MENTAL IMAGERY
- Part 4
BLACK HOLES
and how to stop falling in
Picture it - you are in
a league match at the Club on a sunny afternoon. The visiting
team are bragging about how they are going to win and you want
your club to thrash them. You are shooting well and enjoying
the feeling. All of sudden you throw a one! O.K. it happens.
You go back to the line to make the next shot a good one; but
disaster! You follow it up with a two. We have all felt it, the
tightening of the chest, the rising panic, the 'I must not
shoot another bad shot' feeling.
If these feelings spiral
out of control the match will be lost, the archer will feel a
failure and a lovely afternoon will be spoilt. Time for some
positive action.
Sit down on your chair,
take a few relaxing deep breaths and look at your tab. Look at
everything in detail, the leather - notice its colour, the plate
- notice its smooth surface, the screws - notice how many. Absorb
all your thoughts and energy into the details on your tab. While
you are busy doing this your heart rate will drop and that panicky
feeling will start to subside.
Go back on the shooting
line relaxed and focused and ready to build and execute that
wonderful shot.
You can choose anything
to concentrate on, for example I use a Koosh Ball, one of those
peculiar items made out of lots of fine strands of rubber.
Good Shooting,
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
10, Spring 1997. |
Stortford Archery Club