Better archers apply a more consistent pressure on the grip

The summary today

Two studies have put a sensor between the hand and the bow, fifteen years apart, and they say the same thing: what tells archers apart is not how hard they press but how well they repeat it. In fifteen experienced recurve archers, split into eight at Olympic level and seven less accomplished, the average way of distributing pressure does not differ between the groups, while the shot-to-shot variability of the vertical moment arm is lower in the better ones; horizontally there is no difference. One detail is worth keeping: those same better archers missed by half as much vertically, 2.7 centimetres against 5.7, so the axis on which the pressure repeats best is also the axis on which the arrows scatter least. The same picture returns in nineteen university kyudo practitioners shooting an instrumented bow: those who hit most often apply force and upward push that repeat closely, while those who hit least vary a great deal. It goes no further than that, because these are two cross-sectional associations on small samples, one of them in kyudo, and because nobody has tried making the pressure steadier to see whether the arrows improve.

Also phrased as: "hand pressure on the bow grip"; "how to hold the bow grip"; "consistency of tenouchi"; "the bow hand and the group"

Evidence

• 1992
  For Archers Published later

  15 experienced American recurve archers, 8 at Olympic level and 7 less accomplished, with an instrumented grip at 30 m: the shot-to-shot variability of the vertical moment arm is lower in the better group, F = 4.944 with p = 0.045, while horizontally there is no difference. What is measured is the consistency of where the hand loads the bow, not how much it loads it.

  Archery Bow Grip Force Distribution: Relationships with Performance and Fatigue · Philip E. Martin, Gary D. Heise

• 1992
  Context Archers Published later

  In the same study the average way of distributing pressure does not separate the two groups: mean moments and moment arms are not significantly different, and the better archers only tend to load higher up, with values about twice as large. This is the part that gives the claim its proper shape, because it rules out a correct pressure to be copied.

  Archery Bow Grip Force Distribution: Relationships with Performance and Fatigue · Philip E. Martin, Gary D. Heise

• 1992
  Context Archers Published later

  The moment and moment arm about the horizontal axis are roughly twice as large in the Olympic-level archers, but the differences within each group are so wide that the comparison does not hold statistically; the authors put part of the higher value down to the use of bows of greater draw weight. A tendency, then, rather than a result.

  Archery Bow Grip Force Distribution: Relationships with Performance and Fatigue · Philip E. Martin, Gary D. Heise

• 1992
  Context Archers Published later

  The better group really was better, and that helps in reading the rest: at 30 m the mean distance from the centre is 4.3 ± 1.0 cm against 8.6 ± 3.2 cm (F = 13.18, p < 0.01), with the vertical deviation at 2.7 against 5.7 cm. The difference in performance therefore sits mostly on the vertical axis.

  Archery Bow Grip Force Distribution: Relationships with Performance and Fatigue · Philip E. Martin, Gary D. Heise

• 1992
  Context Archers Published later

  The two measures line up on a point worth keeping: the mean vertical deviation from the centre is about half as large in the Olympic-level archers, 2.7 cm against 5.7, and it is vertically that the grip pressure repeats best (F = 4.944, p = 0.045). A coincidence rather than a demonstrated causal chain, but it shows where to look.

  Archery Bow Grip Force Distribution: Relationships with Performance and Fatigue · Philip E. Martin, Gary D. Heise

• 2007
  For Kyudo archers Published later

  19 university kyudo practitioners, 8 arrows each at 28 m, with an instrumented bow recording force, upward push moment and torsion: the participants with the highest hit rate show force on the bow and push moment that repeat closely from shot to shot, while those with fewer hits show wide variability. The published traces cover 6 of the 19 participants.

  B39 Quantification of TENOUCHI for Playing Kyudo · Sekiya Koike, Takuro Sugiura, Sakura Murata, Toshio Mori

• 2007
  Context Kyudo archers Published later

  Of the three quantities recorded, the torsion of the grip about the long axis of the bow repeats less well than the drawing force and the upward push, in the comparison between the three best and the three worst shots by the archer's own judgement. Not every part of the contact between hand and bow repeats equally well, then.

  B39 Quantification of TENOUCHI for Playing Kyudo · Sekiya Koike, Takuro Sugiura, Sakura Murata, Toshio Mori

• 2007
  Context Kyudo archers Published later

  In the seconds before release the force, push and torsion applied to the grip stay practically unchanged: no appreciable variation appears over the roughly 5 s preceding the window shown in the plots, which begins about half a second before the arrow leaves. The consistency in question is therefore between shots rather than within a single shot.

  B39 Quantification of TENOUCHI for Playing Kyudo · Sekiya Koike, Takuro Sugiura, Sakura Murata, Toshio Mori

• 2007
  Context Kyudo archers Published later

  With the same bow the force applied to the grip varies from archer to archer, and the authors put this down to how much string each one draws: the forces compared reach up to about 200 N. A reminder that absolute values do not compare across people, whereas their repeatability does.

  B39 Quantification of TENOUCHI for Playing Kyudo · Sekiya Koike, Takuro Sugiura, Sakura Murata, Toshio Mori

• 2007
  Context Kyudo archers Published later

  The upward push applied to the grip during the shot, called ue-oshi in kyudo, ranges from 1 to 5 Nm in all the participants shown, across 19 university archers with 8 arrows each at 28 m. It is the quantity whose repeatability is best in the more accurate group.

  B39 Quantification of TENOUCHI for Playing Kyudo · Sekiya Koike, Takuro Sugiura, Sakura Murata, Toshio Mori

• 2007
  Context Kyudo archers Published later

  The torsion about the long axis of the bow is about 0.6 Nm in the great majority of the archers, between −0.57 and −0.61 Nm: a small value, similar across different people, yet also the least repeatable of the three recorded.

  B39 Quantification of TENOUCHI for Playing Kyudo · Sekiya Koike, Takuro Sugiura, Sakura Murata, Toshio Mori

• 2022
  Context Review Published later

  Systematic review of performance assessment in archery: re-reading the 1992 study it reports that the distribution of force on the grip does not differ significantly either between groups of different level or after a prolonged series of shots, and that the more experienced archers show only a tendency to concentrate greater force. These are the data already counted here, so it adds no new sample.

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

Status history

1. 1990 Not studied In the registry's bibliography what the hand does on the grip is described but not measured: no study has yet recorded the forces and moments between hand and bow in archers while shooting.
2. 1992 Reported The first data come from fifteen experienced American recurve archers, eight at Olympic level and seven less accomplished. The average way of distributing pressure does not separate the two groups, and the better archers only tend to load higher up, with values about twice as large but no statistical difference; what does differ is the consistency, because the shot-to-shot variability of the vertical moment arm is lower in the better group, F = 4.944 with p = 0.045, while horizontally there is no difference. This is a cross-sectional association on fifteen people: reported.
3. 2007 Reported Nineteen university kyudo practitioners shoot eight arrows at twenty-eight metres with an instrumented bow, and the direction is the same: those who hit most often apply force and upward push that repeat closely from shot to shot, while those who hit least vary a great deal. The measurement is more direct than in 1992, but the group is split by hit rate, the plots present six of the nineteen participants, and kyudo practitioners on their own take the claim no further than reported.
4. 2022 Reported A systematic review re-reads the 1992 study and makes clear what was not found: the force applied to the grip does not separate beginners from elite archers and does not change after a prolonged series of shots, with the more experienced ones showing only a tendency to concentrate greater force. What goes with performance, then, is the consistency of the pressure and not its intensity. These are the 1992 data, though, so the status does not change.

Related

Related articles

• The bow hand: where it pushes, how much it closes and how much torque mattersHow the hand sits on the grip, how much expert archers squeeze, and what the measurements say about grip pressure, its consistency and bow torque.

Research lines

• 17 studiesGrip pressure and bow torque: from 1971 to today
• 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