Getting a Start on Target Panic
My colleague and good friend, Markus Wagner of Germany, made a comment that wasn’t exactly a question for me to answer, but does provide a topic to explore.
He said. among other things, regarding target panic: “I contend that knowledge of a neurological context is necessary. How does conditioning work in the brain? What is empathy in detail? How to read body language, facial expressions? So, non-verbal communication. Of course, these issues are best dealt with by a educated mental trainer. But a certain basic knowledge should also part of the technical trainers. Unfortunately, I don’t see any such approaches in any of the training systems there.”
Now Markus is a better educated coach/trainer than am I. He has acquired extensive certifications to become a mental sports coach, among other things, and his students have had more than a little success.
I acknowledge, however, that archery coaches are not looking for a university education in sports psychology, so some targeted trainings seem to be desirable.
I suggest the way to begin formulating those trainings would be to create a list questions that need to be answered. Here are a some to get the ball rolling, as they say, and I hope you can contribute more. Possibly we can then take our list of questions and submit them to our archery organizations who would then solicit answers from universities, etc.
So . . .
- What is target panic?
- Why are the symptoms so varied, even contradictory, e.g. freezing and not being able to loose vs. uncontrolled loosing?
- Is the cause mental, physical, or a combination of the two?
- How does one treat it?
What would you add to this list?
Originally from A Blog for Archery Coaches.