The black box  

Another trick for dealing with persistent worries. This one is based on visualisation. It's named after one of the better known variants (more below), but your 'box' doesn't have to be black.

Settle down and relax.
Imagine yourself sitting in a room, at a desk, looking out of the window at a pleasant landscape.
Imagine a writing pad in fornt of you, and a pen.
Just to the side, or behind you, there's a safe, solid box, with a handle and a heavy, well-oiled lock, with a key. The lid is open, and the box is empty.
Imagine picking up the pen, and writing down any worry that may intrude. Any kind; from a niggling concern about your bow tuning to your mid-life crisis.
Imagine taking that piece of paper, folding it, and placing it in the box.
Repeat for any other concern.
When all your problems are in the box, close the lid securely, and turn the key.
Rest a little before leaving the room and coming back to the real world.

iWhat you just did was to put your worries quite deliberately aside for a while. They haven't gone away, but they aren't going to pop out of that box until you go back there and open it.
When you've completed your shooting, find some time to go back to the room, re-open the box and check your problems out again. This is important; if you just try to forget about them, they will eventually come home to roost, and if they can escape from the box , you'll cease to believe in the box (I know this sounds weird, but it's the way this stuff works!). So go back and sort them out.

Top of page

Variants on this method
Do it for real One archer I know didn't imagine this. He just took a small notepad to shoots, wrote down anything that bothered him and left it in his tent until after the shoot.
Use the list for real If you've got a list, check over the list after the shoot and plan a way to deal with the problems on it. This is particularly powerful if you have a written list; not only do you learn that putting a problem aside is OK, but you don;t have to worry about remembering to deal with it - you've got it on the list! A surprising number of day to day worries are just 'I mustn't forget to...'
Burn irrelevant worries Add a hearth fire to the visualisation and chuck any daft worries into it.
Use your own images Personal images work better; use them!
Use a short version on the line Once you've practiced, you can probably work out a way to adapt the method for quick worry sidelining; mentally put a sudden concern in your quiver pocket or something for sorting out later.
Top of page
 
Psych Home
When it works

Black box techniques take a little time; use one as part of a mental warm-up routine or even the day before.

Visualisation has to be practiced to be effective. If you use the technique as described here, spend time beforehand filling in details of your mental 'room' to make it real.
 
When it doesn't

Pushing problems aside without eventally dealing them just teaches you that the problem hasn't really gone.