I’ve written about the transition from outdoor archery to indoor archery in the past. Things have changed recently and we as archers need to be smart to adapt to these changes.

The biggest change I see is the lack of transition time between the two seasons. In the not too distant past, most competitive archers had at least a month or two to transition to indoor archery. These days, at least in the Chicago area, there is almost no down time between the two seasons. This is a good thing for our sport, but it requires some additional smart planning for archers.

Every one of us needs some time to regroup both physically and mentally. The natural break from outdoor to indoor archery is a perfect time to scale back training and take a bit of a break. Just because there are tournaments on the docket doesn’t mean you need to shoot in all offered events. Yes, we want to support our sport and the organizations which keep archery vital locally. Yet we owe it to ourselves to step back from time to time and give our bodies time to recover and our minds time to pause from training and competing.

Now it’s time to plan the break. What tournaments will you shoot and which will you skip? Depending on where you live and your present standing in the archery community, this can be a tricky thing. Just try to make sure you do give yourself the needed competitive break.

What type of break will you take? This can be anything from a complete cessation from everything archery, to a highly modified and truncated schedule for practice. I’ve always subscribed to cutting practices way back without actually completely stopping. This keeps my muscle memory intact to a large degree.

I’ve also used this time to think about what equipment I’ll use for the competitive indoor season. Will it be the same as outdoors? Will it be what I used last indoor season, or perhaps something else entirely? This process is very invigorating and gets me excited to start in earnest after I’ve had some ‘off’ time.

How often have you had a revelation about any issue after not thinking about it for a time? We’ve all had these ‘aha moments’ after reflection. Breaks in activity can lead to creative solutions to issues you’ve not even considered. Breaks in activity reinvigorate you. Breaks in activity make you realize just how much you enjoy that activity. Planned breaks are important to keep moving forward in archery. Have a conversation about it with your coach!