Best personality for archery?

[geoffretired]

Tenacity; is that the same as stick- at- it- ness?
Attribution? How one feels about ones abilities. I am unclear on that. Is it things like, feeling good about those abilities; feeling they are important abilities, or am I way off?
At club level, I see many archer who seem, at first glance, to have tenacity.
Their lack of progress, in some instances, I find a little sad. Would you say that it is possible to be tenacious but to take the wrong approach, so fail to improve. Or could it be they just appear tenacious, when in reality it is something else? Is real tenacity also about what the individual does in order to get better?

[Watch_Man]

Originally Posted by clickerati

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!!

Wendy shot against both at Clophill and the attitude was the same there. Both enjoy their archery but once they are on the line it is serious. Wendy has shot quite a few times against Lucy and she is always very pleasant, friendly and has a great sense of humour while still being totally professional. In the Gold medal match, Lucy, Wendy and the judge were doing the 'give me sunshine' dance from Morecambe and Wise as they went down to collect their first arrows

Regarding 'tenacity' we see archers at nearly every tournament retire because they are not going to achieve good scores. Sunday was a good example at Welbeck. It was very obvious scores were going to be low because of the wind. Archers retired after the first distance because they were not going to get the score they wanted. Others stayed till the end and while the scores were low the experience was valuable. And of course one of the ones who stayed till the end was Simon Terry who put in a remarkable score considering the weather - perhaps that is why he is as good as he is - tenacity.....

[clickerati]

Tenacious D - great band!

Tenacity is taking a bus to your club week in, week out, lugging all your kit along, regardless of the weather. Taking the train, bus, blagging lifts to get to shoots or coaching weekends in other parts of the country. Not giving up the sport despite numerous equipment issues, lack of coaching, ill health, financial difficulties, personal tragedies, etc.

Oh...that would be me then.

[GeoffT]

Originally Posted by Watch_Man

Both enjoy their archery but once they are on the line it is serious. ....

I believe that you have hit upon an important trait there Trevor. We have in our club a very good archer (has manged the GB team and shot at GMB for many years) who I have admired this particular ability. He will laugh and joke...be half way through a joke...walk to the line, be totally focussed and shoot six strong arrows...walk off the line and finish off the joke.

I do believe that there are personality traits that are beneficial to archery, and this ability to switch on and off total concentration is an important one. Sure, tenacity is important; my jack russell is tenacious but he lacks concentration!

[ASW1973]

then to be succesfull an athlete must be coached and understand what is required of them and their coach.
those who are successfull without 1 on 1 intensive coaching could have achieved so much more if they had access to it

[phil_r_58]

Originally Posted by Watch_Man

Wendy shot against both at Clophill and the attitude was the same there. Both enjoy their archery but once they are on the line it is serious. Wendy has shot quite a few times against Lucy and she is always very pleasant, friendly and has a great sense of humour while still being totally professional. In the Gold medal match, Lucy, Wendy and the judge were doing the 'give me sunshine' dance from Morecambe and Wise as they went down to collect their first arrows

Regarding 'tenacity' we see archers at nearly every tournament retire because they are not going to achieve good scores. Sunday was a good example at Welbeck. It was very obvious scores were going to be low because of the wind. Archers retired after the first distance because they were not going to get the score they wanted. Others stayed till the end and while the scores were low the experience was valuable. And of course one of the ones who stayed till the end was Simon Terry who put in a remarkable score considering the weather - perhaps that is why he is as good as he is - tenacity.....

I believe I have said the same thing in a thread last year. I've had the good fortune to shoot with, follow round, or just observe some of the enduring great archers in action. The people who's videos and books many of us still buy, like Wise, Shepley, the Ragsdales etc. (Shelley is still the stunning beauty that had all the guys queueing up to ask her to dance in Darmsdadt!, before she married Terry of course!)

They all have many different personalities, styles and attitudes. But as Watch_man noted. When they step onto the line, a shutter comes down, and the professional in them comes to the surface.

John Dudley is a prime example in todays batch of Pro's. On youtube you see him break dancing and being a showman and acting the clown with the kids at Vegas. But on the line, he is quiet, calm, collected and 100% focused.

As Watch_man also said, at Welbeck, Simon stayed on the line when others retired, but this was an external influence, gale force winds. There are a few members on the forum now for example, in one of the down cycles in their shooting, which we all suffer from periodically. There is no medal in beating your head against a brick wall till it bleeds with 'tenacity'. A professional will recognise they are having problems, be able to retire, without shame, to get their head together, sort out the problems and come back on top form.

[ASW1973]

exactly phil: never confuse tenacity with bloody mindedness
this is just the beginning and as with technical skills it must be honed and grown into the attitude of a world class performer.
without a holistic approach and a well rounded set of skills an athlete can not be the best:
on their own,
wanting it is not enough
hard work is not enough
technical skill is not enough
mental toughness is not enough
to be the best.
It is a balance of all of the above and no individual can expect to have all of the answers to the above on their own, so what is the secret to success? tenacity and good support

[Deadeye Doc]

If ASW is going to get tecchnical I'd like him to comment on the theory of Personality propounded by Alfred Adler. Simply put, we develop, as children, to some extent depending upon the position in the family, and some other family dynamics. For example, first children have certain characteristics developed because of having been, for at least part of their childhood, an "only" child. Subsequent children may develop a more competitive nature. Now, this is only a very -- and I stress VERY -- simplistic and sketchy outline of Adler's theory, but nevertheless it was popular, and still is, among educationalists.

It would be interesting to know just how the "position" of an individual in their family relates to how "competitive" an Archer they have become. Was the individual always competitive within the family? The thread has so far been dealing with tenacity, although outlined by ASW above are some of the other features of "competitiveness" such as "want", "Drive", and so on, matched by physical characteristics depending to some extent upon the sport chosen, in this case archery.

Sorry Clicky, this is taking it to even more technical discussion. However, for me, this is FUN. I enjoyed taxing my brain.

[clickerati]

Originally Posted by Deadeye Doc

Sorry Clicky, this is taking it to even more technical discussion. However, for me, this is FUN. I enjoyed taxing my brain.

No need to apologise, Paul. It's refreshing to read intelligent posts and different views. Knowking your background and interests, it's no surprise you enjoy investigating all the possibilities.

[Watch_Man]

Originally Posted by phil_r_58

As Watch_man also said, at Welbeck, Simon stayed on the line when others retired, but this was an external influence, gale force winds. There are a few members on the forum now for example, in one of the down cycles in their shooting, which we all suffer from periodically. There is no medal in beating your head against a brick wall till it bleeds with 'tenacity'. A professional will recognise they are having problems, be able to retire, without shame, to get their head together, sort out the problems and come back on top form.

Phil, this reminds me of someone we both know very well. Shot at a high level as a junior but has never been able to repeat his success as an adult. But he has kept at it for the past 30 years and as grimsby_archer has said previously, he is a 'legend in his own lunchtime' for attending a competition nearly every weekend. Simon Terry, who has also known him since he was a junior, suggested he turn to compound! However he refuses to change style and keeps saying he will only swap once he has mastered recurve. He is the only one apart from Wendy who is up at the club nearly every night practicing. Come rain or shine, summer, winter and even in the dark using floodlights he is to be found practicing. He contributes to archery in the club and in the County and has been one of the main influences in pushing Wendy forward into competitive archery.

He may not have won any major championship or gone above County representation, but he has contributed more to archery in our County than many who have achieved success. His 'tenacity' is something which we all could learn from.