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Holding the drawing elbow above shoulder height makes the hold less steady

1 study · 10 archers measured

ForContextAgainst20102015202020252010, for, n = 102010, context, n = 10
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.

There is only one study, and it is a laboratory one. Ten male beginners hold six simulated positions for seven seconds with a 26-pound recurve, with the drawing arm at 90, 100 and 110 degrees of elevation, at partial and full draw, while motion sensors on the humerus and scapula measure tremor: at 100 and 110 degrees tremor is greater than at 90, both in the 8 to 12 Hz band (p = 0.002) and in the 3 to 7 Hz band (p = 0.005). Shoulder muscle activity, by contrast, does not change with the height of the arm (p = 0.53 for the humeral muscles and 0.29 for the scapular ones), while it rises at full draw at any height: lifting the elbow costs no extra muscular work, it costs steadiness. The limits lie in the sample and the task: beginners, positions held without shooting, no arrows and no score. That is why the registry counts those ten participants as the general population rather than as archers: whether the same happens to a trained archer during a competition end has not been measured.

Also phrased as: "high elbow at full draw"; "drawing elbow in line with the arrow"; "elbow height at anchor"; "elbow above the shoulder"; "tremor at full draw"

In practice

Archers are taught to bring the drawing elbow into line with the arrow, at shoulder height or just above, and those who lift it too high are corrected because the hold becomes more tiring and less steady.

Evidence

  • 2010
    For General population Published later

    10 male beginners averaging 21.9 years, 26-pound recurve, six simulated positions held for 7 seconds (drawing arm at 90, 100 and 110 degrees of elevation, partial or full draw), tremor measured as acceleration of sensors on the humerus and scapula: tremor power is greater at 100 and 110 degrees than at 90, both at 8 to 12 Hz (p = 0.002) and at 3 to 7 Hz (p = 0.005), and greater on the humerus than on the scapula overall.

    Activation and tremor of the shoulder muscles to the demands of an archery task · Jiu-Jenq Lin, Cheng-Ju Hung, Ching-Chieh Yang, Hsing-Yu Chen, Feng-Ching Chou, Tung-Wu Lu

  • 2010
    Context General population Published later

    In the same study, electromyography of eight shoulder muscles does not change with the height of the arm: effect of elevation F(2,16) = 0.67, p = 0.53 for the humeral muscles and F(2,16) = 1.33, p = 0.29 for the scapular ones, with no interaction with draw. Lifting the elbow changes tremor, not muscular work.

    Activation and tremor of the shoulder muscles to the demands of an archery task · Jiu-Jenq Lin, Cheng-Ju Hung, Ching-Chieh Yang, Hsing-Yu Chen, Feng-Ching Chou, Tung-Wu Lu

  • 2010
    Context General population Published later

    Also in the same study, at full draw the shoulder muscles work harder than at partial draw, at any height (humeral muscles p = 0.011, scapular p = 0.026), and at full draw at 90 degrees more humeral muscle activity goes with more scapular tremor at 8 to 12 Hz (R = 0.50). The authors point to 90 degrees as the most suitable position.

    Activation and tremor of the shoulder muscles to the demands of an archery task · Jiu-Jenq Lin, Cheng-Ju Hung, Ching-Chieh Yang, Hsing-Yu Chen, Feng-Ching Chou, Tung-Wu Lu

Status history

  1. 2010 Transferred The first and only study on the question has ten beginners hold six simulated positions for seven seconds with a 26-pound recurve, without shooting: with the drawing arm at 100 and 110 degrees of elevation shoulder tremor is greater than at 90, in both frequency bands measured. Muscle activity does not change with the height of the elbow, while it rises at full draw at any height, so what suffers is steadiness rather than effort. The people holding the positions are not trained archers and nobody shoots an arrow, so the finding counts as a study of the general population: transferred.

Related

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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 full assessment
Cite
APA

Campagna, M. (2026). Holding the drawing elbow above shoulder height makes the hold less steady (Version 2). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/technique/high-drawing-elbow-tremor

BibTeX
@misc{campagna2026_gomitocordaaltotremore,
  author = {Campagna, Matteo},
  title = {Holding the drawing elbow above shoulder height makes the hold less steady},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
  url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/technique/high-drawing-elbow-tremor},
  note = {Version 2; accessed 2026-10-16}
}

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