Riccardo Monzoni1 ,Francesco Lucertini1,Carlo Ferri Marini1,Ario Federici1
1Department of Biomolecular Sciences – Division of Exercise and Health Sciences, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Urbino, Italy.
Introduction
Recent studies found physiological and psychometric differences, in elite basketball1 and jiu-jitsu2 athletes, between simulated (SC) and official competitions (OC). Archery is a sport characterized by only one automated technical skill3 that lasts just few seconds, thus it is easy to simulate a competition with research purposes. However, to our knowledge no studies evaluated any difference between archery SC and OC and this make not possible using SC instead of OC in research settings. The present study aimed at assess if archers’ performances differ between OC and SC. The influence of different training regimens was evaluated as well.
Methods
24 male athletes (age 22.8±2.1; BMI 23.7±2.1) with at least 4 years of archery experience were recruited and their performances (i.e. total score) were recorded during a OC and SC, before and after 3 different training (6 months) regimens (randomly assigned). The first group underwent solely to a specific technical training program (3 sessions per week, 90 min per session). The second and third group also engaged (3 sessions per week, 90 min per session) in: 1) a resistance training program based on weight machines only; 2) a specific training program using elastic bands and calisthenics exercise aimed at simulating the shooting technique. In order to assess if the type of competition could affect the performance, the total score of the OC and SC performed before the training periods were compared by means of a paired sample t-test. Thereafter, a mixed between-within subjects ANOVA was conducted to assess if the performance, during OFF or SIM competitions (within factor), was influenced by the type of training (between factor) and/or the time, i.e. before and after 6 months, (within factor). Alpha was set at 0.05.
Results
No statistical difference (p=0.969) was found between the pre-training scores during SC (520.13±11.05) and OC (520.08±11.16), which resulted strongly (r=0.890) and significantly correlated (p <0.001). Moreover, the interactions of the SC or OC with either 1) the type of training, 2) the time or 3) their interaction, did not resulted different in the total score values.
Discussion
The results highlight that conduct a SC or a OC to evaluate the athletes’ performance yield similar results and those results do not seem to be influenced by time or training type. Therefore, archery SCs appear to be a good score predictor of the official competitions before and after different physical training programmes.
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