Best personality for archery?

[Jerry Tee]

Originally Posted by clickerati

Why must you always suck the fun out of threads???

You have got to the point of the thread without knowing it Clicks The most important thing is to enjoy your archery. FUN.
I once knew a young lady who was a natural at racket sport but she did not enjoy playing so she never developed the skills or played.

[ASW1973]

and most of the international athletes i work with would not describe their sport as fun (a profession perhaps) and they are quite skilled
In answer to tel: look up attribution, as this is the area that defines how one applies personal traits to a situation

[Jerry Tee]

And yet it must have been fun to start with. You don't progress unless you enjoy.Even a profession must have some satisfaction or enjoyment else it becomes just another pointless task.

[Old Bloke]

There have been many Internationalists who have had meteoric rise to that standard, and as such, did not have enough time in the sport to develop tenacity. I wonder what trait they had to represent their country after just three years in the sport? Tenacity, in these instances, doesn't come into it.

[clickerati]

Originally Posted by ASW1973

and most of the international athletes i work with would not describe their sport as fun (a profession perhaps) and they are quite skilled

hmm. nichola simpson and lucy holderness were having a ball on sunday at the the surrey champs! they were dancing, singing, laughing and having FUN!! nichola may have even set a new world and european record on the day.

so much for having fun!!

[FlightyRachel]

I don't understand all this type A personality stuff I'm afraid (not even after years of blogthings...) but it seems to me that world champs aside maybe, as they might be a breed apart, and I'm scared of that ASW1973..... your 'good club archer' needs to have mild OCD! All that repetition! I never got the hang of not changing anything between ends, I'd just get so bored and have to have a fiddle.

[phil_r_58]

During my competition heydays, introvert/extroverts at the extreme end were equal in the top 4 in Europe,

Mike Houghton, no1, totally extreme extrovert
Peder Ax, no 2 totally extreme introvert
Chris Jones, no 3, extrovert,
Jon Allen, no 4, introvert

[Marcus26]

We were discussing this one night and all the top shooters in the room had symptoms of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Some were not obvious till discussed, but a few had major traits.
OCD in itself won't instantly make a top shooter. In some cases it inhibits growth, however the tendancies and approach that OCD brings to the sport often allows them to do all the small extra things that makes them great.

Also just because top athletes don't see their sport AS fun doesn't mean they CAN'T have fun.

[ASW1973]

i am afraid that you dont understand what is meant by tenacity, so i will give you an example:
In the late fifties there was a program of skill identification in place in russia to select acrobats and this was based around going to primary school and selecting kids who had some gymnastic ability at the age of 4-6. Like many talent identification programs this was flawed as it was interested in the skill (which anyone can be taught) not the individuals ability to perform.
In the early sixties this talent identification was refined: a set of monkey bars were erected in primary school play grounds over night and the children observed playing on them. The kids that were selected were NOT those that showed any acrobatic skills but WERE the ones who were trying to master the skills required with bloodied knees and elbows from falling off long after all the other kids had left having grown bored. This is tenacity, it is a trait that is found in young children and WILL give them a greater success and longevity, within a performance domain, than those who do not posses it.
Attribution or how one feels about ones abilities is the other major indicator or predictor of success but requires a great deal of care when looking at as there is no such thing as a wrong attribution but some are more destructive than others. An individual can not be successfull over any length of time at something that does not define them, however something defining one does not make them good at it
Marcus is spot on about the fun part, however different strokes for different folks. Having said that it is easy to be happy when doing something well

[Marcus26]

Good post.
I had not thought about the word tenacity before as a description but it certainly does describe the good shooters I know. All the really good shooters I know never ever stop out of their own lack of interest. They never make excuses for not training and they always feel like they undertrained.
I run a Monday afterschool class which has about 10-15 kids in it. We don't run during school holidays but I turn up and shoot anyway. Only 1 kid turns up during that time to train. She also trains every day that she can convince her parents to bring her (usually 5 days a week). If they keep her away on a day she's not happy. Often she'll shoot 120-180 arrows in one night scoring every one of them. I always said she had a great work ethic but Alistair has put it better. She's tenacious.
Another interesting trait is that they don't quit when things are bad, they train harder. She's been slumping as she's grown and instead of quitting like many kids do, she trained more and harder.
She'll be a winner, no doubt. (she's only 14)