Used with author's permission
This is not for advanced archers but for archers wishing to take the next step in archery training. It will be mostly theory with the goal being to get archers (what I call hobby archers) to change their way of looking at archery as a physical sport and convert to a mental sport. This will involve a balanced approach of physical and mental training. As archers we can teach our bodies to shoot by repetition and will end up with a weekly amount of fresh air and exercise, but how far do you think you can go without motivation, confidence, and concentration?
Lets look at each of these a little closer.
Motivation
If you do not care how you shoot and will take whatever score comes you way, then you must be happy with what you get. Or are you? How many archers have you seen shoot the same scores for years and then drop the sport due to lack of enjoyment or advancement? If you do not set goals then you have no reason to expect improvement.
Confidence
How many times do you hear other archers belittling their shooting style? They say they cannot shoot today, therefore they cannot. If you are pumped up about your shooting, then the mental block brought about by self-criticism won't affect your shooting.
Concentration
This one I know well. I show up at the site thinking about how my day went, I think about the training of new archers, and the safety on the range due to the new archers. Yet I still expect to shoot well. Not a chance. Only by coming to the range and remaining focused on shooting can you expect to do well.
Now let's look at the flip side of the same coin.
It's a perfect day for shooting, you arrive at the range relaxed, your equipment is in top form, the other shooters are polite and looking forward to the shoot, everything is ready for archery. The shoot finishes and your score is 10 points higher than your personal best.
What were you feeling during the shoot?
What were you thinking during the shoot?
What was your emotional state?
If you speak to archers about their best shoots, they will all pretty well tell you the same answers to these questions. Do you think that if we duplicated some of these conditions that your scores would go up or down?
Welcome to advanced archery.
Take control of your own shooting conditions through preparation. You decide what your goals are and how you are going to approach them. No longer will the sport dictate to you how your shooting will end. This is the progress from a hobby shooter to an experienced archer.
Now that you are ready to begin, we will look at goals and the important roles they play in archery.
Immediate Goals
These are the goals you set for yourself before a practice or before a shoot. They are important because they set the expectations for your shooting, along with the direction and intensity of the day's work. For our archers I always have their current averages with their scores on the range each day. That permits them to look at their low score and establish, score wise, a goal for the day.
Long Term Goals
These goals help establish the route you will take through the year with respect to your shooting.
Acceptable Levels
Should you be unable to reach the stars, these levels are the points at which you feel that your work has not been wasted. It is important to think about these levels as well as your dreams.
When looking at goals try the following chart:
Goals:
1.
2.
3.
Obstacles to Goals:
1a.
1b.
2a.
2b.
3a.
3b.
Plans to Overcome Obstacles:
1a.
1b.
2a.
2b.
3a.
3b.
This will assist you in establishing a set of plans for you shooting season. Understand that the goals are ready to be rewritten at any time. If you feel that they are too easy or that they do not reflect your archery desires any longer, then they should be rethought.
I had the pleasure of teaching a new archer two nights ago. This archer had to date a personal best of 12 on a royal round. After one hour of practice I told her that I expected her to shoot a 35 before the night was out, 3 times her personal best.
The next step was to break this enormous achievement into small reachable goals.
40 yards - 5 points
30 yards - 7 points
20 yards - 15 points
speed - 8 points
At each distance we discussed the small achievement required. At 40 yards I helped the archer focus on 5 points. Although she only got 3, this was only 2 points off her schedule and we could make it up further along. She was comfortable with the score.
This continued, and she finished the night beating the male students with a personal best of 32. Although not the goal for the night, it was easily an acceptable increase.
Practice (Warning: This one boils my blood)
Practice is a time to practice. It is not "just jumping into a round," it is a time to over-emphasize corrections of faults and shooting styles to ensure that when you do shoot a round or a tournament that you will be prepared. But we have been taught that "practice makes perfect," this is a wrong, only perfect practice make perfect. While you are practicing you include good habits and bad habits, therefore you must focus on your weaknesses so when finished you end up with a greater range of good habits.
So, what do you do to prepare for practice?
Try to dedicate 15 minutes before your Royal rounds for practice. This will do several things. It will improve your skills. It will warm your muscles and your bow up prior to shooting.
Now We Have: Goals, Plans, And Practices.
Remember I said that if you could replicate the thinking, feeling, and emotions of a good shoot then you would have another area that would give you a better chance at personal bests. Remember your personal best in archery? I'm sure every archer has their moment in history where they performed their greatest feat. They dream it, they tell it to their friends, and lastly, they hope to replicate it. To achieve this you must first document what it was you were thinking, feeling and how you physically responded to the shoot.
Actually write down:
Now how do you get back into that groove?
Confidence
You must have confidence on three levels to be completely confident in archery.
Equipment
There can be no excuses for poor equipment. How can you expect to achieve your goals if your equipment is holding you back? Show up knowing you can trust your gear to support the effort you put into your shooting.
Style
Know that you have been practicing hard and with focus. Believe that all the hard work will pay off and that you trust your shooting style. If you think your style is wrong or off then it will hang like a weight around your neck and drag you down. You need to feel confidence in your style derived from hard work in practice.
Self
You must feel confident in yourself to achieve your goals. When an archer feel that he is clumsy or just can't get it, you can be sure that will occur. With focused practices and reasonable goals you can feel confident in yourself.
When you step up to the shooting line, step up with confidence.
More On Goals
Earlier we looked over our goals and how to set them out and make plans to overcome the obstacles we felt were impeding us. Now I would like to break the goals down a little farther and have a better look at them.
If you have chosen 90 as a goal for your shooting this year for royal rounds, break this down into the required numbers at each distance.
40 yds - 18 (6 blues)
30 yds - 22 (4 reds and 2 blues)
20 yds - 25 (5 reds and 1 gold)
speed - 25 (5 reds and 1 gold)
Now lets look at 70 for a goal:
40 yds - 13 (5 black and 1 blue)
30 yds - 17 (5 blue and 1 black)
20 yds - 20 (4 blue and 2 red)
speed - 20 (4 blue and 2 red)
Note the lack of golds - do not become fixated on golds!
At each distance consider which ring will give you your goal and take any arrow that hits that ring or better as perfect. Be your own cheerleader and congratulate yourself for any arrow in that ring.
For practice I will occasionally replace the rings of the targets. At 40 yds the gold will cover the gold, red, and blue. At 30 yards the gold will cover the gold and the red. At 20 yards, again, the gold will cover the gold and the red. In this manner the archer will see the arrows into the gold and begin to feel much better about their shooting.
If an arrow hits the target and allows you to reach your goal, it is a perfect arrow.
Relaxation
From the time you wake up in the morning, complete your day's energies, relax and bed in the evening, your muscles go through stages. These stages apply the same to when you are shooting.
When you are shooting there are many things that can effect the flight of your arrows. You train and study technique to become CONSISTANT and to tighten up your groupings. Your muscles however are attempting to wreck this for you. While everything else is consistent they are changing and causing you to continually change your sights.
So what do we do?
Visualization
Although visualization is something we do continually it quite often is not something we give much thought to. After an argument with someone, we often consider:
Now to apply this to archery
In the learning process it is of great assistance to expose as many senses to the information as possible. While you are reading my explanation of how to hold a bow and how to follow through, you picture it in your head to assist yourself in remembering. But did you consider that you could also train you muscles and nerve paths by visualization? Did you consider that visualization of perfect technique assists in the building of confidence?
Consider your checklist.
As you read this list you can visualize your actions as you go through your shot. Visualize each step in the actual time it would take you to accomplish the action if you were on the range. While you are doing this signals are being sent to your muscles from your brain. Small shocks are being applied to the muscles as though they were "practicing in miniature" the actions you are visualizing. As well, the actual electronic pathways become less clogged and easier for the brain to send messages along.
Application
When you are on the range try to visualize:
Now, replicate exactly what you saw in your mind's eye. If anything faltered, visualize it now at the end of shot until you see it perfect. Breathe and relax. Begin again with the visualization, the shot, and the follow up visualization to focus on problem areas.
For every arrow you should visualize at least once. Either before the shot to remind yourself exactly what it is you want, or after the shot to fix any problem areas you want to focus on.
Have you ever picked up your bow on a rainy day and just practiced? Give it a try. Visualize, draw without the string, release and follow through. You might surprise yourself.
