Pantsville.

[Old Bloke]

Especially when dealing with women.

[Old Bloke]

You were right the first time.

[hypertigger]

i've spent so much time working on technique instead of making sure my kit is the right stuff that it's now getting to the stage where the kit does matter. looking through my diary on the tube this evening; just over 1000 fitas in 2006; 1150s knocking on mb last year, slightly different kit (higher poundage limbs and stiffer arrows), but essentially, i didn't really tune it very well.

i didn't want to be one of those who had a perfect kit set up, but didn't have the technique to match

[Little Miss Purple]

I never tuned my recurve (fita pb 1176) or wheelie bow (fita pb 1299) but they were both set up by Aard... shot my bare shafts at 60M with the recurve by accident one day (2 of them!!!) and they landed within the rest of the group in the gold; shot a couple of arrows through the paper tune thingy with NDY with the wheelie bow and yep... spot on!

I just shoot... I have full confidence in my gear... its my mental game that lets me down

[clickerati]

Aard's is down the road for you, so you can go and see him if you ever have trouble.

OB is 3 hours by train from me. Not so easy for me. He sets up a lovely bow. The danger comes when I leave and am left to my own devices. I never fiddle with the rest or button because I feel safe that they're set correctly, but you never know what could happen just taking your bits out of the bag.

Gotta learn how to deal with this stuff myself under OB's guidance, so I can become a self-sufficient archer. Although judging by how long it took me to figure out which way to turn my sight, there's not a lot of hope for me

[Deadeye Doc]

I have been wondering whether to reply to this post or not. Old Bloke is absolutely spot on. The difference between our expectations and our performance will always result in disappointment if we let it. The trick is to help the performance and expectation to converge, until they become one and the same although I suspect that performance will never entirely match our expectation. However, one of Aard's little pearls of wisdom concerns how we might help to achieve some form of convergence. If we make "competition" the norm, there is every chance that performance and expectation will come together at competition. Aard puts it like this. Referring to competition "this is where I live".

As Little Miss Purple puts it it's a mental side that gives her the problem. Watching her I don't think she does herself justice. Positive Mental attitude and familiarity with an environment make it easier to perform. I also wonder if some form of "arrogance" -- not necessarily towards other archers -- is required to achieve best performance. Certainly the attitude that Daryl Pace is said to have exhibited -- "I wonder where they are keeping my medal?" (not said with any "arrogance", simply certainty of his capability) -- is necessary.

Many archers step onto the line and start blasting away before composing themselves. Visualisation of shooting each arrow into the centre of the target, and complete mental focus do not come without practice. There is another thread running at the moment which mentions "Time" as being in short supply. We all have 24 hours, it's what we do with it that's different. Korean archers have all day to shoot. Most of us are not as lucky. Learning to " Focus" on each shot, having learned, with accuracy, the technique of shooting, is a skill in itself.

Having re-read Lanny Bassham's book With Winning in Mind I am progressively more impressed that we spend more time analysing technique, than we do on learning to find the "zone" so prized by many athletes. There are any number of mental techniques, Autogenic Training, yoga, meditation, sophrology (yup, this is mentioned in one of the FITA documents -- "2002-2003 Overall Training Plan" on the FITA website, and had me scratching my head as to what it was), tai chi and a number of other mental management systems which could theoretically help, and therefore minimise the gap between expectation and performance.

[pHz]

while OBs post is spot on in its observations i think it depends totally on where you are in your archery and how you respond to the expectation / disappointment

as a hobby archer with only a year and a bit of shooting behind me im well aware im not going to win any of the comps i go to (heehee - yet) so that first of all frames my expectations

went to my first comp of the year yesterday (jolly archers portsmouth in st ives) knowing i would place mid-table at best (and even that would mean shooting close to my practice PB which is probably 15-20 points above my average) so i was lucky to be in a position where final rank wasnt important - one element of pressure off

in line with OBs observations i went into the round aiming (PMA / visualisation / whatever you want to call it) to shoot somewhere about between halfway between average and PB

as it happens for MOST of the round i shot well enough to get close to that practice PB but the usual inconsistencies and 3 or 4 BAD ends meant i didnt even reach that 'halfway' expectation and ended up shooting pretty much spot on my recent average

the difference is in the response - perhaps im lucky (or my brain isnt wired right) but that didnt disappoint - the performance i was 'visualising' was a TARGET and i carried through the concept of targeting from my day job - its something definitely achievable but not necessarily quickly or easily so theres no point beating yourself up too much (or more than you would on a 'normal' days shooting) - i shot as well as ive been shooting recently overall and nothing NEW went wrong (just same things i need to work on week in week out)

i also think that (unless youre good enough to be looking at rankings or squad places) defining your current performance by a single event is bound to create issues for most archers - i suspect (anyone got any figures or evidence ? ) that score / performance variation amongst 2nd / 1st / BM 'club' archers is way greater than that amongst the elite which would mean a bigger chance at any single event of a weaker performance than your best and so a bigger chance of disappointment - at my level i believe im better off setting targets and measuring success (and disappointment) in terms of mid- and long-term trends rather than single performances

im sure i had a point to make somewhere - probably something to do with contextualising individual performances in competition in terms of personal performance targets over a longer time frame ?

slainte : rob

[slartibartfast]

[quote=Deadeye Doc;210249]If we make "competition" the norm, there is every chance that performance and expectation will come together at competition. Aard puts it like this. Referring to competition "this is where I live".

I have 'God is a DJ' on my ipod. It says "This is my church this is where I heal my hurts" I really feel this and it is very comforting, the shooting line really is where I belong.

I spend between 45 and 70 minuets (not all in one go) every day on visualisation and this can be anything from working on my hand position to working on a particular muscle group.

[Ray Bellion]

Nice Post,
on reflexion Ive always thought my equipment understood what my intensions where.

[Erika]

lol almost all of my PBs are shot in competition.

My goal in any comp is to shoot average and my goal in training is to improve my average.