With many archers unable to access a range or find a place to practice shooting right now, this is a perfect time to turn inward and focus on mastering your mental game. USA Archery is brining you Mindful Monday with weekly resources to help you continue on your archery journey without needing to pick up a bow.
When you can’t go outside, go inside and put your energy into what you can control.
At any level of archery, having a strong mental game is important for success and improvement. Coaches can help archers begin to work on their focus and mental game from their first lesson. USA Archery's Education and Training Manager Guy Krueger has compiled four top tips for improving mental game for beginners:
Incorporate Mindfulness in training on a daily basis. This can be as simple as keeping the cell phone away from practice and shooting in total silence as you focus on one specific aspect of the process. You can also do other mindful activities to build awareness and focus such as sitting for 3-5 minutes focusing on only your breathing. The goal is to become aware of the focus, and when the focus switches to something else, to simply bring it back to the original focal point.
Bring an open, growth mindset to practice. A growth mindset is one that believes skills can be developed through hard, smart work and that failures and challenges are all part of the learning process. Approaching practice with this mindset will accelerate the learning and growth stage for new athletes.
Know what good looks like. Watch video of the best archers in the world. Studies show that when you do this, neurons are firing in your brain which will create neuropathways. This means you will start to develop a mental familiarity of shooting by watching videos of the best performing.
Start and finish practice with a few minutes of imagery on what you want to accomplish, your mindset, and your process. Finish the day rehearsing the things that went well or even on the things you still need to improve upon.
