times to light and sound shorten by about fifty milliseconds, while in the group doing no exercises they do not move significantly, so the gain does not come only from repeating the test. Twenty people, non-random allocation, comparisons made within each group rather than between groups, a regional journal: the evidence in favour exists and it is limited.

Related

Related articles

Research lines

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

See the programme
Cite
APA

Campagna, M. (2026). Strength training shortens an archer's reaction times (Version 1). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/physical-training/strength-training-reaction-times

BibTeX
@misc{campagna2026_forzatempireazione,
  author = {Campagna, Matteo},
  title = {Strength training shortens an archer's reaction times},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
  url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/physical-training/strength-training-reaction-times},
  note = {Version 1; accessed 2026-10-16}
}

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