Effect of bow drawing technique on skilled archer postural stability: a case study
Résumé
At the Olympic games, archers use a recurve bow to shoot arrows at a 122 centimeters diameter target set 70 meters away. Postural stability and consistency are therefore determinant in the archer’s performance. A shot is generally decomposed in two main phases. The aiming phase, mostly static, is followed by the string release phase, which is much more dynamic. To optimize bow draw length consistency, a small metallic device called ‘clicker’ is mounted on the bow riser. When the clicker falls, the metallic sound emitted sig- nals the correct draw length is reached. Then the archer releases the arrow with a reaction time latency. Previous studies showed the importance of postural stability on archery performance (Keast and Elliott 1990), particularly during the last second preceding string release (Mason and Pelgrim 1986) and during
the release (Tinazci 2011). Moreover limited postural sway (Simsek et al. 2019) and postural consistency across shootings (Stuart and Atha 1990) are crucial indicators of an archery performance. Bow drawing action directly challenges the archer upper body stability, which is reflected in the ground reaction forces. The current study aims to characterise the effects of different bow drawing techniques on the archer’s postural stability.