Performance assessment in archery: a systematic review

ABSTRACT

Archery is a sport accessible to a wide range of people, no matter their age, gender or ability, and can be practiced both by able-bodied and impaired athletes on a level playing field. The recent increase in the number of studies concerning the biomechanical evaluation of the archery discipline revealed the need to advance an evidence-based approach for a standardised and objective assessment of the athletic gesture. A systematic literature search of relevant databases in July 2021 yielded 41 studies spanning 35 years (1986–2021). The research strings focused on the parameters, employed measurement systems and on the outcomes. The investigation of the influence of a wide range of physiological and kinematic parameters on the archer performance revealed that expert athletes tend to maximise postural stability and develop personal strategies of muscular activation and time management. These findings evidenced the importance of the repeatability of the technical gesture, opening additional scenarios for further investigations.

KEYWORDS:

• Biomechanics
• athlete monitoring
• shooting gesture

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The authors are indebted with Mr Giuseppe Marascia (A.S.D. Frecce Azzurre) for constructive and fruitful discussions about the topic. This research was supported by the Italian Ministry of Defense under the WAVE project (Wearable Assistant for VEterans in sport, PNRM 2019 program) and partly by the Italian Ministry of University under the TRAINED project (mulTifeature analysis of heaRt rate variability and gaIt features in cliNical Evaluation of Depression, PRIN 2017 grant number 2017L2RLZ2). The study was also supported by the Italian Ministry of Health under the Ricerca Corrente 2020 programme.