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Mental training: what has been tested on archers since 1979

Forty-seven years of experiments with archers who write goals, visualise, meditate, breathe or train their brains in front of a screen. This page follows those studies in order: who measured the score, who measured only questionnaires, and how few trials with a comparison group there still are today.

Studies in the registry
52
On archers
48
Years
1979-2026

The question

Almost everyone agrees that archery is partly played in the head, and since 1979 researchers have tried to measure it. Archers have been given written goals, imagery, relaxation, self-talk, biofeedback, neurofeedback, mindfulness, yoga and even a journal. All these studies ask the same question: whether a mental programme changes the score, or only what archers write on a questionnaire.

This page follows the studies in chronological order, with their numbers and their limitations. Practical advice is in the article on mental skills training; this page sets out where our current knowledge comes from and how firm it is.

1979-1999: the first experiments

The first experiment comes from Wayne State University in Detroit. Barnett and Stanicek randomly assigned forty students from three beginners' courses to two groups: for ten weeks both groups had a weekly group talk with the instructor, but only the first set written score and technique goals each time. Across the mid-course and final tests, adjusted for starting level, the goal-setting group averaged 37.1 points per end of six arrows at 20 yards, against 32.0. Halfway through, however, the two groups were level, so the whole advantage lay in the final test, and the archers excluded from the analysis were two out of twenty on one side and eight out of twenty on the other: enough on its own to shift the comparison. Nobody has repeated the experiment, and the registry entry on goals for beginners still rests on it.

In 1986 Landers and colleagues studied 188 US archers: among the 115 with complete data, the weekly hours of mental training they reported were not linked to their annual average (r = 0.15), whereas their reported use of visual imagery was (r = 0.33).

The first controlled comparison using official competitions as the outcome is Greek. Zervas and Kakkos gave four weeks of imagery and relaxation to the nine national-team archers and took nine of the best non-selected archers as controls: two groups of different levels, not randomly assigned. Over two sixty-arrow competitions at 18 m the trained archers gained fifteen points and the controls twenty, with no difference between the groups once starting scores were taken into account. Poor adherence does not explain it, and anxiety measured a quarter of an hour before competing did not move. Eight years later Norlander and colleagues shifted the question to a single session: forty-five minutes in a flotation tank before shooting did not change the score of twenty young Swedish archers, although it lowered their perceived exertion.

2008-2018: national teams and single cases

Over the following decade the studies moved inside teams, and became small. In Taiwan Hung and colleagues followed six archers from the Olympic team for about eighteen months: four out of five skills improved on the questionnaire, but score was not among the outcomes. In Korea three young archers given twenty-four weeks of heart-rate biofeedback lowered their cognitive anxiety from 2.68 to 2.26 and raised their confidence from 1.85 to 2.85, but almost all of the change came after the last phase, which was carried out under competition conditions.

The only controlled test of neurofeedback that the registry has read in the original dates from 2012. Paul and colleagues gave twelve Indian university archers twelve sessions designed to raise the sensorimotor rhythm: the trained signal changed, but the score over 72 arrows at 70 m did not, going from 527.3 to 529.9 against 526.6 to 526.7 in the controls. Null results came from other tools in the same years: a guided journal kept for five weeks by eight Singapore national-team archers, and a growth mindset programme with fifty sixth-grade beginners, in which those whose thinking changed most did not improve their shooting more. The exception is a well-documented single case: a British archer who, after seven sessions of rational emotive behaviour therapy, went from 75.64% to 84.88% of the available score across nine competitions before and nine after.

The Korean meta-analysis

In 2021 Kim and colleagues pooled seventeen Korean studies from 1990 to 2017, 273 archers, and found a mean effect of g = 0.47. Three details from the same paper qualify that figure: the outcome combines anxiety, questionnaires and performance, so the effect on score alone is not isolated; university theses report effects roughly twice as large as journal articles, 0.75 against 0.38; and programmes longer than twelve weeks do better than shorter ones, 0.58 against 0.39, in a comparison between different studies. This is where the registry entry on programme length comes from.

Since 2020: mindfulness, yoga and a few control groups

The last six years have produced more studies than the previous forty years. Mindfulness arrives with eleven Turkish national-team archers, who improve on four out of twelve skills after eight weeks, and with twenty-three Taiwanese university archers, who rise from 613.5 to 621.7 over 72 arrows (d = 0.27) without a control group. In the Chinese national archery and shooting squad, by contrast, the twenty-five archers taken on their own show no change in reaction time on the attention network test.

The strongest result in favour came from Hong Kong in 2024. In the study by Lo and colleagues, twelve squad archers followed twelve weeks of mindfulness and went from 626.8 to 638.2 over 72 arrows, while twelve matched controls fell from 625.7 to 622.7. In 2025 Keskin and Tunali Van Den Berg found that thirty-six Turkish beginners gained 4.92 points over nine arrows at 18 m with imagery and 2.25 with slow breathing, against a control group that stayed flat; assignment was sequential, though, and the questionnaires on imagery use did not move. In the same year a randomised trial with blinded assessors, by Baishya and colleagues, found that eight weeks of yoga cut the cost of distractors by 36.7 milliseconds in young Indian archers, without looking at the target.

The largest gains, seventeen points in twelve weeks or more than fifteen in four, come from Indian randomised trials such as those by Thepfukolie and Saon and by Tiwari and colleagues, published in journals with questionable editorial standards and with a shooting test described briefly or not at all.

What holds up today

On the main question, whether mental skills training improves the score, the studies on archers with a comparison group, leaving aside the two Indian randomised trials in questionable journals, split two against two: Hong Kong and the Turkish beginners in favour, the Greeks in 1991 and a small Ukrainian randomised trial in 2024 against. The status is contested, as it is for imagery, self-talk and pre-competition anxiety. For meditation, confidence, concentration and yoga there is evidence in favour, but limited. The registry also records what did not move the score: a relaxation session before shooting, the journal, growth mindset and neurofeedback, where the signal changes and the score does not.

What remains open

In programmes lasting several weeks the control group usually carries on with normal training, with no alternative activity of similar weight, so the attention received cannot be separated from the content of the programme. Questionnaires are also often completed only by those doing the programme: in Hong Kong the control group exists for the score, not for anxiety and confidence. The idea that duration matters also remains untested: the two null results come from the shortest programmes, one week and four, but one of the Indian randomised trials finds a large gain after just four weeks, and nobody has compared two durations on the same archers. There is still no randomised trial with high-level archers that uses official competition scores as its outcome, and almost everything has been measured at the end of the programme, without checking what remains a few months later.

How we came to know it

  1. 1979OriginBarnett et al. 1979 Effects of Goal Setting on Achievement in ArcheryThe first experiment with archers: forty beginners randomly assigned to ten weeks of written goals or a talk with the instructor. The advantage appears only at the final test, with very uneven dropout between groups.
  2. 1986ExtensionLanders et al. 1986 A Psychobiological Study of Archery PerformanceAmong 188 US archers, self-reported hours of mental training are not linked to the annual average (r = 0.15), while self-reported use of imagery is (r = 0.33). These are associations, not a programme.
  3. 1991ContradictionZervas et al. 1991 Visuomotor Behavior Rehearsal in Archery Shooting PerformanceThe first controlled comparison with competition score as the outcome: eighteen Greek archers, four weeks of imagery and relaxation, and the two groups, of different levels and not randomly assigned, improve with no difference between them.
  4. 1999ExtensionNorlander et al. 1999 Primary process in competitive archery performance: Effects of flotation RESTMoves the question to a single session: forty-five minutes in a flotation tank before shooting do not change the score of twenty young Swedish archers, but lower their perceived exertion.
  5. 2005ReviewHaywood 2005 Psychological Aspects of ArcheryA review chapter that collects second-hand cases of hypnosis and arousal control: effects visible in individual archers, not in groups.
  6. 2008ExtensionHung et al. 2008 Provision of sport psychology services to Taiwan archery team for the 2004 Athens Olympic GamesEighteen months of psychological support for the Taiwanese Olympic team: the questionnaire improves on four subscales out of five, score is not an outcome, and during selection the archers refuse to change their routine.
  7. 2010ContradictionKim et al. 2010 The Effects of Psychological Skills Training in the Archery FieldThree Korean reserve-team archers, an eight-week programme: anxiety and confidence on the questionnaire show no trend, and the authors suggest a ceiling effect.
  8. 2011ExtensionHong 2011 Effect of Arousal Control Training Conjugated Heart Rate Biofeedback for National Substitute Archery PlayersTwenty-four weeks of heart-rate biofeedback with three young Korean archers: anxiety and confidence move little until week twenty-one and change mostly after the last phase, carried out under competition conditions.
  9. 2012ContradictionPaul et al. 2012 Effect of sensory motor rhythm neurofeedback on psycho-physiological, electro-encephalographic measures and performance of archery playersThe only controlled test of neurofeedback the registry has read in the original: the trained signal changes, but over 72 arrows at 70 m the score of the twenty-four Indian archers does not differ from that of the controls.
  10. 2016ExtensionTan et al. 2016 The perception of elite athletes’ guided self-reflection and performance in archeryFive weeks of guided journaling in eight Singapore national-team archers: six drop slightly, two rise slightly, and nobody completes the whole journal.
  11. 2017ExtensionWood et al. 2017 Developing Performance Using Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT): A Case Study with an Elite ArcherOne British archer, seven sessions of rational emotive behaviour therapy, nine competitions before and nine after: the average rises by 9.24 percentage points and becomes more consistent.
  12. 2018ContradictionThomas 2018 The Impact Of Teaching Growth Mindset On Archery Skill Achievement: An Action Research StudyAmong fifty sixth-grade beginners, those whose mindset shifts most towards growth do not improve their shooting more than the others.
  13. 2019ReplicationLi et al. 2019 Questionable venue Effects of a Single-Dose of Mind-Body Practice on the Heart Rate Variability, Brain Activity and Shooting Performance in Archers: A Pilot StudyTen minutes of Tai Chi against ten of stretching in nineteen experienced Hong Kong archers: no difference in arrow distance from the centre, as with the flotation tank in 1999.
  14. 2020ExtensionTerzioğlu et al. 2020 Effectiveness of a Mindfulness-Based Skill Development Program on Elite Archers’ Mental Skills and Mindfulness LevelsMindfulness arrives: eleven Turkish national-team archers, eight weeks, and four out of twelve skills improve on the questionnaire, confidence not among them.
  15. 2021ReviewKim et al. 2021 The Effects of Psychological Skills Training for Archery Players in Korea: Research Synthesis Using Meta-AnalysisA meta-analysis of seventeen Korean studies: mean effect g = 0.47, which mixes anxiety, questionnaires and performance, and is roughly twice as large in theses as in journal articles.
  16. 2021ExtensionWu et al. 2021 The Effects of Mindfulness-Based Intervention on Shooting Performance and Cognitive Functions in ArchersTwenty-three Taiwanese university archers after eight mindfulness sessions: the score over 72 arrows rises a little (d = 0.27), Stroop times far more, with no control group.
  17. 2021ContradictionLu et al. 2021 Efficiency and Enhancement in Attention Networks of Elite Shooting and Archery AthletesIn the Chinese national archery and shooting squad, mindfulness improves two conditions of the attention network test in the mixed group, with no control group, but nothing changes in the twenty-five archers taken on their own.
  18. 2022ExtensionIsar et al. 2022 Questionable venue Effects of Imagery Training and Self-Talk towards State Anxiety and Archery PerformanceImagery, self-talk or both in forty-five young Malaysian archers: the score rises significantly in the two groups with self-talk and not with imagery alone, but the groups do not differ from each other; no control group, and a questionable venue.
  19. 2023ExtensionXu et al. 2023 Applying skill-oriented and spirit-oriented psychological training to Chinese national archery team athletes: a single-case mixed-methods studyFive months of psychological preparation in the Chinese national team: confidence rises significantly only after the programme ends, and one athlete gets worse on every measure.
  20. 2023ExtensionLee et al. 2023 Psychological skills training impacts autonomic nervous system responses to stress during sport-specific imagery: An exploratory study in junior elite shootersFrom pistol shooting: in five shooters the LF/HF ratio drops only while they imagine competing, not at rest. A different sport, no control group.
  21. 2024ContradictionLo et al. 2024 Examining the Feasibility of a Mindfulness Flow Program for the Hong Kong ArchersA controlled result in favour, from a reliable venue: twelve Hong Kong archers gain 11.3 points over 72 arrows after twelve weeks of mindfulness, while matched controls drop by three.
  22. 2024ContradictionSybil et al. 2024 Comparative analysis of the lactate and urea changes in the athletes-archers urine under different physical and psychological loadsSixteen Ukrainian archers randomised to autogenic training or control: after one week the contribution to score is not significant, and the score data are not published.
  23. 2024ReviewCorrado et al. 2024 Improving Mental Skills in Precision Sports by Using Neurofeedback Training: A Narrative ReviewA review of neurofeedback in precision sports: mixed results, and an account of the 2012 Indian study that does not match the original paper.
  24. 2025ReplicationKeskin et al. 2025 Effects of breathing and imagery exercises on postural sway and shooting performance in Olympic archersAnother result in favour against a control group: thirty-six Turkish beginners, eight weeks, with imagery and slow breathing both beating training alone over nine arrows at 18 m.
  25. 2025ExtensionBaishya et al. 2025 Effects of Yoga on the Efficiency of the Attentional Networks in Competitive Archers: A Randomized Controlled TrialA randomised trial with blinded assessors: eight weeks of yoga cut the cost of distractors by 36.7 ms in young Indian archers. Score is not measured.
  26. 2025ExtensionLee et al. 2025 Aim high, hit ×10: psychological strategies driving the success of South Korean archersSixty-five high-level Korean archers describe their X-ring shots: psychological regulation techniques are the least cited category, at 11%.
  27. 2025ReplicationThepfukolie et al. 2025 Questionable venue Effect of a 12 week psychological skills intervention on performance of national-level archersThirty Indian archers randomised for twelve weeks: imagery beats control by 17 points, but the shooting test is described only as the regulation number of arrows and the venue has questionable editorial standards.
  28. 2026ReplicationTiwari et al. 2026 Questionable venue Cognitive Arrows: Exploring the Power of Psychological Skills Training in Competitive ArcheryThirty Indian archers randomised for four weeks: imagery and self-talk gain more than thirteen points while control stays flat, with a shooting test never described and a questionable venue.

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120 claims · 93% with evidence on archers

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Cite
APA

Campagna, M. (2026). Mental training: what has been tested on archers since 1979. In Research. matteocampagna.com. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/research/mental-training

BibTeX
@misc{campagna2026_enresearchmentaltraining,
  author = {Campagna, Matteo},
  title = {Mental training: what has been tested on archers since 1979},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Research, matteocampagna.com},
  url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/research/mental-training},
  note = {accessed 2026-10-16}
}