Dealing with Adversity

Adversity is never very far from your archery especially in competition. In practice you have time to fix things but in competition ... not so much. You've prepped for a shoot. You've got your sight marks. You've packed everything you needed. You got a good night's sleep. You had a good positive mental attitude going in. Your sighters were ON. The whistle for the first end blows .. and it all goes to hell in a hand-basket. It could be equipment failure, injury, loss of form, real life intruding or poor performance. The competition, now in the past, was a total loss. How do you recover after the fact because even the most stoic is going to feel it?
(note: We already have an article on what to do at the time it all goes pear shaped: Ed)

First things first, don't overreact. No throwing the bow into a wall (yes that has happened and no, it wasn't anyone at GA .. not even the usual suspects). No quitting archery. No huff. Take some time out and don't obsess. If you dwell on the problem, it will start to overwhelm you. ........... Now, after you've had a day to recover. What went wrong.?

Think I've spotted the problem.

Analysis: This is honest time and where you have to go in with a positive mind set. You're in problem fixing mode. You need to look back at the competition (even if it was just a fun one) and examine each aspect of it. The journey to the competition. Your mental and physical state - was work grinding your gears or are you hurt. The hall or field conditions. Your target partners. Your form. How you scored. Write this all down - but just the key points. You now have a potted summary of your day. What stands out? IF you were honest, you should be looking right at the problem. Were you under the weather, harassed because traffic was bad, did a target partner wynd you up, was the light bad, were you sloppy in your shot, a meltdown dozen.  At this point you should have realization where it went wrong and already we are half way there.

First Steps: First night back at the club its important you don't think about the issues, just shoot your bow. Quality shots. Calm mind. Focus on Execution. This is a confidence builder that you aren't broken. If the problem is still there you now have a whole support structure standing around you. After a half hour you'll either know you can still shoot .. or have people on hand who might be able to guess the ongoing problem.

A Different Point of View: Next, a trusted peer/buddy or coach at the club. Go talk with them and get a different perspective on what happened. This will help take the frustration and emotion out of the issue. At the very least there will be banter and humour always helps ... mostly.

Resolution: Now we have a better overview, how to fix the issue that wrecked the comp will depend on the issue faced. Consider how to resolve the issue and learn from the experience. Did you arrive late and were harassed and unsettled - leave earlier/allow for traffic. Tired - plan the day before to be less strenuous and an earlier night. Head up your a*se - work to separate the intrusive work or personal stuff from your archery. Were your expectations too demanding - be realistic. You can't shoot a PB every competition. If it was out of your control and literally nothing could be done - realize that and move on. If it's health related - take time out from archery and get well.

Clicker issues on the left - Hoyt haven't gone bankrupt yet on the right.

Case studies: These might give you an insight of how other archers dealt with their adversities. Such as .. the archer who drove 50 miles to a competition only to have his rest break and all his spares were safely at home. Now he travels with the archery equivalent of a Formula 1 pit crew set up in his pack. Or the archer who had an irritating target partner who ruined the atmosphere of a shoot. That archer now gets the banter and laughs going early on his target controlling the atmosphere to one he feels more comfortable with. Finally, the most drastic. This archer's shoulder failed during competition. After some attempts at physio, he acknowledged surgery was required - a subacromial decompression. He was out nine months, diligently if impatiently did his rehab and came back stronger than before.

What NOT to Do: Don't let the problem fester in your mind. So much of archery is confidence based and letting an issue eat you up inside will be a killer. Also don't start fiddling with kit unless the kit was definitively the issue. Even the best archers can start poking at kit when their issue is something else leading to a messed up archer AND a messed up bow. If something did break and needs replaced - D-VON, GET THE CREDIT CARD!*
What you absolutely must never do is stoically try to muscle your way though. You could run into this issue again if you don't identify and tackle it. There may be underlying causes you might need to address but being honest with yourself in how to solve the problem is fundamental. Take those problems head on, fix the underlying issue and remember to reflect on your progress and celebrate your successes in fixing the problem. You are overcoming something that turned you from confident archer to a scrub after all.

Finally, remember that archery buddy we mentioned earlier .. we're quite serious about you getting one of these. Definitely well worth cultivating a peer as an ear or alternative perspective. Note for GA archers .. for all John and Geo bicker, insult and prank each other .. they are excellent examples of archery buddies. Who knew they were excellent at anything?

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* You have to be a old school wrestling fan for this reference.