From first arrow to final gold: Mastering first competition nerves throughout your archery career

You’ve trained for this moment. You’ve shot 100s, perhaps 1000s of arrows in training. Your process is honed and your warm-up goes well. It’s time to step onto the shooting line at your first competition. It’s time to deliver.

The only thing is, you’ve never been here before. 

Only a rare few don’t experience first competition nerves – or should I say “so-called” first competition nerves? Those feelings repeat throughout your career – at your first club competition, your first regional event, your first international selection event, your first World Cup...

You get the picture.

With the World Archery Excellence Centre full of archers competing at the Swiss Open, two athletes I’d not encountered before, Spain’s Natalia Manjarrez and Jerome Bidault from France joined me and chartered psychologist Dr Jon Rhodes in filming the new Taking Aim podcast episode, which launched on 31 January on archery+.

Jon approaches his profession by encouraging the people he works with to appreciate all of their senses and emotions to help them invest in finding solutions that work for them. It was no surprise then for him to open with, “what’s going through your head standing on the line ahead of your first competition arrow?”

The mental pressures come pouring out – performance expectation both from yourself and others, justification of the effort you’ve put in and the money you’ve invested, self-confidence or the lack of it, facing a higher seed and the list goes on.

“How does your body respond?” (My response – am I part of a podcast episode or a therapy session?)

Perspiration, pounding head and elevated heart rate leading to distraction, loss of focus and ultimately poor execution. 

The nods are affirmations that Jon is successfully leading Natalia and Jerome to fully understand how psychological factors elicit a physiological response that in turn potentially lead to sub-optimal performance. Perhaps not rocket science but this neat trick has them on the edge of their seats and fully invested as we begin discussing minimising the detrimental effects of first competition nerves.

First the science – fear, nerves and anxiety are all different and need to be managed as such. Then the plan – pre-empt and manage. Finally the management techniques and measuring their effectiveness.

It’s not one-size-fits all and every archer must refine their approach along the journey.

Whether you’re looking forward to your first competition or you’re a seasoned international – in fact, if you’re ever going to put yourself in any challenging situation – watch the latest episode of the Taking Aim podcast on archery+ to discover modern methods to manage your nerves.