My coach and I were just talking about archery advice the other day. I’d say the best lesson he taught me was, as we say, how to stop.
When you’re in the middle of a bad practice, it’s easy to say “I can’t stop until I get it right.” But I had to learn that overworking and getting frustrated was going to poorly effect my form and muscle memory.
Now I know that some days its better to stop before you do more harm than good.
On competition day, I think I was probably one of the most nervous kids on the line. I’d overthink and let my nerves get to me so easily. But I learned to trust my training and stop thinking altogether. Stopping the cycle of overthinking and over correcting lets muscle memory and subconscious take over and the shoot goes a lot smoother.