At the release the two arms move apart in opposite directions

The summary today

Only one study has measured it, in 2016, with two Malaysian university recurve archers wearing an accelerometer on each arm, eighteen arrows each at 70 metres. At the release both arms jolt on all three axes, and the peak displacement goes in opposite directions for the bow arm and the drawing arm on every axis, with one exception: the horizontal movement across the line of shot on arrows with a middling score. Vertically the bow arm drops and the drawing arm rises by almost equal amounts, around 2 to 3 centimetres, at every score level; along the line of shot the bow arm goes forward much further than the drawing hand goes back (6.8 against 1.2 centimetres on low-scoring arrows, 9.2 against 1.6 on high-scoring ones), except on the middling arrows, where the two movements are about the same. Whether the size of the movement tells you where the arrow goes is still open: the authors read a link in the movement across the line of shot, larger in the bow arm on low-scoring arrows and in the drawing hand on high-scoring ones, but the standard deviations are as large as the means and there is no statistical test. Two archers, accelerometers at about 15 Hz, displacements obtained by integrating acceleration twice: it is a description that gives the shape of the movement, not a measurement that can carry comparisons between arrows.

Also phrased as: "the arms split at the release"; "expansion in two directions"; "the bow arm goes to the target"; "the drawing hand goes back"; "arm reaction at the release"

Evidence

• 2016
  For Archers Published later

  Two male university recurve archers, right-handed, with at least a year of university competition, an accelerometer on each arm at about 15 Hz, 18 arrows each at 70 m. The mean peak displacement at the release goes in opposite directions for the bow arm and the drawing arm on every axis except the one across the line of shot on middling arrows; along the line of shot, for example, 0.068 ± 0.05 m forward for the bow arm against 0.012 ± 0.01 m back for the drawing hand on low-scoring arrows (Table 1). Vertically the bow arm drops and the drawing arm rises by almost equal amounts at all three score levels: 0.028 ± 0.04, 0.015 ± 0.02 and 0.024 ± 0.04 m for the bow arm on low, middling and high-scoring arrows, against 0.028 ± 0.02, 0.018 ± 0.03 and 0.030 ± 0.03 m for the drawing arm. On this axis the movement does not separate the scores.

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

• 2016
  Context Archers Published later

  Along the line of shot the bow arm moves much further than the drawing hand on low-scoring (0.068 against 0.012 m) and high-scoring arrows (0.092 against 0.016 m), but not on middling ones (0.011 ± 0.07 against 0.012 ± 0.03 m); the authors put it down to the bow moving forward at the release. Across the line of shot, the bow arm moves more on low-scoring arrows (0.029 against 0.013 m) and the drawing hand on high-scoring ones (0.033 against 0.014 m), and the authors infer that a large bow-arm movement in this plane may lower the score; the standard deviations equal or exceed the means and there is no test.

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

• 2016
  Context Archers Published later

  Comparing by eye the traces of just one of the two archers, who had shot several 10s and several 3s, the authors see on the 10s a larger movement at the release (above all for the drawing hand across the line of shot and for the bow arm along it) and a vertical movement that starts a moment after the other two, while on the 3s all three axes start together. It is a qualitative comparison in one archer, with no figures.

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

Status history

1. 2016 Reported The first and only study puts an accelerometer on each arm of two university recurve archers, eighteen arrows each at 70 metres. At the release the bow arm and drawing arm move in opposite directions on every axis except the one across the line of shot on middling arrows: vertically the bow arm drops and the drawing arm rises by almost equal amounts, and along the line of shot the bow arm goes forward much further than the hand goes back. Two archers and no statistical test: reported.

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• Muscle synergies in archery: the motor patterns of elite archersMuscle synergies in archery: what changes between elite and novice archers, and what happens on the best arrows, at the clicker and at the release.
• The release in archery: anatomy of a few millisecondsHow the archery release works according to the measurements: how long it lasts, how the fingers open, what the arrow does and what you can train.

Research lines

• 102 studiesFrom the total on the scorecard to the arrow's coordinates
• 48 studiesBow stability and aiming time: research 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