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Breathing for Better Performance - Notes based on an article by the eminent American archery coach Don Rabska You might think "What is the big deal about breathing, I do it all the time."

In fact, if you didn't you probably would not be reading this article. A good friend once told me he had the secret of long life, "Don't stop breathing." It seemed reasonable to me.

Good breathing control is a key component of sound shooting technique. When done properly and fully incorporated into your shooting routine, proper breathing will help you:

1. regulate your shot timing

2. maintain focus

3. provide adequate oxygen to the brain for clear thinking

4. contribute to relaxation

5. sustain body stability

We know the shot must be relaxed but sometimes this is not so easy under the stress of competition. This is where the importance of breathing comes into play. Proper breathing technique allows the body to relax while providing adequate oxygen for clear thinking and top performance. Anyone who has ever shot

in a tournament has observed archers yawning before the start of competition. It might be perceived that they are just tired or had trouble sleeping. This may be true in a few cases, but most yawn because

they are nervous. When you are nervous, the muscles in the chest tighten, you feel butterflies in the stomach and a slight burning feeling in the chest. This is basically an adrenaline-based response to stress. Yawning is simply the body's way of telling you it needs oxygen. Since the chest is now tighter from nerves and most people breathe in the chest, the lungs cannot expand as they would under normal conditions. Therefore, the yawning is simply a responce to a lack of oxygen, or oxygen debt.

There are basically two ways the majority of individuals breathe. Most people in western society breathe in the chest and use only about the upper two thirds of the lungs. Individuals who are diaphragm breathers take in air fully to the bottom of the lungs. Babies and young children do this naturally and later lose this system of breathing unless taught otherwise. In adulthood, diaphragm breathing usually has to be learned or more accurately relearned. Learning to breathe from the diaphragm is important for several reasons as well as the reason to unlearn chest breathing.

Proper breathing technique is more involved than just taking air into the lungs. Let's consider what happens when air is taken high in the chest. To breathe this way causes the following events to happen. The stomach raises slightly with the "in" breath forcing the ribs to move up and out while lifting the shoulders along with the ribs. This creates several adverse effects to shooting. First, it raises your centre of gravity. When the centre of gravity is raised, balance declines and it is good balance that

produces stable aiming, not necessarily a strong bow arm. When we find our sight pin moving around on the target, it is not fully due to the bow arm moving, but the entire body. The bow arm is just trying to compensate for other motions. This is partly the reason why the first arrows shot in a tournament are not so steady and we have trouble getting the sight to "settle down." When any part of the body raises, such as the stomach, the ribs and attached muscles, this shifting of body mass produces a higher centre of gravity immediately hindering balance.

By learning to breathe from the diaphragm, the stomach moves out, but the upper body is stable and the ribs and shoulders are unaffected and without perceptible movement. This breathing technique also maintains the stomach in its lowest position and provides the ability to keep the ribs in a stationary position. Learning to tighten the stomach about 3" below the navel (belly button) and using the stomach (diaphragm) to breathe will automatically lower the centre of gravity, improving balance and stability. Not only will this improve the shot by reducing sight movement, but you will find your ability to shoot in the wind is vastly improved as well.

Diaphragm breathing

Diaphragm breathing technique is simple, but it will take a bit of practice to control and isolate the feeling of the stomach and diaphragm. Start by sitting in a firm chair but only half way back on the chair seat, sitting very straight. You want to feel more pressure on the backs of the legs than on the gluteous muscles (buttocks). To place the weight on the backs of the legs, you may need to feel like you are leaning forward slightly but make sure to keep the back straight. Place your chin directly over the centre of the chest (sternum) and relax the shoulders. Now imagine a tube running from your nose to the bottom of your stomach. Breathe in through the nose and allow the breath to go low into the lungs allowing only the stomach to move out. Breath out through the nose, but make the out breath at least twice as long as the in breath. Work on this until you perceive no movement in the chest.

The effects of breathing on shooting form

A good observation of body stability can be seen in archers who happen to lean forward at the waist (parallel to the shooting line), backward (arched back) or have very high shoulders. In qualification rounds or low stress situations, these archers often shoot very well. The trouble comes when the stress level rises, for example when entering into the finals matches. It is fairly easy to see how balance is affected. Increased nervousness causes the stomach to rise and breathing to be higher in the lungs. This raises the centre of gravity and balance quickly decays. These archers can be observed swaying back and

forth almost like they were trying to shoot in the wind, when there is none. Obviously this is not true in all cases, but true for the majority of archers with the above techniques. Creating a low centre of gravity is achieved through proper breathing, in nearly the same manner as meditation or other similar activities, which are used to reach an "alpha" state of consciousness. In the shooting sequence, create a breathing rhythm that is as consistent as placing the hand in the grip or setting the scapula positions.

A consistent breathing rhythm will help you stay focused, improve concentration and promote relaxation. If you have ever been upset and have someone tell you "Relax, take a deep breath," they just told you in opposite terms how to actually relax. Relaxation comes from the "out" breath not the "in" breath. This is one of the reasons why the out breath should be longer than the in breath as in meditation techniques. To relax, the air must be expelled.

You will never see a weight lifter trying to breathe "in" on the attempt to press the bar above the head. When we draw our bows we do a similar act to weight lifters. Therefore on the draw, air should be exhaled, not inhaled. For recurve shooting, I do not recommend trying to breathe at full draw. For compound shooters the holding weight is much less than the peak weight and the compound archer usually holds full draw position about twice as long as the recurve archer. Therefore taking an extra breath at full draw may be necessary if the hold is longer than six seconds. The average person starts going into oxygen debt at about seven seconds of not breathing under normal activity. After seven seconds, eyesight will start deteriorating as well as will clear thinking.

Breathing while shooting

For the recurve archer, I recommend the following breathing sequence for good shot execution. While resting, breathe naturally from the diaphragm. As you raise the bow to shoot, inhale again using the stomach (diaphragm). Once at pre-draw, the moment you start the draw, allow yourself to exhale, but not by forcing the air out but by simply relaxing and letting the air flow naturally through the nose. Always allow the body to exhale when drawing. If you just relax and let the air out naturally, you will exhale about two-thirds of your lung capacity and retain about one-third. From the moment you start the draw until release should take no more than five to six seconds. Remember, inhale as you raise the bow, then relax as you draw the bow.

Another reason for learning this breathing technique is to improve circulation. To prove this, the next time you find yourself uncomfortably cold and start to shiver, try relaxing and allowing yourself to breathe from the diaphragm and concentrate only on your breathing. Within a short time, you will find that you have stopped shivering. When you are cold, blood moves from the extremities to the major organs to protect them. Proper breathing will increase circulation and move blood back to the extremities.

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Footnote: The original article by Don Rabska, about breathing is very interesting. The martial arts and yoga practitioners put great stress on diaphragm breathing, blind people are taught this to fight panic attacks. Yoga and the martial arts also pay great attention to lowering the centre of gravity and when great effort is required they concentrate on the "centre" which is a point just below the navel. In archery, obviously thinking "centre" must be a good and productive thing to do.

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I have been trying to use the above method of loosing on an empty breath just recently and when I can occasionally remember to keep standing tall and relaxed, with my body in its correct position, my head still and with a lot of concentration on my drawing elbow, it works very well. Unfortunately as anyone looking at my score sheets can tell, my memory is not at all good.

Arthur Timmins

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