The Mindset that makes you miss...

I'm going to hit three big ideas today, the fourth will bring it all together. I don't have the credentials and I don't have the diploma to teach these things, so if that matters to you, don't listen, but I am convinced that these ideas are true. I know this stuff works, and I know it will change the way you approach your shot the last two seconds before you release an arrow. Also, this is for the person who wants to get better. If you don't want to get better, just grab a beer and slink some arrows. That's probably a bad idea. Slink some arrows, then grab a beer, and proceed to tell your buddy about the one that got away. But for the rest of us who are a little bit nutty and competitive and obsessed with beating our yesterday, let's get to it. Number one, the person with the best bad shots is the best. The quality of your bad shots determines the quality of archer that you are. You will get much better at archery if you reduce the bad shots rather than increasing the good ones. Everyone's good shot is good, but how good is your bad? There's many different ways to score archery in different tournaments, all sorts of things. But let's use this for an example as if we were trying to score the highest score on this target. Each ring is a point, and we get 10 for the center. Person one could be good, but with an odd bad shot. They could have four 10s in a row and then slap one in the one ring. But person number two could just be overall pretty good, but ultimately consistent and have three eights and two nines and still beat the person who had four 10s. In a hunting scenario, one person would have got all five animals and the other would have got four of the five. Think of it, anyone can hit the mark when everything goes right, but it's the consistency of your bad shots that reveals your true skill. What do they say? Throw enough mud at the wall and some will stick. But what's wiser is to mix some silly putty and some pine tar in your mud. Then you can ensure your mud will stick every single time. The goal should not be to hit the bullseye and then split your arrow in the bullseye more often. But tighten the grouping of your bad shots, and because math is math, inevitably you will split more arrows. I know, a bummer. Arrows are expensive. So focus on refining your technique and minimizing your errors, because in the end the quality of your bad shots determines how good you really are. But to increase the quality of your bad shots, it's important to have a sharp mind. And what we put in our body fuels us. The right stuff makes us better and the wrong stuff makes us worse. Which leads me to an interesting story. A company reached out to me and asked me if I'd be interested in trying their product. Now this isn't anything new and it happens quite frequently. And honestly, most of the time I say no, because it doesn't look that interesting to me. But it looked interesting, so I said sure, send it over. I did not think much of it, but after I tried it, it was... Hear me out. What I think is awesome about this product is that I think it can help in your mental focus in archery and in life, because you need this calm, almost zen-like mindset of clear, extreme focus. You don't want energy highs, you don't want shakiness, you don't want energy lows. And that's what this product can offer us. Magic Mind is not a coffee replacement. It's an addition to your morning routine. It's just like a daily essential vitamin, but for your mind. The L-theanine inside also makes your coffee last all day. It introduces the release of that caffeine over a longer period of time, allowing you not to have the sudden dip in energy and the sudden crash. It also allows you to have more steady, sustained energy instead of a quick high than a quick low. It's just like this. And I immediately noticed this type of experience in myself when I took this. As I said, I had zero expectation when I first took this, and immediately I was like, oh my goodness, this is, this made a difference. And then to my surprise, four hours later, I still felt great. It is 100% safe and third-party tested. What I think even tops it off is that I think it tastes pretty good. There's like this little tanginess that kind of wakes me up immediately when I take it. And then it's just like this steady, consistent energy throughout the day. They're even so confident in their product, they'll give you a 100% refund if you don't like it within a hundred days of purchasing. They believe that if you take this consistently, you will notice a major difference. And I believe that to be true. And so they're so confident that they offer that, which is crazy. So to get your first batch, I can help you out. Go to magicmind.com slash Kramer Ammons, check the description, but magicmind.com slash Kramer Ammons. And code Kramer20 gets you up to 48% off your first subscription or 20% off a one-time purchase to try it out. Delicious. It's hard not to have more than one. Thank you, Magic Mind. Number two, archery is less about the result than the process. It's more than just hitting the target. It's about mastering the process to having the perfect shot. Imagine this, the archer who obsesses over every shot's result and who worries about whether they will hit the bullseye or not often falls short. I think their anxiety over the outcome will cloud their focus. And even their best shots come with a little bit of doubt. But the true marksmen, they focus on the process, the stance, the draw, the breath, the release. They understand that excellence isn't about outcome of one single shot, but it's about the consistency of their actions. And by surrendering the need to control the result of every single shot and instead focus on refining the technique, the result of the shot becomes better. These archers create a natural rhythm, which when observed seems effortless. So if you want to elevate your archery game, stop focusing on the bullseye and where you want to hit and start focused on the process that will get you there. And when you do, you'll find that your worst shots are still on the target. So I encourage you to measure your shot dispersion rather than your good shots or bad shots. I don't do this all the time, but I do sometimes. So instead of saying, oh, I got four in the red, grab a string, throw it around your arrows, bring it together, take that mark, pinch it, take it to a tape measure and measure. And so this is 12 inches all around. Now if I just take one arrow and I bring it in closer, my 12 inches goes to nine. But if I had one wild shot and bring it way out here, my 12 inches goes to 21. Measuring this way magnifies your bad shot more than your good ones because it's easy to have a good group and have one bad shot and just kind of throw it in the trash and mentally you want to, but it doesn't really reflect how good you actually are. If you shoot trad, try for 12 inches within 20 yards. If you can do that consistently, I think you're really good. Number three, many people talk about muscle memory, me included, but it actually doesn't exist. Muscles don't have memory, but what they do have is the ability to respond to the brain's commands. Think of this like an excavator. The excavator doesn't know how to dig itself, but the operator, the mind, knows exactly what to do. In archery, we're the operators of our own body and it's our brain, not the muscles that hold the memory. Every movement and every shot is the result of neural pathways firing, directing our muscles to act. The good news is that with the right mindset, we can change those pathways. There's an old belief that the brain is set in its ways. You can't train an old dog new tricks. But modern research tells us otherwise. The brain is actually adaptable and capable of changing at any stage in life. So the habits you currently have, in archery specifically, can actually be changed and reshaped, whether good or bad. You might have fantastic habits and you could make them worse or the other way around. So to improve, you must change the way you think. Thoughts are not actions. In the specific thought that makes you act may be a different thought that makes someone else act. So two people could be thinking two different things, but acting in the same way. That's why one thought process doesn't work for everybody. So you need to create new mental pathways, new instructions that help your body do the right actions more often. It's about retraining your brain to direct your muscles to do the things you want to do. It's actually more about thinking differently than shooting differently. It all starts up here because the thoughts are upstream of the shot. And when you change your thoughts, you change your game. Four, let's bring it all together. So here's the one thought that has truly transformed my accuracy in archery. I used to focus on trying to achieve a surprise release rather than a command release. But here's the challenge. It's tough to consistently create a surprise. I mean, how do you plan for something unexpected? It felt counterintuitive, almost impossible to execute consistently. Now the idea behind a surprise release is clear to me. It helps you prevent jerking the bow off target by saying, uh, now, and then you have a more consistent release, a tighter group, et cetera. Sure. That makes sense. And the concept overall should lead to better shots. But for me, trying to focus on, okay, let this happen, but don't think about it now, but not now. Just do it naturally, but don't think it was a, it's tough to, I don't know, what am I supposed to actually think? Therefore, my frustration increased and I was kind of half surprise releasing. I don't know. Then I discovered something that changed everything for me. Instead of fixating on creating surprise, I started focusing on being relaxed. I began to think about shooting freely, loosening my grip, using my muscles, but easing them at the same time. Just trying to let all the tension kind of melt away. Focus on being relaxed when I shoot. And kind of incidentally, the surprise release started kind of happening naturally. My shots became more consistent. Now, this isn't easy because archery requires you to aim, focus, use muscles. But if there's any way to stay relaxed in the process, for me, it's been a game changer. I think tension is the enemy of accuracy. When we're tense, we pluck the string when we release, we command shoot, and ultimately just miss the mark. In contrast, a relaxed shot is a smooth shot. And for me, thinking relaxed instead of surprised has definitely made a difference. To change your mindset and your shooting, sometimes you have to change your environment. So I can't tell you what will exactly work best for you, but I encourage you to experiment. Try on different mental approaches like you would try on clothes. I'm going to think this thought. I'm going to try this routine. Try out these different things and you don't have to commit to them, but just try them. And see how it works. The real skill in archery is not about aiming and releasing. It's about learning to be relaxed through the process. A relaxed demeanor is an athletic demeanor. An athletic shooting is going to be much more consistent and much more accurate shooting than tense, stiff, and forcing it. So if you've liked this type of video, let me know because I have way more where this came from. Take the meat from today and throw out the bones. Also, don't forget your pine tar and silly putty. You got this.