Ellen Chaney, February –Did you know that 95 percent of archers struggle with target panic at some point in their archery career? Target panic is when you release your arrow, and right away, you start worrying about where it’s going to land on the target. This can cause stress and even make you rush through the shooting process. I want to talk about the stress that target panic can put on an archer and share some ways to help prevent and manage it.
I’ve personally struggled with target panic, and it has caused stress for me as an archer. My name is Ellen Chaney, and I’ve been shooting archery for six years now. I’m in the eighth grade in Kentucky, and I’ve found a few ways to manage my target panic. Sometimes, it would happen with just one arrow, and other times, it would happen with all five of them. Target panic can feel like a big bump in the road, but I promise it is manageable. If you’re not sure whether you have target panic, some signs to look for are freezing, flinching, or even panicking while you’re at full draw. Like many other archers, I’ve dealt with all of these problems getting in the way of my shooting.
Now, let’s talk about some ways to help manage target panic. One way I learned from the 2018 NASP® World Champion, Dalton Hinkle, is what I call the “elephant method.” He asked me, “How do you eat an elephant?” At first, I was really confused, so I said, “I don’t know.” He answered, “One bite at a time.” I was still confused, but then he said something that really helped me. He told me to think of the target as the elephant and each arrow as one bite. You can only take it one bite at a time. That made so much sense to me! He also had me take two big deep breaths in between each shot. This helped me concentrate and not stress about where the arrow was going because I was calm from the deep breaths. This is just one of the many methods that worked wonders for me.
Another thing I’ve tried is getting into a breathing routine. I take the same amount of breaths between each shot. Before you shoot, take a deep breath. Then, while you nock your arrow, take another deep breath. Pause and take another big breath to calm you down before you get into your shot setup. After that, you anchor, aim, release, and reflect. I do this before every arrow because it keeps me calm, even if I don’t like where the arrow lands. It helps me not let the previous shot stress me out.
Finally, if you feel like it’s not working right away, studies show it can take up to 21 days to fully manage target panic. Research on it is still limited, but some experts believe it happens because of the wear on the cells that control shooting accuracy. Target panic is 100% mental, but it can dramatically affect a shooter’s physical performance. It can make you do things while shooting that are unusual for you. Everyone has a bad practice session or tournament, and that’s okay! It takes time to fix, but you can do it.
In conclusion, target panic is real, and trying different ways to manage it will make us stronger archers. Like many things in archery, there are different ways to overcome problems we all face. Just remember, staying positive and believing in yourself are really important for being a happy and successful archer.
