Almost a year of practicing archery and struggling with improvement. [Long post]

Do you enjoy the process of shooting? If you do then that’s enough, right?

You’re a year in to your journey, I think it’s ok to take some of the pressure to perform away and, assuming you enjoy yourself, work on improving one thing every session you do - be that stance or release or your shot cycle or a tiny bit of your shot cycle or just having fun.

Other than the mental side of things, which are important to figure out, practically the only advice I have is that like you, I’m pretty unaware of my body and found that a coach who was prepared to push and pull me physically into place helped massively. Currently she’s poking me in my bow arm’s side scapula when I’m at full draw trying to get me to engage it for a solid upper body. My scores have improved for it and I guess the take away is finding one coach that you can work with will help more than all the good natured but contradictory advice from lots of individuals who might have very different thoughts on archery.

I would suggest that if you do enjoy it, stick with it and figure out a plan of action, as well as a way to measure progress that suits your needs, be it score or satisfaction or whatever works for you.

Whenever I freak out about my form I shoot close range (2-3m) blank bale and just think about form/process. No worries about the target. Sometimes with eyes closed.

If nothing else it is good meditation to calm the mind.

To say you don’t like complaining publicly you sure as hell go for it when you do 🤪

So a few things.

Archery is as much as your head being in the right place as having good technique. I shoot my best when I’m relaxed, calm and concentrating. If something is on my mind it all goes to shit. Having good and practiced technique really helps cut down on the impacts of those dips when your head is not in the game as you have something to fall back on. So practice regularly and even if you’re not shooting as well as you know you can enjoy it and don’t put pressure on yourself. This is doubly important if you like to compete.

Next, you’ve been shooting for 12months…. This is no time. Archery, like anything in life, is a skill that will take years to attempt to master so don’t put pressure on yourself.

Lastly, changing archery disciplines won’t suddenly make you better. I’d only recommend doing this if you want to give it a go and it excites you and not because you think it’s a silver bullet. Practice, practice, ask a coach for feedback or an experience archery, practice… rinse repeat and enjoy yourself…. You’re shooting a bow and arrow what’s not to enjoy!

First, recognize when using a target to measure performance, average arrow score is not a linear progression. It is much harder to go from a 7 average arrow to an 8, than to go from 6 to 7 simply because the scoring rings get smaller. Also, your progression is likewise not linear, which is why you make significantly better progress when you start out as to refine a shot process requires even smaller finer control as you develop. I have also struggled at hitting plateaus, or rather plateaus are getting longer to move past. All the bad habits I developed along the way, keep coming back. Having a consistent shot in qualification rounds is also a challenge as fatigue will break down my shot and mental process. This is very common. I started archery in June 2021.

What is your goal for archery? It seems you have a clear idea of your own limitation. You state that this is a way for you to get physical exercise. You seem to enjoy it. In some ways you have answered your own question.

A different archer discipline could help you. However, most people judge performance on the scale of the discipline. Going to compound would give you a different scale to judge performance and that might put you back to the same place you are now even though you are shooting better scores. If you go to a more historic style, that would be the opposite problem. However, there is no harm in trying other disciplines.

Sharing some of your neurodivergence, my relationship to archery might be similar and it might diverge. For me, I have to simply have a strong interest--I could never go to the gym as it is simple dull. The form of archery I picked up, World Archery barebow, was simply because it appealed to me. I enjoy watching it as well as competing. I find learning about form and the sport really interesting. This interest is what keeps me engaged. I like other types of archery, but they don't appeal to me as much and so I stick with barebow.

I have also really slowed down in my progress in the last year and it has been frustrating. Like you, I seem to be making similar mistakes. And yes, sometimes I can't guarantee may next shot will be error free. Last summer, my shot fell apart to a point I could not tell if my arrows would go down the center, hit high or low or left or right. And these were really wide. I did what I always do is analyze my shot and work on a solution. Early this year, a couple of archers have pointed out some other errors, which I am now trying to correct. On the surface, archery looks simple, but that is an illusion. It can also be hard to identify the actual cause or causes. While my form "looked" good and I thought I had a problem in my bow arm that I had been trying to solve, it was pointed out to me the error was in my back tension and grip.

I look at archery in this way. I am interested in the sport. It gives me something physical to do. I find the activity very relaxing. It takes my mind off other things I might be worrying about. I am also competing with myself. I have also updated my goals from time to time so that I am work toward reasonable goals. This indoor season I wanted to shoot 500 in competition--I was able to achieve that in practice. That was not working out. I looked at my previous scores last year and saw I was shooting a 7 average. I reset my goal to an 8 average, which is 20 points under 500. I was able to shoot that in my last tournament of the season. Being flexible in goals is really important.

It sounds like you have found something valuable in archery. Perhaps evaluate what that value is and work from there. This is new for you. A year is not a long time in this sport.

So, I have no answers about archery as I'm more beginner, less skilled, than you. But I can talk a bit about ADHD and brains. And sorry, I'm going to talk all about me, but I'm hoping you can extract something from it, even if it's just 'yeah, it can make you miserable BUT YOU ARE NOT ALONE'. I have ADHD and am hypermobile, so I'm clumsy and not great at knowing where my own body is. I don't know if I'm actually dyspraxic, so I'm not saying I'm you. This is about me. I'm just hoping you can find parallels. :)

But:

1) I'm less good at emotional regulation than some other people

2) I'm more extreme in how I feel about success and failure than some other people (my brain is convinced there's a binary - if I'm not excellent then I'm a total failure)

3) As soon as I start to struggle learning something, I panic. And immediately get worse, which re-underlines the (false) belief that 'I can't do it'.

4) (Apparently), many people with ADHD often have an approach to achievement which is constantly raising the bar on themselves. Never able to be satisfied with an achievement as there's always better, faster, more. Good when you're constantly improving, really bad for your mental health when you hit a roadblock.

So, Wednesday last week, I could NOT find an anchor that felt right. (I have to go by feel, if I have to remember all the things necessary for a shot, my brain remembers I have a bad memory, I panic, and I can't do it.) My shooting was the worst I've done since I got my own bow. My mood plummeted and I tried harder and harder. I don't let myself sit down and take a break, as that's giving up, that's giving in to the failure. That's a double failure. I feel like I'm working magic, defying the laws of physics, as I draw less but the arrow goes higher. I am so bad I should quit, this isn't worth it. Etc. I push it till my elbow starts to feel weird and I finally realise I HAVE to take a break.

And, not intending to rub it in, my husband is having a great session. We started at the same time, have been to every session together. And he's just better than me. If he wasn't my favourite human on the planet, it would make me miserable. As it is, I get to be hugely proud of him and only a little bit grumpy (on my bad days).

I did take some pictures to post here to ask 'why do I suck, what am I doing so wrong?' but hadn't got around to them by today's session.

Today: I'm in a better mood, I've had a decent sleep, I've had just... a better day. And everything that went wrong on Wednesday goes right today, some person next to me jokes how I'm making him feel bad with his shooting.

And you know what? I'm happy, but I'm not happy. Because I don't know what I'm doing differently. I'm slightly panicked that it was just luck. I'm still frustrated. The fear spiral is still... a bit there. But I'm trying to look at it directly in the eye and going: You did well today. You improved. Your brain isn't letting you enjoy it (because success is good enough and anything less is failure, I struggle to enjoy successes). Accept the win.

---

I'm lucky enough to have a therapist. And like, she's not working magic, I still have a brain that can be a bit of a dickhead. But she suggested to me: - instead of worrying about progress, try to be curious about the process of learning. I have a different brain to [my husband], I will learn differently. Make 'how I learn' the puzzle piece to crack. Not 'get better at archery' the target.

I don't know if it'll help me at all, but it's one thing for me to try when trying to learn something and my own brain gets in the way. It's also a reminder of how different I am from my husband, and so it's only to be expected we'll progress at very different speeds.

• I already know that I'm bad at knowing where my body is, AND that I learn better by feeling something that being told it. I'm going to try to get intermittent coaching with someone who can physically poke me and hold my elbow / back etc in the right positions. See if I can feel out how to improve.

• I also know that when I'm doing well, I relax more, and thus improve. When I make mistakes, I start blaming myself, start hyper-criticising, call myself a stupid loser who'll never be any good. And I get worse, making me beat myself up more and making it harder and harder to get a good shot in.
  I know this about myself. I haven't found a way to stop it. But step one for me is trying to get back to finding what's fun about it. What did I enjoy from day one? Also maybe, before I'm shooting: How do I feel? If I'm already having a bad day, maybe don't train that day.

• Maybe take the pressure off myself, and practice grouping without using a target. When I'm already having a bad day, I may argue myself into believing this is also a failure - but if I make it a point of practice to do occasionally, I'll feel less embarrassed and be more willing to let myself do it. Maybe.

• a thing I'm good at doing at work is showing my mistakes so that juniors can understand they aren't things to hide, and can learn from. I do this because I'm confident I'm good at my job. BUT maybe I can lean into my identity as someone who struggles to learn archery, but is willing to show people that that's ok, and it can still be fun anyway? Maybe I can be the person who can make other people who have struggles feel safer in keeping going?

Ultimately, there becomes a point at any skill where a person plateaus. Some people give up then, if that's the point of doing the thing, progress. And maybe that's ok. Some people just take pleasure in doing the thing, finding it challenging enough, engaging enough, knowing this is roughly their limit. There ARE ways to push beyond this, and for some that takes almost professional training. Some won't want to be able to do this, some can't. But it is the rub for literally every activity: you're gonna plateau. And as you get older, you might get worse. It's back to the brain: can you find a way to love it anyway?

edit: hahaha adhd length reply

Idk much about your conditions, but it is normal for any beginner's progress to slow down or hit a plateau eventually. Search 'inverse curve' and you'll get the idea. Sometimes you can even dip down a little.

Comp is easier to shoot to a certain score but it only means a bell curve is further on right. With your reasoning though, it makes sense.

Before you switch, try some private lessons.

I would not recommend switching to Olympic Recurve (not that you were). It takes a higher level of precision to place the arrow tip within 2mm of the clicker on each and every shot. This requires a high level of body awareness.

I may be wrong, but I would think compound would lessen the body awareness requirements. Compound shooters are more than welcome to correct me.

I would recommend spending a lot time doing blank bale practice, where you shoot at the target from only 3 meters away. Because you are practically guaranteed to hit the target this will take the mental pressure off and allow you to focus on your movements and your body during the shot cycle.

Pay attention to how the arrow lands in the target; if it lands at an angle this shows something was wrong with your form, if it lands straight this shows you had good alignment and a clean release. After a while you'll start to notice that good shots feel good while bad shoots feel clumsy and awkward, which I suspect (I'm not a doctor, physiotherapist, etc.) helps train body awareness and reinforces good habits. Just be sure to be mindful of every shot and don't allow yourself to shoot repetitively without thinking because this will have the opposite effect and make bad habits harder to fix.

Personally I like to start and end every practice session with blank bale and I don't allow myself to shoot at range until I've gotten the arrows to stick in straight multiple times in a row. If you are struggling I think it's valid to spend the entire practice session doing nothing but blank bale, I did this when starting Manchu archery because I was struggling with the ring and I think it helped my form tremendously.

not a native speaker

Proceeds to write better than 90% of native speakers can.

I don’t have archery advice because I’m waiting to get into the hobby myself, but for what it’s worth, the only mistake I caught in your English was “it’s”

It’s is a contraction for it is and is never a possessive. (I only mention the correction because every non native speaker I’ve ever met usually welcomes the corrections, so hopefully I’m not bothering you with that.)

BTW, I have no idea why those sneakers (sport shoes) went into this post.

Sounds like your average experience of learning archery, it's more so your thought process that's different than anything (ie how much you're over thinking it).

What I would wonder is, how are you actually verifying your performance? How high or low you place in a tournament really means nothing in regards to your development... You're better off shooting consistent distances with a consistent target and tracking your scores (I use an app called "my targets" for this reason.

Instead of reacting to a bad shot and "correcting it" I think you need to reevaluate how you evaluate your process.

When you make a great shot, replay your process in your mind and ask yourself what it was that made that shot great, and then work to incorporate that into your routine.

Regarding switching to compound, you can certainly do that and I quite enjoy the compound discipline, but be prepared for the increased cost of equipment and the tighter tolerances in shooting... Instead of getting frustrated because you're hitting blue, with compound you'll be frustrated when you hit red for example - the same feeling is there, it's just your standard will change.

I think you should spend some time shooting and tracking your scores as I mentioned (like a couple of months) and see how that goes... Maybe you'll see a slow progression towards better shooting with inarguably evidence to support it and that in itself will help you stay "in it".

What I will tell you is the absolute truth here: none of us are perfect, even the best shooters are struggling in their mind with how they feel about how good they SHOULD be shooting and that as you get better much of the feelings your describing will still be part of the archery experience - it's how you react to those feelings and process them that will determine your overall enjoyment of the sport.