The mental game is the holy grail of archery. When I talk to any experienced archer, they will say that archery is at least 90% mental. The mental game seems to be the largest obstacle that’s out there. These days, equipment is state of the art. Good coaching can be found without too much difficulty. Questions are answered, and information is easily found on the web. But the mental game and how to better train yourself in this arena remains a mystery to many. This is because until now there was no well known way to work on the mind. While there are a lot of mental programs that you can implement, these programs only provide a way to manage the problems in your head. In no way do they help you get rid of these problems such as anxiety/ target panic, holding low, competition anxiety, lack of focus, trust or the fact that your practice score is much higher than your competition score.
Most archers ignore these problems or write them off. They think these problems are part of their mental makeup that they just have to cope with. This is not the case. Most of these problems have an origin. They stem from old experiences from your past, stories that you have collected at a young age when your mind was developing. These stories can be very simple like winning is bad or I don’t deserve to win. Stories like these are born from an experience such as being very good at a sport or in academics, and you’re shunned for winning or getting good grades by your friends. An experience like this creates a subconscious belief that winning or successful is painful or dangerous. Your subconscious then seeks to avoid this pain or danger, and this shows up as a subconscious, self-sabotage that you are often not aware of. One way this manifests is when you are having a great run of tens and then have an unexpected miss or a bad end or two, which keeps you out of the winner’s circle.
Hypnosis provides you with a way to remove the problem obstacles in your mind. Using hypnotic techniques, we can bring resolution to these problems. This frees you from the problematic behaviors that you are experiencing now. Once you have experienced this new ease in your mind, anxiety disappears, your hold can improved , focus returns, and the trust in your shot grows. You begin to enjoy the sport like you did when you started. At this point, you are free to invest all that energy you used to manage your head into your shot. Plus your subconscious is now working more efficiently, which brings you to a new performance level. The mental game is no longer at 90%--it is instead 100% on your side and helping you to achieve your performance goals.
Call 732-406-3498 to see how hypnosis can help you to get your head in the game.