fbirder
Member
This Sunday I shot my second outdoor competition (well, my two-and-a-halfth having retired hurt from my first). I was sharing my target with two very good archers (indeed, they went on to share first place). As the competition progressed I realised that I was shooting far better than I'd ever shot before. I can put some of this down to a lot of practice over the last two months, and some helpful coaching, but I was still shooting better than I had done the previous week.
Only later did I wonder if it may have been the fact that everybody else on that target was shooting extremely well and that may have been inspiring me to do my best to keep up with them. I'm going to try to keep that feeling in mind the next time I shoot competitively, but I was wondering if others had noticed something similar, or maybe found it an intimidating situation with an adverse effect on performance.
Only later did I wonder if it may have been the fact that everybody else on that target was shooting extremely well and that may have been inspiring me to do my best to keep up with them. I'm going to try to keep that feeling in mind the next time I shoot competitively, but I was wondering if others had noticed something similar, or maybe found it an intimidating situation with an adverse effect on performance.