About fifteen thousandths of a second pass between the start of the release and the arrow leaving the string
8 studies · 38 archers measured
From the start of the release to the arrow leaving the string, study by study
milliseconds
The numbers in the figure
| Study or group | Value (milliseconds) | Interval | n | Stance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Park and Logan 2012, all sixteen | 14.6 | ± 1.3 (mean ± standard deviation) | 16 | for |
| Park and Logan 2012, men | 14 | ± 1.3 (mean ± standard deviation) | 8 | for |
| Park and Logan 2012, women | 15.2 | ± 1 (mean ± standard deviation) | 8 | for |
| Park 2009, compound model | 17.5 | for | ||
| Marlow 1981, longbow model | 16.1 | for | ||
| Leonardi et al. 1987, accelerometer | ≈ 30 | 1 | against | |
| Squadrone and Rodano 1994, figure quoted | ≈ 30 | context | ||
| Huang et al. 2009, chosen window | ≈ 33 | 1 | context |
The summary today
The most precise measurement is a single one, and it is clear. In 2011, at the London Olympic test event, a camera running at 4,000 frames per second filmed sixteen world-class recurve archers at 70 m: the string stays on the fingers for 1.9 thousandths of a second on average, the nock reaches its point closest to the body at 5.4, the arrow straightens again at 8.6 and leaves the string at 14.6, with standard deviations between 0.4 and 1.3 thousandths; between men and women, with draw weights from 146 to 227 newtons and arrows from 660 to 775 millimetres, the differences stay below one and a half thousandths. Two models of the bow calculate similar times, 16.1 thousandths for a longbow in 1981 and 17.5 for a compound in 2009, where photographs on the same bow put the separation between 17.0 and 17.25. The oldest measurement on an archer, however, gives twice as much: in 1987 an Italian national-team archer, with an accelerometer on the bow, took thirty thousandths from the start of the limbs' return to separation, with a time zero taken from the clicker and the string used as switches, and in 1994 another Italian group writes the same figure, three frames at a hundred per second, without measuring it. The two measurements may not start from the same instant, and the difference may lie entirely in the definition: until someone compares them on the same shots the precise figure remains contested, while the order of magnitude, the hundredth of a second, is the same for everyone. By contrast, the time between the clicker dropping and the shot, measured in seven German national-squad archers, runs from 144 to 176 thousandths, ten times as long.
Also phrased as: "how long the release lasts"; "the release takes an instant"; "arrow exit time"; "the arrow leaves the string in milliseconds"; "nothing can be corrected during the release"; "time the arrow spends on the string"; "duration of the power stroke"; "milliseconds of the release"
In practice
It is said that the release is too fast to be corrected while it happens, that only a few hundredths of a second pass between the release and the arrow leaving, and that what matters is decided before it, in the hold and the draw.
Evidence
-
1981
For Model Published later
An analytical model of a longbow with an elastic string, with no archer involved: with a 25-gram arrow, a 7-gram string and a bow of 39 pounds at 28 inches, the arrow leaves the string 16.1 ms after the release, 1.94 cm beyond the string's rest position, at 52.8 m/s against 56.0 for the rigid-string model. It is a calculation on typical values chosen by the author, not a measurement, and the bow modelled is a longbow.
Bow and arrow dynamics · W. C. Marlow
-
1987
Against Archers Published later
One top archer from the Italian national team with an Olympic recurve, 15 shots in each of 3 stabiliser set-ups, a lateral accelerometer on the bow sampled at 2,500 Hz, with the clicker and the string used as switches: from the start of the limbs' return to the arrow leaving the string about 0.030 seconds pass, in three phases ending at 0.022 s (the arrow presses on the button), 0.026 s (the button springs back and the arrow no longer touches the riser) and 0.030 s (the arrow is still on the string). It is twice the 14.6 ms measured on camera in 2012, so it goes against the claim's figure, but on a single archer and with a time zero taken from the switches, which may not coincide with the start of the release.
Reduction of Lateral Bow Displacement Using Different Torque Flight Compensators and Stabilizers in Archery · L. M. Leonardi, C. Gallozzi, A. Pace, A. Dal Monte
-
1994
Context Archers Published later
12 archers from the Italian federation, 20 shots each at 12 m, movement analysis at 100 Hz with electromyography and a force plate: the authors write that the release phase lasts about 0.03 seconds, or 3 frames, to explain why they do not analyse it, without saying where the figure comes from. At that frequency the precision is one hundredth: it is a figure quoted, not a measurement.
Multifactorial analysis of shooting archery · Roberto Squadrone, R. Rodano
-
2009
Context Archers Published later
An experienced recurve archer from the Austrian B squad, 56 usable shots at 18 m filmed with eight cameras at 500 Hz, split into shots in the centre and shots scoring 8 or less: in one of the two groups the proximal interphalangeal joint of the middle finger reaches a peak angular velocity of 6,923 ± 1,063 degrees per second (5,495 to 8,392) and a minimum of -4,558 ± 443, with no significant difference between the groups. The finger movement curves are shown over a 66 ms window around the peak. It measures the fingers, not the arrow leaving.
A Kinematic Analysis of Finger Motion in Archery · B. Horsak, M. Heller, A. Baca
-
2009
For Model Published later
A dynamic model of a compound bow and its cams: after the release the arrow spends nearly 60% of its time on the string while covering only the first 20% of the distance from full draw to brace height, and the calculated time on the string is 17.5 ms. Photographs of the arrow on the same bow put the separation between 17.0 and 17.25 ms, measured to 0.25 ms. It is a compound, not a recurve, and the figure describes the bow, not an archer's movement.
A compound archery bow dynamic model, suggesting modifications to improve accuracy · J L Park
-
2009
Context Archers Published later
1 good-level archer with stable technique, 36 arrows at 30 m, a laser pointer on the bow filmed at 1,200 frames per second: looking at the data, the authors assign the last 60 frames (a twentieth of a second) to the release phase, the first 40 of them, about 33 ms, to the bow's movement while the string goes and the last 20 (a sixtieth) to the arrow, already free, passing the clicker and button. It is a chosen window, not a measurement of the moment of separation.
Time series analysis during the releasing arrow stage · Kun-Shu Huang, Chi-Kuang Hwang, Kuo-Bin Lin, Chia-Wen Wu
-
2012
For Archers Published later
16 world-class recurve archers (8 men and 8 women), London 2011 Olympic test event, 70 m, camera at 4,000 frames per second: from the start of the release the string stays on the fingers for 1.9 ms (SD 0.4; range 1.50 to 2.25), the nock reaches its point closest to the body at 5.4 ms (SD 0.5), contact with the button ends between 5.5 and 8 ms, the arrow is straight at 8.6 ms (SD 1.1), reaches its maximum opposite flex at 12.4 ms (SD 1.1) and leaves the string at 14.6 ms (SD 1.3). In none of the 16 does the bow move sideways or rotate before the arrow has left the string.
High-speed video analysis of arrow behaviour during the power stroke of a recurve archery bow · James L Park, Oliver Logan
-
2012
Context Archers Published later
In the same archers the men are slightly faster than the women at every stage, but only just, by 1.2 thousandths at most: string off the fingers 1.7 against 2.1 ms, arrow straight 8.4 against 8.9, nock off the string 14.0 against 15.2. Draw weights run from 204 to 227 N in the men and from 146 to 203 N in the women, arrows from 699 to 775 mm and from 660 to 711 mm, yet the standard deviations of the times stay between 0.3 and 1.3 ms.
High-speed video analysis of arrow behaviour during the power stroke of a recurve archery bow · James L Park, Oliver Logan
-
2012
Context Archers Published later
7 recurve archers from the German junior and senior national squads, 30 arrows at 18 m recorded with a microphone: the mean time between the clicker dropping and the shot runs from 144.40 to 175.96 ms depending on the archer, with coefficients of variation from 3.94 to 7.25%, and its variability accounts for 66% of the differences in score. It is the time before the release, ten times longer than the time separating the release from the arrow leaving.
Evaluation of arrow release in highly skilled archers using an acoustic measurement system · Mario Heller
Status history
- 1981 Transferred The first answer comes from a calculation, not a measurement. An analytical model of the longbow with an elastic string has the arrow leaving the string 16.1 thousandths after the release, just beyond the string's rest position, while limbs and string are still moving. No archer was filmed and the parameters are typical values chosen by the author: the claim rests on a model, and a model leaves the status at transferred.
- 1987 Contradicted The first measurement on an archer comes from a laboratory in Rome: a top Italian national-team archer, an accelerometer on the bow sampled at 2,500 hertz, and thirty thousandths of a second from the start of the limbs' return to the arrow separating, in three phases ending at 22, 26 and 30 thousandths. It is twice the claim's figure, with a time zero taken from the clicker and the string used as switches: a single study on archers, and it goes against, so contradicted.
- 2009 Contradicted As early as 1994 another Italian group had written the same thirty-thousandths figure, three frames at a hundred per second, but without measuring it. In 2009 a dynamic model of the compound calculates 17.5 thousandths of arrow on the string, and photographs on the same bow put the separation between 17.0 and 17.25: a second calculation close to the claim's figure, checked on the bow. The same year one archer filmed at 500 Hz gives the scale of finger movement, and another at 1,200 frames a release window chosen by looking at the data. Neither measures the arrow separating, so on archers the only measurement is still the 1987 one, which goes against: contradicted.
- 2012 Contested The first high-speed measurement of the sequence comes out. Sixteen world-class recurve archers, filmed at 4,000 frames per second at the London Olympic test event: the string stays on the fingers for 1.9 thousandths, the arrow is straight at 8.6 and leaves the string at 14.6, with standard deviations no larger than 1.3 thousandths. That is half the thirty thousandths of 1987, measured on a single archer and perhaps from a different instant. The same year an acoustic system measures, in seven German national-squad archers, the time between clicker and shot, from 144 to 176 thousandths, which gives the contrast but does not touch the question. One measurement in favour and one against: contested.
Related
Related articles
- Why target panic happens (and why calling it mental is not enough)My hypothesis on target panic: under pressure the release de-automatizes, dropping back to conscious control too slow to run it. With what the studies say.
- The follow-through: what happens after the arrow has goneIn the top archers measured, the arrow leaves the string in about 15 milliseconds. What the body does next, what studies have found and where they stop.
- The release in archery: anatomy of a few millisecondsHow the archery release works according to the measurements: how long it lasts, how the fingers open, what the arrow does and what you can train.
Research lines
Cite
Campagna, M. (2026). About fifteen thousandths of a second pass between the start of the release and the arrow leaving the string (Version 3). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/technique/release-to-arrow-separation-time
@misc{campagna2026_rilasciopochimillisecondi,
author = {Campagna, Matteo},
title = {About fifteen thousandths of a second pass between the start of the release and the arrow leaving the string},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/technique/release-to-arrow-separation-time},
note = {Version 3; accessed 2026-10-16}
}
Follow this claim
RSS is an address you paste into a feed reader: each time this claim changes status, adds a year to its history or is revised, a new item appears there.
Registry updates by email
At most one email a month, sent only when something has changed: claims that change status, new claims, Lab predictions registered or resolved, new studies and new books.
Sign-ups are handled by Systeme.io, the service that runs the newsletter. Every email has a link to unsubscribe with one click.
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