Archery Performance : Case Studies Eleanor Fong About me NUS - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Neurofeedback for Peak Archery Performance : Case Studies

Eleanor Fong

About me

 NUS graduate: Bachelor of Social Science  Neurofeedback therapist at Spectrum Learning  Hypnotherapist  Air rifle shooter  Archer

Archery Sport

 Involves multiple steps: raise bow, pre-draw, draw, anchor, aim, release, follow through

 Timing and coordination is crucial for good shot execution

 Limited amount of time for shooting  Being calm and focused is key

Archery Sport: Main Challenges

 External distractions: wind condition, noises, visual distractions etc  Internal distractions: Inner mind chatters, emotions etc

Overcoming the challenges will improve performance

Hypothesis

External distractions (visual and auditory) Internal distractions (Thoughts) Sensory Processing (touch, temperature etc) Multisensory integration

Neurofeedback training (increase alpha at parietal) improve archery performance

Protocol

 Protocol: Pz alpha (music feedback)  Shaping across sessions  Main instruction given: Experiment around different methods to make the music play more smoothly

Procedure

 Three seasoned archers chosen  One simulated competition before nfb trainings and

• n after nfb trainings

 Trained them to carry out nfb training themselves  24 sessions within 1.5 months  Close cooperation between archers and me

Case study: Archer A

S1 S24

Tried to focus

• n breathing

to calm down. A lot of passing thoughts. Music choppy

S4/S5

Realized focusing

• n breathing

gathers attention from thoughts and calms her down during nfb and archery trainings

S7

Integrate nfb learnings with archery with success: Focus

• n breathing

and looking at

• ne spot to

calm thoughts down

S10

Integrate nfb learnings with archery competition and achieved great results: Bronze in Individual Knock-out Across sesions: Lesser thoughts, able to control attention to breathing and music better

Case study: Archer A

 Able to calm down to a point she can hear her heartbeat during nfb, archery trainings and NUS competition  Came to the realization that focused attention calms thoughts down and allow muscle memory to take over more easily  Can choose to tune out background noise  Benefited from nfb trainings  Pre-nfb comp: 490/600, Post nfb comp: 500/600

 Were able to control attention to keep calm

Case study: Archer B

S1 S24

Busy experimenting (eg: talking to herself, imagine shooting, thinking how to make music play etc) what makes the music play more smoothly and occasional peeping at the eeg

S9

Across sesions: generally lesser thoughts, increased ability to control attention to look at a spot to calm down

S15

Felt S10 was the breakthrough: Started to let go of thoughts and not experimenting so much and the alpha starts to increase NUS competition last in ranking Doubted herself

S10

Integrated NFB learnings into archery trainings: “Pace was good, shots were powerful”

Case study: Archer B

 Very conscious during nfb trainings  Sets high expectations on herself  Nfb training trends are very good  Have difficulty integrating nfb learnings into archery competitions  Coaching helped her to relax and enter calm state during archery but unable to sustain  Benefited from nfb trainings: understood what “letting go” means  Pz alpha-theta may help her better  Pre-nfb comp: 433/600, Post nfb comp: 364/600  Had expectation to perform which interfere with the shots

Case study: Archer C

S1 S24

Doing visualisation of shooting during nfb trainings

S4

Stopped doing visualisation and just let go of all thoughts and then music plays more smoothly. Realized that focused attention (attention on the music) helps to make music plays more smoothly. Tried to sustain that state throughout session. Across sessions: Increased ability to focus attention to music in nfb and focus on shot during archery

S3 S20

Day after S20: Integrated nfb learnings (think of music playing smoothly before comp, focused attention on the target face) into comp and attained significant results: got 8 out of 64 in Individual knockout, broke 4 personal best, achieved 2 goals she set for herself since Oct 2015

S8

Able to tune out music at the background and focus completely on shooting during archery training on same day before S8

S15

Shot cycle increased from 15s to 19s  past 15s of nfb helped to increase her focus while she aims

Case study: Archer C

 Has been able to focus prior to nfb and nfb helped to improve focus tremendously  “Alpha state” helps her deal very extremely cold temperature  Realized that the key to a good shot is focused attention as this allows her to let the muscle memory take over easily  Benefitted greatly from nfb trainings  Wanted to continue with nfb trainings after the project

 Pre-nfb comp: 663/720, Post nfb comp: 664/720  Was on medication that affects ability to focus

Summary

 Archers come to self-realization that focused attention

• n shooting is the way to improve their shots

 By focusing attention and ignoring distractions (external and internal) by increasing alpha at parietal  Increased ability to access muscle memory and execute good shots  Neurofeedback trainings improve archery performance

Thank You!