# Helping new shooters deal with nerves



## Supermag1 (Jun 11, 2009)

I'll start with the problem and format. I'm one of several coaches for a 4H archery program and we're sick of seeing good shooters crumble on scoring night. Here's what makes this very hard to coach around. The program is an 8 week program and we have all walks of ages and experience levels of shooters. Each shooter gets 1/2 hour a week to shoot and be coached (max 4 shooters and 2 coaches per time slot) and many of the shooters use club equipment that stays at the building so they can't practice at home. Scoring night consists of 1 practice round then 3 scoring rounds of 6 arrows on the 40 cm face (the best shooters use the Vegas style 3 spot face to save arrows) with the best end used to determine what medal/ribbon they receive and this is also the same face that we practice all through the program.

With the limited time we have to work with them, it's usually a lot of very basic form work (grip, anchor, follow through, fixing problems, etc) but many actually get fairly decent if they listen and work hard while they're there. The problem is that with the short time frame and only one night of real competition, the nerves on the last night kick in and drop scores anywhere from just a few points to lots of points. Now we've got some ideas that we're going to try next year to help expose them to the nerves so they can get used to it but I would love to hear some other coaches ideas on how they would try and deal with this.


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## da white shoe (Mar 10, 2009)

My opinion will not help you, I'm afraid.
Pressure is a funny thing; it can make some actually exceed their average... and it can crumble the confidence of others.
Most new archers shouldn't be put in a competitive position, even if that competition is with their prior performance... again, just my opinion. If they're still engraining aspects of basic form... they're not ready.


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## Huntinsker (Feb 9, 2012)

Why focus on a scoring night? I mean, it's just shooting a bow. Get them to understand that making good shots will result in a good score and teach them to focus on making the shots rather than hitting a certain scoring ring. If you only have 1 scoring night where the format changes, I'd have some practice exactly like the scoring night will be. It sounds like scoring night would move pretty quickly so periodically within the 8 weeks, have some nights where you practice for 10 minutes and then do the last 20 minutes of practice just like your scoring night will be. Make sure they focus on the shots just like it was regular practice but within the format of your scoring night. 

That should decrease the anxiety of doing something different and make the scoring night much more benign.


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## Supermag1 (Jun 11, 2009)

The format isn't a complete change, they practice on the same targets, number of arrows and distance that they will be using during scoring night. Nothing we can do about taking them into a competitive situation while still working on form fundamentals, we only have so much time with them (and with all the activities kids have today, we're hard pressed to get 1/2 hour a week for 8 weeks in).

We do harp on them to focus on making good shots and even when shooting for score keep trying to remind them to really focus on doing everything right (if they didn't follow through, we keep saying hold that pin in the middle, if they've been working on grip we remind them, etc).

Like I said earlier, we do have an idea to, hopefully, help with this next year. That idea is to basically add a weekly league element into it and score every week with a most improved and overall winner in addition to the required medal/ribbon awards. At least then they'll have the experience of dealing with the nerves that can come when it counts.


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## Sasquech (Dec 15, 2014)

Read with winning in mind by Larry basham great at how to build an Olympic level mental game


Staff shooter Dream Shot Archery makers of Twisted Minds bowstrings. 
Hoyt Pro Comp Elite XL 51#
AXcel Acheive sight. Hamskea rest


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## Brian A (Feb 22, 2016)

We run a strikeout style scrimmage where there is a score given at the start. Anybody that shoots that score or higher stays in. Anyone lower sits down. Then a slightly higher score is given and same thing. This repeats only about three times before a winner is declared. We usually get atleast two of these in when we do this.


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## Supermag1 (Jun 11, 2009)

Brian A said:


> We run a strikeout style scrimmage where there is a score given at the start. Anybody that shoots that score or higher stays in. Anyone lower sits down. Then a slightly higher score is given and same thing. This repeats only about three times before a winner is declared. We usually get atleast two of these in when we do this.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Interesting idea, thank you.


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