Matteo Campagna
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At the top of recurve archery, left-handed archers are few

4 studies · 286 archers measured

ForContextAgainst2016201820202022202420262024, context, n = 2002017, context, n = 442024, for, n = 302026, context, n = 12
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.

They are few, but no fewer than one would expect. The only count at the top of recurve looks at competition footage of the top fifteen in the May 2024 world ranking, men and women: four archers out of thirty shoot from the left, 13 per cent, one man and three women. The other counts we have point the same way and give similar figures: 11.4 per cent left-handers among 44 compound archers at a Turkish national championship in 2017, 11.5 per cent of archers drawing with the left hand among 200 young archers at a European championship in 2024, two out of twelve in a Turkish university group in 2026. These are all shares close to that of left-handers in the general population, around 10 to 13 per cent. So the data say that left-handers are a minority at the top too, not that they are at a disadvantage, and the split of one to three between men and women rests on four people.

Also phrased as: "how many left-handed archers"; "left-handed archers at the top"; "left-handers in recurve"; "shooting from the left"

In practice

People say that left-handers are rarely seen in recurve because equipment for them is harder to find, and some instructors have left-handed youngsters shoot right-handed anyway, depending on the dominant eye.

Evidence

  • 2017
    Context Archers Published later

    44 compound archers at the Turkish senior national championship: 5 left-handers on the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory, 11.4 per cent, against the 10 to 13 per cent the authors give for the general population. It is the dominant hand, not the shooting side, and the journal has questionable editorial standards.

    The Examination of the Relationship between Left-Handedness and Success in Elite Female Archers Questionable venue · Recep Gursoy, Suleyman Sahin, Mehmet Dalli, Kursat Hazar, Eser Aggon

  • 2024
    For Archers Published later

    Notational analysis of 2023 competition footage of the top 15 men and top 15 women in the May 2024 recurve world ranking: 4 archers out of 30 shoot from the left (13 per cent), 1 man and 3 women; the other 26 from the right.

    Technical performance differences in elite Olympic recurve archers · Mohsen Shafizadeh, Keith Davids

  • 2024
    Context Archers Published later

    200 archers aged 13 to 20 from 34 nations at the European youth championship in Patras, 145 recurve and 55 compound: 23 draw with the left hand, 11.5 per cent, and 22 have a dominant left arm, 11 per cent. They are young and the divisions are pooled, so this is not the top of recurve.

    Injuries and Persistent Pain in Elite Adolescent Archery Athletes: A Cross-Sectional Epidemiological Study · Nikolaos Vasilis, Athanasios Kyriakides, George Vasilopoulos, Maria Chatzitimotheou, Grigorios Gonidakis, Athanasios Kotsakis, et al.

  • 2026
    Context Archers Published later

    In the sample description of a caffeine study, 12 Turkish university recurve archers: 10 use the right eye and right drawing arm (83.3 per cent), 2 the left side (16.7 per cent). It is not a top-level sample.

    An ergogenic approach to enhancing performance in archery: the acute effects of caffeine · Üstün Türker, Zeynep Hazal Ateş, Mümine Görgülü, Fatih Kıyıcı, Serdar Bayrakdaroğlu

Status history

  1. 2017 Not studied The first count close to the question is not on recurve: at a Turkish national women's compound championship, 5 archers out of 44 come out as left-handed on a handedness questionnaire, 11.4 per cent, the share the authors give for the general population. It is a different division and a different way of counting, so there is still nothing on the top of recurve: not studied.
  2. 2024 Reported The first count at the top of recurve arrives: in the competition footage of the top fifteen in the world ranking for each sex, four archers out of thirty shoot from the left, 13 per cent, one man and three women. The same year, among 200 archers aged 13 to 20 at a European youth championship, three quarters of them recurve, 11.5 per cent draw with the left hand. Left-handers are few, but in line with the general population. It is a snapshot of thirty people selected by level: reported.

Related

Related articles

Research lines

Cite
APA

Campagna, M. (2026). At the top of recurve archery, left-handed archers are few (Version 1). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/technique/left-handed-archers-top-recurve

BibTeX
@misc{campagna2026_mancinirarielite,
  author = {Campagna, Matteo},
  title = {At the top of recurve archery, left-handed archers are few},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
  url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/technique/left-handed-archers-top-recurve},
  note = {Version 1; accessed 2026-10-16}
}

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