As this blog is a project for Toastmasters, an organization that helps members develop communication skills, I would be remiss to not make a link between the sport and public speaking. My journey with archery actually led me to Toastmasters. I was suffering an injury to my wrist and that was exacerbated by archery. Unable to find a way to shoot without furthering weakening myself, I decided to put the bow down temporarily. This gave me a chance to really focus on the mental aspects of archery.
I realized that many of mental hiccups around archery occurred because I was afraid. I was afraid of making a mistake. I was afraid of performing my skill in front of people. I realized during a work presentation that the same fears I experienced in archery were the same fears I had when it comes to public speaking. If I could manage the fear during public speaking, not only could I be more effective at work but maybe it would translate into my archery skills. I learned that there are quite a number of parallels between archery and effective communication.
Performance Under Pressure
The most obvious parallel between archery and public speaking is performing under pressure. We all have skills that we practice consistently and can perform fairly competently on a daily basis. Think of a surgeon practicing on fruit. She may make meticulous incisions and flawless stitches. However, these surgical skills are meaningless in the operating room with a patient’s life literally within her hands. We must be able to perform these skills in a critical moment. One of the signs of high performance is to be able to conduct these skills under pressure, use these skills when it matters - whether it’s in a pivotal meeting, a wedding or speech competition or in archery, when you are scoring in a tournament.
Tempo
A similar connection between public speaking and archery is the idea of tempo. One piece feedback I received on my Toastmasters icebreaker speech was that I speak too quickly. “Slow down,” they told me. “Breathe”. Coincidentally, this is also what coaches and archery friends have told me. “That was too fast! Did you even aim? Slow down!”
Public speaking and archery is not race. You don’t get points for be the first to be done. Yes, there is a time limit. You have about 20 seconds to shoot an arrow or 5-7 minutes to complete your speech. In those brief periods of time, it feels like you have a thousand things you want to accomplish to get your point (either the figurative point or literal arrow tip) across.
Tempo is an important concept in both public speaking and archery. You want your tempo to engage your audience. Talk too fast and you overwhelm your listeners. Speak slowly for too long and you’ll find your audience struggling to focus. Critical moments must be timed effectively. A strategically timed pause can reinforce an idea with our idea.
Similarly, in archery, we have to take care to follow a tempo in our shot process. Some aspects of our shot sequence need to be quick and decisive so we don’t wait seconds on the clock or fatigue our muscles unnecessarily. When we aim and settle, we need to be slow down and ensure the correct moment to release our arrow. If we are too quick, we risk our accuracy and if we are too slow, we’ll face fatigue (or the buzzer).
Feedback and Adjustment
Feedback is essential for improving our public speaking and archery skills. Archery is an endless cycle of feedback. You shoot an arrow and immediately check the accuracy of your shot. You also check in with your body and mental state to ensure that you executed your form correctly and that your mind is clear of disruptive thoughts. Feedback is a core component for Toastmasters as well. During Toastmasters meetings, we focus on impromptu speaking and prepared speeches but a critical portion of the meeting is spent on evaluation. The wonderful thing about Toastmasters is that it normalizes feedback.
A substantial portion of a Toastmasters meeting is spent on evaluations, and everything is evaluated. Everything is evaluated. Prepared speeches are evaluated. The smoothness of the overall meeting. Every ah, um, or uh is tracked. Timing is evaluated. The wonderful thing is that Toastmasters normalizes not just feedback but making a mistake and experimenting. Members
One of the important things I’ve learned from Toastmasters is how to make a mistake. Toastmasters normalizes pointing out or mistakes so we can improve and learn from each other. In archery, we often get fixated on hitting the target. We know we don’t have a consistent or precise shot but we keep trying the same exact shot hoping that the arrow gets closer to the center. However, sometimes we need the mistakes. We need to experiment and miss the target. Learning archery is definitely a game of two steps forward and one step back. If we never acknowledge that we need to take a step back - to make mistakes - we’ll never move forward.
Intention
An arrow is like a spoken word. Once the arrow is released or words are uttered, neither cannot be truly withdrawn. They now exist in the world as a reflection of yourself - either as an archer or a human. This means that we must be incredibly mindful of the shots that we take or the words that we speak.
A carelessly released arrow can, at its worst, endanger people around us. At the very least, a careless arrow is a wasted moment for growth, discovery or to present to the world our best performance.
Similarly, our words can be misconstrued. They can offend. They can harm. They can, however, be an incredible tool. They convey our ideas. They can make change. They can inspire. Both words and arrows are opportunities to reflect yourself onto the world. Just as we shouldn’t mindlessly fling arrows to a target and hope for the best, we should practice the same with our words. Words should be chosen deliberately and delivered with care.