By:George Loh

When it comes to archery, there are those who view it as a hobby or an enjoyable pastime, and there are those who take it seriously. If you're one of those people who take the sport seriously and are really trying to improve yourself, nothing works better than practice. As with any sport, hobby, or goal, the only way to get better is constant practice and learning. You may have heard this a lot, but still aren't quite sure how to really improve and get past those little obstacles and walls that stand in your way. Here are 5 steps to improve your archery skills and become a better archer.

Step 1- Visualize

Visualizing your target is a technique used by many world class competition archers. By visualizing, you are actively focusing all of your concentration on the task immediately at hand. Picture the target in your mind and imagine the arrow flying into a perfect bull's eye. By concentrating like this, every miniscule action and muscle change becomes apparent, allowing you to fire with better form and improved technique.

Step 2- Work on Follow Through

When most untrained people pull a bowstring back, they tend to focus primarily on the arm doing the pulling, and forget about the arm holding the bow. For proper form and balance, you need to apply equal tension in both arms, which evens out the skeletal structure and gets rid of that tiny jerk or stutter that can throw the shot wide. When both arms are applying equal force, the body is perfectly positioned and you'll be able to release the arrow much more smoothly and accurately.

Step 3- Don't Push Yourself Too Hard

Your bow was specifically built to take a lot of stress and punishment. You, however, were not built that way. Once your attention starts to wander and your muscles begin to burn, you need to call it quits for the day. Practice, especially in archery, is only beneficial if you are practicing with the right form, because only then will you be able to keep replicating that perfect shot over and over again.

Step 4- Imagine the Danger

In martial arts, a common mindset when beginning training is to imagine that you are in a dangerous situation, a life or death scenario. When you imagine this you'll be fully committed to each shot, because it could be your last! In a more literal sense, this trains you to fire every shot with your fullest ability.

Step 5- Train to Compete and Compete to Train

Training should always be done in an environment similar to the competition. Archery is a very mental sport, and training in a different mindset than the one you compete with is the worst thing you can do. Always imagine that you are in competition while training, and use all your equipment that you would be using at a competition. This will normalize your emotions so that you don't get anxious or nervous on the day of the competition.