The Zone

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Marcus26

So what do people do to get themselves closer to that zone for all 144 or 60 arrows?

You're right Marcus. That's the key question. If I ever find anybody who can explain it, I'll let you know

Adam

[LineCutter]

Originally Posted by Adam

You're right Marcus. That's the key question. If I ever find anybody who can explain it, I'll let you know

But don't hold your breath

This is one of those examples of unconscious competence, where you know you can do it but you can't say how. Like riding a bicycle, juggling, or whistling - if you can do these you still can't tell someone exactly how although you can explain the major mechanics if pushed.

LMP, if she's reading, may recognise the "right brained" component that's part of it too (the unconscious, timeless, near perfect functioning) as it's often part of a serious artistic endeavour.

Setting up the conditions for an archery "zone" is not so easy as the more open ended, non "competitive" field of art though.

The vital part is the subconscious element (physical & mental) & the key to that is practice, both physical & mental. Plus some innate ability if you're going to be really good.

When you're in the zone it's likely that you only really know it afterwards - recognising it before, so as to analyse it, is to terminate it there & then by bringing your left brain in to supervise it. You'll recognise a similar effect if you start thinking too hard about your scores when you're shooting well

End of psychobabble - lets go practice.

[Little Miss Purple]

compare this to archery... 4 levels to fulfillment!!!


conscious incompetence

conscious competence

unconscious competence

unconscious incompetence


I'll be happy to reach level 3 and stay there!!!!

Cheers LC - you jogged my memory of that !!

[Marcus26]

I'm starting to come to the belief that

• Accurate shooting is concience
• The things that makes us miss are subconcience
• 'The Zone' is when only the concience mind is involved
• Activating the Zone is supressing the subconcience issues that manifest as missing.

For example. I know exactly what I need to do in order to shoot a 10 at any distance at anytime.
However I fail (bigtime) to do this everytime.
In most cases it is because I lose patience or have some other issue pop into my head during the shot process.
If I can suppress these from happening, often by making myself do it right, I am alot more accurate.

So here is the possibility
Mere mortal archers like us have too much conflict between the conceince and subconcience parts of our mind, and while trying to fix that we try and turn off the wrong half.
Great shooters simply concentrate on what they need to do and do it.

[Little Miss Purple]

I'm happy to go with that Marcus - I'd need to hide in a box for a week to be able to concentrate..... then I'd probably be wondering what I'd missed!!

[DOH!!]

I once discussed this "zone" business with a national coach, and he said it is down to your personal "comfort level" if you are scoring better than usual, then you start thinking and the scores drop, also if you are shooting poor, you shoot well at the at the shorter distances, either way you finish close to your average, the trick is to increase your "comfort level", many people do this by marking thier arrows with higher scores than they are shooting at the moment
could there be some truth in this, as once you break your personel barrier you seem to stay there for a while until you move up to your next objective.

[LineCutter]

Marcus I'd have to disagree! Well, some:

The ultimate part of the shot process is too fast to supervise. If you try to, as part of a coaching exercise, you will tend to confuse yourself & shoot worse (except on those occasions where the distraction is good for the rest of the process )

In most cases it is because I lose patience or have some other issue pop into my head during the shot process.

Conscious thought/supervision is, as you say, the enemy. Clear focus on the target is everything... as long as it keeps it's muddy feet off of the actual shot! (Refer back to the discussions about rings vs. dots for comparison). Why visualise before the shot - to "program" the subconscious system. Why focus on the gold, so as not to focus on anything else. If you think about being impatient, or about something else, you've lost the unconscious shot process - time to put the bow down & start that routine from scratch.

Another parallel can be found in pistol shooters: aim, settle & accept the hold while increasing trigger pressure. When the shot goes you should be surprised, not consciously snatching at it. We're trying to do the same thing, but with a more complex shot release. (compound archers may find the comparison closer for them)

Final random thought: If you're being narrowly beaten by someone on your target, ask them how come they shoot so well & what they think about at full draw. Just don't ask yourself the same question!

P.S. Another little quote to amuse LMP:

[tel]

Final random thought: If you're being narrowly beaten by someone on your target, ask them how come they shoot so well & what they think about at full draw. [IMG]images/smilies/devil.gif[/IMG] Just don't ask yourself the same question!

I like it !

[Rik]

Originally Posted by DOH!!

I once discussed this "zone" business with a national coach, and he said it is down to your personal "comfort level" if you are scoring better than usual, then you start thinking and the scores drop, also if you are shooting poor, you shoot well at the at the shorter distances, either way you finish close to your average, the trick is to increase your "comfort level", many people do this by marking thier arrows with higher scores than they are shooting at the moment
could there be some truth in this, as once you break your personel barrier you seem to stay there for a while until you move up to your next objective.

Um, that's a different issue... That's "comfort zones".

Marcus,
Have you ever read Timothy Gallwey's take on the whole thing? The Inner Game books...
He talks about interference between "self1" and "self2" - one of which is the verbal/analytical side, which tends to interfere and screw things up, the other of which is the non-verbal (more "reflexive") side, which just gets on and does things.

[Marcus26]

No I havn't read that, but it sounds similar to what I experience