first end hoo doo ?

[noel mac]

shooting competion: practice starts you work your way into a nice shooting rythm scoring ends which are normal for your skill level and within your comfort zone. practice ends we have a five minute break. whistle blows first scoring end, do you keep shooting the way you were in practice or does it all get to much and you tighten up and your groups disappear or does it happen on the second end or may be not at all?

[stars_shine]

depends on what kinda mood im in. if i'm nervous, but excited, then i'll shoot ok the first end, second end will b great and the third will be normal. If im angry, my score will go right up, until i calm down, then it'll drop off the chart.

Generally thought, i seem to be pretty lucky, and my first end are ok, and tend to get better :)

[The One]

turn to pieces...

[shooting_star]

nah, i was neva like that. pretty lucky i guess. i just think like, well if like i was like shooting well in like the practice, then like, i can shoot well in the like real thing
so its all good for me

[James Park]

It has to do with the stress-performance relationship (well-known and tested in many fields). As your stress level rises, your performance increases, but if the stress level gets too high your performance markedly decreases. The first-end problems arise if the stress of starting to score pushes you over the peak and into the performance decrease area. There are good ways to deal with it.

[maidmarion]

I just try to think like I'm shooting in practise caus I find in practise I'm more relaxed 8) and my grouping improves and I never think abou it being the first end to me it could be the tenth or the last end and it wouldn't matter (although I do get pretty happy when the last end comes around!!!) :P

[James Park]

The problem of treating it just like a practice end is that you really do need to have your stress level a bit higher than when you are not competing. Otherwise you may not score as much as you could.

[maidmarion]

That's where your mental ability comes in

[shooting_star]

my coach from qld always usd to say that archery is 80% mind, 10% ability and 10% strength (or sumthin like that)

[Phelan]

Just don't get too eccited when that first arrow hits the X! :D

[stars_shine]

Just don't get too eccited when that first arrow hits the X! :D

what x? my arrows don't seem 2 get along witht the X, thats my downfall,if i get an x, then i either keep shootin x's or just toally loose the plot
:-?

[Phelan]

well i can't really talk as i have never actually shot a fita round of any kind yet. Only managed to do field. Hopefully that will change very soon.

But the same feeling applies for field i think. shot 1 hits gold, shot 2 hits gold, shot 3 misses target......WTF WHY??

nerves have a lot to answer for in my book

[The One]

Just don't get too eccited when that first arrow hits the X! :D

what x? my arrows don't seem 2 get along witht the X, thats my downfall,if i get an x, then i either keep shootin x's or just toally loose the plot
:-?

Sounds reasonable - after shooting an X, you'll either shoot another, or you won't :D

[noel mac]

yes, recognising that comfort zone and then working at keeping it there is the key. first arrrow gold, second arrow gold, third arrow miss, thats a good one, did the first two arrows seam real easy to bang in the middle making the third arrow a real lazy shot, or did the adrenillan start to pump and you could see your self shooting a personal best and standing on the podium? I know ive done that in the past, and i have also gone the other way and said got to keep it low key and try and sneak under the radar, and lost points as jim said by being a bit to relaxed.
for me now i will start the practice ends at 90 with low 40 ends and finish practice with low 50 ends, whilst shooting i tune into my body and try and get the right muscles working to get a good clean release.
when we start scoring i try not to concentrate on the technical things and just let the shot happen but i have come to the conclusion that this only works when you have one of those days, when you can point your bow in the other direction and still hit a ten.
now i am going to work the clean release that i would shoot to warm up with for every arrow and monitor what happens to my score's on a arrow to arrow , end to end, distance to distance basis and see if my scores stay the same on average or go up, or down! styay tuned

[baldmountain]

I try to forget which ends are practice and which are for score. As I reach to start pulling arrows someone will say, "Dood, is it OK if we score those arrows before you pull them?" And I'll realize that the tournament has started. :o

Seriously, I just try to get into a rhythm while shooting my practice ends and just continue into the scoring ends. (It usually takes about 5 ends before I feel good about my rhythm so I don't make it before the tournament starts. But I'm usually focusing more on trying to get into a rhythm than on when the scoring ends start so I don't have that first jittery end.)

[Brocky]

Drink more water :o

[CMB50]

Has someone spiked yours?

[Brocky]

Just advice from another thread :o

[Brumbies Country]

It has to do with the stress-performance relationship (well-known and tested in many fields). As your stress level rises, your performance increases, but if the stress level gets too high your performance markedly decreases. The first-end problems arise if the stress of starting to score pushes you over the peak and into the performance decrease area. There are good ways to deal with it.

James, I wonder if you could expand on that last sentence. I have been concerned at being too nervous early and trying to keep that stress level under control. Found that generally I shoot the first three or so ends in a tournament well, fall away for a bit and come good towards the end. Generally shoot a lot better the second day of a two day shoot, target and field, and better at the second distance in a two distance indoor target competition. It seems that I shoot better when I should be getting fatigued. Got to be a mental thing, or is it? :lol:

[fatdog]

mate , just shoot the arrow . You can read all the parks articles and spend hundreds on books, if "you" can't work it out , no-one can. :)

[Brumbies Country]

mate , just shoot the arrow . You can read all the parks articles and spend hundreds on books, if "you" can't work it out , no-one can. :)

Aint that true :lol: Rob you are spot on. You are on your own out there and ultimately you do need to work it out yourself. There never was any logical answer to my original question, that I couldn't work out myself. Stupid question in retrospect :roll: . Just about to catch a plane to NZ and I'll have a drink to that:lol:

[fatdog]

have a few for me ...... :beer_drink:

[James Park]

There are good ways to deal with it.

James, I wonder if you could expand on that last sentence.
What we need to do is to maintain our stress levels at around the right level for optimum performance. Too high and we will stress out and under-perform. too low and we will similarly not do as well.

Hence, what we need are:
- Ways to raise stress level.
- Ways to lower stress level.
- Ways to monitor what stress level you are at present.

The pressures of competing raises your stress levels and that is generally a sufficient means for that. (Alternatively, we could ask all the ladies to shoot in the nude, but that would probably not be permitted, and they might object).

To lower our stress levels, generally the best approach is to take a little time between shots and to control our breathing. Simply breath slower and try to relax. You can practice this by measuring your pulse and then try to lower it by breathing slowly and relaxing - I can quite easily drop my pulse rate by 10 or more in less than 30 seconds just by doing this.

The more difficult thing is monitoring your stress level. Indicators you can use include your pulse rate, how rapidly you are breathing, how tense you feel.

[fatdog]

WORD :D

[Brumbies Country]

There are good ways to deal with it.

James, I wonder if you could expand on that last sentence.
What we need to do is to maintain our stress levels at around the right level for optimum performance. Too high and we will stress out and under-perform. too low and we will similarly not do as well.

Hence, what we need are:
- Ways to raise stress level.
- Ways to lower stress level.
- Ways to monitor what stress level you are at present.

The pressures of competing raises your stress levels and that is generally a sufficient means for that. (Alternatively, we could ask all the ladies to shoot in the nude, but that would probably not be permitted, and they might object).

.

James, sorry I didn't get to reply to this earlier. Just got back from an interesting week in NZ. Am absolutely into visualisation and the vision of naked female archers has caught my attention :lol: . Now does this add to or subtract from one's stress level :P ? Does the answer to this question depend on the female archers in question? Is the desired increase in adrenalin counteracted by a complete deterioration of concentation :cry: Does the resulting physiological diversion of blood flow impair vital O2 supply to the brain. In my neck of the woods they might complain at this time of the year. Bugger :cry:! Why do practicalities interfere with the proven performance enhancement of visualisation :lol: .