1. Coaching Course Visual
This presentation is also called ENG-13-Visual. It is available in English, French and Spanish.
The colored bars above the slides indicate the following code:
Blue for level 1
Red for level 2
Yellow for level 3
Pascal Colmaire – WA Development & Education Director

2. VISUAL Mindset related
Windows of our mind:
Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP)…
Eyes - Motions:
A lot of motion = high mind activity
Stable eyes = quiet mind (meditation) + self control
Exo 1: Lateral gaze deviation, with & without eye motion
Exo 2: Shooting without eye motion – start from waiting line
Eyes - direction:
On task at hand = High care / concentration
Out of task at hand = unfocussed
Exo: Touch 2 fingers under gaze & without eye motion.
Eyes - tension:
Tensed / hard = narrow external focus
Soft / relaxed = broad attention
Exo: Switch the look from thumbnail to background
The human body has about 3 M (millions) of sensors, 1 M of them are situated in the eyes. Therefore we can understand that during training sessions archers shoot at a short distance with the eyes closed. Missing all the visual information, the archer can very well focus on ‘shooting with feeling’, there will be little mind activity.
A science like the NLP associates several eye locations/movements to specific thoughts.
Eyes-Motions exercise consists in:
Look at something ahead of you, then look at something located at 90 degrees on one side. Figure out what is moving first, your head or your eyes? Try eyes first, then try head first. In both case during the deviation things get blurred.
Now redo the same exercise with the eyeballs ALWAYS centred in the eyeholes. Feel that you have now a different mindset and during the deviation, all things are always neat. You feel in a better control and quite.
Eyes-direction: Have your students testing the 2 situations through some simple shooting steps:
Step the shooting line, once while watching the feet and the shooting line, once while watching (and why not talking to ) someone else.
Load on arrow on the rest and string, once while watching at the arrow / rest / nocking point and once while watching at the scoring board (or anything else)
...
The level of concentration is much higher while watching the task at hand
Eyes-tension: Self explanatory.
You feel hard eyes when watching the nail, and a soft eyes while watching the background. Like the archer feels hard eyes while focussing on the sight pin and softer eyes while focussing on the target. Over aiming (a common mistake of the archer) is associated to very hard eyes.
Pascal Colmaire – WA Development & Education Director

3. Shooting Sequence Steps
Such a sequence must be built for each archer, since there is not a universal one. Hence the coach should assist the archer to identify and memorize the script of his/her sequence. In fact, we can write down the script of various sequences:
of the movements (the physical one), on the example of record form above, it is suggested to write each movement vertically in order to list under each one what is watching, what is the breathing pattern (inhale, hold or exhale)...
of the visual – just write down vertically, under each motion, what the archer look at
Breathing - on the example of record form above it is suggested to simply draw a line:
Up when inhaling
Horizontal when holding the breath
Down when exhaling
The boxes to record the perceptions and the attention type are for advanced archers.
It is interesting for the archer to summarize in detail what the steps of their shooting sequence in detail include.
Pascal Colmaire – Development & Education Director of WA

4. Movements and breathing related: Concentration:
VISUAL
Sequence
Movements and breathing related:
Concentration:
Watch what is under process.
Calmness
Keep the gaze on the same spot when not conducting a motion (during a breathing step).
Self control
Switch the gaze with motionless eyes (eyes centred in their socket)
Each step of the shooting sequence the archer should know:
How to do the physical action
How to breath during it
What to look at: only the task at hand, less things as possible, stable things (non moving)
How to look at things:
motionless eyes (eyes centred in their socket)
soft eyes
Calmness: Keeping the eye on the same spot, reduce down the level of mind activity, like in meditation (as long as you move your eyes, you cannot meditate because your mind works too intensively)
Self-control: already explain in the previous slide under “Eyes – Motions”
Pascal Colmaire – WA Development & Education Director

5. VISUAL During the main action
Aiming too early = a common trap!
Aiming is the last thing to put in place.
Over aiming = the most popular trap!
Use soft eyes
Focus on the objective – Not on the aiming device
The target does not move. Hence the gaze is still.
Stable gaze = Low mental activity +
Get the moving sight merged into the target area where you wish the arrow to land.
During training sessions you do all kind of exercises, some of them consciously to train a certain part of the shooting routine. In competition a big part of the shooting routine is executed subconsciously. The art of repetition implies a selective distribution of attention. Some activities have to be done consciously, others subconsciously. This is also the case with different parts of aiming. Focus on the target, not on the aiming device. Your mind will subconsciously put the aiming device onto the straight line between your aiming eye and the target, don’t bother. Your attention during a shot should be focused on the target and on the handling of your back muscles. Yearning is a sign for the coach that the archer has focused on the wrong things. This could be aiming too early or over aiming (aiming with device).
Pascal Colmaire – WA Development & Education Director

6. Thank you… Ready to answer your questions!
Pascal Colmaire – WA Development & Education Director