Op internet vond ik dit artikel. Je hoort er niet veel van, maar angst voor het doel bestaat helaas voor sommigen …

by Adrian Chamberlin

Created on: December 15, 2009

It is one of the worst things that can happen to an archer. It can strike from nowhere, come at any time and attack archers of all levels. It can be so severe it forces the archer to retire from the sport altogether.

Target panic. Even the term sounds terrifying, conjuring up the image of a panic or anxiety attack. Some archers and coaches won’t even use the phrase because of the fear and anxiety associated with it.

Then you have two more arrows to shoot that end, and even though the rule is to forget your last shot, you can’t get it off your mind. What happened there? Why did I miss? My stance was correct, you tell yourself. My release was fine, my form is textbook…

And then the next two arrows of that end are even worse. You get angry with yourself, you demand to know why you failed. In turn, you’re adding to the stress of a very difficult condition. You can’t help but feel self-conscious, aware that fellow competitors and club members are watching your disastrous performance and making judgements.

They’re not, of course. Experienced archers watching will know exactly what you’re going through – and may even have suffered it themselves.

It happened to me last summer, after four solid years of shooting. It happened during our club’s annual Diana Tournament, shooting a Windsor round – nine dozen arrows, three dozen at 60 yards, three at 50 yards and three at 40 yards.

The year before I came second in this round. This year I came last. Some of my shots were complete misses, even at forty yards.

Target panic after four years of relatively trouble-free shooting – and in a competition! It wasn’t my first competition, I didn’t feel nervous before the shoot, so what was going on? And then two club members told me. I learned what target panic was – and how common it is.

The help and support the club gave me was invaluable. There are no easy ways of overcoming this condition. There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ coaching method that will cure it. You have to try different techniques and find out what helps you the most. And it takes time.

It’s the time involved that is one possible reason why many archers leave the sport. Each time you go to a club night or a practice session the memory of your last performance haunts you, feeds on your confidence and drains it. You may even find yourself making excuses not to attend a shoot. That’s the worst thing you can do. The longer you leave it the harder it is to overcome.

The most popular technique is to shoot at a blank boss at a closer distance. This can be surprisingly effective, because as the target has been removed, there is no gold to focus on or panic over. By removing the target you remove the anxiety and therefore the source of the panic. I found myself aiming for the centre of the blank boss and getting good results.

But then, the target face went back on and the problem returned. I found myself despairing again.

Two things saved me. Firstly, I tried my hand at Clout Shooting. This involves shooting arrows at a flag in the field 180 yards away (gents’ distance). To cover that huge distance means elevating the bow, so you are in effect shooting at the sky. Again, there is no target face. There’s still a target to aim for, but a coloured flag fluttering gently in the summer breeze is a much less intimidating target than the harsh yellow eye that glares at you from the centre of a target face. Less anxiety. Clout is a different discipline, usually a lot more laid back and light hearted than target archery. I became hooked on it immediately, and found it a welcome antidote to the grim task of battling the target face. I learned to enjoy archery again.

Secondly, I decided to use a clicker for the first time. A clicker is a release aid, a piece of metal that signifies correct draw length and aids consistency. Adopting one as part of your technique can be an ordeal in itself; many archers trying one for the first time find themselves coming at full draw, hearing the ‘click’ and releasing before fully centred on the gold.

As I was having this result anyway I knew I had nothing to lose. Because one other thing the clicker does is make you take your time over the shot. The sight pin hovers on the gold but you know you can’t release yet…pull back a bit more, wait for that click, hold it, hold it…

Click. Release.

The results were astonishing. My arrow grouping improved almost immediately, and after a while I was back on form.

Did this cure my target panic? Most archers use clickers anyway, and the target panic can still hit them. There’s no guarantee that I won’t suffer from this condition in the future – and a clicker won’t save me then.

It seems to me that the target panic I suffered was a combination of anxiety and poor form. Feeling anxious and then rushing the shot, to ‘get it over with’. It meant I saw the target as something to be feared and to fight against, rather than something to aim for.

I was therefore losing my enjoyment of archery. Clout renewed my love of the sport and the clicker has enabled me to overcome a serious flaw in my technique.

Target panic is no longer affecting me, but I’m glad I went through it. It had real lessons to teach me and forced me to re-evaluate my approach to archery.

It didn’t defeat me. And if it strikes you, remember it’s not the end of the world, or your archery career. It’s more common than you think – even your coach may have gone through it at some stage. But don’t let it defeat you. Don’t leave it for a while, thinking you just need a break from archery for a week, a month, a whole season. Tomorrow never comes. Accept the condition and work through it. You will come out of it a stronger, better and happier archer.

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