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Higher-level archers train more than the rest

12 studies · 404 archers measured

ForContextAgainst2016201820202022202420262025, context, n = 1362018, for, n = 622025, context, n = 382023, context, n = 322017, for, n = 302018, context, n = 302025, context, n = 182025, context, n = 152026, for, n = 152020, context, n = 102025, context, n = 102025, context, n = 82025, context, n = 8
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.

Weekly training hours of the highest and the lowest level within the same study: a wide gap in the two comparisons between distant levels, a small one between the two junior categories

Each bar is a group's volume as the studies give it among the participant characteristics, not recorded during the study. The whiskers are the standard deviation around the mean, given by Gonzalez and colleagues and by Wan Ahmad and colleagues; Jacquot's thesis says only "about 21" and "about 6" hours, without saying whether these are means and with no spread, so those bars have no whiskers. Between distant levels the top group trains about eight times as much in the British study and about three and a half times as much in the French one, where the elite archers are also younger, 19.1 against 28.8 years. Between the two categories of Malaysian juniors, divided by personal best score and with a median of six and five years of practice, the difference is 2.6 hours and the study does not test it. The juniors answered during the COVID-19 lockdown, the study does not say whether the hours are those of that period or their usual ones, and it appears in a venue with questionable editorial standards. The comparison by Niestroj and colleagues in 2018 counts arrows and sessions, not hours, and for that reason is left off this axis. All of these are different groups measured once: the chart does not say whether volume brings the level or the level allows the volume. Data from: Gonzalez et al. 2017, Jacquot 2026 and Wan Ahmad et al. 2023.
The numbers in the figure
StudyGroupValue (hours a week)Intervaln
Gonzalez et al. 2017, British national team and university club, for the claimBritish national team, Olympic level34.45± 7.52 (mean ± standard deviation)10
Gonzalez et al. 2017, British national team and university club, for the claimUniversity club4.36± 2.83 (mean ± standard deviation)10
Jacquot 2026, doctoral thesis, French elite and regional circuit, hours given as "about", for the claimElite, in the French top 20218
Jacquot 2026, doctoral thesis, French elite and regional circuit, hours given as "about", for the claimRegional circuit67
Wan Ahmad et al. 2023, 32 Malaysian junior recurve archers, two categories by personal best, context for the claimTop category16.2± 4.9 (mean ± standard deviation)16
Wan Ahmad et al. 2023, 32 Malaysian junior recurve archers, two categories by personal best, context for the claimLower category13.6± 4.1 (mean ± standard deviation)16

Every time a study has compared archers of different levels, the stronger ones trained more, and between levels far apart the gap is wide. Ten British national team archers of Olympic level report 34.5 hours a week against 4.4 for ten archers at a university club, about eight times as much; among 62 high-level recurve archers, those at the European championships shoot about 700 arrows a week against 274 for those at the German indoor championships, two and a half times as many; eight French archers in the national top twenty train about 21 hours a week against 6 for seven archers on the regional circuit. Descriptions of other samples fall in the same order: 20 to 30 hours a week in elite groups in France, Israel and Turkey, two or three sessions a week in club youngsters. The gap narrows, though, when the levels are close: between higher- and lower-level juniors the reported hours are 16.2 against 13.6, with no test. All of these comparisons are between different groups measured once, with hours reported rather than recorded, and none follows the same archers over time: nobody knows whether volume makes the level or the level makes the volume possible.

Also phrased as: "how much national team archers train compared with club archers"; "more hours, higher level"; "arrows per week and level"; "champions shoot more"; "shooting volume at different levels"

In practice

It is said that the difference between a club archer and an international one lies above all in the hours: those who reach the top shoot far more, and talent comes second.

Evidence

Status history

  1. 2017 Reported The first direct comparison comes from a study on the quiet eye: ten British national team archers of Olympic level train 34.5 hours a week, ten university club archers 4.4, with 11 years of practice against 2. A gap of about eight times, measured once in twenty people: reported.
  2. 2018 Reported A second independent sample, and a larger one: among 62 high-level recurve archers, the 22 at the European championships do 5.1 sessions a week and nearly 700 arrows, the 40 at the German indoor championships 2.8 sessions and 274 arrows, two and a half times fewer. In the same year a Japanese comparison across three levels finds more years of training in the stronger archers, but does not count hours. Two comparisons in agreement, both cross-sectional and with reported volumes: under the registry's rules a comparison between groups measured once does not go beyond reported.
  3. 2020 Reported Ten Cypriot national-level archers train five or six days a week for two or three hours, between 10 and 18 hours: a figure that falls between the club and elite groups of the two earlier comparisons. It is not a comparison within the study, and nobody has yet followed the same archers over time: the status remains reported.
  4. 2023 Reported Among 32 junior recurve archers divided by level, the stronger ones report 16.2 hours a week and the others 13.6, with no statistical test. The direction is the same, but between neighbouring levels the gap shrinks to little, and the venue has doubtful editorial standards: the status remains reported, and it becomes clear that the size of the gap depends on how far apart the levels are.
  5. 2025 Reported Many samples mention in passing how much they train, and the figures line up by level: eight French archers in the national top twenty about 21 hours a week, fifteen young Israeli elite archers at least seven three-hour sessions, eight Turkish national team archers 30 hours of shooting plus six of strength work, eighteen Turkish elite archers nearly six days out of seven; on the other side, club youngsters who train fewer than three days a week and a Turkish club at eight hours. A preprint attributes 60 hours a week to twelve elite archers, an implausible figure in a doubtful venue. None of these is a comparison within a single study, so the status remains reported.
  6. 2026 Reported The third direct comparison comes from a French doctoral thesis: eight archers in the national top twenty train about 21 hours a week, seven regional circuit archers about 6, with best scores of 654.6 against 523.3. Three independent comparisons in the same direction, from two and a half to eight times, all between groups measured once and with reported hours: reported.

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). Higher-level archers train more than the rest (Version 3). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/physical-training/training-volume-and-level

BibTeX
@misc{campagna2026_volumeallenamentolivello,
  author = {Campagna, Matteo},
  title = {Higher-level archers train more than the rest},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
  url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/physical-training/training-volume-and-level},
  note = {Version 3; accessed 2026-10-16}
}

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