The effect of intergrating biofeedback in periodized training program on psychophysiological, physical fitness and shooting performance among junior archers

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of integrating biofeedback training into a  periodized training program on psychophysiological, physical fitness and shooting performance  outcomes among junior archers. This study involves a pre and post experimental design with a  control group and two experimental groups. Twenty-one junior archers (Mean age=15.0±1.7 years)  completed the whole study protocol. Participants were matched according to their shooting scores  and they were assigned into either three groups; biofeedback training group (BFT), physical  training group (PT) and control group. Both experimental groups underwent three months of  periodized training program provided by the researcher, while the control group continued their  training program provided by their coach until the end of the study period. All parameters were  measured at pre-intervention, after one month of intervention, after two months of intervention, and after three months of intervention. The revised  Competitive  State  Anxiety-2  (CSAl-2R)  was used  to measure competitive state anxiety. Skin Conductance sensor (SC-Flex/Pro) was used to measure galvanic skin  response (GSR). BioGraph Infiniti version 5.1 (Montreal, Canada) and polar heart rate monitor  (S710i, Polar Electro Oy, Finland) were used to measure the physiological variables and Sport  Psychology Attitudes-Revised (SPA-R) to evaluated athletes' attitudes toward sport psychology. The  results of Mixed Factorial Analysis of Variance (ANOV A) revealed significant interactions between experimental groups across the measurement sessions (p < 0.05) compared to the control group for  galvanic skin response (GSR), core strength test, bow arm holding test, multi-stage fitness test,  and maximal oxygen uptake (VO2 max) test. No significant interaction between the experimental group  across measurement session for heart rate, competitive state anxiety, stork stand, push up and  archer performance. Furthermore, the positive attitude and negative attitude across the measurement  sessions for all the tests showed that most of the athletes in BFT and PT groups were positive  toward sport psychology consulting and performance outcome in most of the parameters. It can be  concluded that the biofeedback and periodized training program are effective in improving the  psychophysiological and physical fitness among junior archers.