Journal of Sports Sciences, April 2009; 27(6): 661666

Caffeine and performance in clay target shooting

BIANCA SHARE1, NICK SANDERS2, & JUSTIN KEMP1

School of Exercise Science, Australian Catholic University, Fitzroy, Victoria and 2Victoria Institute of Sport, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia (Accepted 12 January 2009)
1

Abstract Controversy surrounds the inuence that caffeine has on accuracy and cognitive performance in precision activities such as shooting and archery. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of two doses of caffeine on shooting performance, reaction time, and target tracking times in the sport of clay target shooting. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled design was undertaken by seven elite male shooters from the double-trap discipline. Three intervention trials (2 mg caffeine kg71 body mass (BM); 4 mg caffeine kg71 BM; placebo) were undertaken, in which shooters completed four rounds per trial of 50 targets per round. Performance accuracy (score) and digital video footage (for determination of reaction time and target tracking times) were gathered during competition. Data were analysed using repeated-measures analysis of variance. No differences in shooting accuracy, reaction time or target tracking times among the three intervention trials or across the four rounds within each intervention were observed (P 4 0.05). The results indicate that ingestion of 4 mg caffeine kg71 BM does not provide performance benets to elite performers of clay target shooting in the doubletrap discipline.

Keywords: Caffeine, shooting, accuracy, reaction time

Introduction Caffeine is classied as an ergogenic agent because of its ability to increase mental alertness and attentiveness, enhance psychomotor performance, increase vigilance and mood, prolong endurance, and reduce reaction time and perceptions of fatigue (Australian Sports Commission, 2005; Brice & Smith, 2001; Graham, 2001; Jacobson & Edgley, 1987; Magkos & Kavouras, 2004; Sinclair & Geiger, 2000). In January 2004, caffeine was removed from the Prohibited Substance List by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA, 2005), thereby permitting its unrestricted use in sporting competition. The benets of caffeine as an ergogenic agent in endurance-based sports have been studied extensively (Conway, Orr, & Stannard, 2002; Cox et al., 2002). In contrast, little research has concentrated on the inuence of caffeine on performance in target sports (e.g. shooting), in which success at the elite standard requires mental alertness, prolonged concentration, optimal ne motor skill, and muscular endurance (Rossi & Zani, 1991). Related research has focused on military personnel under military training conditions, with marksmanship being un-

affected by (Gillingham, Keefe, Keillor, & Tikuisis, 2003; Johnson & Merullo, 1999; Tharion, ShukittHale, & Liberman, 2003) or beneting from (McLellan et al., 2005) caffeine ingestion. As a result, the effects of caffeine on performance during competition in shooting are unclear. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether caffeine ingestion, at two different doses, provides benets to performance (i.e. shooting accuracy) or measures related to successful performance (e.g. reaction and tracking times) in the Olympic sport of clay target shooting. The study was conducted with elite performers in the double-trap discipline under competitive conditions to obtain data that were relevant to sports performance.

Methods Participants Seven elite male clay target shooters in the doubletrap discipline (mean age 28.4 years, s 9.4; stature 1.79 m, s 0.06; body mass 92.4 kg, s 14.3) participated in the study. Elite was dened as

Correspondence: J. Kemp, School of Exercise Science, Australian Catholic University, St. Patricks Campus, Fitzroy, VIC 3065, Australia. E-mail: justin.kemp@acu.edu.au ISSN 0264-0414 print/ISSN 1466-447X online 2009 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/02640410902741068

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B. Share et al. recorded upon arrival. Body mass uctuation over the three test days ranged from 0.6 to 2.8 kg per participant. Each participants body mass was used for determination of the supplement dose for each treatment condition (i.e. caffeine administered in mg kg71 BM). Before each round of competition, participants were required to rest quietly for 15 min before the recording of resting heart rate (Polar S610, Kempele); similarly, systolic and diastolic blood pressure (OMRON, Japan) were measured for the establishment of mean arterial pressure (MAP). Additionally, heart rate was recorded during competition. Competitive anxiety was measured via the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2) (Martens, Vealey, & Burton, 1990) before the start of competition for each trial. Following testing, at the conclusion of the study, participants also completed a caffeine supplementation questionnaire to provide insight into any sideeffects (e.g. headache, anxiety, tremor) experienced due to caffeine ingestion. On each trial day, participants completed four rounds, with a round taking a mean time of 16.2 min (s 2.6). In each round, participants red 50 cartridges at 50 clay targets, thus the maximum possible score at the end of four rounds of competition was 200. In accordance with ISSF rules, two clay targets were released simultaneously from an underground trap house per attempt. The angle and height of release was known to participants and was kept consistent across all four rounds for the entire study. Total score (referred to as performance accuracy) was calculated by counting shattered clay targets (1 point per shattered target). Three shuttered (1/250 s) digital video cameras (Panasonic VSK 0651; JVC AA-P3OU; Canon Pal DV CamCorder MV600i), lming at 25 frames per second, were mounted 3 m behind the participants to capture the shooting competition. Kinematic analysis of the video footage was used to determine: . reaction time, dened as the time to the rst movement by the participant after release of the targets from the trap house, where time zero was taken as the point at which the clay targets were rst visible on the video vision; and tracking time of target 1 (TT1) and target 2 (TT2), dened as the time elapsed from clay target release (i.e. vision on the camera) to rst and second cartridge discharge, respectively, where cartridge discharge was indicated by the appearance of smoke from the gun barrel.

having competed at Olympic or World Championship competitions. All shooters provided written informed consent to participate in the study, which received approval from the local research ethics review committee. Experimental design and procedures All test procedures were conducted in accordance with the shotgun safety regulations of the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF, 2005; see section 9.2.2 at: http://www.issf-shooting.org/rules/ english/2006/27_shotgun_2005_2nd.html) under normal competition conditions at an outdoor Olympic standard shotgun range. Data collection was conducted over a period of 4 weeks, during which time each participant completed three different treatment trials (below). The order in which each participant engaged in the three conditions was determined randomly, and the study was performed in a double-blind fashion. Each trial was separated by at least 7 days to allow for an appropriate period for caffeine wash-out. In the 24 h before each test session, participants were asked to abstain from all caffeinated and alcoholic food and beverage products, to refrain from performing strenuous exercise, and to drink adequate uids. To standardize the diet, food diaries were kept by each participant in the 24 h before the rst trial, and this food intake regimen was replicated before each subsequent trial. Participants were also required to record their weekly caffeine consumption and tobacco usage. The estimated mean selfreported habitual caffeine consumption of participants was equivalent to approximately six cups of instant coffee (range: 112 cups) per day. On the days of testing, the experimenters provided food and beverages. The three treatment trials were: (i) 4 mg caffeine kg71 body mass (4 mg kg71 BM); (ii) 2 mg kg71 BM; and (iii) placebo (glucose). Caffeine was administered as pharmaceutical-grade NODOZTM tablets (Key Pharmaceuticals, Rhodes, Australia), presented to participants in multiple fragments in 30 ml of lemon/orange drink in opaque plastic cups. Fragments were weighed with an electronic laboratory balance and combined to provide the correct dose per participant. In the placebo trial, participants were given GlucodinTM glucose tablets (Boots Healthcare, Ryde, Australia) in a similar fashion (i.e. as tablets broken into multiple fragments with uid in cups). To coincide with peak plasma caffeine concentration (James, 1991), caffeine was ingested 60 min before starting the rst round of each trial. On each test day, stature and partial nude body mass (weigh-in dressed only in trousers) was

This analysis was performed using the Swinger PLUS software program, which de-interlaced the video to operate at 50 frames per second.

Caffeine and performance in clay target shooting Before each round, ambient temperature, wind speed, and relative humidity were measured with the Kestrel 4000 Weather Tracker (Lymington, UK). No differences were observed across the 3 days of testing for ambient temperature (mean 11.78C, s 2.2), humidity (mean 72.2%, s 10.4) or wind speed (mean 2.5 m s71, s 1.2). Statistical analysis The Shapiro-Wilks normality test (used when n 5 50) was used to verify that the data were normally distributed. Repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test for differences among the three trial conditions (i.e. 4 mg kg71 BM, 2 mg kg71 BM, and placebo) and across the four rounds of each trial for performance accuracy, reaction time, tracking time of target 1, tracking time of target 2, heart rate, and mean arterial pressure. With respect to these analyses, all participants (n 7) undertook both the 4 mg kg71 BM and placebo trials, and hence a 2 6 4 repeated-measures ANOVA was performed on these data. A sub-group of participants (n 5) also undertook the 2 mg kg71 BM trial, and thus a 3 6 4 repeated-measures ANOVA was used to compare measures across the three trial conditions. Similarly, to test for differences in CSAI-2 data: (i) a dependent t-test was used for the 4 mg kg71 BM and placebo trials (n 7), and (ii) repeated-measures ANOVA was used when comparing the three trial conditions (n 5). Statistical signicance was set at P 5 0.05.

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2 (P at best 0.062, Zp 0.285) was found between 71 4 mg kg BM and placebo trials or across rounds, and no differences were found among the three trials or across the four rounds when 2 mg kg71 BM was included in the analysis.

Tracking time Target tracking times of target 1 and 2 for each trial across the four rounds are shown in Figures 3 and 4 respectively, with no main effect (P at best 0.362, 2 Zp 0.239) observed between the 4 mg kg71 BM and placebo trials (n 7) for either tracking time of

Results Performance accuracy Figure 1 presents performance accuracy results, showing the number of clay targets struck in each round of competition. No main effect was observed between the 4 mg kg71 BM and placebo trials 2 (P 0.102, Zp 0.304; n 7) or among rounds (P 2 0.635, Zp 0.146; n 7). Similarly, no differences were observed among the three trials (P 0.380, 2 Zp 0.301; n 5) or across the four rounds 2 (P 0.436, Zp 0.107; n 5) when the 2 mg kg71 BM trial was considered. Consequently, the mean total score accumulated across all four rounds of competition for the 4 mg kg71 BM (150, s 17.1 targets), 2 mg kg71 BM (151, s 10.9 targets), and placebo (155, s 15.0 targets) trials was not different 2 (P 0.406, Zp 0.202). Reaction time Figure 2 illustrates the mean reaction time for each of the four rounds within each trial. No main effect

Figure 1. Mean score for each round of shooting under caffeine and placebo conditions. Elite clay target shooters ingested 4 mg caffeine kg71 BM (n 7), 2 mg caffeine kg71 BM (n 5) or a placebo (no caffeine) (n 7). Hit/miss scores recorded by a scorer throughout the shooting competition were analysed for any changes in performance accuracy (i.e. number of broken clay targets). Bars represent mean score + standard deviation. No signicant main effect was identied among the three trials or across the four rounds.

Figure 2. Mean reaction time (RT) for each round of shooting under caffeine and placebo conditions. Elite clay target shooters ingested 4 mg caffeine kg71 BM (n 7), 2 mg caffeine kg71 BM (n 5) or a placebo (no caffeine) (n 7). Digital video footage of each participant captured during shooting competition was analysed by the Swinger PLUSTM software program. Bars represent mean reaction time + standard deviation. No signicant main effect was identied among the three trials or across the four rounds.

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B. Share et al. mmHg, s 9.96, n 5) to that observed in the placebo trial, or across the four rounds. Similarly, mean and peak heart rate responses during competition were not signicantly affected (P at best 0.193, 2 Zp 0.349) by caffeine ingestion. Psychological measures The CSAI-2 assesses three sub-components of anxiety. The sub-components are cognitive A-state, somatic A-state, and state self-condence. Anxiety values for each trial condition were collated (score out of 36), with no differences (P at best 0.162, 2 Zp 0.485) in mean scores being observed between the 4 mg kg71 BM and placebo trials for cognitive anxiety (16.9, s 3.5 vs. 17.0, s 5.2), somatic anxiety (15.4, s 4.3 vs. 15.6, s 4.3) or selfcondence (25.1, s 3.8 vs. 23.4, s 6.2). When the scores of the 2 mg kg71 BM trial (n 5) were included (cognitive anxiety: 15.2, s 7.2; somatic anxiety: 14.2, s 5.9; self-condence: 25.7, s 6.8), 2 no differences (P at best 0.080, Zp 0.451) were observed among the three trial conditions for the three sub-components of anxiety. Discussion To our knowledge, this is the rst study to report the effects of caffeine ingestion on elite sport shooting performance. Our aim was to examine what effects the ingestion of 4 and 2 mg caffeine kg71 BM might have on performance (i.e. score), as well as on temporal variables suggested to be important to success in clay target shooting. These two doses of caffeine produced no benecial outcomes to the performance, reaction time or target tracking times during shooting competition. Across the four rounds of competition, no variation in performance accuracy or in the temporal variables was observed in the rst and second rounds, when plasma caffeine concentration would be greatest (Marks & Kelly, 1973), compared with the third and fourth rounds of competitions, which occurred 45 h after the initial ingestion of caffeine, when plasma caffeine concentrations would be returning to baseline. The lack of an ergogenic benet of caffeine on shooting accuracy is similar to outcomes reported in other investigations. For example, no difference was found in shooting accuracy during a simulated sentry duty task of military volunteers who consumed 200 mg of caffeine compared with a placebo trial (Johnson & Merullo, 1999). Similarly, a 300 mg caffeine dose produced no improvement in riering accuracy of military reservists during a live-re operation (Gillingham et al., 2003), while doses of 100, 200, and 300 mg had no effect on shooting accuracy during a marksmanship simulation task

Figure 3. Mean tracking time of target one (TT1) for each round of shooting under caffeine and placebo conditions. Elite clay target shooters ingested 4 mg caffeine kg71 BM (n 7), 2 mg caffeine kg71 BM (n 5) or a placebo (no caffeine) (n 7). Digital video footage of each participant captured during shooting competition was analysed by the Swinger PLUSTM software program. Bars represent mean tracking time of target 1 + standard deviation. No signicant main effect was identied among the three trials or across the four rounds.

Figure 4. Mean tracking time of target 2 (TT2) for each round of shooting under caffeine and placebo conditions. Elite clay target shooters ingested 4 mg caffeine kg71 BM (n 7), 2 mg caffeine kg71 BM (n 5) or a placebo (no caffeine) (n 7). Digital video footage of each participant captured during shooting competition was analysed by the Swinger PLUSTM software program. Bars represent mean tracking time of target 2 + standard deviation. No signicant main effect was identied among the three trials or across the four rounds.

target 1 or target 2 or across the four rounds. Similarly, no differences (P at best 0.137, 2 Zp 0.326) were observed among the three trials or the four rounds for tracking time of target 1 or target 2. Physiological responses The ingestion of caffeine (4 mg kg71 BM or 2 mg kg71 BM) produced no changes (P at 2 best 0.105, Zp 0.382) in resting heart rate (mean 73 beats min71, s 9, n 7; mean 73 beats min71, s 8, n 5) or mean arterial pressure (mean 106.05 mmHg, s 5.18, n 7; mean 103.77

Caffeine and performance in clay target shooting compared with a placebo trial (Tharion et al., 2003). In contrast, McLellan et al. (2005) reported improvements in shooting accuracy with caffeine; however, their participants performed under conditions of severe operational stress and sleep deprivation. Therefore, it would appear that under conventional conditions, caffeine does not improve shooting accuracy in sport or military-based contexts. The caffeine protocol elected for this study was similar (with modications) to that used by Corey. Cunningham (unpublished data) in a study of elite archers. Archery, like shooting, is an Olympic sport in which success is determined by the ability to shoot and accurately hit a distant target. Cunningham (unpublished data) found that the ingestion of 2 mg caffeine kg71 BM improved total mean score by 5.7 points during a 72-arrow round competition. This change was suggested to be practically meaningful at the elite standard, despite not reaching statistical signicance. This effect was not observed with a dose of 6 mg caffeine kg71 BM because total mean score decreased by 7.7 points. In contrast, in the current study, both doses of caffeine (4 and 2 mg caffeine kg71 BM) produced lower scores (i.e. targets hit), suggesting that caffeine produces no practical (or performance) benet to elite clay target shooters. With respect to temporal variables, the caffeine doses of 4 and 2 mg caffeine kg71 BM administered in the current eld-based study produced no changes in reaction time or target tracking times. Similarly, in a live-re assignment (Gillingham et al., 2003), 300 mg of caffeine did not inuence target detection time, engagement time (time from target detection to ring a rie) or marksmanship skill (i.e. shooting accuracy). In contrast, laboratory-based research has reported benecial effects of caffeine ingestion on reaction time (Jacobson & Edgley, 1987) and target detection (Johnson & Merullo, 1999), suggesting that temporal benets associated with caffeine ingestion might be better observed under laboratory-based conditions than in the eld. Shooting accuracy in competitive closed-skill sports may be inuenced by the ability to control heart rate (Couture et al., 1999; Konttinen, Lyytinen, & Viitasalo, 1998). Caffeine acts as a central nervous system stimulant and may heighten cardiovascular responses (James, 1991). As a result, it could be inferred that elevations in the cardiovascular responses of a shooter during competition are undesirable. In the current study, however, there were no signicant effects of caffeine ingestion on the cardiovascular parameters monitored (i.e. heart rate and mean arterial pressure at rest; mean and maximal heart rate during competition). Similarly, Cunningham (unpublished data) found no variations

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in heart rate and blood pressure in elite archers following the ingestion of 2 and 6 mg caffeine kg71 BM, while Horst and Jenkins (1965) reported that heart rate responses were unaffected by the consumption of 2.04.5 mg caffeine kg71 BM. Therefore, there appears to be no support for attributing the absence of improvements in performance accuracy to changes in cardiovascular activity. With respect to psychological measures, levels of state anxiety and self-condence before the start of shooting competition in our cohort were not inuenced by caffeine ingestion when assessed by the CSAI-2. Similarly, Cunningham (unpublished data) reported that, before archery competition, somatic and cognitive anxiety and levels of selfcondence (also assessed by the CSAI-2) remained unchanged following the administration of 2 and 6 mg caffeine kg71 BM. Cunningham (unpublished data) suggested that such results are not surprising in a group of elite athletes performing a sport-specic task because they are trained to focus on routine and technique. This point is also relevant to the elite nature of the participant cohort in the current study. Finally, the caffeine supplementation side-effects questionnaire revealed that commonly associated side-effects, such as headache, anxiety, and tremor (Conway et al., 2002), were reported here. Previous studies have demonstrated that caffeine administration can induce arm and hand tremor that may interfere with performance. For example, arm trembling was reported after a single cup of coffee or caffeine administration of 300600 mg of caffeine (Jacobson & Edgley, 1987). Similarly, 300 mg of caffeine caused a marked increase in body sway 40 min after caffeine ingestion compared with a placebo trial (Franks, Hagedorn, Hensley, Hensley, & Starmer, 1975). Therefore, the sideeffects reported by the participants on trial days where caffeine was ingested may help to explain why caffeine provided no ergogenic benet, especially in terms of shooting accuracy, which is the primary indicator of performance. In summary, in the present study, caffeine ingestion at doses of 4 and 2 mg caffeine kg71 BM provided no ergogenic benet to reaction time, target tracking times or, importantly, shooting accuracy in the double-trap discipline of clay target shooting. As this study was restricted to elite male clay target shooters from the double-trap discipline, the ndings may only apply to shooters in this category.

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