The eight-athlete archery squad representing Team USA at Rio 2016 is a tight-knit family with a mix of experienced archers and first-time Paralympians.
The teammates give each other friendly advice and have a variety of mental strategies that they deploy in and advance of competition. Here are five approaches the USA athletes keep in mind as they compete.
1) Visualisation
Archers are big on visualisation: From picturing the crowd atmosphere, to their shot, to exactly what is going to happen in competition.
(Sam Tucker, the first United States woman to qualify for the women’s compound open competition, visualised herself qualifying for Rio so much that when it actually happened she wasn’t sure what to do.)
It’s also a valuable way to practise when it’s not possible for real.
“If I can’t get physical practise, I’ll sit by myself try to get some mental stuff worked on,” Four-time Paralympian Jeff Fabry said. “Visualising my shot, making sure the muscles are ready. Anything that gets out the jitters and makes sure I don’t forget something. Everybody forgets sometimes.”
2) Control
Visualisation ideally leads to positive thinking and success on the field, but sometimes it can do the opposite. The archers try not to overthink what they are doing because it can lead to catastrophic results.
Fabry told his less-experienced teammates to stay in their own heads, no matter what.
“It’s really easy to talk yourself out of winning,” KJ Polish said. “If you know exactly what’s left and what you need to score for a world record or to win gold, then you are going to overthink it and get all 7s.”
3) Headlines
Matt Stutzman, known as the Armless Archer, made headlines when he took silver in London 2012. Now, when he shoots, there are crowds of people behind him, videotaping his every move. He tries to use this to his advantage.
“I’ve been on the stage of five years and people know how I can shoot,” Stutzman said. “You can definitely tell people are going to eyeball me down. It gets me ready to rock and roll.”
4) Community
Team USA values friendship among the squad. The team gets along well and although many of them are competing against each other, it’s positive relationships that drew many of them to the sport in the first place.
“When I first started out it was the people, everybody was so willing to help out and give advice,” Paralympic debutant Andre Shelby said. “Just the respect they have for each other, is something to look up to. It’s continued all through my time or I wouldn’t do that here.”
5) Individuality
Tucker explained that the dynamic is inherent in archery as a sport. While shooting, athletes are focused on themselves and their own bow and arrows. Ultimately, how they alone shoot is all that matters.
“This allows us to develop friendships with other archers,” Tucker said. You can’t look at somebody and say she beat me, because she didn’t. I beat myself.”
The para archery competition at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games runs 10-17 September in the Sambodromo.
