It is About Life …

Archery is considered by many medical bodies to be a fantastic tool for physical and mental well being. Today, Coach Ruis is all over one of the great mental benefits of archery. Take it away, Coach.

At his post-event news conference, this year’s Open Championship Golfer of the Year, Scottie Scheffler, stated “The game of golf has taught me a tremendous amount. I feel like every day you go out and play golf you’re looking in the mirror, and I’ve met some of my best friends through the game of golf.”

We, Claudia and I, have insisted since the day we started coaching that archery is about self discovery. The game is a large feedback machine that gives you information about who … or what … you are. But I have seen many who are impervious to the feedback. I knew an accomplished Barebow archer, at a club championship shoot, who left each target early to be able to get the best position at the shooting stake of the next target. He thought this was an advantage, but it was just a sign of assholiness.

When it comes down to it and as I have said in the past, your bow and your arrows will teach you how to shoot … if you just listen to them. And, of course, this applies to all other aspects of your life, your relationships, your work, and so on.

We, Claudia and I again, have always felt that archery is an excellent sport for youths because of this effect. Learning to grow by paying attention to the feedback you are getting is critical to living a good life. The act of drawing a bow, creating great tension in your body, and then loosing that tension also has an affect. Just that effect alone makes archery the best avocation for people in high stress jobs: busy professionals, police officers, stressed out Moms, and so on. I have found that if you shoot for 15-20 minutes, focused on executing shots and having your heart’s desire be grouping your arrows in target center, all of the things bothering you will go away: tax problems, bitchy boss problems, nosy neighbor problems, rebellious kid problems, they all go away … if you focus on executing shots and having your shots land where you want them to. (The distance to target is irrelevant.)

The fascinating thing to me is that at the end of this exercise all of your “worries” come back to you … and this is key … in their order of importance … and slowly, giving you time to process them. This mental Rolodex function of your brain knows what is important and what is not, even if you do not. If you let it, if you really listen, your bow and your arrows will teach you how to shoot better, what equipment changes are need, and ... what is really important to you.

Hell of a deal, what?

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Steve Ruis is the author of many books on coaching archery and maintains a blog for archery coaches at archerycoach.wordpress.com. (its free and well worth a visit) He is the former editor of Archery Focus magazine.