MENTAL IMAGERY
- Part 1
VISUALISATION
What is all
this mumbo-jumbo called visualisation?
How does it work?
What do you have to do?
Does it help?
I asked all these questions
a couple of years ago, not believing in it at all. But I knew
all the top archers were utilising this area of archery and it
certainly seemed to be doing amazing things for them.
So what exactly is it?
In it's simplest terms it is a form of daydreaming. You see yourself
in your minds eye, imagination, call it what you will, shooting
perfect arrows that land in the ten-ring. It does take some practice
and at first you can feel really silly. You must start with some
form of relaxation procedure, the easiest being to sit somewhere
quiet and comfortable and undisturbed and breathe in and out
slowly and calmly, feeling yourself sink in to the chair.
Next, try thinking yourself
through a shot from standing on the line, placing your hand in
the grip, placing your string fingers and taking some of the
tension, lifting the bow, turning head towards the target, drawing,
anchoring and finally the wonderful feeling of the arrow leaving
the bow and watch it hit the target in the TEN ring.
Try this for a few sessions
and gradually build on it. Start to feel the grip in your hand,
feel the string in your fingers, feel the weight of the bow as
you lift it, see the target, the sight, the blurry string, feel
your hand as it comes to anchor, feel the extra stretch and the
follow through as you release.
Don't worry if you lose
your way or get confused, drop back to some relaxation breathing
and start a new shot. It takes a long while to be as good as
the top archers but it is worth persevering. You should try to
visualise every day and keep it as real as possible, see it at
the right speed, in familiar surroundings but always see your
arrows in the gold. This helps to train you in positive thinking.
As you practice, and perfect,
this technique you can expand it to the point where you can visualise
your next tournament and see yourself feeling calm, relaxed,
positive and strong. If you know the venue you can see the field
or hall, see the sky or the lighting conditions, feel the breeze
or the stillness and see yourself shooting really well.
You can use the same process
to practice a particular piece of technique, especially useful
if you are learning something new or trying to correct a fault.
You get into a relaxed state and just see yourself doing the
small portion of the shot that needs working on; but you must
see yourself doing it correctly.
After lots of practice
you can visualise a good shot on the line, just before you shoot
it, and you can also use visualisation in competition to prepare
yourself for your task, and, if things have got away from you,
a quick rehearsal of a good shot can bring things back on target.
I have learned the hard
way that just shooting the arrows is only the tip of the iceberg.
Lots of other areas need attention, and visualisation is just
one of a number of powerful tools that if practised regularly
will definitely improve your shooting.
Good luck, good shooting
and may all your golds be TENS.
Jan Eley
Jan is one
of this country's top lady recurve archers who was a member of
the Club until moving house a while ago. This article is reprinted
from InSight, the Stortford Archery Club newsletter, Issue
6, Autumn 1995. |
Stortford Archery Club