Adil,

Generally speaking, the weight of an archer can have a negative impact on his/her performance if the archer is overweight. Archers that are overweight will tend to have a higher resting heart rate, and indeed an even higher heart rate when under competitive pressure than a fit archer would have.

Overweight archers may also experience fatigue faster than a fit archer would.

Essentially, what this means is that overweight archers may not be able to hold the bow as steady as a fit archer.

However, this is not a rule, but more a general theory and there are always exceptions. For example, recently deceased archer, Jackson Fear of Australia set world records as a junior and in the senior division; he was an Australian national champion. Fear was on Australia's National Team at the 1996 Olympic Games, and was edged out in the Bronze metal team match by a talented Italian team.

Jackson Fear weighed more than 150 kilos.

However, in shooting sports being fit may not necessarily give an archer an advantage, but it will also not be a negative factor in performance. While, an overweight or unfit archer will in theory, always be susceptible to performance problems.

Hope this was of some help.

-Daniel Perez

Archery Coach