In beginners a target-throwing test is linked to the score with the bow
3 studies · 233 archers measured
The summary today
One study has seen it, in a small sample. Among 17 secondary school pupils at the end of a basic Olympic recurve course, those more accurate at throwing a tennis ball at a target on a wall shoot better with the bow (r = 0.51), but in the same study none of the other measurements taken away from the shot, from height and arm length to shoulder position sense, is linked to the score, and with nine correlations one that crosses the threshold may simply be chance. A second study, on 104 university students with no experience using a toy bow at three metres, manages to guess who scores in 72 to 80 per cent of cases, but it uses body measurements together with trunk, shoulder, elbow and wrist angles filmed during the shot, and no throwing test, so it does not answer the question. The oldest finding close to the question dates from 1969, in a course for beginner schoolgirls: a general motor ability test was only weakly linked to the final score (r = 0.32), and it contained no target throw. What remains is a cross-sectional association at beginner distances, and nobody has checked whether those who start better end up further ahead.
Also phrased as: "talent identification in archery"; "selection tests for archers"; "predicting who will become a good archer"; "coordination and beginner scores"; "anthropometric measurements and archery"
In practice
It is said that a good archer can be spotted before ever picking up a bow, from coordination, accuracy in throwing or physique, and some selection tests start from this idea.
Evidence
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1969
Context Archers Published later
216 beginner girls in their first year of an Illinois high school, 19 archery lessons indoors at 10, 20 and 25 yards in an experiment on two ways of reaching full draw: in the group learning the push method the score of the final round is linked to the Scott and French general motor ability test, a battery of basketball throw, four-second dash, repeated wall pass and standing long jump, with r = 0.32 (p. 53); for the other group the correlation is not reported. It is a weak link with a measure of general coordination, not with a target-throwing test.
Effectiveness of Two Methods of Attaining a Full Draw by Beginning Archers · Florence D. Grebner
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2025
For Archers Published later
17 secondary school pupils, 11 girls and 6 boys, measured at the end of a basic Olympic recurve course: the score over 6 arrows at 10 metres (16.0 ± 8.0) is linked to a test of throwing a tennis ball at a target on a wall (14.53 ± 3.12 points) with r = 0.507 (p = 0.038). Regional Turkish journal.
Okçuluk Öğretimi ile Propriyosepsiyon Bazı Antropometrik Ölçümler ve Motor Beceri İlişkisi · Emrah Aslan, Zeynep Beyza Taşdemir
-
2025
Context Archers Published later
In the same sample none of the other measurements taken away from the shot is linked to the score: reproducing a shoulder abduction angle of 90 and 60 degrees (r = -0.253 and -0.194), hand, forearm and upper arm length and arm span (from 0.080 to 0.236), body mass index (0.209) and, in the text, height (0.306). Of nine correlations only one crosses the threshold, with no correction for multiple comparisons.
Okçuluk Öğretimi ile Propriyosepsiyon Bazı Antropometrik Ölçümler ve Motor Beceri İlişkisi · Emrah Aslan, Zeynep Beyza Taşdemir
-
2025
Context General population Published later
104 Malaysian university students with no experience, 9 arrows with a toy bow at 3 metres: 55 of 104 (52.9 per cent) score at least 10 points out of 90, with averages of 19.50 and 4.02 in the two groups, and a classifier built on 14 variables, among them sex, body measurements, an arm muscle grade and trunk, shoulder, elbow and wrist angles filmed during the shot, guesses the group in 72.3 per cent of cases in validation and 80 per cent on the test set. The angles are taken during the shot, not away from it, and the study does not say how much the body measurements are worth on their own.
Machine learning methods to classify engineering students’ ability to perform recreational archery activities using biomechanical data · N.R.H. Basri, M.S. Mohktar, W.n.l.w. Mahadi
Status history
- 1969 Not studied The oldest finding close to the question comes from an experiment on 216 beginner girls in their first year of an Illinois high school, over a course of nineteen lessons: in one of the two groups the score of the final round is linked to the Scott and French general motor ability test, a battery of throwing, running, wall passes and jumping, with r = 0.32. It is a weak link with general coordination, and the battery contains no target throw: the question this entry asks has not yet been put.
- 2025 Reported Two studies arrive in the same year, and only one actually answers. Among 17 secondary school pupils at the end of a basic Olympic recurve course, a test of throwing a ball at a target on a wall is linked to the score over six arrows at ten metres (r = 0.507, p = 0.038), while the other eight measurements taken away from the shot, height, hand, forearm and upper arm length, arm span, body mass index and shoulder position sense at two angles, are not. Among 104 university students using a toy bow at three metres a classifier guesses who scores in 72 to 80 per cent of cases, but it mixes body measurements with angles taken during the shot. A cross-sectional association, in a regional journal, resting on one correlation out of nine: reported.
Related
Related articles
- Talent identification: tests and assessment batteriesWhat talent tests in archery actually measure: coaches' ratings, physical tests, attention, years of practice and predictive models, and where their limits lie.
- Repeatability and consistency: measuring the steadiness of your shotHow repeatable an archer's shot is: what studies say about level, good and bad days, arrows outside the 10, and how to measure consistency on the range.
Research lines
Studies describe groups of archers, and your own numbers show how far the finding applies to your shooting.
See the full assessmentCite
Campagna, M. (2026). In beginners a target-throwing test is linked to the score with the bow (Version 3). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/technique/predicting-beginner-scores
@misc{campagna2026_prevederepunteggioprincipianti,
author = {Campagna, Matteo},
title = {In beginners a target-throwing test is linked to the score with the bow},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/technique/predicting-beginner-scores},
note = {Version 3; accessed 2026-10-16}
}
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