1. Archery Psychology WA Coaching Seminar
This presentation is also called ENG-10-Psychology. It is available in English, French and Spanish.
The colored bars above the slides indicate the following code:
Blue for level 1
Red for level 2
Yellow for level 3
Pascal Colmaire – WA Development & Education Director

2. Psychology List of subjects
Relaxation
Concentration & Attention
Mental activity
Positive self-talk
Visualisation
Goal setting
Stress identification & management
IPS identification
The whole sequence
Pascal Colmaire – WA Development & Education Director

3. Psychology 1. Relaxation
Level of “activation” (stress/relaxation)
Level of “activation” = Stress/relaxation
Performance level
Accuracy / repetition:
Golf, Bowling, Dart, Shooting, Archery
Team / with opponent:
Ball games, raquette games….
Jumping, Weightlifting, fights…
Eplosive / fighting…:
Heaviness / lightness feeling: conform Yoga.
Progressive Relaxation Method for part of your body, for instance your fist.
Internal singing, making no noise.
Self visualization or humour, a personnal matter.
Pascal Colmaire – WA Development & Education Director

4. Psychology 1. Relaxation
Different methods are available:
Part by part with heaviness / lightness feeling
Tense / relaxed (PRM)
Emphasize the exhaling
Eyes closed
Internal singing
Self visualization in cosy place
Humour / de-dramatization
Heaviness / lightness feeling: conform Yoga.
Progressive Relaxation Method for part of your body, for instance your fist.
Internal singing, making no noise.
Self visualization or humour, a personnal matter.
Pascal Colmaire – WA Development & Education Director

5. 2. Concentration & Attention
Psychology
2. Concentration & Attention
Concentration = to be here & now on the task at hand
Attention:
Niedeffer, Schmid & Peper: Orientation & Diffusion
BROAD
Broad Internal
Broad External
INTERNAL
EXTERNAL
In archery we start the shooting sequence broad external: we mention all what is going on around.
From broad external we transfer our attention to narrow internal: in the critical instant we do not react on the events around, we focus on the internal process of our body to propulse an arrow.
‘Soft and hard eyes’ is the concept of observing the scene in front of us (with soft eyes) or watching one object not too far away (the sight for instance).
Soft eyes = Broad External
Hard eyes = Narrow External
Narrow Internal
Narrow External
NARROW
Soft & hard eyes
Pascal Colmaire – WA Development & Education Director

6. Psychology 3. Mental Activity
Mental activity is high when:
Switching among different attention types
Particularly with external type
Moving the eyes a lot (looking at many things)
Mental activity is low when:
Staying in the same attention type
Particularly with internal type (like breathing)
Keeping the eyes stable (on the same spot), like in meditation
Mental activity will be high when the archer switches their attention between their sight and the target. Mental activity will be low when the archer stays watching the target only. Note that bringing the sight between the aiming eye and the target can be accomplished sub consciously.
Pascal Colmaire – WA Development & Education Director

7. Psychology 4. Positive Self-Talk
If I shoot only a 9, I could lose the match
Outcome or consequence
Pessimist
view
Process or
origin
Optimist
view
Process orientation works better than outcome orientation.
Example. In an indoor competition (ten ends of three arrows) John is doing very well, the first eight ends he scored very high results. Obviously he was in the real flow. The ninth end was disastrous: all arrows in the red! What happened? Pour John realized after end number 8 that he was going to shoot a new Personal Record. He was thinking on the outcome, although he had to shoot still two ends.
The moral of this example: an optimistic view has a pitfall.
Never think of the outcome, but concentrate instead on the task at hand.
If I shoot well, I could win the match
Pascal Colmaire – WA Development & Education Director

8. Psychology 5. Visualisation
Two methods:
See your face as on a screen
Just visualize what you usually see: hands, equipment, target....
The 2nd one is more popular among archers, but both are efficient.
Speed of visualization:
Slow for technique development (analytic - details)
Fast for integration in the sequence (global - essential)
At speed of execution during the competitive period
Pascal Colmaire – WA Development & Education Director

9. Process goals Performance goals Outcome goals Psychology
6. Goal setting
There are basically three types of goals:
Process goals
Performance goals
Outcome goals
See next slides for explanation.
Pascal Colmaire – WA Development & Education Director

10. Process goals: Psychology Goal setting
These are the goals that mark the path of where the athlete would like to end up.
These are good goals and give the athlete a path to follow in their training programme.
Using process goals can help the archer to perform as should be. It avoids distracting thoughts.
Pascal Colmaire – WA Development & Education Director

11. Performance goals: Psychology Goal setting
These are the goals that are made when an athlete wants to achieve a particular performance level.
These are usually short term goals with no training programme, unless process goals are included.
It may help if performance based goals are set in terms of skill and technique. This could then be broken down into areas such as Mental Skills, Physical Skills, Technique and Fitness etc.
A performance goal is difficult to use. If my goal is a score of say 333 over 36 arrows and after 30 arrows the partial score is 272, then it is obvious that I cannot realize the goal even if the last six arrows score 60. The performance may as well depend on the circumstances (rain, wind and so on).
Pascal Colmaire – WA Development & Education Director

12. Outcome goals: Psychology Goal setting
These are usually made when an athlete wants to beat another competitor or win a competition.
This is not a good goal as other athletes are there to do their best, and you cannot control your competitors to win.
An outcome goal is only useful when the athlete aims to perform to a certain level, the problem is the athlete could be setting themselves up to fail.
Don’t calculate yourself rich! As long as the competition is going on the result is not yet fixed. Note that this is not only a pitfall in archery, in other (team)sports we can observe the same mistake.
Pascal Colmaire – WA Development & Education Director

13. Goals should be: SMART or SMARTER
Psychology
Goal setting
Goals should be: SMART or SMARTER
Specific,
Measurable,
Achievable,
Realistic,
Timed,
Exciting,
Recorded.
Specific means that the goal is not too general. Goals like ‘I will do my best’ are not specific; they are too general and therefore not very effective
Measurable means that the outcome, i.e. the goal achievement, can be measured in the sense that it can be decided afterwards whether the goal has been achieved or not
Achievable means that the goal can be reached by the athlete. A goal like a will shoot only in the yellow is not achievable for an entry level archer shooting in a regular WA round.
Realistic means that it is possible that the goal will be achieved. For a beginning archer it is not realistic to set as a goal: ‘next year I will be the world champion’. ‘Next year I'll have the same results as this year’ is maybe very realistic, but it is not challenging. So, challenge is another item
Timed or time-phased. The time limits given for the goals must be clear. (Short range as well as long range)
Exciting. Challenging goals motivate the archer to work hard to realize the goal
Recorded. Writing down the goal helps the archer to stay aware of the goal
Goals can be subjective (e.g. ‘having fun’) and objective (e.g. ‘to win the competition’). A subjective goal is not SMART; it is not measurable.
Goals can be positive or negative. A positive goal puts the focus on success; a negative goal puts the focus on failure. It is more natural and easier for the human mind to focus on a positive goal than on a negative one like ‘not making this mistake again’. A negative goal tends to change the mind during execution and can harm the performance.
Pascal Colmaire – WA Development & Education Director

14. Psychologie Le stress Qu’est-ce?
Réaction émotionnelle due à une relation avec un possible futur.
Comment se manifeste t’il?
Par divers symptômes:
Crainte / insécurité
Perte de mémoire
Perte de force
Mains moites
Douleur à l'estomac
Chaleur
Confusion mentale
Vertige / étourdissement
Douleur au ventre
Douleur à la poitrine …
Bâillement
Vision embrouillée
Bourdonnement
Tension au cou
Besoin d‘aller aux toilettes
Se sentir nerveux
Assoiffé
Nausée
Mains / jambes tremblantes
Rythme du cœur + élevé
Pascal Colmaire – Directeur du développement et de la formation de la WA

15. 7a. List of Stress identification
Psychology
7a. List of Stress identification
LEVEL
EFFECT
Symptoms
High
Medium
Low
Negative
None
Positive
Weak legs
High heart beats
Sweat hands
Vertigo or Dizzy
Need bathroom
Warm …
Pascal Colmaire – WA Development & Education Director

16. Psychologie Le stress Comment l’éviter
Être ici et maintenant sur la tâche en cours
La respiration
Comment le réduire?
Faible niveau d’activité mentale
Recours à des techniques de relaxation
Comment faire avec?
Pratique familiarisant aux symptômes perturbateurs:
Jambes tremblantes Squats puis tirer
Rythme du cœur + élevé Courir puis tirer
Perte de force Musculation puis tirer
Mains moites Vaseline sur mains puis tirer
Vertige / étourdissement Tourner vite sur place puis tirer …
Pascal Colmaire – Directeur du développement et de la formation de la WA

17. Psychology 7b. Stress Management
Stress is usually due to emotional connection with possible future.
Be here and now, concentrate on the immediate task at hand.
Regulate the level of stress through:
Low mental activity
Relaxation technique(s)
Get used to the stress symptoms during practice.
At the start of a competition archers suffer some stress. Fortunately an end of sighters is given in which the archer can get back to a normal level of arousal.
Practice as if your practice session where a competition and compete in competition as if it is a training session.
Pascal Colmaire – WA Development & Education Director

18. Psychology IPS identification IPS introduction
Simply describe your physical and mental states when you shoot well.
IPS introduction
Record any process leading to these states.
Tests / trials are necessary.
It is good to know how to come into your Ideal Performance State. Injuries can avoid to come into the IPS. Big problems at home also avoid the IPS.
Pascal Colmaire – WA Development & Education Director

19. Thank you… Ready to answer your questions!
Pascal Colmaire – WA Development & Education Director

20. VISUAL Mindset related
Windows of our mind:
Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP)…
Eyes - Motions:
A lot of motion = high mind activity
Stable eyes = quiet mind (meditation) + self control
Exo: Lateral gaze deviation, with & without eye motion.
Eyes - direction:
On task at hand = High care / concentration
Out of task at hand = unfocussed
Exo: Touch 2 fingers under gaze & without eye motion.
Eyes - tension:
Tensed / hard = narrow external focus
Soft / relaxed = broad attention
Exo: Switch the look from thumbnail to background
The human body has about 3 M (millions) of sensors, 1 M of them are situated in the eyes. Therefore we can understand that during training sessions archers shoot at a short distance with the eyes closed. Missing all the visual information, the archer can very well focus on ‘shooting with feeling’, there will be little mind activity.
A science like the NLP associates several eye locations/movements to specific thoughts.
Eyes-Motions exercise consists in:
Look at something ahead of you, then look at something located at 90 degrees on one side. Figure out what is moving first, your head or your eyes? Try eyes first, then try head first. In both case during the deviation things get blurred.
Now redo the same exercise with the eyeballs ALWAYS centred in the eyeholes. Feel that you have now a different mindset and during the deviation, all things are always neat. You feel in a better control and quite.
Eyes-direction: Have your students testing the 2 situations through some simple shooting steps:
Step the shooting line, once while watching the feet and the shooting line, once while watching (and why not talking to ) someone else.
Load on arrow on the rest and string, once while watching at the arrow / rest / nocking point and once while watching at the scoring board (or anything else)
...
The level of concentration is much higher while watching the task at hand
Eyes-tension: Self explanatory.
You feel hard eyes when watching the nail, and a soft eyes while watching the background. Like the archer feels hard eyes while focussing on the sight pin and softer eyes while focussing on the target. Over aiming (a common mistake of the archer) is associated to very hard eyes.
Pascal Colmaire – FITA Development & Education Director

21. Movements and breathing related: Concentration:
VISUAL
Sequence
Movements and breathing related:
Concentration:
Watch what is under process.
Calmness
Keep the gaze on the same spot when not conducting a motion (during a breathing step).
Self control
Switch the gaze with motionless eyes (eyes centred in their socket)
Each step of the shooting sequence the archer should know:
How to do the physical action
How to breath during it
What to look at: only the task at hand, less things as possible, stable things (non moving)
How to look at things:
motionless eyes (eyes centred in their socket)
soft eyes
Calmness: Keeping the eye on the same spot, reduce down the level of mind activity, like in meditation (as long as you move your eyes, you cannot meditate because your mind works too intensively)
Self-control: already explain in the previous slide under “Eyes – Motions”
Pascal Colmaire – FITA Development & Education Director

22. VISUAL During the main action
Aiming too early = a common trap!
Aiming is the last thing to put in place.
Over aiming = the most popular trap!
Use soft eyes
Focus on the objective – Not on the aiming device
The target does not move. Hence the gaze is still.
Stable gaze = Low mental activity +
Get the moving sight merged into the target area where you wish the arrow to land.
During training sessions you do all kind of exercises, some of them consciously to train a certain part of the shooting routine. In competition a big part of the shooting routine is executed subconsciously. The art of repetition implies a selective distribution of attention. Some activities have to be done consciously, others subconsciously. This is also the case with different parts of aiming. Focus on the target, not on the aiming device. Your mind will subconsciously put the aiming device onto the straight line between your aiming eye and the target, don’t bother. Your attention during a shot should be focused on the target and on the handling of your back muscles. Yearning is a sign for the coach that the archer has focused on the wrong things. This could be aiming too early or over aiming (aiming with device).
Pascal Colmaire – FITA Development & Education Director