Inertia is a powerful force in nature. It is natural and easy to be complacent with success. As it relates to archery, making a change that will move you from relative competency to a higher level is extremely difficult on a few fronts.

Firstly, if an archer is shooting good scores, given where they are in the sport, why change? Is it not reasonable to think there will be a continued progression? Perhaps the answer is yes, but sometimes a resistance to change can limit how far one can progress. I think Tiger Woods is an excellent example. After winning his first major tournament, at the Masters in 1997, he retooled his swing. Why would he do such a thing as his career was accelerating? In this particular case he wanted to control his iron shots better, so he could be more precise approaching greens. Yes he could have continued on just as he was, but he knew in his heart that he could become even better if he undertook the change. Well we all know how his career flourished after that change and he reached a new and better level of performance.

There are also many stories of accomplished performers making changes and never attaining their previous level of performance, so there are pitfalls to taking apart something that is working.

I think change can be more readily accepted by archers in a formative stage, as mechanics are not all in place and performances can vary wildly. As a coach I am very cognizant of making changes to archers with a certain level of competence. There needs to be a specific thing you are trying to accomplish. It can be a static position, a dynamic move, or any number of shot keys. Communication between the archer and coach has to be quite good. Feedback from archer to coach and coach to archer is emphasized, so a change can be effected properly.

Secondly, no one wants to go backwards. Often times when changes are made there is not an immediate positive result. Scores can be uneven and there can be a period of time where an archer can be challenged mentally about whether the changes are going to work. Again, communication between archer and coach is essential.

So in the end there are two possible outcomes. One, the archer improves and moves to a different level of performance. Two, the archer does not benefit from the change. What happens in case two? Depending on the changes that were made, the archer can opt to go back to what had been working in the past, or the archer can modify the change. There are no easy answers when a change goes awry. Did the archer truly buy into the change and work hard at changing? Was the change not appropriate for the archer? (Yes coaches make mistakes.) It is helpful to have a review of what you are doing with your coach. Put some reasonable time/arrow count, time frames together and be honest with yourself about your effort and ‘buy in’ to a proposed change. One thing is a certainty. An archer willing to keep exploring how to get better, will.