I am often asked to talk about performance psychology to archers. This is seen as a magical answer to all performance issues, and it is, but not in the way many expect. There are many tools open to the sports psychologist to help individuals improve their performance, these include relaxation, attentional strategies, coping strategies and imagery. On this website I hope to address the uses of these and other strategies over the next few editions. So for this first piece I am going to look at relaxation techniques.

Everyone feels nerves to a greater or lesser degree in any kind of performance and the way the symptoms of this “fear” may manifest range from debilitating through to helpful. So let us dispel a couple of misconceptions about nerves. The symptoms of nerves that an athlete feels are, in general, good and necessary for an improved performance. To this end the idea of reducing these positive symptoms is a very bad idea if the individual wishes to perform at their best. The critical point is that there are, perceived, negative physical symptoms that any performer feels and these include: elevated heart rate, sweating, and butterflies (mild nausea) and some positive symptoms including, increased feelings of strength and well being as well as, in some cases, feelings of increased visual acuity. It must be imediatley apparent that these are feelings and symptoms that are positive for the individual so why do so many psychologists and coaches look to reduce these feelings?
They don't, of course.

What needs to be looked at is how the individual relates to these symptoms, and this is where the psychologist and the coach can work hand in hand with the athlete to improve the experience of competing. Many people are afraid of these feelings,especially the negative physical ones, this may be due to a feeling of relinquishing control or even because they have had a poor competitive experience and tied up these feelings with the bad performance. Any performer needs some level of arousal to perform well, otherwise they do not access there skill to give a good performance and so the question becomes how do you control the level of arousal to give that heightened performance without dropping in to debilitating symptoms. The answer is not relaxation techniques per se but TRUST. Nerves become debilitating when the athlete doubts their skill is good enough for the situation they are in, they feel poorly prepared.

So the best relaxation technique is making practice emulate competition.

For the competitive archer the practice session must, at least in part, be structured to emulate competition scenarios. This allows the athlete to experience the feelings of nerves in a safe environment and learn that they are a vital part of the competitive experience.

Some training scenarios:

Emulate competition (general): Shoot to the time and arrow limit per end, score rounds,distances, dozens. Set yourself a goal at the start of this session, this must be an outcome goal IE a score this is not the area of practice for process goals (feelings). See how close you came to the goal and re-asses accordingly, look to see what issues arose and make plans how to deal with these issues as they pertain to the competitive scenario.

Emulate competition (specific): Plan your practice with a specific round or score in mind at a specific competition. Try to imagine shooting this event and what it will feel like, you will soon get quite skilled at encouraging rich emotional experiences whilst in practice which allow you to plan and experience how you will perform at the competition important to you. Making it specific is the key. It does not matter whether you are imagining and re-enacting the first end at vegas or the last end at the world championships make it real to you and you will prepare for issues that will arise.

Get a training partner: Ideally your training partner should be in the same division as you and a little more skilled. Using the above scenarios shoot with them and against them in order to practice direct competition (stick to the rules but try and keep it pleasant!). If there is a large difference in your skill levels this can still be valuable practice by using a handicap system.

Train when physically or mentally tired: training when tired, but only in a purely competition based scenario, will allow you to emulate the symptoms of nerves. You will have to work that little bit harder to achieve the score you want and it will be as difficult as dealing with competition nerves. NEVER use this technique when working on a technical aspect of your shot.

Reflection: at the end of every session write 3 good and 3 bad things about your performance that day. Their should be no analysis at this point just bare facts. Analyse what you have written after a couple of hours have passed and see what issues or patterns occur. These immediate reflections are very useful as they can quickly be forgotten or ignored even quite soon after a practice session or competition when you will “manage” your feelings.

Relaxation techniques can now be seen to not be an idea of actively reducing somatic (physical) symptoms during competition but an understanding that they are feelings that must be embraced and dealt with.