The mental game really comes down to one thing: the ability to focus. What I mean by this is the ability to hold on to the moment. You’ve often heard coaches say “stay in your shot.” What they are saying is don’t lose focus or don’t slip out of the moment.
We’ve all felt this slipping from time to time. We may get distracted by something in the immediate area, a random thought or an uncomfortable feeling. It could be something very simple like your footing is uneven. When you feel this, your attention immediately goes to thinking about your feet, or you try to fix them. Once this has happened, the shot is lost. You are out of the moment.
If you don’t know what I mean by this, think about the last time you found yourself watching your pin, dot, or sight floating around too much. Immediately you take measures to stop that from happening. At this point in time, you’re not in the moment. You’ve lost the feeling. This is how easy it is to get distracted.
How triggering the distraction is directly proportional to the amount of focus we lose. It is possible to shoot a whole tournament being slightly distracted and not really noticing it. What you will notice is that you have had a bad day, or you may say I'm not on today. That was because your focus wasn’t 100%. When your focus is not there, your groups are not there also. Focus is one of the most critical elements in archery.
Most archers work on all parts of their shot, but they don’t work on staying in the moment/focus. To them, their focus is there or it’s not, leaving it up to chance and thinking this isn’t a skill you can sharpen. But the difference between the good people and the great people is focus and being able to maintain and keep that focus when you need to. Practice does help and is very necessary. But being aware of how saturated you are in the moment is also critical.
Now the pin floating or having uneven footing are some of the distractions that we are aware of. There are also distractions that you are not aware of. These distractions live in the subconscious mind in the form of experiences, belief systems, and fears that you pick up in your life somewhere along the way. Concepts like not being good enough, not being deserving, or being afraid of success. Even if you don’t like being the center of attention that can be a distraction that can keep you from success. Your subconscious mind knows if you don’t like being the center of attention, and if you're winning you’re going to have to be on that podium, and the center of attention. Your subconscious is designed to protect you, and it will help you avoid that uncomfortable feeling by causing some distraction to enter your mind, some stray thought, which will sabotage your performance.
One of the best ways to uncover and take care of these hidden distractions is through hypnosis. The type of hypnosis I practice can eliminate these distractions and free you up to focus more intently on the moment, with your focus becoming much much easier to maintain, which gives you the freedom to unlock and explore your hidden potential.