Self-compassion is a more effective motivator than self-criticism. This tends to lower our confidence and motivation rather than helping us to get over a mistake. We are often much harder on ourselves than we are on others. If you notice that you are getting tired, take a break, and also give yourself a break – try to frame your inner monologue as though you were supporting a friend, rather than berating yourself for a poor shot or competition performance. My hard-earned advice here is that it is optimum, rather than maximum, effort that is required to improve.

Repetition of a closed skill such as drawing a bow is necessary to train the body and refine technique, but if you loose too many arrows and become fatigued then, no matter how hard you try, your performance level is likely to dip. The amount of improvement you get from increasing effort has a limit. Such determination is admirable, but misguided. Perfectionists often ‘over-train’, increasing the duration of training or number of arrows shot, for example, in the belief that just putting in more effort will improve technique. Kristin Neff, a renowned psychologist who researches self-compassion, notes that striving to meet goals can become counter-productive if you place too much of your self-worth in meeting those high-standards. With unhealthy perfectionism, however, setting high standards for yourself and either discounting their value if they are met, or harshly criticising yourself if they are not, can lower motivation and hinder rather than help your shooting performance.

Setting goals, such as placing in a competition or increasing your personal best score, is an important way to motivate yourself to improve. It involves basing your self-worth almost exclusively on how well these high standards are pursued and achieved.’īut, you may ask, isn’t setting high standards and seeking to improve the way that you get better in your shooting? If I drop my standards won’t I just be accepting poor performance? On these questions, it’s important to acknowledge the difference between a healthy pursuit of excellence and unhealthy perfectionism. ‘Perfectionism is the setting of, and striving to meet, very demanding standards that are self-imposed and relentlessly pursued despite this causing problems. What is perfectionism? In their useful book on Overcoming Perfectionism, Shafron, Egan and Wade offer the following definition: Are you a perfectionist? Do you set higher standards for yourself than you do for other people? Do you strive for continual improvement in areas of your life you value, for example in your archery? As a ‘reforming’ (that is, not quite reformed) perfectionist who has studied Japanese archery (kyudo), I will discuss in this article why perfectionism isn’t always helpful and how it can in fact be detrimental to your performance in sports such as archery.

Sports psychology in archery