Weekly arrow volume should rise by no more than 10% at a time
3 studies · 282 archers measured
The summary today
No archery study in the registry's bibliography has compared different rates of increasing arrow volume, whether with the 10% rule or any other. The available studies describe how much archers shoot and how often they get injured; in one, those who shot more arrows reported fewer overuse injuries, but the two groups also differed in level. In another, on Paralympic archers, arrows in the main part of each session rose by about a third for twelve weeks without any of the measures collected getting worse, but pain and injury were not recorded. The rule circulates in physical conditioning generally; in archery it has no basis of its own.
Also phrased as: "10% rule in archery"; "how fast to increase arrows per week"; "progressing shooting volume"; "raising arrow volume without injury"
In practice
To avoid overload it is often advised not to raise weekly arrows by more than 10% over the previous week.
Evidence
-
2018
Context Archers Published later
62 high-level German and European archers: the Europeans shot 696.5 arrows a week against 273.7 and reported fewer overuse injuries (36.4% against 71.8%). Retrospective data; the groups also differ in level and coaching.
Acute and Overuse Injuries in Elite Archers · Claudia K. Niestroj, Volker Schöffl, Thomas Küpper
-
2023
Context Archers Published later
20 Ukrainian Paralympic archers shooting from wheelchairs, ten per group, twelve weeks: the experimental group raises the arrows in the main part of the session by 30 to 35%, together with simulator exercises, massage and swimming, and none of the measures collected gets worse. It is an increase of about a third, well beyond 10%, held for twelve weeks, but the study records neither pain nor injury, does not compare different rates of increase and does not separate the extra arrows from the rest of the intervention.
Characterization of the influence of physical rehabilitation means and special physical exercises of archery on the sports performance of Paralympic athletes · A. Mahlovanyy, I. Grygus, O. Kunynets, S. Duliba, L. Strelbytskyi, O. Ivanochko, V. Homyshyn
-
2024
Context Archers Published later
200 elite archers with a mean age of 16.9 at a European youth championship, shooting about 163 arrows per session: 43.5% reported shoulder pain during training. The study describes; it does not compare different volumes.
Injuries and Persistent Pain in Elite Adolescent Archery Athletes: A Cross-Sectional Epidemiological Study · Nikolaos Vasilis, Athanasios Kyriakides, George Vasilopoulos, Maria Chatzitimotheou, Grigorios Gonidakis, Athanasios Kotsakis, et al.
Status history
- 1990 Not studied No archery study in the registry's bibliography has assessed how quickly arrow volume should be increased.
- 2023 Not studied A study of twenty Paralympic archers raises the arrows in the main part of each session by about a third for twelve weeks, together with other interventions, and none of the measures collected gets worse. It records neither pain nor injury, though, and does not compare different rates of increase: the 10% rule remains untested in archery.
Related
Related articles
- At what age can you start archery? A child is not a small adultWhen children can start archery, which bow young competitors choose, how much draw weight matters and what the data say about pain in young archers.
- How many arrows per week: what the research says about training volumeHow many arrows archers really shoot, from club to elite, and what research says about hours and score, fatigue after 100 arrows, injury and load progression.
- Injuries in archery: where they happen and how to prevent themFew serious injuries, frequent overuse: where archers get hurt, what the studies say about risk, and what can be done to prevent the damage.
Research lines
Where there are no studies on archers, every decision starts from a written hypothesis and is checked against the data over time.
See the programmeCite
Campagna, M. (2026). Weekly arrow volume should rise by no more than 10% at a time (Version 2). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/physical-training/ten-percent-arrow-volume-rule
@misc{campagna2026_volumediecipercento,
author = {Campagna, Matteo},
title = {Weekly arrow volume should rise by no more than 10\% at a time},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/physical-training/ten-percent-arrow-volume-rule},
note = {Version 2; accessed 2026-10-16}
}
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