| Focussing |
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Focussing is about placing your attention where it needs to be.
There are a few simple tricks that can help you focus at critical
moments; this page lists some of them
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Cue words |
| Cue words are just words or phrases that trigger a response. They
are useful in concentration management because they can focus you
on the right thing at the right time; mnemonics, if you like. Some
examples I've encountered are listed below for different shot phases.
Notice that the largest number are concentrated during that most critical
few seconds. |
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Preparation |
"Relax"; "Tall"
(cue for stance); |
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Predraw |
"Control";
"Balance"; "Relax" |
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Draw/Aim/Shot |
"Power"; "Line";
"Smooth"; "Flow"; "Steady"; "Move!"
(you don't get through a clicker by pulling, you get through
by moving!); "Slide" (elbow along the aim line); "Burn"
(... a hole in the gold); "Pressure" (cue to control
hand and finger pressure); "Easy" ... and many others. |
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Cue words are personal - your own. You need to work out what points
are most critical to you, and what you need to focus on at those points.
Use cue words in practice first, to build a connection between word
and action; then you can move into competition.
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Cue actions |
| Like cue words, actions can help focus attention. It is also reported
that combined word/action cues work better than words alone. Actions
needn't be irrelevant either; in archery, where actions depend only
on the archer, it is easy to pick actions that fit well into every
shot routine. Some examples (nowhere near a comprehensive list): |
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Carefully placing feet
on line |
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Lifting and settling
shoulders before draw |
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Settling hand onto grip |
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Squeeze and relax grip |
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Deliberate breath before
draw |
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Placing sight on gold |
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Breathing during shot |
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Notice that most of these are part of possible 'shot routines' anyway.
The trick to using them as cues is to associate them with something
more specific; for example, "settling hand on grip" can
be a reminder to focus on bow hand feel through the shot; a breath
can trigger the right level of relaxation, and so on.
As with cue words, learn the right association in practice by establishing
a little routine. When you are practising that relaxation during the
shot, preface each shot with your cue action. When you want to focus
on centre, practice focussing centrally as you place the sight. With
a little practice, the action and the response work together to reinforce
your focus on that critical element of your shooting. |
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Quotable quote
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| This example of cue word use
comes from Roy Matthews' book, Archery in Earnest |
I may teach myself the individual
parts, the actions, that make up the shot, by describing
the detail in sentences... But when I made the shot there
was no time for sentences, the arrow had to go. ...there
was only time for words. Words that described how
I felt.
...If I draw a line vertically through the gold, that
is the line of the shot. If I draw a line horizontally
through the gold, that is the height of the shot.
Height is a non-active word. The word which meant something
to me was power....
[The result was seeing the shot] in terms of LINE
- POWER - RELAXATION |
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| Roy Matthews, MBE, was a long-time
British Champion, Master and Grand Master Bowman, and was still
making international scores well into his sixties. |
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Visual focussing |
| This is more a way of bringing your focus in to a point; progressively
withdrawing from peripheral events to end up on the gold. The exercise
works like this: |
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Look around and beyond
the target, accepting what you see |
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Look at 12 o'clock
on the white, then track around the white and back to 12 o'clock |
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Move in to 12 o'clock
on the black, then track around and back to 12 o'clock |
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Move in to 12 o'clock
on the blue .. and around to 12 o'clock again |
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... and on into the
red, and around |
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.. and into the centre
of the gold, and let your focus stay there for a few seconds.. |
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... and relax. |
With a few run-throughs, you can probably compress this into a smooth
transfer of focus from the environment, onto the target centre (or
whatever you want to focus on) in a few seconds, with your attention
'peaking' for the critical phases of your shot. With a little more
practice, that can happen during the prep and draw phases, so you
shift your attention smoothly from 'building' the shot and into the
aim/execution in time with your own shooting rhythm. |
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| Watch it happen |
| Press Go to see a (quick!) visual focussing exercise as it happens.
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| [Loading properly
sometimes takes a few seconds; press Go again if the sequence jumps
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