Keeping the shoulder muscles active through the follow-through is linked to better arrows

The summary today

That the shoulder and back muscles of the better archers stay switched on after the release has been visible since 1976, with electromyographic traces that carry on in the experts and break off in the beginners, and in 1987 somebody put a duration on it, a second and a half in the two world-level archers measured. The link to the score, by contrast, rests almost entirely on one 1993 study of ten Japanese club archers, where those who kept at least 79 per cent of their aiming activity through the follow-through had the better rounds, and the correlation on the string side reached 0.79. Since then the measurements have multiplied and complicated the picture: in eight university archers the better arrows come with a slower shoulder rotation, not a wider one, and between nine and ten points the difference disappears; in four elite women archers the deltoid is slightly less active on the better arrows; in French elite archers what changes from one arrow to the next is not the shoulder but the trunk. What can be said today is that in the better archers the muscles stay on, not that the arrows shot with the muscles on land closer to the centre. With two studies of the individual arrow pointing the other way, as small as those in favour, the picture remains contested.

Also phrased as: "follow-through in archery"; "the shot does not end at the release"; "holding the tension after release"; "bow arm staying in push"; "the hand travelling back on its own"

Evidence

• 1976
  For Archers Published later

  4 university archers with more than three years of experience against 6 young men who had never shot, with electromyography of the upper and middle trapezius, posterior deltoid, triceps and bow-side latissimus dorsi: in the experts the discharge is maintained or increases from release into the follow-through, in the beginners it breaks off at the release. These are traces, with no quantification at all, and the score is not part of it.

  A STUDY OF THE PROCESS OF IMPROVEMENT IN ARCHERY · Koichiro Hayashi, Kenichi Tabuchi, Takeshi Yabuki, Kiichi Sekine, Shintaro Tachibana, Kozo Nakamura

• 1976
  Context Archers Published later

  In the same 1976 comparison, of the five muscles recorded the gap between experts and beginners at release is clearest in the bow-side latissimus dorsi: in the experts the discharge increases, in the beginners it breaks off. It says where to look, not how much: the study reports no numerical values at all.

  A STUDY OF THE PROCESS OF IMPROVEMENT IN ARCHERY · Koichiro Hayashi, Kenichi Tabuchi, Takeshi Yabuki, Kiichi Sekine, Shintaro Tachibana, Kozo Nakamura

• 1987
  Context Archers Published later

  Two electromyographic studies on 5 and 12 Japanese and American archers: in the 2 world-level archers the activity of back and shoulders is maintained for 1.5 to 1.7 seconds after the release, while in the beginners it drops immediately. It is the first figure on the duration of the follow-through, on two people, and with no link to the score.

  Analysis of Archery Shooting Techniques by Means of Electromyography · H. Nishizono, H. Shibayama, T. Izuta, K. Saito

• 1993
  For Archers Published later

  10 Japanese club archers: the 4 with a best single round above 1,200 points kept at least 79.4 per cent of their aiming activity through the follow-through, both across the six muscles recorded and on the string side. It is the first link between muscular hold after the release and an archer's score.

  Relationship between the muscle activity during aiming,follow-through, and the performance in archery · Hitoshi Watanabe, Koji Tsuji, Fujiko Yoneyama

• 1993
  For Archers Published later

  In the same study, the link in the form of a correlation: the ratio between follow-through activity and aiming activity on the string side correlates with the best single round at r=0.791 with p below 0.05 across 8 archers, and at r=0.949 with p below 0.01 in the 6 with a best score above 1,100. It remains a cross-sectional association, not an effect measured on the individual arrow.

  Relationship between the muscle activity during aiming,follow-through, and the performance in archery · Hitoshi Watanabe, Koji Tsuji, Fujiko Yoneyama

• 1993
  For Archers Published later

  The detail that makes the correlation fragile: the link between the string side's hold and the score strengthens when only the higher levels are considered, from r=0.791 across the 8 archers with competition experience to r=0.949 across the 6 with a best round above 1,100 points. A coefficient that grows as the sample narrows to six people should be read with caution.

  Relationship between the muscle activity during aiming,follow-through, and the performance in archery · Hitoshi Watanabe, Koji Tsuji, Fujiko Yoneyama

• 1993
  For Archers Published later

  In the same data, the 4 archers with a best round above 1,200 points have a follow-through to aiming ratio between 79.4 and 117.9 per cent, across every site on the string side and not only on average. In the better archers the hold after the release is spread out, not concentrated in one muscle.

  Relationship between the muscle activity during aiming,follow-through, and the performance in archery · Hitoshi Watanabe, Koji Tsuji, Fujiko Yoneyama

• 1993
  Context Archers Published later

  How the follow-through is built in the 10 club archers: against one second of aiming, the ascending trapezius works at 118.3 per cent on the bow side and 147.5 on the string side, while the other four muscles recorded sit at around 60. Keeping the shoulder active does not mean keeping everything active: one muscle rises and the others fall.

  Relationship between the muscle activity during aiming,follow-through, and the performance in archery · Hitoshi Watanabe, Koji Tsuji, Fujiko Yoneyama

• 1993
  Context Archers Published later

  The limit of the same study: on the bow side the ratio between follow-through and aiming does not tell the archers apart. The link to the score exists only on the string side, and the bow-side figure is qualitative, with the values not readable from the graph.

  Relationship between the muscle activity during aiming,follow-through, and the performance in archery · Hitoshi Watanabe, Koji Tsuji, Fujiko Yoneyama

• 1993
  Context Archers Published later

  The asymmetry between the two sides, in the same data: the string-side ascending trapezius rises much more than the bow-side one, 147.5 against 118.3 per cent of aiming activity, while the other four sites drop to around 60 per cent on both sides. The follow-through is not a symmetrical movement.

  Relationship between the muscle activity during aiming,follow-through, and the performance in archery · Hitoshi Watanabe, Koji Tsuji, Fujiko Yoneyama

• 2007
  For Archers Published later

  One archer ranked second in the world, 60 arrows at 70 m filmed at high frequency: the angular velocity of the shoulder from release to the end of the movement correlates with the score of the arrow, horizontally at p=0.032 and vertically at p=0.033, and on the arrows scoring 8 the pattern of velocity after release differed from that of the 9s and 10s. A single archer, in a regional journal.

  Evaluation on Motion Features of the World's Second Archer during Back-Tension in Archery · J.-H. Yi, C.-K. Hah, J.-S. Ryu, K.-C. Kim

• 2007
  Context Archers Published later

  The figure that explains why the follow-through is measured at all: in the top archer the shoulder moves 2.52 degrees horizontally and 7.59 vertically between anchor and release, and 31.41 and 29.08 degrees from release to the end of the movement. Almost all of the shoulder's movement happens after the arrow has gone.

  Evaluation on Motion Features of the World's Second Archer during Back-Tension in Archery · J.-H. Yi, C.-K. Hah, J.-S. Ryu, K.-C. Kim

• 2007
  Context Archers Published later

  In the same archer the mean horizontal angular velocity of the shoulder is 99.89 degrees per second on the arrows scoring 10, 89.49 on the 9s and 93.44 on the 8s, with the lowest coefficient of variation precisely on the 10s (9.89 per cent against 16.79 and 11.16). The 10s are neither the slowest nor the fastest: they are the most repeatable.

  Evaluation on Motion Features of the World's Second Archer during Back-Tension in Archery · J.-H. Yi, C.-K. Hah, J.-S. Ryu, K.-C. Kim

• 2008
  Against Archers Published later

  8 Korean university recurve archers with 8 to 14 years of practice, three-dimensional kinematics at 200 hertz: the mean angular displacement of the shoulder through the follow-through is between 30.2 and 31.8 degrees for scores from 7 to 10, that is practically the same, and the regression on score is not significant. The amplitude of the follow-through, on its own, says nothing about where the arrow goes.

  Evaluation on Kinematic Factors Affecting Scores of Olympic Round Game during the Follow Through in Archery · Chong-Ku Hah, Jae-Hun Yi

• 2008
  Context Archers Published later

  The same Korean study, on the velocity side: the mean horizontal angular velocity of the shoulder is 158 degrees per second on the arrows scoring 7, 142 on the 8s, 119 on the 9s and 121 on the 10s, with a regression accounting for 87 per cent of the variance of the four means but significant only at a 10 per cent threshold. The better arrows have a slower shoulder, not a wider one.

  Evaluation on Kinematic Factors Affecting Scores of Olympic Round Game during the Follow Through in Archery · Chong-Ku Hah, Jae-Hun Yi

• 2008
  Context Archers Published later

  The point where the advantage runs out: between arrows scoring 9 and 10 the shoulder's velocity is practically identical, 118.98 against 121.44 degrees per second. The regression is built on four score averages, and the paper's text also carries a p value that looks like a misprint.

  Evaluation on Kinematic Factors Affecting Scores of Olympic Round Game during the Follow Through in Archery · Chong-Ku Hah, Jae-Hun Yi

• 2008
  Context Archers Published later

  The shape of the curves, in the same study: the lower the score, the sharper the peak in the shoulder's velocity through the follow-through, while the curves of the 9s and 10s are almost superimposed. What sets the low-scoring arrows apart is a jerk, not the duration of the movement.

  Evaluation on Kinematic Factors Affecting Scores of Olympic Round Game during the Follow Through in Archery · Chong-Ku Hah, Jae-Hun Yi

• 2010
  Against Archers Published later

  4 elite women archers from the Turkish national squad, 108 arrows at 18 m indoors: in the second after the clicker the deltoid sits at 31.6 per cent of maximal contraction on the arrows scoring 8, 30.6 on the 9s and 29.7 on the 10s (F=2.4 not significant, r=-0.211 with p below 0.05). The direction is the opposite of the claim: on the better arrows the deltoid works slightly less.

  Shooting Dynamics in Archery · M. Emre Erkek, Cevdet Tinazci

• 2010
  Context Archers Published later

  In the same sample of 4 women archers, at group level neither the trapezius nor the finger extensors tell the arrows apart, before or after the clicker. Within the individual archers, though, a difference does appear and it points in opposite directions: in archer 2 the trapezius and extensors are more active on the worse arrows, in archer 3 the extensors are more active on the better ones. With four people the group average hides four different stories.

  Shooting Dynamics in Archery · M. Emre Erkek, Cevdet Tinazci

• 2011
  Against Archers Published later

  The second publication of the same experiment, with the same 4 archers and the same 108 arrows: it reports the same deltoid values in the second after the clicker, 31.6 against 30.6 against 29.7 per cent, with F=2.4 not significant and r=-0.211 with p below 0.05. It counts only once together with the 2010 paper; between the two versions the sex of the sample is reported differently.

  Shooting dynamics in archery: A multidimensional analysis from drawing to releasing in male archers · Cevdet Tinazci

• 2016
  For Archers Published later

  One experienced archer, 109 shots on a 30 cm target at 25 m, with an inertial sensor on the bow at 1,000 hertz: on the 6 shots where the archer judged the bow arm good the scores were X, 9, X, 9, X, 10, and on the 6 judged bad 9, 9, 9, 10, 9, 10. The difference in score is minimal and the judgement is the archer's own.

  Archery Routing Motion Pattern Comparison Using Hidden Markov Models · Shoichi Hasegawa, Kleawsirikul Nutnaree, Midori Kawaguchi

• 2016
  For Archers Published later

  In the same archer, when the bow arm stays in push after the release the bow's angular velocity rises by about 40 degrees per second over the following second, with an even and longer pattern. It is the mechanism coaching describes, measured on one person and twelve annotated shots.

  Archery Routing Motion Pattern Comparison Using Hidden Markov Models · Shoichi Hasegawa, Kleawsirikul Nutnaree, Midori Kawaguchi

• 2016
  For Archers Published later

  The other side of the same measurement: when the arm does not stay in push the bow's rotation is either too little, about 20 degrees per second, or too much, about 60, and returns to zero sooner. So it is not a question of how much the bow moves but of how: a rotation out of range in either direction goes with the shots judged bad.

  Archery Routing Motion Pattern Comparison Using Hidden Markov Models · Shoichi Hasegawa, Kleawsirikul Nutnaree, Midori Kawaguchi

• 2016
  Context Archers Published later

  The method, in the same single case: the model recognises the phases of the shot but tells the good shots from the bad ones only when the two seconds after the release are analysed, not the whole shot. It is an argument for the information sitting in the follow-through, on 109 shots from one archer.

  Archery Routing Motion Pattern Comparison Using Hidden Markov Models · Shoichi Hasegawa, Kleawsirikul Nutnaree, Midori Kawaguchi

• 2016
  Context Archers Published later

  The practical warning from the same study: the difference in the bow arm that the sensor measures is not visible on video, even when filming from two directions at 300 frames per second. What a coach can judge by eye is not what the sensor finds.

  Archery Routing Motion Pattern Comparison Using Hidden Markov Models · Shoichi Hasegawa, Kleawsirikul Nutnaree, Midori Kawaguchi

• 2016
  Context Archers Published later

  After the release the good shots and the bad ones initially follow the same sequence of states and only separate later, within the two seconds analysed. If the follow-through says anything, it does not say it in the first instant.

  Archery Routing Motion Pattern Comparison Using Hidden Markov Models · Shoichi Hasegawa, Kleawsirikul Nutnaree, Midori Kawaguchi

• 2016
  Context Archers Published later

  2 university archers with accelerometers on both arms, 18 arrows each at 70 m: in one of the two the movement of the arms at release was wider on the arrows scoring 10 than on those scoring 3, on the vertical axis of the string arm and the frontal axis of the bow arm. No numerical values and no statistical test, and only one archer of the two.

  Correlation between Archer's Hands Movement While Shooting and its Score · Zahari Taha, Jessnor Arif Mat-Jizat, Syed Faris Syed Omar, Edin Suwarganda

• 2018
  Context Archers Published later

  10 archers from the Brazilian national squad, 72 arrows at 70 m, electromyography of 12 muscles in 100 ms windows: between 50 and 350 ms after the clicker the flexor digitorum superficialis, rectus abdominis, multifidus, latissimus dorsi, bow-side serratus anterior and posterior deltoid show no difference between the intervals. These are the muscles that hold.

  Temporal pattern in the muscles of the upper limbs and the trunk in the archery · Nadjila Tejo Machado

• 2018
  Context Archers Published later

  The other side, in the same data: the finger extensor, biceps, triceps, string-side serratus anterior and upper trapezius are more active between 50 and 150 ms after the clicker than in the later intervals, and the pectoralis major drops between 50-150 and 250-350 ms, with p below 0.05. Half the muscles switch off straight away: the follow-through is not a general hold.

  Temporal pattern in the muscles of the upper limbs and the trunk in the archery · Nadjila Tejo Machado

• 2018
  Context Archers Published later

  The trunk holds too: the rectus abdominis stays constant between 50 and 350 ms after the clicker, from 28.77 to 24.65 per cent of maximal contraction with F(2,1919)=0.4 and p=0.66, and with it the finger flexor (p=0.97), multifidus (p=0.59), bow-side serratus (p=0.19) and posterior deltoid (p=0.06). The picture fits the 2022 review's finding on the elite trunk.

  Temporal pattern in the muscles of the upper limbs and the trunk in the archery · Nadjila Tejo Machado

• 2021
  Context Archers Published later

  28 Chinese recurve archers at three levels, electromyography of 13 muscles and synergy analysis: the activation centre of the follow-through synergy falls at 91.4 per cent of the cycle in the elite with a standard deviation of 3.7, at 87.9 with 5.7 in the intermediates and at 71.9 with 29.5 in the beginners (p=0.03 against the elite). What is learnt is not to hold more, it is to switch on at the right moment.

  Muscle coordination during archery shooting: A comparison of archers with different skill levels · Zhang Baifa, Zhou Xinglong, Luo Dongmei

• 2021
  Context Archers Published later

  In the same 28 archers the highest number of overlaps between synergies falls halfway through the follow-through, at every level, and the beginners have more of them than the others. The moment after the release is the busiest part of the shot for everybody, which explains why it is also the hardest to read.

  Muscle coordination during archery shooting: A comparison of archers with different skill levels · Zhang Baifa, Zhou Xinglong, Luo Dongmei

• 2022
  For Review Published later

  A systematic review of 41 studies: prolonged contraction of the trunk muscles after the release appears only in elite archers, and in the elite the trunk's agonists and antagonists switch on together, which is not seen in less trained archers. It summarises comparisons between levels, not between arrows, and leans in part on the 1987 study already present on this page.

  Performance assessment in archery: a systematic review · Eleonora Vendrame, Valeria Belluscio, Luigi Truppa, Lorenzo Rum, Aldo Lazich, Elena Bergamini, Andrea Mannini

• 2025
  Context Archers Published later

  8 high-level French archers, 549 arrows at 70 m: in the follow-through phase the transversus abdominis is more active on the arrows scoring 8 or less than on the 9s and 10s, and the string-side external oblique is less active on the worse arrows, with p below 0.05. A difference between arrows does exist, but it concerns the trunk and not the shoulder, and the values are readable only from the figure.

  A multi-parameter investigation of elite archery: distinguishing individual and shared performance strategies during the aiming and follow-through phases · Raphaël Jacquot, Khaireddine Ben Mansour, Kévin Bouillet, Jean-Philippe Jehl, Gérôme Gauchard

• 2025
  Context Archers Published later

  5 high-level Russian recurve archers, 180 arrows at 18 m, electromyography of 18 bilateral muscles synchronised with the clicker sensor: the lower trapezius goes from an asymmetry towards the bow side at full draw (between -0.18 and -0.23) to a nearly symmetrical value at release (-0.03) and then to dominance of the drawing side through the follow-through (0.31). It describes the movement, not the link to the outcome. A regional journal.

  Manifestation of asymmetry in muscle activity during the execution of shots from a recurve bow · A.M. Pukhov

• 2026
  For Archers Published later

  8 French elite recurve archers against 7 intermediates, 36 arrows each at 70 m: through the follow-through the elite archers have the string-arm finger extensor (p below 0.05), middle trapezius and upper trapezius (both p below 0.001) more active, while in the intermediates the flexor digitorum superficialis (p below 0.001) and middle deltoid (p below 0.05) are more active. The posterior deltoid does not separate the two groups (p=0.175). It is the shape of the claim, measured on a comparison between levels.

  Analyse multidimensionnelle de la performance en tir à l'arc · Raphaël Jacquot

• 2026
  Context Archers Published later

  In the same 8 French elite archers, over 549 arrows: through the follow-through of the worst arrows the transversus abdominis is more active and the string-side external oblique less, and the bow arm's forearm moves too, with the finger extensor more active on the low-scoring arrows and the flexor digitorum superficialis less. It counts once together with the 2025 paper.

  Analyse multidimensionnelle de la performance en tir à l'arc · Raphaël Jacquot

• 2026
  Context Model Published later

  A conceptual model of skill formation in archery, built from the literature and from coaching experience, with no participants and no data: the follow-through is described as a necessary phase that preserves the organisation of the movement after the string leaves and avoids an abrupt switch to relaxation, and also as the moment when the proprioceptive information is gathered that keeps the motor programme in place and refines it. According to the model, removing or shortening it switches the muscles off too early. It is a theoretical proposal in a regional journal, not a measurement.

  The “Release Illusion”: A Conceptual Model of Motor Skill Formation in Archery · Oleksandr Kalynichenko

Status history

1. 1976 Reported The first piece of data in the bibliography is a comparison between four university archers with more than three years of practice and six young men who had never shot: in the muscles that fix the shoulder the discharge is maintained or increases from release into the follow-through in the experts and breaks off at the release in the beginners, with the clearest gap in the latissimus dorsi on the bow side. These are traces with no figures, on ten people, and there is no score at all: reported.
2. 1987 Reported A second group puts a duration on it: in the two world-level archers measured, back and shoulders stay active for a second and a half after the release, while in the beginners the activity collapses straight away. It is still very few archers and still no link to the score of the individual arrow: the status holds.
3. 1993 Reported The first link to the result arrives, and for thirty years it will remain the only direct one. Ten Japanese club archers, with the follow-through measured as a percentage of the activity held at aim: the ascending trapezius rises to 118 per cent on the bow side and 147 on the string side while the other four sites drop towards 60, and the four archers with a best round above 1,200 points keep at least 79 per cent. The ratio on the string side correlates with the best score at 0.79, and rises to 0.95 if only the six strongest are considered. On the bow side, by contrast, the ratio does not tell the archers apart. It is a cross-sectional association on ten people, in a regional journal: reported.
4. 2007 Reported In one archer ranked second in the world, over sixty arrows, the speed of the shoulder between the release and the end of the movement is related to the score of the arrow, and the same study shows that almost all of the shoulder's movement happens after the release: two and a half degrees horizontally up to the release against thirty-one afterwards. It is a single case, in a regional journal, so the status does not move.
5. 2008 Reported Eight Korean university archers and ninety-six shots measured with seven cameras bring the first contrary result: the amplitude of the shoulder's rotation through the follow-through is practically the same from seven to ten points, and what changes is the speed, lower on the better arrows. Between nine and ten points even the speed flattens out. On amplitude it is a null result, and so a contrary one, but it is a kinematic study in a regional journal, measuring the movement of the shoulder rather than the activity of the muscles, and the regression on speed only holds at a loose threshold: a contrary result of this weight among three supporting studies does not turn reported into contested.
6. 2010 Contested Four Turkish elite women archers, a hundred and eight arrows: in the second after the clicker goes off the deltoid sits at 31.6 per cent of maximal contraction on the arrows scoring eight and 29.7 on those scoring ten. It is a small difference, which the analysis of variance does not see and which only appears as a correlation, and it points the opposite way to the idea that a more active follow-through makes better arrows. It is the second contrary study after the Korean one of 2008, and like that one it is small: four archers, and a difference that only appears as a correlation; the same data are published again in 2011 and count once. The supporting studies still outnumber the contrary ones three to two, all on few archers, and the two contrary ones, which look at the individual arrow, weigh no less than those in favour: studies of archers now point in opposite directions, and the status moves to contested.
7. 2016 Contested Two new measurements, both on very few archers. One advanced archer with an inertial sensor on the bow at a thousand hertz, over a hundred and nine shots: when the bow arm stays in push the bow rotates more evenly and for longer, while when it does not the rotation is either too much or too little and dies away sooner, and the shots the archer judged good scored slightly higher. The detail worth keeping is that this difference is invisible on video, even at three hundred frames per second. The same year, on two university archers, the movement of the arms at release turns out to be wider on the arrows scoring ten than on those scoring three. A single case and two archers add a signal in favour but do not settle the disagreement: the status stays contested.
8. 2018 Contested Ten archers from the Brazilian national squad show how the follow-through is built, muscle by muscle. Over the three hundred and fifty milliseconds after the clicker, the posterior deltoid, latissimus dorsi, bow-side serratus and finger flexors hold their activity without dropping, together with the rectus abdominis, while the finger extensors, biceps, triceps, pectoralis major and upper trapezius collapse immediately. It is a description of the mechanism, not of its link to the score: the status stays contested.
9. 2021 Contested The analysis of muscle synergies in twenty-eight recurve archers moves the question from how much to when: the group of muscles that makes the follow-through switches on at 72 per cent of the cycle in beginners and at 91 in the elite, that is much later and far more precisely. In the same sample the overlap between synergies peaks halfway through the follow-through at every level, so that moment is the busiest part of the shot for everybody. It is a difference between levels, not a link to the score of the arrow: the status holds.
10. 2022 Contested A systematic review of forty-one studies adds the figure closest to the claim: the trunk muscles stay contracted after the release only in elite archers, and in the elite the trunk's agonists and antagonists switch on together, which is not seen in less trained archers. It is still a comparison between levels, not between arrows, so the status does not change.
11. 2025 Contested Two measurements reach the period after the release and neither settles the question. In eight French elite archers, over five hundred and forty-nine arrows, the worst arrows come with a more active transversus abdominis and a less active external oblique on the string side: there is a difference in the follow-through, but it concerns the trunk and it does not all point the same way. In five high-level Russian recurve archers the lower trapezius works symmetrically at release and becomes dominant on the drawing side through the follow-through, which is a description of the movement and not a link to the outcome. Neither measures the shoulder against where the arrow lands: the status stays contested.
12. 2026 Contested The thesis that gathers the same French work gives the form closest to the claim: through the follow-through the eight elite archers hold the middle and upper trapezius and the drawing-arm finger extensor more active than the seven intermediates. Inside the elite group, though, the link to the individual arrow still concerns the trunk and not the shoulder. The same year a Ukrainian theoretical model, with no data, describes the follow-through as the phase that holds the movement together after the release and provides the sensory feedback through which the motor programme is refined: it is a hypothesis about why the muscles stay on, not a measurement of their link to the arrows. Fifty years of measurements, and the thing coaching teaches remains an association on small samples, with two studies of the individual arrow pointing the other way: contested.

Related

Related articles

• The bow shoulder: how it rotates, why it rises and how hard it worksHow to hold the bow shoulder at full draw, why it tends to rise, and what X-rays, electromyography and position-sense tests have measured in archers.
• Common beginner mistakes in archery and how to avoid themThe most common beginner mistakes in archery, from posture and release to equipment, and what the measurements made on beginners actually show.
• The follow-through: what happens after the arrow has goneIn the top archers measured, the arrow leaves the string in about 15 milliseconds. What the body does next, what studies have found and where they stop.

Research lines

• 46 studiesShooting EMG from 1971 to today
• 54 studiesMovement variability and individual technique since 1971

Other claims in this domain

• CorroboratedBetween one and a half and two tenths of a second pass between the clicker sounding and the arrow leaving7 studies · 94 archers measuredStatus since 1990
• ReportedA camera diagonally behind the archer measures the vertical sway of the aim well, but not the horizontal1 study · 3 archers measuredStatus since 2010
• ReportedA continuous final pull through the clicker leads to better shots9 studies · 56 archers measuredStatus since 1993
• ReportedA sound or light cue about the angle of the bow arm tightens beginners' groups2 studies · 1 archers measuredStatus since 2012
• ReportedA thumb grip on the string is less tiring than a finger grip3 studies · 9 archers measuredStatus since 1990

See all claims on technique and biomechanics