Pausing at 96 to 98% of full draw before the final pull reduces the small jerks while aiming

The summary today

Only one study has asked the question, and it tackles it head on, imposing the stop rather than observing the spontaneous one: 10 experienced Turkish traditional archers shot after stopping at set points, 98, 96, 94 and 92% of full draw, and then completing the final pull, and also with no final pull at all. Jerk in the bow hand and the bow, measured with accelerometers from the stop until release, is lowest with the stop at 96-98%, that is with final pulls of 1.6 and 3.2 centimetres, and rises with longer ones; in the drawing hand nothing changes up to 4%, and beyond that it does. In the bow hand, shooting with no final pull, aligning at full draw, also gives more jerk than the short stop, though less than the long one. The limits weigh heavily: traditional bows without a clicker, three shots per condition at about a metre and a half from the target, distances in a fixed order, a regional journal and no measurement of where the arrows landed. There is nothing direct on the Olympic recurve, and the one nearby finding must be kept separate: in international-level juniors, involuntary pauses within the final pull appear on the worst arrows, which is a different thing from a planned stop before starting it.

Also phrased as: "stopping just short of the clicker"; "a pause before the final pull"; "a short final pull"; "how long the final pull should be"; "a pause before the expansion"

Evidence

• 2006
  Context Archers Published later

  7 juniors who had competed at the Junior World Championships, 66 arrows at 30 m indoors, draw length measured with a strain gauge on the clicker: the archer with the highest average (9.31 per arrow) drew the arrow through the clicker evenly, about 5 mm over the last 3 s, while the two with the lowest averages showed creeping or pauses in draw length on their worst arrows. It is an involuntary pause within the final pull, described without a statistical test, not a planned stop before starting it.

  On‐target trajectories and the final pull in archery · Jürgen Edelmann‐Nusser, Mario Heller, Martin Hofmann, Nico Ganter

• 2024
  For Archers Published later

  10 experienced Turkish traditional archers (32.42 ± 4.3 years old, 6.23 ± 2.35 years of practice, bows of 38 to 55 lb), 15 shots at about 1.5 m: three with no final pull and three for each stop at 98, 96, 94 and 92% of full draw, corresponding to mean final pulls of 1.57, 3.21, 4.70 and 6.27 cm. Jerk (log dimensionless jerk, 100 Hz accelerometers) in the bow and the bow hand is lower with the stops at 98 and 96% than with no final pull and with the stops at 94 and 92% (bow F = 424.11, η²p = 0.98; bow hand F = 613.53, η²p = 0.99; p < 0.001). In the drawing hand there is a threshold: with the corrected threshold of p < 0.005, the stops at 98 and 96% cannot be told apart from shooting with no final pull (F = 12.63, p = 0.006; F = 6.31, p = 0.033), while each step towards longer pulls adds jerk (98 against 94% F = 43.55, 96 against 92% F = 12,321.00, 94 against 92% F = 268.46, all p < 0.001). In the bow hand, by contrast, shooting with no final pull gives more jerk than the short stops (F = 72.43 and 37.73) and less than the long ones (F = 204.82 and 799.34). The distances were tried in a fixed order, from the shortest pull to the longest. Scores were not recorded.

  Factors Affecting Shooting Skill in Turkish Archery The Relation between Final Pull Distance and Logarithmic Dimensionless Jerk · Uğur Ödek

• 2024
  Context Archers Published later

  An analysis of competition video of 30 world-elite recurve archers: 23 (76.7%) draw the bow in one continuous movement, 7 (23.3%) with a variable rhythm and a short pause in the draw (p < 0.05). It describes how they shoot, not what happens to jerk, and the pause concerns the draw, not a stop before the final pull.

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

Status history

1. 2006 Not studied The first finding near the question comes from 7 international-level juniors: in the two with the lowest averages, draw length creeps or stalls on the worst arrows. It concerns an involuntary pause within the final pull, not a planned stop before starting it, so the question remains unmeasured.
2. 2024 Reported Ten experienced Turkish traditional archers try stops at set points before the final pull: jerk in the bow hand and the bow is lowest when the stop is at 96 or 98% of full draw, with very large effects, and in the drawing hand the final pull adds no jerk up to 4% of draw length, while beyond that it adds more and more. Shooting with no final pull is not the steadiest condition. It is a single study, on traditional bows without a clicker, three shots per condition at a metre and a half, in a regional journal and with no impact point: reported. The same year, competition video of 30 elite recurve archers shows 23 drawing in one continuous movement and 7 with a short pause, but during the draw, not before the final pull: it stays as context.

Related

Related articles

• The final pull: what happens in the last millimetres before the clickerHow many millimetres and seconds the final pull takes, how it differs between better and worse arrows, and what the aim and the muscles do as the clicker drops.

Research lines

• 48 studiesBow stability and aiming time: research since 1971
• 15 studiesFinal draw, clicker and reaction time since 1993

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