Focus on the Right Things by Terry Wunderle
THE SECOND DAY OF COMPETITION FOR THE NFAA Indoor Championships was slated to begin in 30 minutes. I was talking with some of my students in the male youth free-style division, as I tried to prepare them for a successful performance in their final leg of the tournament. “You have much better form than you shot yesterday,” I cited to two of the archers. “Both of you were focusing on hitting the ‘X’ because you knew that it would take a good score to win. You have been shooting very tight groups in practice, but you changed and were trying to fine-tune your aiming a little more for this competition. As you found out, it doesn’t work. If you want to shoot well today and stand a chance of placing, you have one choice. Put the pin in the center of the white [five-ring] and shoot the best form that you can shoot. Don’t try to hit the X-ring; try to hit the middle of the white. The archers in the lead usually shoot defensively and their scores often go down. Shoot good form and you might pass them up.” I then turned to a student who was standing next to me and
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said, “You shot 60X yesterday and you won’t be coming down to join the others, because you have a comfortable lead. Treat today as a practice day and just shoot good form.” With three ends to go, one of the students came to me and said, “I’m hitting an ‘X’ on the first four arrows, but I always hit a five on the last arrow. Why am I missing the last shot?” I asked him, “Were you trying to hit the white the first four arrows?” “Yes,” was his reply. I further questioned, “After you hit four ‘Xs,’ were you trying to hit the ‘X’ on the fifth shot?” He smiled and answered, “Yes. Now I know what I’m doing wrong.” With renewed concentration, the young archer shot clean on the next three ends, finishing with a 300, 52X round. Changing his point of focus raised him to a top performance, as he moved from eighth place to second, behind my other student who had a record-setting performance. Picture yourself in the following situation. You are shooting at an indoor archery tournament against competitors of equal abilities. They are using standard shooting lanes and targets, but your lane is a little different. You have to stand on a piece of four-inch foam with two small tree limbs between you and the target. Your target isn’t securely fastened, and a fan is blowing on it. There are several obstacles that are definitely inhibiting you from having a top performance, which leaves you at a distinct disadvantage. This type of situation is what many archers unknowingly do to themselves at a tournament. They mentally create obstacles that restrict them from shooting their best game, as they cloud their minds with irrelevant thoughts and anxieties. Their thought patterns begin to run in many directions, resulting in a condition of unrest and tightened muscles. Performances are handicapped with distractions, just as they were with the archer in the previous scenario. The common pitfalls for most archers can be summarized in two words, “win” and “score.” Focusing on these prevents an archer from directing the thought process to where it belongs, which is shooting a shot with perfect form. Thoughts of winning and scoring have no importance until the competition
is over. During a tournament, the focal point has to be on the performance, not its end result. By placing emphasis on “win” and “score,” you create unnecessary anxiety. This in turn produces mental distractions that prevent proper shot execution. Once anxiety takes over the thought process, negative thinking erodes the ability to shoot a smooth shot. It is important for you to have a positive focus on your shooting skills. These thoughts will then help you to become more relaxed and calm, enhancing your performance. This mental approach, as you well know, is not easily mastered. Not only are you hampered by your selfinflicted pressure, you are also bombarded with the expectations of your friends and relatives. It is important for you to rework your goals and direct them toward your performance, not the result of your performance.
In other words, make it your goal to shoot each shot with the best form possible. Remember, a perfect shot is nothing more than a perfect shot execution. When shooting an arrow, the mind and body have to bond together as one unit. This unit becomes the shot. As you participate in a tournament, you are standing there for one reason, to shoot the arrow. Nothing else should enter into the picture. Shooting the arrow is the event. That is the focus. You must free yourself from other thoughts, relax, and enjoy the moment. Become absorbed in the experience and think in the present. Do not reflect on the past or the future. Do not think about the last shot or the outcome of the present shot. Focus on the moment, trusting your mind and body to execute that perfect shot which you have practiced. Having a top performance will take care of itself. n
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