Shooting In "The Zone" to Conquer Buck Fever

"The buck stepped out from behind the tree, a scant 20 yards away. I raised my bow, picked a spot directly behind the foreleg, and without thinking the arrow flew directly into the middle of the heart-lung kill zone. I cannot remember releasing the arrow, but it was a perfect shot and the deer died within seconds."

Does this sound like you? There are those moments in all sports when mind and body melt together into a dynamic unity of concentration and perfection just unfolds. "The zone" some sports psychologists call it. When you are in it, whether you are shooting an arrow at a deer or a target, hitting a golf ball, or throwing a touchdown pass, things seem to slow down, your concentration is flawless, and you effortlessly execute with precision. Then, there are those other times.

“The buck stepped out from behind the tree. My legs and hands were shaking so much the arrow started rattling against the bow. I started to raise the bow and the arrow fell off the rest and onto the ground. The buck stood there looking at me. My heart was beating so loud that I think that was what scared him off. I just came unglued.”

We all miss on occasion. Game animals are not stationary targets. Branches do get in the way. The wind blows. But, when "buck fever" strikes, it is as if a demon spirit has possessed us to prevent making an accurate shot, or even getting the bow drawn. "My hands were shaking so hard that the arrow was beating like a drumstick against my bow." "I dropped the arrow off the string." “I broke out in a cold sweat, and my eyes were watering, and then I sneezed, more from excitement than any allergy.” Sound like you?

If there was no excitement at the approach of game animals, then it is probably time to hang up the bow or gun and try photography. Or, if all you want is excitement, there’s always sky diving or bungee-jumping. The real issues for the hunter to be successful are how much excitement does that approaching buck stir up and how do you manage it. In this article I am going to offer some suggestions for turning “buck fever” into successful shooting. The suggestions are based on some of the latest training and preparation methods in sports psychology; developed for people for whom peak performance is an occupational requirement, and my experience as a psychologist.

Before we begin, let me say that I have hunted and shot competitive archery since I was pre-teens. In my teens, shooting in a league of Olympic-aspirants that included former Miss Michigan, Ann Marston, I developed target panic. I cured myself by taking the sight off my bow and letting go of my dreams of Olympic gold. It was this experience, plus inconsistent performance as a college football, rugby and golf player that ultimately led me to begin studying sports psychology in the 1970’s. (This was really not even a field in the 1960’s when I was in college.) Initially, it was for myself. Later, I began applying what I had learned to work as a counselor and teacher. Over the years I’ve been able to share this information with a number of Olympic, world-class and professional athletes in a wide variety of sports ranging from track, to football, basketball, and horse racing to mountain climbing and ping pong.

Clearing Away Barriers to Full Concentration

Your self-image influences your physical performance. Practice helps build confidence as you learn to know that you can make the shot. This becomes a mental and physical platform to build upon. Practice does make perfect, but repetition alone is not enough. Perfection is rooted in learning to master the skills involved. Practicing by yourself, taking time to think after every shot helps you develop a routine, just like a golfer grooves his swing. Each person will have a different way that they are best able to evaluate their performance. Some will use physical feeling. Others have a checklist of what they must do each time. Some people have an image of perfection they create as a basis to judge themselves. Find a system that feels right for you to evaluate your performance, and use it to become aware of your faults so you can correct them. The goal here is for shooting to become automatic because you have integrated all the basic requirements into a system that works each time.

The key to consistent peak performance in all sports is concentration. Not so much willful bearing down, but more attaining a very focused mental state of mind-body coordination where intention and execution arise from a conscious decision that seems to happen without thought. Before we get to actually concentrating, though, the spadework must be done. All action happens out of context. Technically, “buck fever” is a form of performance anxiety. It differs from “target panic,” in that you are shooting at a living animal with the intent to kill it. The emotional issues associated with killing do influence some people’s shooting. That’s one reason why some tournament archers can’t hit the broad side of a barn in the field.

Let's face it, some people miss shots at deer or other game animals because they have guilty feelings about killing. This is especially true for novices. The guilt acts like a voice over your shoulder saying, "No, don’t do it," when you know you should be aiming. It either keeps you from shooting, or may make it difficult to concentrate and make a lethal shot. If this is an issue for you, I suggest reading my book In Defense of Hunting, which has a whole section about the honest motivational psychology of hunting which should make it very clear that hunting is a very healthy thing to do, despite what some animal rights activists may claim. You should feel no guilt about ethically and legally killing an animal.(1)

Guilt is something you can exorcise before you hunt by thinking through the acceptability of killing an animal. You may also find it useful to plan how you will honor an animal that you shoot. In doing research for my next book, The Sacred Art of Hunting, (2) I found that hunters use a number of ways to express thanksgiving to animals they’ve shot. Some of these include:

In Europe there is a common thanksgiving ceremony called “The Last Bite.” When the animal is killed, the hunter or his guide takes a twig, and breaks it in two. One-half goes into the animal’s mouth. The other half is dipped into the animal’s blood and then the hunter puts the sprig into the brim of his hat. Both hunter and animal are honored.
Many people paint some of the animal’s blood on their face, especially for first kills, and then offer thanksgiving. This moment is beautifully captured in George Butler’s docu-drama “In The Blood” (1990) when veteran African hunter Robin Hurt does a “blooding” ceremony for Tyssen Butler, who has just killed a Cape Buffalo, and then asks Tyssen to reflect on the life of the animal and what a gift it has given him.
A number of people carry small pouches of corn meal and pray for animals taken in a more Native American tradition by scattering some of the corn meal beside the animal taken.
Some hunters will recite phrases from The Bible, or make up special prayers. Veteran screen actor Marshall Teague (“The Rock,” “Armageddon”), who is an avid hunter, says that when he kills a an animal he prays, “Lord, bless this noble creature that has given his time and spirit to engage in the chase. Permit him green pastures to graze, thick forests to roam and take his heart and soul into your blessed hands.”
Having set aside the influence of guilt, there is one other preliminary attitude to be banished -- fear. Excitement is good; fear of excitement is not. Reacting fearfully to excitement builds a vicious spiral of anxiety that results in target panic every time. The key to accurate shooting, whether at a target, in competition or at a trophy whitetail, is to manage the excitement much like a surfer catches a wave and rides it out in control. Fear contracts and tightens muscles. Movements become jerky. Learning to relax at will helps dispel any hindrance of fear in performance.

Concentration

Eugen Herrigel's classic book Zen and The Art of Archery should be required reading for any serious archer.(3) Herrigel, a German college professor, recounts how a Japanese master of the martial art, Kyudo, schooled him in the meditative art of Zen archery. Much of the book describes how one trains the mind in Zen to achieve a state of heightened awareness called "satori." The result of such a state of mind for the archer is that a bow seems to shoot itself, the correct moment of release being determined by an unconscious awareness of mind-body unity with intention. As Herrigel’s master told him, the ideal release of the arrow should be like snow slipping off a leaf.
There appear to be many parallels between the "satori" that a Zen meditator seeks to attain, and "the zone" which athletes strive for. Both arise from a combination of excitement, mastery of skills and relaxed attitude applied to executing a focused task. To illustrate how mental thoughts influence performance, try this simple experiment with a friend. Hold your arm straight out in front of you and make it strong, as if you are holding up a weight. Ask your friend to push down to determine your strength. He need not push too hard, just enough to affirm your strength. Now think of your arm as a wet noodle and have him test your strength again. You can try to resist as hard as you want, but if you have an image of your arm as a wet noodle, it will lose a significant amount of strength. This is essentially what happens when buck fever destroys your hunting success.
In recent years sports psychologists have borrowed a number of techniques and concepts from meditation and martial arts and applied them to help athletes improve their performance. The results are dramatic. In the 1960’s mental training was supposed to be superstition and hog wash, but now I can assure you that all major professional, national, and Olympic sports teams, as well as many college teams, use psychologists to teach methods and work with individuals on their mental game. Jack Nicklaus, Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods all will tell you that after you are in physical shape and have the fundamentals down, success is 90% from the neck up. If you watched the recent US Women’s Soccer World Championships, you may have heard the announcer mention the psychologist who was sitting on the bench beside the coach.
Drawing upon the work in sports psychology, the following are several techniques that may be useful in strengthening your concentration to conquer your "buck fever." They may also be helpful for curing "target panic."

1) Use Visual Imagery -- Extend your arm and ask a friend to test your muscle strength. Resist as they apply downward pressure. This is your baseline reference point.

Now pick a point on a wall. Now extend an arm and direct your hand at that point. Imagine that a beam of light is flowing from your arm. Point that beam of light so it hits directly on your target. Now ask someone to pull down on your arm. Resist their pressure. If your concentration and visualization are strong and focused, your muscle strength will dramatically increase, but your muscle tension will not. This exercise follows the wise health advice of Aldous Huxley: "Learn to combine relaxation with activity; learn to do what you have to do without strain; work hard, but never under tension." (4)
Take your visualization technique with you when you pick up your bow. Shooting at one spot over and over again helps develop consistency, and you can learn from your groupings, but if you are hunting, the target doesn’t always stand still or appear where you want them. In practice, take a large sheet of cardboard and make a number of small spots, about the size of a half-dollar, with a magic marker. Now try practicing by never shooting at the same spot twice in any round. Move around the cardboard in different patterns each time. Make yourself concentrate on a new spot each time. Most deer are killed by shots of 20 yards or less. If you can hit a half-dollar consistently at a distance beyond this, then your chances of killing a deer at that range are pretty good.
Picking a spot to shoot at on a target, or on a deer, helps narrow focus and improves concentration. If you are an instinctive shooter, some people find it useful to imagine a laser light beam coming out of their arrow, extending all the way to the target, like a laser sight on a pistol. Some people imagine the half-dollar spot on the deer right over the kill zone.

2) Choose Words to Increase Focus -- Meditators may recite a word, a phrase, or a series of words to achieve a certain state of mind and develop powers of concentration. Recall how the image of your arm as a wet noodle decreased strength and confidence. Try the same exercise of extending your arm, making it strong, and thinking the word “focus” or “the spot” to yourself. Select a word that feels appropriate to what you are doing. “Bullseye,” “zone,” or “jackpot” work for some people. That word, mentally repeated while shooting, will drive away useless mental chatter that decreases your ability to be totally focused on what you are doing. Combine the imagery with the word, called an “affirmation,” and your concentration will improve more.

3) Learn to Control Breathing -- Breathing is an important part of concentration. The breath is a physical act that unites mind and body, as well as an essential act of life. The respiratory system directly ties into your nervous system. Breathing is an involuntary act that changes according to our level of excitement, but it is also an act that can be easily controlled consciously. If you can control your breathing, you can control your excitement as well.

To quiet your mind, try this exercise. Inhale slowly for a count of 10. Then hold your breath for a count of five, and exhale slowly for a count of 10. You may experiment with the number of beats, gradually increasing them to increase relaxation. Some people can develop a 32-count exhalation! Take your pulse before doing this exercise. After doing it say five times take your pulse again and you will see a drop in heart rate. It is a useful method to steady oneself before competition, and for that matter, in any tense life situation, including when a bull elk steps out of the brush 20 yards away.

If you combine your breathing with the draw of the bow, you increase your ability to concentrate as well as stay relaxed. A common rhythm is to inhale slowly on the draw, hold your breath when you are at full draw, and exhale after you have released the arrow. Combining breathing with imagery steadies your concentration even more. If you practice slow, steady breathing with each shot, it will make the jitters-factor go down a long ways.

4) Enlist A Helpful Witness -- Sometimes it may seem difficult to concentrate. Your thoughts are elsewhere. At full draw you worry about if the arrow is lined up correctly or the right elevation. Do you have the right anchor point? Have you drawn the bow back all the way? Is your posture correct? Did you draw correctly? Have you canted the bow too much? All these thoughts pull you away from your basic concentration on your target, and make it more difficult to hit the spot you are aiming at. Repetition in practice helps answer questions that can clutter the mind and get in the way of full concentration. Out of that repetition comes a form or style which is your unique way of shooting. Remembering your checklist, however, may seem to get in the way of your concentration. That’s when you need to turn over the checklist to someone else.

In meditation, some schools suggest imagining a "witness;" an observer on the sidelines, who watches what you are doing as a coach. Most of us carry witnesses along with us, whether we are aware of it or not. The witness can be positive or negative: a wise coach that helps you to improve your technique, or a critic that works against your success. Finding a good witness is an important part of developing a performance skill. When actor Tom Hanks received his Oscar, he thanked his high school drama teacher, Rawley Farnsworth. Hanks said that a key in his success is that he always imagined Farnsworth sitting in a corner, off-camera, watching him act. That's an example of a positive witness.

Your choice of a witness is personal. A great archer like Howard Hill or Fred Bear, could be a good witness. Ted Nugent sings about Fred Bear being a witness to his shooting. Your witness could be a parent, an archer hero, a Zen master or even a legendary figure like Robin Hood. You can practice working with your witness anyplace, just by closing your eyes. Imagine yourself on location, with bow and arrow in hand. See, in your mind’s eye, your witness standing or sitting beside you, watching. Now with their guidance, draw and shoot. You may even be able to carry on a mental conversation with them. Your goal is to work toward knowing what they are thinking.

When you go to the range and shoot, the first few times you shoot, be very conscious of your witness. As you develop a strong awareness of their presence, you will not need to consciously keep focused on them. Their guidance should become integrated into your shooting, because it is you shooting the arrows for yourself, not for them. Ultimately, you become your own witness.

Shooting In The Zone

“The Zone” that athletes are talking about is a state of mind where time seems to slow down and physical performance seems effortless, despite whatever effort you may be expending. It is a state of excitement and relaxation. If you get “buck fever” know that you are half way there, because you’ve got the excitement part down. That adrenaline rush is the raw material from which perfect shots are made. All you have to do now is apply these techniques to bring that excitement under control; much the same way that rider brings a horse under control. As this happens, your senses will come more alive. Scenes take on freshness and nature becomes more rich and enjoyable. This is what “hunter’s high” is all about. “Buck fever” is just hunter’s high shifting into a higher gear. They key to success is to learn to ride that high, like a surfer takes a wave, and not lose it when the moment of truth comes to make that perfect shot.

Now available! James A. Swan's "Conquering Buck Fever". If you want more info about how to overcome hunter's high, CLICK HERE for info on ordering this essential video.

*James A. Swan, Ph.D. is the author of In Defense of Hunting (HarperCollins, 1994) and the new The Sacred Art of Hunting (Willow Creek, 1999), as well as the “Media Watch” columnist for North American Hunter magazine. He has taught natural resources and psychology at several major universities, practiced as a psychotherapist and continues to serve on doctoral committees in psychology at several graduate schools. Since his teens he has never had a sight on his bow.

Footnotes

1) James Swan, In Defense of Hunting, NY, NY: HarperCollins, 1994.
2) James Swan, The Sacred Art of Hunting Minocqua, WI: Willow Creek Press, 1999.
3) Eugen Herrigel, Zen In The Art of Archery, NY, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1964. 4) Aldous Huxley The Art of Seeing New York, NY: Harper and Bros., 1942.