Today I’d like to take a little time and cover some ways to improve your shooting, fitness and general health using methods that are not normally associated with archery. I have always been interested in expanding my horizons and have had some great successes and a some total disasters. In this post I’ll share a couple of the the successes that I’ve had and am continuing to work on.
Yoga
For several years I’ve been toying with yoga on and off. I’ve always liked how it made me feel, improved balance, created greater flexibility, increased strength and endurance. However I’ve never really stuck to it for one reason or another. With my new dedication to hitting a consistent Vegas 300 and to get in my best shape ever for the 2010 elk hunt, I decided to try yoga again. To say that I’ve been pleased would be a severe understatement.
The benefits of yoga and archery are evident in a few great ways. Yoga consists of a lot of moves that increase muscle stability and endurance as well as teaching body forms that are stable and consistent. One of the things I have suffered from in the past is not consistently getting my shoulders (or some other body part) in the correct position for a solid aim and shot. I have specifically sought out yoga routines that emphasize stability and consistency and I have already seen an improvement in my stance and aiming.
Another benefit of yoga is the deep breathing exercises. The controlled breathing taught by proper yoga technique falls right in line with what the target archer needs for a controlled shot. Many yoga moves will push and stress your breathing, yet allow for deep and consistent breaths. I find myself able to focus on my breathing while practicing yoga and this carries over into my subconscious breathing during my archery practice, which is exactly how it should be!
Self Hypnosis and Meditation
Many years ago I attended a stage hypnosis show that was interesting and fun. I was one of the ones on stage and experienced a taste of the power of hypnosis and suggestion. My grandfather was a general practicing physician who used a lot of hypnosis in his practice to help people stop smoking, lose weight, give drug-free birth and more. After the stage show (which by no means is the type of hypnosis that is useful, but it served to get my thoughts on hypnosis moving) I talked to my grandfather extensively about the benefits of hypnosis. I bought a great book by Leslie Lecron titled Self Hypnotism: The Techniques and Its Use in Daily Living that is an excellent resource and have read it several times.
Self hypnotism has benefited me in many ways such as drastically reducing the effects of my allergies, helping me get to sleep extremely quickly while sleeping better, study for tests and recall information more easily and even find lost items that I misplaced but that my subconscious remembered where. Unfortunately I have not applied the full power of this tool to archery until recently. One theme that is stressed in almost any archery improvement book or other resource is that the shot execution doesn’t have to be perfect, but it has to be consistent. This is where hypnosis can be extremely useful and is starting to show its fruits for me. By understanding my desired form beforehand, I am able to help ingrain this form into my subconscious through self-hypnotic suggestion. I am just scratching the surface on this technique and I hope to further report on it in the future.
I am not one of those lucky people that has archery come naturally to them. Technique, form and consistency are some of the things that I must set my mind to dedicate time and hard work. Not only can yoga and self-hypnotism benefit your shooting and archery in general, but they are great tools that can and will work for anyone to improve their life in many ways. I would highly suggest that anyone looking for another way to improve their archery just a bit more to take the time and investigate these methods. If you have done so, or are interested in more information, let me know! I’d love to hear about it.
Other posts you may enjoy:
- Wind, Hail, Tornado Warnings, Business Trips and Archery?
- Archery and Spring Daylight Savings, New Goals for the New Season
- Archery Tips 9 – Detecting Fletching Contact
- How Not to Suck at Archery
- 300 days to 300
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I found this really interesting and was wondering if you could recommend a few postures which you found the most helpful for archery. Thank you.
Kirsten,
To be honest, nearly everything yoga is good for archery! Yoga emphasizes balance, steadiness, and strength vs. your own body and gravity; very much like archery. Personally I try to do 10-15 minutes of yoga per night and mix it up to get a good combination for all body parts. However, I do tend to focus on doing moves that require maintaining balance while stressing my upper body. I like various versions of the sun salutes, arm strength moves while in downward dog and plank positions and generous amounts of cobra, dolphin plank, sideways plank and chataranga. I tend to hold the moves for extended periods, much like holding a bow back. If you look on YouTube, Tara Styles has a whole slew of great videos and many that focus on upper body and balance. I like to study her videos and adapt them to what works best for me.
Unfortunately I’m no yoga guru and I’ve only been working on it for less than a year, with not near as much attention paid to it as I’d like. I am working on a video of my favorite moves and combinations for archers, but I’m still working on trying get a good sequence down and being able to demonstrate it while showing at least a little bit of ability!
Let me know how things go for you.