Technical determinants of air rifle and pistol shooting performance: A systematic review and meta-analysis

The study aimed to investigate the influence of key technical determinants on shooting performance in both air rifle and pistol shooting disciplines. Following a systematic search across four databases (PubMed, CINAHL, SPORTDiscus, and Cochrane Library), a total of 22 articles were included. The findings indicate that there was a significant correlation between the stability of hold component, as measured by DEV_X ( r = −0.60; 95% confidence interval (CI) = −0.69 to −0.49; p < 0.001) and HITf ( r = 0.69; 95% CI = 0.56 to 0.79; p < 0.001) and shooting performance in both shooting disciplines. In addition, HITr, another stability component, revealed a significant positive correlation for shooting performance ( r = 0.60; 95% CI = 0.35 to 0.77; p < 0.001) in air pistol shooting. Furthermore, in both disciplines, there was a significant positive correlation between shooting performance and measures of aiming accuracy such as COGhit ( r = 0.64; 95% CI = 0.49 to 0.75; p < 0.001), Targetf ( r = 0.75; 95% CI = 0.63 to 0.84; p < 0.001), and Targetr ( r = 0.60; 95% CI = 0.33 to 0.78; p < 0.001). In both disciplines, there was a strong negative correlation between the cleanliness of triggering and shooting performance ( r = −0.63; 95% CI = −0.75 to −0.48; p < 0.001). Time on target measure significantly correlated with shooting performance ( r = 0.52; 95% CI = 0.31 to 0.68; p < 0.001) across both disciplines. The relationship between postural balance and shooting performance in air rifle shooting was negative, indicating that better postural balance is associated with improved shooting ( r = −0.53; 95% CI = −0.69 to −0.33; p < 0.001). This review emphasizes the significance of various technical components in both air rifle and pistol disciplines.