Comparison of Shooting Time Characteristics and Shooting Posture Between High- and Low- Performance Archers

Background. Archery is a precision sport that requires high levels of consistency and reproducibility in the shooting movement to achieve the highest score. Objectives. This study aimed to compare and correlate the shooting time characteristics and shooting posture on the archery shooting performance of high- and low-performance archers. Methods. Terengganu state team and Malaysia Pahang Sports School archers (n = 16; male: 11 and female: 5; Mean age: 16.19 ± 1.55 years) participated in this study. They were divided into high-performance archers (HPA) and low-performance archers (LPA) based on the total score of 36 arrows shot from 70 meters distance obtained at the beginning of the study. The shooting movements were recorded with a video camera and were then divided into four phases. The duration of each phase was analyzed against the performance of archers. The deviation angle of the right elbow away from the draw force line during anchoring and releasing were measured as the shooting posture. Results. The Mann-Whitney test showed that the shooting time of phases 3, phase 4 and the total shooting time were significantly different between the groups (P<0.001). Spearman correlation showed that phase 4 and the deviation angle of the elbow during release were significantly correlated with scores (r= -0.11, -0.08). Conclusion. This study showed that HPA and LPA have the same shooting posture with different shooting time characteristics. Archers with a shorter duration in phase 4 and a smaller angle of deviation during release recorded a better result. This finding helps coaches and athletes to improve their shooting techniques.