Competitive Anxiety and Self-Confidence in Archery: A Narrative Review of the Empirical Literature
Keywords:
Archery , Competitive anxiety, self-confidence, Precision Sport, Sport PsychologyAbstract
Archery gives the athlete complete control over when to shoot and several seconds in which to change their mind. That combination makes psychological state consequential. Researchers have been measuring it in archers since the mid-1990s. This review examines what is known about competitive anxiety and self-confidence. 23 studies reporting data on archers were identified, alongside evidence from shooting and from the wider sport psychology literature that supplies the field with its instruments and its assumptions. Anxiety and performance are negatively associated wherever the association has been tested. Seven of the 23 studies used one questionnaire family whose factor structure was rejected on a sample of over 1200 athletes. No other instrument was used more than once. Self-confidence is collected in almost every study and investigated in almost none. But wherever it has been measured with instruments and compared against real competition scores it outperformed every other predictor. The intervention literature reports success with striking regularity but its only randomised controlled trial is null. The available evidence remains limited by methodological heterogeneity, small samples and inconsistent measurement approaches. Four study designs are outlined that would address the principal gaps identified
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