Study of Archery Shooting Phases using Joint Angle Profile

Postural consistency is crucial in achieving high precision in archery. However traditional methods for measuring consistency are often limited to human visual inspection with biases and subjectivity. This paper proposes a foundational analysis model to quantitatively measure an archer’s performance. The model explores the detection of human keypoints using a deep learning pose estimation model during elite archery shooting. Subsequently, the joint angle between right shoulder, right elbow, and left wrist is plotted into a graph with relative to the video frame. Studies are conducted on two types of archery shooting session using recurve and compound bow. The joint angle profile can be decomposed into six phases, i.e. pre-draw, draw, anchoring, transfer, aiming, and follow through. The study discusses the effects and factors of each phase and its respective duration during shooting cycle. The effects and implications of each phase are discussed to understand the bio-mechanics movement in the archery field.