Pre Shot Routine & Training Methods - Compound Shooting Form Part 7

This segment is completely dedicated to pre-shot routine and how we utilize this during tournament situations and as well as a training tool. The pre-shot routine for me is actually a visualization of my shot in its entirety. From just the way I stand before I start to you know drawing back the bow to actually executing correctly and finally ending up with watching that arrow land right in the middle. I actually like to use the road map analogy, Liam, when I explain this to people. It's like having a destination. You have a point on the map that you want to go to. We've got to trace the route backwards and see what checkpoints you have to go through to get to that destination. Definitely and pre-shot routine can be used first and foremost to build confidence that the routine that you have is able to put those arrows right in the 10 ring. Secondly, that pre-shot routine can be used to ingrain new techniques and ideas into your shot routine. Yeah, definitely can be used in the training. For me, in a competition scenario, I utilize that pre-shot routine to either get me settled down or get me back in the zone again. My pre-shot routine pretty much consists of my goal. The first thing I want to do, I want to put that arrow absolutely in the center of the X-ring. So I visualize that. I see my arrow absolutely placed dead center in the X-ring. The next thing I do is I break it down and say to myself, Dave, what do I need to do to put that arrow there? Well, my sight picture has to look a certain way. Has to be sitting completely centered in the middle of the 10 ring with a halo of yellow all the way around my black dot. The next thing I look at and see is I see myself drawing back, loading up, climbing into my anchor, maintaining perfect form. And then I'll try to take myself to a place in my mind where I can actually feel myself execute that perfect shot, follow through and see that arrow land exactly dead smack in the middle of the X-ring where I want it to be. And that's pretty much the last conscious thought I have when I draw up the bow and climb into my anchor and let my subconscious mind in this pre-shot routine take me down to the road towards my goal, which is the X-ring. From my personal point of view, and I'm sure you guys at home have seen this if you've ever been to a tournament, you'll see a person make a bad shot and you'll let this unsettle them. And then this leads to shots getting worse and worse. And for me, if I make a shot which isn't entirely how I want it to be, that's when I implement the pre-shot routine in a tournament. I stop what I'm doing. I run through my pre-shot routine from start to finish. That then rebuilds my confidence and ensures that I can shoot 10 with that next arrow. Yeah, definitely. And as touching on it in the practice and training stages of your development, as you go through this video, you need to stop and take a look and visualize each and every one of these steps that you're going through, the things that you're working on and build a pre-shot routine. Because when in seminars or asked in Q&A sessions at tournaments and clinics and whatnot, most people go around the room and most people don't have a pre-shot routine. They just step up there and yank the bow back and expect to shoot 10s. Definitely. I believe that, for example, if you wanted to change your shoulder position to look lower and set that up so it was perfectly straight in line, like we talked about in the upper body position earlier on, it's important that if you run this pre-shot routine, you see your shoulder in that correct position in your pre-shot routine. If you visualize this, it'll help to ingrain that into your subconscious. And hopefully, when you actually run the shot for real, it'll be there. Yeah, it helps to stop and take time to consciously be aware of these things, these steps, because that's the only way they become ingrained. So hopefully, myself and Dave have given you guys at home a good enough insight into what makes up our shooting form. So now, we thought it'd be a great idea if we could run through some of the practice methods that you guys are going to need in order to put these changes and new ideas which we've given you into play. The first method of practice we'd like to talk to you about is the typical old-school blank bail technique. Now, this blank bail technique involves you working a close range, preferably without a target face. And often, I like to do it with my eyes shut. When I do it with my eyes shut, it allows me to really feel more and focus more. I think by shutting off one of the sensors, it heightens the other sensors. And this is really great for ingraining new types of technique or changes you've made to your actual body structure. Couldn't have said it better myself, Liam. It's definitely important to turn off that visual input, heighten the senses, as you said, and put the focus on feel more than on what you're seeing down there at the target. Definitely. And hopefully, this blank bail and this extra feeling that we're talking about can then be ingrained into your general day-to-day shot routine. And doing it at blank bail without the hassle or the stress of aiming is a really great way to start. And not only is it important to have these different types of techniques in your repertoire, but as you practice and as you train, it's important to do it with purpose. Have a goal. Have a plan. Don't just go down to the range or down to the club and shoot arrows. Just putting in your time is not going to help you get to the level you want to go to. You've got to do it with purpose. Now, in the second stage of training, at your club, your local practice area, or even in small, local-level tournaments, what you're looking at testing here is how well your mental skills have progressed, how well you're able to visualize, build, and utilize your pre-shot routine. Equipment testing also plays a big role in this training section. Now, what I mean by that is it's a great time for you to try out new equipment, test them, and again, as I said earlier, we're actually going to score a lot in this section. So it'll be important for you to score one piece of equipment against another piece of equipment. As well as keep a journal, too, so you can look back and have an accurate recollection of your records, exactly what was working best on your worst days. Because ultimately, Liam, I think this is where it needs to go. Everyone out there can shoot a good shot. Your good shot is as good as my good shot, and the people watching this, their good shot is exactly the same. There's no differential between a good shot from one person to the next. But I think the real secret in it lies is we shoot less bad shots, number one. And number two, when we do let a bad arrow out of the bow, it falls a lot closer to the middle because of our form techniques, our training regime, and our equipment selection and setup. And those are things that we're really trying to drive home here. Number one, shoot less bad arrows. Number two, have things in place, measures, so that when you do shoot a bad arrow, it falls a little bit closer to the center. Because that small little bit can make a big difference between winning and losing. The third and final training method that myself and Dave are going to look at is low-level tournaments. It's really important to remember that this third and final type of practice is the only thing that's really going to prepare you for the big tournament, the goal that you set out to achieve. If any of the form or practices that you've learned in the first two methods of practice break down, this is where it's going to show up best. Now in these low-level tournaments, it's important to remember that when you walk through the door, you have very limited time to train, practice, and get yourself dialed in. Most of these tournaments are only going to allow you two, maybe three ends of practice maximum, depending on the time allowed for the format. So it's important that you walk through the door, ready to compete, your equipment's ready to go, and you're dialed in and pounding the center as fast as possible. In addition to these training methods, it's also really important that we give you a couple of extra pointers, just to help you on your way. Now the first one is a little bit about goals. It's really important that with anything that you do in your archery, you have an ultimate goal. Now you need to know whether this is to be world champion, county champion, national champion, or just to reach a certain score. But whatever it is, you need to have this goal, have it set in your mind, and your training needs to correspond in working towards this. I think the best way to go about that is looking at the goal and taking steps backwards to figure out what it is you need to do to get there. Definitely. I think there's also lower level goals that you can achieve on your journey towards the ultimate goal. Like we talked about in the third section of practice, low level tournaments are a great way to do this. Yeah, it's almost like you have this bar, this one achievement you want to hit, but you maybe want to set another achievement that's reasonable, that's reachable next to it, so you can get really close to that level without the fear of falling completely short of your goal and demoralizing yourself. Most definitely. Also, the next method which we could also encourage you to do is having a training buddy. I know myself from my experience, I work so much better when I've got somebody of equal or even better level than me to help push me on, encourage me, so I can measure myself against them. Yeah, and that's something that's really hard for me, Liam, because mainly I do all my training alone by myself in my own facility at my home, so very rarely do I get to travel out and shoot with other people unless it's a league or a local level tournament. And then, like you said, it's very hard to find someone better than you sometimes. So what I'll do from occasion is actually go to league night or go to a club tournament, local tournament in my area, and even though it's going to be very difficult to find someone that can match or better my skill level there, one thing that helps me keep centered on the fundamentals of this is actually taking time and helping somebody else out with a problem that they're having. Because through that, it kind of clears my mind, levels me off, and kind of gets me refocused on the fundamentals that make my shooting what it is, really. For me, I actually train with a guy who is, I would say, pretty equal standard to where I am. And for me, that's great. We can challenge each other. We can simulate things as difficult as the world championships when we're just shooting against each other in the field. And for me, that's really great. Perhaps you've noticed throughout this chapter that myself and Dave are actually practicing into the Fault 9 Cube Grand Prix Danich Domino Target here. Me and Dave find these absolutely brilliant for our training and they serve all the purposes that we need. With all nine sections here, essentially a core of the target, a target like this is going to last someone like Liam and I quite a long time. And the club level or recreational larger, possibly this target could last a lifetime. The great thing for me about Danich is its light weightness. You know, I travel to a lot of different places in order to get my training in. And this thing has a really great portability factor. You know, I can carry each cube easily. I can even stack a bunch of them on top of each other and carry them in out of my car, which is great. So it really does provide portability for me. Also, the quality of the foam used in here creates great reliability for me. I can pump thousands and thousands of arrows into each cube and it withstands the pressure. Portability, durability and also ease of arrow removal are all things that are very important in selecting a target. That's why we feel Danich targets are the ultimate choice for professionals like us. You'll also notice here on this particular one, we've actually got the new 6-Spot Danich Indoor Training Face secured to the target with the Danich Domino Pins. These are absolutely brilliant because it means we can get six targets in a really small area. Much better than the conventional FITA 3-Spot target, but it's still to regulation size. So it's really great for training on. From a training aspect, with six spots like this, this is going to save me a lot of time and a lot of money because normally on a piece of paper like this before, I could only get three spots and I would go through hundreds and hundreds of targets in a season. With this here, it's going to last twice as long. I can shoot twice as many arrows before I've got to go down to pull them and it utilizes half the space of a conventional 3-Spot.