Watching videos of expert archers improves young beginners' technique more than training alone

The summary today

Only one study comes close to answering the question, and it is small. Twenty child archers aged 9 to 11, ten who watched videos of shots by Italian national team athletes and ten controls, were rated by coaches on three phases of the shot using a four-level grid: at the end, draw and aim were rated good or excellent in 6 children out of 10 in the video group against 2 out of 10 in the controls, both groups having started from 1 out of 10. The authors report an overall advantage of 9%, but give no statistical test, the groups were not randomised and scores on the target were not measured. Nor is the advantage steady: according to the text it is concentrated halfway through the programme and shrinks towards the end, and in the video group the release remains the hardest phase, with 4 children out of 10 still rated poor. A 2024 study of novice university students points the same way, but it appeared in a questionable journal and its numbers do not add up; a 1997 observation of beginners who were shown an expert's posture has neither figures nor a comparison group. There is evidence in favour, and it is limited.

Also phrased as: "learning by watching the champions"; "watch elite archers to learn the shot"; "observational learning in archery"; "video modelling"; "modelling videos for beginners"; "copying the technique of top archers"

Evidence

• 1997
  Context Archers Published later

  30 Japanese barebow archers, 15 with at least three years of practice and 15 beginners, angles measured on side-on video: the shoulder to shoulder to elbow angle of the drawing arm is about 155° in the experienced archers and about 140° in the beginners. When the beginners were shown a skeleton model of the experienced archers' posture beside their own, the difference narrowed progressively over about an hour of practice, but the result is reported without figures and without a group that practised without the model.

  The Movement Measurement and Analysis of an Arm in Archery Shooting · Hisaya Tanaka, Hideto Ide, Yuji Nagashima

• 2014
  For Archers Published later

  20 child archers aged 9 to 11, split after an initial assessment into two similar groups of 10, without random allocation: the experimental group watched videos of shots by Italian national team athletes, and everyone was filmed and rated by coaches on a four-level grid for set-up, draw and aim, and release and follow-through. At the final assessment draw and aim were rated good or excellent in 6 children out of 10 in the video group and in 2 out of 10 in the controls, both groups having started from 1 out of 10. The authors speak of a 9% better result without reporting any statistical test, do not say how many videos were watched or for how long, and scores on the target were not measured.

  Technical movements in archery · Daniela Tursi, Salvatore Napolitano

• 2014
  Context Archers Published later

  In the same study, according to the text, the video group's improvement peaks at 9.6% in the intermediate phase and falls to 3.2% in the final phase, while the controls improve by an average of 3.2% in every phase. The percentages cannot be rebuilt from the tables, which give only the initial and final assessments, and there is no test: if the figure holds, the gain from the video is concentrated halfway through the programme and then shrinks.

  Technical movements in archery · Daniela Tursi, Salvatore Napolitano

• 2014
  Context Archers Published later

  At the start none of the 20 children was rated excellent in any phase (0 out of 60 ratings), and half or more were rated poor: in the video group 6, 5 and 7 children out of 10 in the three phases. By the end the phase that had moved most was draw and aim (poor ratings down from 5 to 2, good ratings up from 1 to 5, one excellent), while release and follow-through remained the hardest part, with 4 children out of 10 still rated poor (there had been 7). In the controls the poor ratings for the release went from 6 to 3, with 6 children in the average band and nobody above good in any phase.

  Technical movements in archery · Daniela Tursi, Salvatore Napolitano

• 2024
  Context Archers Published later

  30 novice university students in China, allocated to the groups by lot, 15 with short demonstration videos of the shot to watch outside class, in slow motion and from several angles, and 15 with lessons only, over 8 weeks: overall technique rating 82.20±4.60 against 76.80±6.30 (76.00 in another table), and on an undescribed weekly test 9.88±1.02 against 5.17±1.23 in week 8; no difference in the standing position (86.50±4.00 against 85.90±4.50, p>0.05). The journal is questionable and the numbers do not add up: the t values lie between 10.59 and 10.69 in every week, even where the gap is 0.8 points (recalculated it comes to about 1.6). The video group also had extra study time outside class, and the videos are demonstrations of the shot rather than shots by elite archers.

  Effects of Video Micro Teaching Plan to Improve Archery Technique in University Students Questionable venue · Aoxue Yang, Yurasin Wattanapayungkul

Status history

1. 1997 Not studied The first trace close to the question is a two-page letter on 30 Japanese barebow archers: the 15 beginners are shown a skeleton model of the experienced archers' posture beside their own, and over about an hour of practice the difference in the angle of the drawing arm narrows. The result is reported without figures, though, and without a group that practised without the model, so nobody has yet compared watching an expert with training alone: the status is not studied.
2. 2014 Reported The first comparison with a control group arrives: twenty child archers aged 9 to 11, ten who watched videos of Italian national team athletes and ten who only trained, rated by coaches with a grid. At the start nobody was rated excellent in any phase; at the end draw and aim were good or excellent in 6 children out of 10 with the videos against 2 out of 10 in the controls. According to the text the advantage is concentrated halfway through the programme and then shrinks, and release and follow-through remain the hardest part. It is a single study, of twenty children, without random allocation, statistical tests or scores on the target: the evidence in favour is there and it is limited, and the status moves to reported.
3. 2024 Reported A study appears on 30 novice university students in China, 15 with short demonstration videos to watch outside class and 15 with lessons only: after 8 weeks the overall technique rating is higher in the video group (82.20 against 76.80), while in the standing position the groups are level. The journal is questionable, though, the t values are almost identical in every week even where the gap is 0.8 points, and the video group had extra study time outside class. It cannot decide the status, which stays at reported on the strength of the 2014 study alone.

Related

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• Motor learning in archery: how a movement becomes automaticThe three stages of motor learning and what studies on archers show: the brain, movement variability, corrections, goals, video and distance.
• How archery is taught: what the studies on beginners sayWhat studies tell anyone teaching archery: how much beginners improve anyway, and what courses, starting distance, videos, goals and mental work add.
• Video analysis and self-coaching in archery: the practical guideHow to film your own shot and what to look for, what the camera measures badly, when sensors help, and what research says about video, feel and the training journal.

Research lines

• 35 studiesTeaching and learning archery: sixty years of instructional trials
• 54 studiesMovement variability and individual technique since 1971

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