Effect of physical training on target accuracy of archer athletes - A systematic review

To find out the effect of physical training on the target accuracy of archery athletes DESIGN: Systematic review METHODS: Electronic databases PubMed, Cochrane, Scopus, PEDro and Google Scholar were systematically searched from inception to September 2022. Studies included in which archery athletes of all age groups performed any type of physical training or exercises and archery score was measured as an outcome measure. Both experimental and quasi-experimental studies were included. The Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) scale and Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Critical Appraisal Checklist were used for overall quality assessment. The methodological quality of the studies was assessed through the Cochrane Risk-of-Bias (RoB) tools RESULTS: The results of this systematic review are based on 10 studies which included 257 archery athletes from five different countries. Among these studies, 04 were experimental i.e. 03 RCTs and 01 Randomized cross-over trial. The remaining 6 were quasi-experimental studies i.e. 04 non-RCTs, and 02 pretest-posttest studies including one group. The experimental studies were of good quality having 6-7 PEDro score. The quasi-experimental studies were also of good quality with 88-100% quality rating on the JBI checklist. The different forms of exercises i.e. strengthening, stretching, plyometric, drill exercises and circuit training have been used for the physical training of archery athletes. Upper limb training was used in most of the studies CONCLUSION: Physical training or exercises improve the accuracy of archery athletes. The maximum literature is available on the upper extremity and overall fitness training. Archery-specific strengthening exercise is the most used form of exercise.