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Scores are higher in virtual reality than with a real bow

1 study · 22 archers measured

ForContextAgainst202420262024, for, n = 222024, context, n = 22
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.

There is a single comparison, and it points this way: 22 students at the end of a 14-week archery course scored 86.9 points over ten arrows at 18 metres in virtual reality against 78.8 with a real bow, a clear difference (p < 0.001) in a design where each person acts as their own control and the order of the two sessions is balanced. In the same study real shooting is rated harder and more tiring, and heart rate rises more, by 32.5 per cent over rest against 17.5, so the authors read the higher score as the sign of an easier simulation, not of better shooting. The result applies to novice archers and to a single virtual reality system; nobody has measured it in trained archers, and nobody has checked whether training in the headset moves the score with a bow.

Also phrased as: "virtual reality archery"; "archery simulator"; "headset archery score"; "training with virtual reality"; "virtual bow versus real bow"

In practice

With headsets spreading, archers hear that virtual reality is enough to train shooting, and simulator scores get set beside range scores as if they were on the same scale.

Evidence

  • 2024
    For Archers Published later

    22 university students, 14 men and 8 women, at the end of a 14-week archery course begun with no experience at all: 10 arrows at 18 metres at an 80-centimetre target face with a bow and 10 in virtual reality with a headset and controllers, in an order balanced across participants. In virtual reality the score is 86.86 ± 4.83 against 78.81 ± 6.43 with the real bow (t = 7.60, p < 0.001), about eight points more over ten arrows.

    Comparison of Heart Rate Variability Psychological Responses and Performance in Virtual and Real Archery · Nihal Dal, Serdar Tok, İlker Balıkçı, Said Enes Yılmaz, Erdal Binboğa

  • 2024
    Context Archers Published later

    In the same study real shooting is rated harder (5.43 against 4.00 on a 10-centimetre visual scale, p = 0.01) and more tiring (4.86 against 2.90, p < 0.01), while anxiety and confidence before the session do not change (4.76 against 4.76; 7.62 against 7.90). Heart rate rises by 32.5 per cent over rest with the bow and by 17.5 in the headset. The authors read the higher score and the lower effort as signs of a simulation less faithful to real shooting, not of a better archer.

    Comparison of Heart Rate Variability Psychological Responses and Performance in Virtual and Real Archery · Nihal Dal, Serdar Tok, İlker Balıkçı, Said Enes Yılmaz, Erdal Binboğa

Status history

  1. 2024 Reported The only study has twenty-two students, at the end of a 14-week course begun with no experience, shoot in both conditions in balanced order: 86.86 points over ten arrows at eighteen metres in virtual reality against 78.81 with a real bow (p < 0.001). Real shooting is also rated harder and more tiring. The design is suitable, because each participant acts as their own control, but it is a single study and only on beginners: reported.

Related

Related articles

Research lines

Cite
APA

Campagna, M. (2026). Scores are higher in virtual reality than with a real bow (Version 1). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/technique/virtual-reality-archery-scores

BibTeX
@misc{campagna2026_realtavirtualepunteggio,
  author = {Campagna, Matteo},
  title = {Scores are higher in virtual reality than with a real bow},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
  url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/technique/virtual-reality-archery-scores},
  note = {Version 1; accessed 2026-10-16}
}

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