# Shooter Psychology



## NYBowhunter71 (Jul 29, 2007)

My son gets extremely discouraged if he has a couple bad shots during his tournaments or if he is shooting against certain people in his class. How can I help him recover? Looking for psychology tips.


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## nuts&bolts (Mar 25, 2005)

NYBowhunter71 said:


> My son gets extremely discouraged if he has a couple bad shots during his tournaments or if he is shooting against certain people in his class. How can I help him recover? Looking for psychology tips.


What age?


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## nuts&bolts (Mar 25, 2005)

NYBowhunter71 said:


> My son gets extremely discouraged if he has a couple bad shots during his tournaments or if he is shooting against certain people in his class. How can I help him recover? Looking for psychology tips.


Build on success.
Train with just ONE arrow in the quiver to reinforce, that you are shooting just ONE arrow,
so focus on making that one shot,
and
in order to BUILD on success,
find the magic training distance.

So, we start with a training distance that is SUPREMELY easy.
Let's try 2 yards, with just ONE arrow in the quiver.

BUT, that is too EZ.
This is a "waste of my time". Not difficult enough. THIS is sooooo easy, I could do this ALMOST with my eyes closed.
PURRR-fect.



Cardboard pinned to the target. Center of target at yoru son's shoulder height,
so he can take a level shot. We are TRYING to drill a tunnel. So, put a 2nd target behind the first target.
Can use a cardboard box over-filled with old clothes, to prevent pass throughs in the PRIMARY target in front.





So, the target is only 2 yards away.
Looks deceptively easy.
BUT, must make 30 shots with that ONE arrow in the quiver.
Must fire that ONE arrow for 30 times in a row, into the same hole.

I call this my STRESS TEST.
Mental stress, mental pressure.
Physical stress, from fatigue, from boredom, from loss of focus.

May not put that ONE arrow into the same hole in the cardboard, for 30 perfect shots.
Teach your son, to have a GOAL, a physical goal to execute 30 perfect shots at 2 yards.
Teach your son, to have a mental focus goal, to stay focused for 30 perfect shots...at only 2 yards.

In no time at all...not much, the skill level, the mental focus level, will improve and your son will REACH the goal
of 30 perfect shots (drilling a tunnel) at just 2 yards.

The 2 yard training will reach the point where it becomes TOO EASY,
becomes supremely BORING, and this is just PERFECT,
cuz when the 2 yard training becomes SUPREMELY boring, then, we are training the mind to get out of the way,
training the CONSCIOUS mind to turn off. Now the body goes into AUTO mode, and we become a BRAINLESS mindless zombie ROBOT shooting machine.

NOW, the mental training aspect is starting to take hold.
KEEP training at this SUPREMELY easy 2 yard training...reaching 1000 arrows into the same hole.

We are brain-washing the subconscious mind, to EXPECT an outcome,
to EXPECT the arrow to drill into the same hole as the last shot.
DRILLING a tunnel, shooting ONE arrow hole groups, becomes NORMAL,
we are conditioning the brain (used to call this BRAIN-washing)
to be super CHILL, when we shoot arrow after arrow after arrow into the same hole.

WE de-sensitize success. WE condition your son's brain, that it's REALLY NO BIGGIE
to hit the x-ring again and again, and again, cuz this is the NEW NORMAL.

HOW to become a ROBOT that never freaks out,
when your son starts shooting x-ring after x-ring after x-ring? How to become IMMUNE to stress,
how to become "it's cool, no biggie" if you make ONE bad shot?

CUZ, during this endless training at 2 yards, your SUBCONSCIOUS brain has SUPREME confidence,
that the NEXT shot will go into the one arrow hole group, cuz after THOUSANDS of shots into the same hole
at 2 yards.....this becomes NORMAL

then, you shoot thousands and thousands of training shots into the same hole at 3 yards...
then, you shoot thousands and thousands of training shots into the same hole at 4 yards.

You see how this training progresses. NOT sure how old your son is.
NOT sure how serious of a tournament shooter your son wants to become.

ONE of my students (probably older than your son), was having confidence problems.
SO, I told him to do a NEW level of STRESS TEST. Wanted him to shoot 100 shots, into the same hole, not just 30 shots. TOLD him to increase the difficulty by making the test multi-day.

So, on Day #1, he fired 40 shots into the same hole, at his training distance of 6 yards.
So, on Day #2, he stopped after reaching 90 shots into the same hole. Pressure go to him, so he stopped.
SO, on Day #3, he turned off his brain, like I trained him, and just started shooting and shooting and shooting.
He did not stop to count the tick marks, until he had reached 140 shots in a row, in the same hole at 6 yards.



With enough training, with enough MENTAL conditioning (de-sensitizing, brain-washing),
you can become a mindless, zombie robot shooting machine. Just go thru the motions,
the well trained motions of the perfect shot execution, after thousands of shots at 2 yards, then, 3 yards, then 4 yards...etc, you know how this goes.

SPEND way more time, at each training distance. Get thoroughly BORED after shooting thousands of shots, with just ONE arrow into the tunnel, at longer and longer distances. YES, this also means walking to the target, thousands and thousands of times, pulling out that ONE arrow...again and again, and again.

SO, where does this end?

HERE.



My VERY Best student. He fired his ONE fletched arrow into the 20 yard target, for 21 shots in a row.
He stopped at 21 shots. He was supposed to fire 30 shots, with his one arrow, but he stopped after 21 shots.

Can ya blame him?

He is also my OLDEST student, at 70 years young.


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## "TheBlindArcher" (Jan 27, 2015)

It's always easy to say "stay in the moment" or "the only shot that counts is the one currently sitting in your bow" or "you're only competing against yourself..." WAY difficult to "convince" someone to think in that mindset... 

N&B's training approach is a really good one; you may also consider looking up some YouTube about Joel Turner's Shot IQ programs... Yes, SIQ is a target panic program, and your shooter probably doesn't need the full course subscription, but there is quite a bit of content free online and the premise of the course, "closed loop" thinking/processing, is another way of staying in the moment of the shot at hand and reducing outside distractions. Another book that just came out that sounds interesting, by Larry Wise [butchered the name I think], is Planning to Peak in Archery... Haven't read the book [can't find it in a BlindArcher friendly format], but sounds interesting in the podcasts I've heard about it. 

Not that this will work for your son, but as a visually impaired/blind archer I rely heavily on how the arrow impacts sound, and for a while I've been finding myself 
"saying a few choice words" when alone at the club and I miss the paper, until recently when I had several shots that sounded like clear misses but in fact were red or better [really good for my skill level], figuring out that target center was pretty worn as was the spot of the bale I was set up on... As a training tool I have now taken to sometimes cutting out the center of the paper target and setting up on the soft spot of the bale, and concentrating on knowing that what sounds like a miss may not be, which helps me focus on the process and not the results. Point is, finding activities that aren't based on outcomes but rather on how the shot felt. 

Then there are exercises where you and he are "scoring the process" and not scoring for points... Shots that were executed poorly but happened to hit the X are bad shots; shots where the execution was good but happen to land in the blue are good shots... Your scorecard is nothing more than + or -, and the goal is to improve on that scoring format regardless of actual points. When the process is consistent/repeatable, the points will come automatically; and the process is in your control while once the arrow leaves everything is out of your hands... 

Finally, and this sort of depends on your son's personality, but competition calluses... We get used to and better manage high stress situations by being in high stress situations


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## 8025952 (Sep 7, 2020)

Sounds like his problem is anxiety around other archers. I would have him shoot around as many people as possible. The confidence exercises stated above will be a big help. But if he can not learn to stay confident around other archers it will continue. This is hard, exposure to other archers and knowing your only competing against yourself and not them can be hard to grasp. If he can shoot with a good crowd and be able to talk with them and laugh and enjoy himself good shots will follow. Good luck.


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## 8025952 (Sep 7, 2020)

Another thing that can help is to have him, slow down his draw anchor and alignment. Pretty much make him shoot as slow as humanly possible without fatigue. This forces your brain to stay focused on the shot process and not what's around you. He looses himself around others because his mind is probably how he stacks up against others instead of his shot process. This causes rushed shots, off anchor, and drive by aiming. If he's forced to preform his shot process as slow as possible, it will keep his mind where it needs to be to continue shooting well.


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