Competition and the mind..

[StevoNilo]

Hi,
My wife and I are back at archery after a 4 year break. I love competition and often compete against myself. My wife doesn't like the stress of producing good scores for team shoots. It's a shame because she's a gifted archer. I'm not sure how I deal with competition myself but I wondered if there are any good books out there about Archery and the mind. I have that Zen one but that's not suitable in this instance. Anything with that Z word my wife won't touch with a barge pole. Thanks.

 

[jerryRTD]

BOOK?

The key thing to remember is that you are supposed to be enjoying archery. If your wife does not like team shooting then she should not do it, simple. It is much easier, there is only one person to blame if some thing goes wrong.

 

[ben tarrow]

Hi,
My wife and I are back at archery after a 4 year break. I love competition and often compete against myself. My wife doesn't like the stress of producing good scores for team shoots. It's a shame because she's a gifted archer. I'm not sure how I deal with competition myself but I wondered if there are any good books out there about Archery and the mind. I have that Zen one but that's not suitable in this instance. Anything with that Z word my wife won't touch with a barge pole. Thanks.

Anything by Lanny or Troy Bassham

 

[StevoNilo]

Thanks Jerry,

I was more thinking along the lines of coping strategies... you know the kind.. you have them for attending interviews... tests... and visiting the Mother in Law..

And thanks Ben.. I will follow those up.. I have heard of them..

 

[geoffretired]

I can't name any books, but one of the aspects that crops up a lot is the abliity to get back into our own shooting form, quickly, when we lose our composure. The suggestion is that we try to find a key word or two, that sums up what we have to do when we go back to the line.
As an example, many of us lesser mortals will panic and try to avoid making the same mistake again. We tend to say to ourselves, " Don't do that mistake this time". Sometimes we repeat it several times. That keeps the mistake at the front of our thoughts and we do it again!!
A better option is to have a way of returning to the form that we rely on most; the one we are familiar with a good at." This is how I shoot" was an example of what we might think to ourselves, and mime even.
I used to practise by shooting a few arrows and walking away for a few minutes then come back to the line and try to recapture my normal form on the first arrow. By getting back to the line lots of times, after a break, I had more practice at reminding myself what to do in order to repeat my normal form. Many archers expect to take a while to settle after the lunch break. Perhaps a strategy for dealing with that could be rehearsed in a similar way.

 

[ben tarrow]

I can't name any books, but one of the aspects that crops up a lot is the abliity to get back into our own shooting form, quickly, when we lose our composure. The suggestion is that we try to find a key word or two, that sums up what we have to do when we go back to the line.
As an example, many of us lesser mortals will panic and try to avoid making the same mistake again. We tend to say to ourselves, " Don't do that mistake this time". Sometimes we repeat it several times. That keeps the mistake at the front of our thoughts and we do it again!!
A better option is to have a way of returning to the form that we rely on most; the one we are familiar with a good at." This is how I shoot" was an example of what we might think to ourselves, and mime even.
I used to practise by shooting a few arrows and walking away for a few minutes then come back to the line and try to recapture my normal form on the first arrow. By getting back to the line lots of times, after a break, I had more practice at reminding myself what to do in order to repeat my normal form. Many archers expect to take a while to settle after the lunch break. Perhaps a strategy for dealing with that could be rehearsed in a similar way.

4 hardest words to use in archery: "come down. start again"

 

[jerryRTD]

Thanks Jerry,

I was more thinking along the lines of coping strategies... you know the kind.. you have them for attending interviews... tests... and visiting the Mother in Law..
.

You have coping strategies for unpleasant things. Use them for archery and you run the risk of making archery one of those unpleasant things. Learn to enjoy your shooting

 

[Raven's_Eye]

If you/she suffers when a scoreboard comes out. Bring it out every time, eventually it'll be the norm and you'll stop caring.

 

[Timid Toad]

If you/she suffers when a scoreboard comes out. Bring it out every time, eventually it'll be the norm and you'll stop caring.

Correct.

It's worth a try, and if your wife still doesn't enjoy it, well, you gave it a shot. Sometimes it's a small hurdle that looks like a mountain until you are over it.

 

[geoffretired]

If we accept that competitions can be stressful; then we can accept that some archers will avoid the stress and shoot for their own reasons and will enjoy it their own way. I am not talking of weakness here, but a desire to shoot and enjoy.
At most I would encourage any archer to have a go at a local competition, to experience the atmosphere and the meetings with other archers. Any more than that would be imposing on them; it is their archery not mine.

 

[StevoNilo]

Great ideas people. Thanks for your thought and time.

 

[Mistake]

I'm somewhat surprised that you've not have 150 recommendations for "With Winning in Mind"

I've found "The Obstacle is the Way" and "Ego is the Enemy" (both by Ryan Holiday) to be very useful for me. Both are about how to apply basic stoic principles to day to day things, especially when those things are stressful. The focus being to only think about what you can control, not what else is happening around you.. or in more high faluting terms (From The Enchiridion (translated)

Some things are in our control and others not. Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever are our own actions. Things not in our control are body, property, reputation, command, and, in a word, whatever are not our own actions​

I also found that a good mantra for myself is "Process before Outcome" because when I focus on my process, the outcomes improve and I don't get anywhere near as stressed - although this might be because I found the stoic philosophy more useful than the mentality advocated for by Bassham etc

 

[Whitehart]

If we accept that competitions can be stressful; then we can accept that some archers will avoid the stress and shoot for their own reasons and will enjoy it their own way. I am not talking of weakness here, but a desire to shoot and enjoy.
At most I would encourage any archer to have a go at a local competition, to experience the atmosphere and the meetings with other archers. Any more than that would be imposing on them; it is their archery not mine.

Why are competitions stressful we do this sport by choice, nobody dies or does not eat if we fail, just think how lucky you are that you can relax and shoot all day in a field with like minded people and go home to a warm house and nice meal and not spend all day walking for water or food to survive to the next day - that must be real stress?


Stress in sport is all self inflicted, a reality check on how well you can really shoot and finding out you have been kidding yourself is too much of a shock

- Understanding winning archery is a good read.

 

[geoffretired]

Hi Andrew,
By strange coincidence I was thinking just those thoughts yesterday. I had listened to someone saying things like that some years ago, but the difference was "working to earn enough" to provide food etc.
I have to agree that a stress like that is far more serious; lives depend on getting things done.
Stress in sport is self inflicted. I am not sure that it is so easily removed. I guess many of us stress ourselves unnecessarily, when we drive beyond the speed limits and need to watch out for cameras. I can get stressed just watching snooker!!! I don't have to watch, I can switch channels... but I want to see who wins. Perhaps stress is just nature at work telling us that we think the outcome of what we are doing( or watching others doing) is important to us. Not life threateningly so; but important enough that we want a certain result.
I get stressed on here when posts arrive that are insulting.( very few are ,I must add) I could ignore the post; but find that is not so easy. I feel I need to put my side into the mix; not to insult in return, but to get some form of justice or satisfaction. It's important to me.
I have to say also, that without some degree of stress, I would feel I had just been idling away my time doing anything and nothing. Stress is almost like the downside of being excited and enjoying things;almost essential to balance our lives.
"Understanding Winning Archery" is about my favourite archery book. He talks like a favourite uncle.

 

[Whitehart]

Hi,
My wife doesn't like the stress of producing good scores for team shoots.

Hi Geoff putting what you do or your desired result in perspective is a way of dealing with stress.

I am sure if Steve's wife just concentrated on enjoying her archery and good shots rather than trying to second guess the end score during the day, the outcome all round, score and enjoyment would be much better.

 

[geoffretired]

Hi Andrew,
I agree about putting desired results in perspective.
I am not so sure how Steve's wife views her archery.
Perhaps her way of concentrating on good shots and getting enjoyment from them, is to do her shooting with no added pressure.
I understand that putting the pressure/scores/outcome in perspective is a way of dealing with stress, but not getting the pressure in the first place is another way of getting enjoyment and a chance to concentrate on the shots. Call it avoiding the stress; but why not avoid it?
If I want stress, I know lots of places where it can be found.
It's like growing flowers because you like to have them around the house; compared to growing flowers because you earn your living from selling them.

 

[Whitehart]

Controlling stress in all parts of your life is all about finding a coping mechanism that works for you.

The biggest problem we have is that we over think things (not believing that things can be so simple) and worry about "what ifs" rather than dealing with what is really happening. In archery most stress is created because we do not control our conscious mind on the shooting line and let it have too much importance.

 

[geoffretired]

Hi Andrew,
I agree with all you are saying.
I think that most archers shoot for fun and don't want to be too bothered about learning much beyond the basics. A quick bit of help now and again gets them back on track and they are content. It is relaxation for many; and stress busting for some,too.
Not believing that things can be so simple........ Yes... I agree with that too. BUT look at this forum's posts and look at the books available, and vidoes, and it is no wonder that many can feel totally lost in what appears to be complex.
There are a lot of posts on here that compound the sense that it is complex. The simplicity of it takes so much time to get across that the number of words used makes it a daunting task for posters and readers.
You are right about the conscious mind ,too. But why do so many suffer from that issue? I guess it is natural to try to think things through when we first start, at least. Then we get a bit more automatic and that often leads to errors creeping in and the solutions can be not so simple as we would like. We have to start working on something in a better way and still try to keep up our standards. Getting poorer results seems like a sign that we are doing things even worse than before so go back to what we know best.
I believe that we introduce archery to beginners in a way that doesn't really match the way we say things should be.

 

[DavidHsxz]

New to archery but I've spent my life in competitive sport.
I think the stress from competing as an individual can be very different from that of competing as part of a team. In the former you have a bad day and it's easy to shrug it off. In the later the desire not to let down the team is a whole different kind of stress which is less about the shooting and more about the people.

 

[geoffretired]

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