Mental vs physical shooting fatigue

[Pointed_stick]

Not something I have had a lot of time or occasion to experiment with till today. I got a chance to visit a local indoor archery range this morning. Glad I went. Small place but they had several targets set up, and about 20 yards to work with. 2 std. black and white foam blocks stacked, and 2 different bag targets , 1 with 4 bullseye targets white with red rings/yellow centers, and the other  yellow jacket bag with lungs/heart vital type image target.
 

I shot the blocks for a while My shooting session was longer than average making use of the time since mostly I get in my practice outside. The temps indoors are much more favorable, and today we had 20-25 mph wind most of the day. Once my groups started to open up quite a bit at 20 yards on the blocks I thought it might be time to quit and go home, but instead for fun decided the opportunity was there to switch to shooting at the bags with the colored images/bulleyes. Immediately watched the group size shrink back down as my focus returned and continued my session for quite a bit longer with no signs of fatigue returning for a good while after. even returning to the block to check and see if that would change anything. Anyone else tried and experience anything similar? Sort of felt like a mental reset even though the distance and all other factors remained the same. Just the shape and color of the target changed, but that was enough to really bring everything back online.

[Pointed_stick]

Not sure why both pics rotated during the upload

[McDave]

If you go to your original photos and squeeze in the sides a little bit, really a VERY little bit, and then delete the photos from your original post and reload the ones you edited, they will probably display right side up.  At least that has worked for me.

[Pointed_stick]

Thank you, now they display correctly, but for some reason, they uploaded in the opposite order...I think the computer does what it wants sometimes...

[McDave]

Good post, Ethan!

I've been viewing some of Jake Kaminski's form videos on YouTube recently.  In one of his videos he referenced a book, With Winning in Mind, by Lanny Bassham.  Lanny has interviewed many top athletes, and has found that their opinion is that elite performance is 90% mental and 10% physical.

I highly recommend this book.  As many of you know who have read my posts over the 15 years I have been posting on this board, a great many of my posts on the Shooters Form Forum have dealt, however imperfectly, with the mental aspects of archery.  This book has added more to my knowledge on this subject than any other book I have read or seminar I have attended.  It has also completely changed my thinking about the role of the subconscious in archery.  While Bassham's book is not about archery specifically, his focus is on hand-eye coordination sports, and everything I read is as applicable to archery as it is to golf, tennis, shooting and other sports requiring a high degree of mental commitment.  His book provided me with the last component I needed to fight target panic.  I now feel like I can shoot the bow in front of any group, anywhere, with complete confidence that I can maintain control of the bow throughout the shot process (whether this is actually true or not remains to be seen, but that's the way I feel).

[Pointed_stick]

Good post, Ethan!

  I now feel like I can shoot the bow in front of any group, anywhere, with complete confidence that I can maintain control of the bow throughout the shot process

Thank you and ^^ this....confidence is such a key factor in the mental aspect of being able focus and achieve. Glad to hear you are winning the battle Dave! Am gonna check out the book when I get a minute

[Todd Cook]

I have experienced exactly what you speak of. If I'm practicing on 3d targets and get fatigued I can shoot at a vegas type target and dial it right back in. That gold middle draws my eyes to it. Aiming at 3d targets gets tiring to me after a while because past a certain distance I can't see the rings and have to mentally "create" the correct sight picture. Trying to shoot 25 or 30 perfect shots on animal targets is tough.