I’ve spoken often of the value of competition. To me there is no finer test of my archery shot. We practice and work diligently to improve, but how do we know when improvement is attained? We often intuitively know we are getting better, or have solved an issue. The open question is always if we can bring perceived improvement to a pressurized situation. If that answer is yes, the improvement can be considered durable. If not, there is work to be done to make a change, or improvement permanent.

Let’s take a few examples of how things might play out in a tournament. An archer has worked hard to keep their emotions under check and move on from a poor result. As always happens, unexpected things occur during a competition. What is the reaction after a poor shot, or shots? An archer may break down and not be able to recover from the situation. This archer clearly needs to work on a more effective recovery technique. The archer may recover after an end or two of reflection. That represents improvement and a platform from which to build. The archer may shrug off the result and continue to shoot well. The correction can be considered durable. Congratulations to the archer for implementing a process which works under high stress.

Is there any other way to simulate the stress of a tournament? I have yet to find one. So if you want to know if you’ve improved, or implemented an effective change in your archery, shoot tournaments.

Archers often ascribe too much importance to a result. That’s natural. I’m reminded of the question Rick McKinney asked on the line many years ago. ‘Are you shooting tens, or your arrow.’ If you are shooting your arrow, you have a chance to focus on the important things which may lead to shooting tens. If your mindset is all about shooting tens, your focus will be incorrectly placed on the result.

Implement a great process for your form, mental game and physical conditioning and test the changes you make rigorously.

Tournaments are light. Veritas est lux.