Matteo Campagna
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For a beginner, starting close and moving back gradually gives no better results than starting far

2 studies · 68 archers measured

ForContextAgainst1970198019902000201020201966, for, n = 582024, 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.

The registry has a single controlled study, from 1966, and it is also the reason the claim is written this way round. Fifty-eight university beginners, in three classes starting at ten, twenty-five and forty yards: at the middle distance the means end at 99.45, 107.00 and 106.55 points out of 216, and over a full round at the end of the course at 315.30, 292.44 and 315.60, with no significant differences. Even at ten yards, the class that had learned there has the lowest mean of the three. The limitation matters: the classes were not randomly assigned and had taken a different number of lessons before each test. An Indonesian study from 2024 on ten club archers improves all of them with a cycle rotating between ten, twenty and thirty metres, but without a group starting far away it says nothing about the comparison. In sixty years nobody has repeated the test.

Also phrased as: "starting close in archery"; "distance for beginners"; "distance progression"; "moving the target back gradually"; "first archery course"

In practice

Beginners' courses almost always start a few metres from the target and move it back as the groups tighten, on the idea that seeing arrows in the middle builds confidence and locks in the movement.

Evidence

  • 1966
    For Archers Published later

    58 university beginners in three classes starting at 10, 25 and 40 yards: at the 25-yard test the means are 99.45, 107.00 and 106.55 points out of 216 (t = 0.85 and 0.88, not significant; 20, 18 and 20 students). At 10 yards too, the class that had learned there has the lowest mean, 177.65 against 183.10 and 189.55, with no significant differences (F = 0.87). The classes were not randomly assigned and had taken a different number of lessons before each test.

    Transfer Effects and Ultimate Success in Archery due to Degree of Difficulty of the Initial Learning · Robert N. Singer

  • 1966
    For Archers Published later

    In the same study, the end-of-course result over a full round at 20, 30 and 40 yards: 315.30 points for those who started at 10 yards, 292.44 for those who started at 25 and 315.60 for those who started at 40 (F between groups = 0.84; t = 1.23 and 1.36, not significant). The starting distance leaves no trace on the final score.

    Transfer Effects and Ultimate Success in Archery due to Degree of Difficulty of the Initial Learning · Robert N. Singer

  • 2024
    Context Archers Published later

    10 archers from an Indonesian archery school, 12 sessions over four weeks with the distance rotating between 10, 20 and 30 metres and then starting again: at the final 18-arrow test all of them improve, by 40 to 65 points, with final scores between 137 and 163. There is no control group and no comparison with starting far away, and the journal is regional.

    Effect of training phased distance training method the archer's shooting ability · Betaria Dwijawanti, M. Haris Satria

Status history

  1. 1966 Reported The first and so far only controlled study of the question takes fifty-eight university beginners in three classes starting at ten, twenty-five and forty yards. At the middle distance the means end at 99.45, 107.00 and 106.55 points out of 216, with no significant differences, and over a full round at the end of the course the three groups stand at 315.30, 292.44 and 315.60. Even at ten yards, the class that had learned exactly there has the lowest mean. The classes were not randomly assigned and had taken a different number of lessons, so a single study does not settle the question; and since it runs against the common belief, the claim is written in the direction of the result and takes reported.
  2. 2024 Reported A four-week cycle rotating between ten, twenty and thirty metres, in ten archers from an Indonesian archery school, improves all of them with similar gains, from forty to sixty-five points over eighteen arrows. It says the cycle was followed by an improvement, not that starting close is better, because there is no comparison with starting far away and no control group: it is context, and the status remains where 1966 left it.

Related

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Research lines

Studies describe groups of archers, and your own numbers show how far the finding applies to your shooting.

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Cite
APA

Campagna, M. (2026). For a beginner, starting close and moving back gradually gives no better results than starting far (Version 1). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/technique/starting-distance-beginners

BibTeX
@misc{campagna2026_distanzainizialeprincipianti,
  author = {Campagna, Matteo},
  title = {For a beginner, starting close and moving back gradually gives no better results than starting far},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
  url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/technique/starting-distance-beginners},
  note = {Version 1; accessed 2026-10-16}
}

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