One of Master Coach Bernie Pellerite’s favorite sayings is that archery is not a sport, it is a discipline. While I won’t argue that statement either way, discipline does seem to be at the heart of competitive archery (and every young archer’s parent’s hearts).
The word has unfortunate connotations or alternate meanings. Many people think of discipline primarily as being associated with punishment (or bondage, oh my!). But here we are looking at a secondary definition of the word, namely “2 : to train or develop by instruction and exercise especially in self-control.” Maybe we would be better off using the term “self-discipline” instead.
The words discipline and disciple have the same roots which is the meaning I tend to focus on. Our very best competitors often have a near-religious commitment to their archery practice.
Ack, you may have noticed I love words and enjoy word play and have distracted myself, something archers are not supposed to do.
The point of this post is that everyone, to a person, advocates that competitive archery is best expressed by repetition of one’s shot process, while focusing on that process so as to adhere to it faithfully.
The objective of target archery, the goal, is to shoot close groups of arrows into the highest scoring zones of one’s target. So, why is being disciplined to follow the exact same procedure the “winning formula” in so many people’s minds?
The point of this post is that everyone, to a person, advocates that competitive archery is best expressed by repetition of one’s shot process, while focusing on that process so as to adhere to it faithfully.
There are, in my mind, a couple of contributing factors. For one, if you just performed a series of steps that resulted in an arrow landing in the X-ring of your target, if you shoot the next shot differently, will that increase or decrease the likelihood that the next arrow will land in the same place? I remember a rather embarrassing episode at a California State Outdoor (NFAA) Championships. I decided for some reason to shoot this event with a release aid that I had just bought a week or so prior. (I know, I know, but it makes a nice “Boy, was I stupid!” story to tell as a coach.) On one target (35 yard Field, I think), as I was drawing to anchor, I hit my chin with my thumb, which tripped the release aid. When I checked the result, it was a 5 (on a 5-3 target face). Yeah, sometimes it is better to be lucky than to be good. Now, do you think that I should have tried to replicate that shot with my next arrow? No? (You passed the test!) But, do you know why? The reason why is that that accidental trick shot I pulled off had been done exactly one time and I had “memories” of thousands of replications of my standard shot to draw upon. This is why we have “Recovery Techniques,” to wipe away the influence of a bad shot (no matter how well it scored) and to be able to get back to replication our “good” shot, the one practiced ad nauseum, as we were doing.
Underlying this is the fact that we are better at physical tasks that we are repeating than doing them without such a repetition. And, we now know, that even an imagined task attempt makes one better at replicating such a task.
Biologically, we have determined that an imagined physical task activates the same muscles as when doing the task, so at the very least, you are running wiring tests for the task. Since muscles are activated by nerves, if you activate the same muscles in the same sequence, you are likely to get the same muscle activity. Of course, if you shut your eyes on the second attempt, all bets are off for an aiming sport. Using the exact same muscles without the feedback as to whether the bow was properly positioned is not a guarantee of success. (And I once was soundly beaten by a woman at a novelty shoot, who closed her eyes just before her release aid tripped. Go figure.)
Biologically, this behavior is reinforced in the form that nerve impulses are easier flowing if they are preceded by the exact same nerve impulses. It is as if the previous nerve action primes the channel for the next one.
I do not expect that focusing on repetition of one’s shot process will be moved off of center of an archer’s attention any time soon, if ever, because of the reasons behind that practice.
Postscript I am currently working on a book on principle-driven coaching. I was trained as a negotiator back in my working days. Our favorite process was often described as “putting the whys before the whats.” By focusing on the whys before getting into “solutions” allows one to understand the issues better and, more importantly, allows everyone to see how all of the others see those issues. This results in solutions, the “whats,” which are more effective in addressing the problems.
And I think this is an approach we, as archery coaches, might benefit from, if . . . if we only knew what the “whys” were! I am taking a shot at doing this, if only to see if I can get the “ball rolling” as it were, and interest others in doing the same.
The above post is along those lines . . . knowing the whys of everything we do and then allowing them to dictate what we do.