# how to make breathing subconscious.



## bulls-i (Mar 6, 2014)

I have trouble breathing during my shot sequence which is causing my hand to shake and my vision to become cloudy. I need to make breathing a subconscious part of my shot. I have spent many hours blind bale shooting but it doesn't seem to help my breathing. Any tips on how to drive this into my subconscious?


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## RCR_III (Mar 19, 2011)

There's a couple things I could suggest that might work. Sometimes when I am needing to be reminded of things throughout my shot process I'll type them all up step by step, or just type up that one part and print it to tape to my riser where I'll see it just before every shot. Another thing you could try is saying breathe during your shot process. Saying it in your head to be a reminder and help aide in eventually taking it to the subconscious.


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## bulls-i (Mar 6, 2014)

Thank you! I appreciate the advice.


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## montigre (Oct 13, 2008)

Breathing is already a subconscious act that naturally changes with the level of exertion, type of action, or temperament of your psyche at any given time. 

If you spend too much time analyzing and overthinking it, it can lead to exactly what you're describing--choking off too much air and losing sight picture and stability.


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## Mahly (Dec 18, 2002)

Part of my shot routine

(Extremely simplified)

Large breath
Draw to anchors
Exhale
Check level
Aim
1/2 breath in
Start firing engine


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## Bees (Jan 28, 2003)

bulls-i said:


> I have trouble breathing during my shot sequence which is causing my hand to shake and my vision to become cloudy. I need to make breathing a subconscious part of my shot. I have spent many hours blind bale shooting but it doesn't seem to help my breathing. Any tips on how to drive this into my subconscious?


I tried and I cannot make it subconscious.
So. I use the KSL method. Option 1. 
http://www.kslinternationalarchery.com/Technique/BreathingCycle/BreathingCycle.html
I have to think my way through the steps every time.


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## dua lam pa (May 29, 2014)

Your are correct in your thinking , breathing is important -




your putting the cart before the horse 
MAke it a conscious efort - Learn to Diaphragmatic breathing-


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## Padgett (Feb 5, 2010)

I do the exact same breath sequence every shot, I take a deep breath just before drawing and then I exhale while drawing. Then when I hit anchor I immediately take a breath and then hold it during the shot.

My concern is that you are to worried about it being subconscious and as long as you are worried about it this will never happen, you need to pick a breathing pattern to follow and then you need to consciously train with it and make it part of your shot. Then it can become sub conscious.


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## SonnyThomas (Sep 10, 2006)

montigre said:


> Breathing is already a subconscious act that naturally changes with the level of exertion, type of action, or temperament of your psyche at any given time.
> 
> If you spend too much time analyzing and overthinking it, it can lead to exactly what you're describing--choking off too much air and losing sight picture and stability.


Yep......


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## SonnyThomas (Sep 10, 2006)

Padgett said:


> I do the exact same breath sequence every shot, I take a deep breath just before drawing and then I exhale while drawing. Then when I hit anchor I immediately take a breath and then hold it during the shot.
> 
> My concern is that you are to worried about it being subconscious and as long as you are worried about it this will never happen, you need to pick a breathing pattern to follow and then you need to consciously train with it and make it part of your shot. Then it can become sub conscious.


Something very close to what I do. Breathing is natural. Interfere with it and you've got problems, but you can work your shot routine around it.


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## N7709K (Dec 17, 2008)

Breath and exhale, breath on draw- exhale at anchor

Find what works for you with breathing; what I do won't work for the next guy and so on. I won't ever change from
Shootin on no breath, it works for me; but I doubt it will give best results for you.


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## stoz (Aug 23, 2002)

Why exhale at anchor?


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## ron w (Jan 5, 2013)

as said, breathing IS a subconscious activity, it takes no thought to do, what the problem is,.... is that it takes conscious thought to stop breathing....and that, is what is interfering with the mental process that should be going on.


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## bulls-i (Mar 6, 2014)

Thanks for all the help guys! I practiced with a breath in my shot process after I hit my anchor points, and I felt and shot much better.


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## mike 66 (Jan 21, 2010)

montigre said:


> Breathing is already a subconscious act that naturally changes with the level of exertion, type of action, or temperament of your psyche at any given time.
> 
> If you spend too much time analyzing and overthinking it, it can lead to exactly what you're describing--choking off too much air and losing sight picture and stability.


BINGO...she is correct its justlike blinking your eyes...


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## Diggs223 (Jan 25, 2004)

Have you ever threaded a needle ? do you hold your breath when you thread a needle ? 
As Montigre pointed out you probably don't know you just did it, the body adjusted to the task. 
The biggest problem most have, is holding to long. Let down and breath.
I don't believe in the half breath hold. Holding your breath is unnatural. Inhale exhale half and hold , you will immediatly feel tension in your chest. 
Natural respitory pause. Inhale, exhale there is a slight pause before the next inhale. Use the natural pause to fire the shot, exhale extend the pause. 
You can extend the pause 8-12 seconds for most people without to much "side effect" blurred vision, tension shaking. Just remeber you have to breathe.
Don't over think, keep it simple. You can only really think of one thing at a time. There is a lot going on, stance, grip, front sight, trigger, target etc.
Set stance, grip prior to shot, then just try and focus on sight aliagnment, trigger. If the hold breaks down let down breathe.


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## Strodav (Apr 25, 2012)

My coach worked with me to significantly cut my shot time down (this is target archery) in order to take in deep breath on the draw, hold it, exhale once the arrow is gone. Holding my breath during the shot helps with float. Now for hunting, where I can hold the bow at full draw a lot longer, it's a different story.


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## bigHUN (Feb 5, 2006)

I 've grow up at the cold war time over there in middle EU where the army was mandatory, we had any kind of training with all possible rifles and toys, also many martial arts. 
One of the best training I remember was "controlled breading" good for many things but in our case how can you slow down your heart beats. 
So when you train this you can build in (combine) your firing engine, that the 5th second where the moment is coming to execute is between two "pumps" or "bumps" this what we feel....
I believe a lot of Olympic sportists training it especially the rifle shooters. A quick search and here is a good reading for all, your subject is under relaxation:

http://www.targetshooting.ca/reframerize.cfm?redirect=http://www.targetshooting.ca/train_mental.htm


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## bigHUN (Feb 5, 2006)

bigHUN said:


> ...http://www.targetshooting.ca/reframerize.cfm?redirect=http://www.targetshooting.ca/train_mental.htm


sorry folks, this was just a quick googleing and by coincident a site from Canada....don't worry these are not that sooo great, but
imagine sports like biatlon or even better penthatlon:
"The modern pentathlon consists of five events, all held on the same day, fencing, swimming, riding, a combined running and shooting" 

http://www.olympic.org/modern-pentathlon


they train the breath rhythm either for faster or slower hearth beats....


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## sharkred7 (Jul 19, 2005)

Padgett said:


> I do the exact same breath sequence every shot, I take a deep breath just before drawing and then I exhale while drawing. Then when I hit anchor I immediately take a breath and then hold it during the shot.
> 
> My concern is that you are to worried about it being subconscious and as long as you are worried about it this will never happen, you need to pick a breathing pattern to follow and then you need to consciously train with it and make it part of your shot. Then it can become sub conscious.


Exactly how I do it also! I got it from lifting weights. Your are supposed to exhale upon exertion (like bench pressing, you exhale while pushing) so that became my routine. It is subconscious now but I made it a part of my conscience routine until it became subconscious. I then have a full breath to fuel my muscles and vision until release. Some like a half breath, I prefer a full breath because how much air you have in your lungs can make a difference in the feel at full draw and I find a full breath easier to replicate.

That is what works for me


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## ArcherXXX300 (Apr 22, 2013)

Bees said:


> I tried and I cannot make it subconscious.
> So. I use the KSL method. Option 1.
> http://www.kslinternationalarchery.com/Technique/BreathingCycle/BreathingCycle.html
> I have to think my way through the steps every time.


Great info there. I'll have to be looking into this and reading the rest of the links later.


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## Ned250 (Aug 10, 2009)

sharkred7 said:


> Exactly how I do it also! I got it from lifting weights. Your are supposed to exhale upon exertion (like bench pressing, you exhale while pushing) so that became my routine. It is subconscious now but I made it a part of my conscience routine until it became subconscious. I then have a full breath to fuel my muscles and vision until release. Some like a half breath, I prefer a full breath because how much air you have in your lungs can make a difference in the feel at full draw and I find a full breath easier to replicate.
> 
> That is what works for me


I have the same process, but I'm a half breath guy. I feel my chest is too puffed out when I take a full breath in at anchor.

Just like with every other piece of your shot process, practice this enough and it'll become subconscious in due time.


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## Praeger (Jan 7, 2011)

If you are working on breathing when you are drawing your bow, you are starting too late. 

While there is a great deal of information on how and why this works, doing it is fairly simple. What I am referring to is what the military and law enforcement call Tactical Breathing. Given there are very few original ideas in this arena, I'm sure it was lifted from Yoga or related discipline. I learned it, used it, and taught it for many years where I have seen it work successfully for the vast majority. 

The purpose of tactical breathing, or controlled breathing, is to slow down the heart rate. Controlled breathing increases the amount of oxygen in the blood, which in turn slows the heart rate. It is that simple.

Here's the recipe. (While I have listed this by numbers, try not to think of it as steps; this is a smooth, progressive technique)
1. Slowly inhale (this takes 2 to 4 seconds for most adults) deeply through your nose, expanding your belly, fully filling your lungs (if your shoulders are rising you are not fully using your diaphragm to draw air into your lungs). 
2. Hold the breath for the same count as the inhale (think of this a pause, it should feel comfortable, as you roll into the exhale). 
3. Slowly exhale through your mouth for the same count as the inhale and pause. 
4. Pause for the same count and repeat.

After several cycles of controlled breathing, you heart rate will have slowed, and you are ready to begin your shot sequence. I choose to continue the controlled breathing inhaling on the draw, settling into anchor on the pause, and exhale as I execute the shot. Adapt the timing to fit what feels most natural to you.


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## Fury90flier (Jun 27, 2012)

bulls-i said:


> I have trouble breathing during my shot sequence which is causing my hand to shake and my vision to become cloudy. I need to make breathing a subconscious part of my shot. I have spent many hours blind bale shooting but it doesn't seem to help my breathing. Any tips on how to drive this into my subconscious?


make it part of your shot sequence. You do have a shot sequence written down that you follow religously, right? 


Once ingrained into your counted shot sequence, it will become subconscious.


If you are having problems making it subconscious, chances are breathing is separate from your shot routine.


Got to figure out if you like to shoot at the top, middle or bottom of the breathing cycle. Typically it's middle and hold but many people shoot top and bottom just fine. For me, I shoot in the middle, but rifle is bottom...just spend time working with different parts of the breathing cycle and you'll find what you like.


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## CookeMonster (Jun 21, 2014)

I brought my breathing over from what I found best for military rifle marksmanship. *Relaxed* inhale, exhale and let the diaphragm go soft, or limp. My most relaxed chest naturally returns to 1/4 to 1/3 breath and I relax there while taking the shot - airway still open. If the shot is not gone in under 3-4 seconds, take another soft breath as I did before. Leaves the tension out of your upper body. For archery I take a deep breath before draw and full exhale while drawing just as the weightlifting comment made above, then the relaxed breathing described above for the shot itself. If shot is not away after 2 or 3 breath cycles, let down and start again. Big breath - draw. Easy breath - shot.


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## Fury90flier (Jun 27, 2012)

if the breathing isn't right...let down- as mentioned above.

Where is your coach? That is who should be helping you with this.

if you don't have one, get one. At this stage in the game, a coach will help you with all the finer points of the shot routine, clean up form etc.


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## Fury90flier (Jun 27, 2012)

Wanted to bring this back to the top as it was something I was working on a couple days this week.

For me, the breathing phase of the shot sequence has become habit...but only because I think about it. It may sound like it's not habit because of the thought process...nope, I have a shot sequence and I do my best to stick with it.

What I was working on specifically was how/when I hold my breath. What I found was that my breathing cycle is different for compound, recurve, rifle...odd. I thoug hit would all be the same. Well, after a bit more though, it really can't be.

With recurve, there is more muscle/skelatal requirements than there is in shooting compound. Recurve is like maxing out every pull, compound is like a warm up/cool down. Well, think about it. When you push a lot of weight, you take a deep breath, hold, finish exhale...try letting out on a recurve at full draw. I'm sure you can but I belive many will collapse their form. So, with a recurve, it's breath, hold about full breath, release- exhale.

On a compound you have that let-off...so you can relax a bit at anchor...easy to let half breath out, hold, fire.

Rifle, I can do half breath or bottom of breathing cycle...I can't do top of cycle. Though I can do half breaths, it's the bottom of the cycle that works well for me...no tension in my chest to screw the shot up.


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