#specialtyarchery

I first picked up a bow in February of 2013 and I was instantly hooked. I ordered my first bow (thanks Hoyt) and the shop got it all set up for me and I began this long journey of shooting archery. After a bit I purchased a sight (thanks Axcel Sights) and I began shooting straighter and with more accuracy. That fall I entered into the 25 Meter Fall Classic. I shot a 1081 and people were a bit amazed given that I was shooting with no stabilizers. Well, for the last eight months I had been shooting without them. I didn’t see what all the hub-bub was. But I had been saving up anyways to buy a set. When I had the money together I ordered them. It took a couple of weeks, but when they came in mom went with me to get them and low and behold she paid for them. She said they were my Christmas present. She said I just needed to wrap them up and put them under the tree so everyone else could be surprised by them. Deal. It was less than a week before Christmas, so I wrapped them up and put them under the tree. Christmas morning came and SURPRISE! I got stabilizers for my bow. Everyone cheered - because that’s what happens in my family and that afternoon I was out in the back yard practicing with them on my bow.

Practice, practice and more practice. It got to the point that I was tired of fighting the traffic to just go to the range to shoot, I just couldn’t see the point in paying a range fee to shoot when I could shoot for free in my backyard. A mom of one of my little JOAD friends had dubbed my backyard as the “Lone Wolf Range”. I liked it, so it has stuck. When it got to be warmer out and outdoor season kicked in, he and his parents would come over and we’d practice together. It was actually kind of easy given that I could mark off to about 75 meters or 80 yards in the yard (further if we don’t mind standing in the middle of the subdivision street). Since I was shooting Compound and he was shooting Recurve I didn’t have to measure off more than 60 meters. Plenty of room for us to practice.

In spite of all the practicing I had done I realized I had kind of reached a plateau in regards to my shooting. So the internet became a frequented friend. I would watch YouTube videos of how other archers would shoot. Archers like Jesse Broadwater, Lexi Keller, Bridger Deaton, Jake Kaminski and Brady Elison. Yes, I even watched Recurve archers. There is always something to be learned from everywhere. I started incorporating some of the things I would see them do into my own shooting. And my scores began going up.

On the local level I was doing pretty good, but I found that when I would go to bigger events like NFAA Indoor Nationals in Kentucky or Gator Cup in Newberry, FL, I was still missing something. That missing something was keeping me from being on the top of the list, standing on the podium and receiving medals. So I would go back to watching more videos and practicing, but I wasn’t figuring it out.

One day this past Spring I found out that Carl Greene was conducting a Level 1 and Level 2 Instructor Seminar in Newberry, FL. I decided to sign up for the seminar, not so much as to become an instructor; but to get more informed and have a better understanding of what a coach would look for in an archer’s form and shot technique. To hopefully understand more from the non-archer’s point of view. It was enlightening. I understand a lot more now. And with my visual mind I am able to take what I saw and experienced in the class and translate it into my own movement - to a point. I still can’t see what my back is doing or see what my release elbow is doing or see what my head is doing. I can feel them doing things, but without being able to see them how do I know what I’m feeling is right??

That brings me to the point that I am at now. I need a coach. So I started making a list of the coaches in the area. Making a list of things I know I will need from them. Such as: Am I comfortable being around them, What are their rates, Where are they located, What kind of traffic will have to deal with in order to get to a lesson, Are they going to be able to work with me to translate what they want to say into a visual that my brain will interpret so I can recreate, Are we going to be comfortable with each other so he/she will be honest with me (even if I’m doing something seriously wrong - I’d rather be told I’m doing something wrong so I can work on stopping than to just be told what I should be doing.) It was a long list of things I knew I was going to need from the coach as I’m sure there is a long list a coach he/she has before deciding to take on a student.

With my list of criteria and my list of coaches in hand I began the task of matching up coach’s names with the criteria list. Some coaches got crossed off right away mostly because I knew I wouldn’t be able to work with them. If I’m not comfortable with someone the relationship isn’t going to go anywhere. I whittled the list down to three: two here in Georgia and one in Florida. All three matched up pretty well with my list most importantly being that I’m very comfortable with them and their coaching styles. So it started coming down to some of the smaller things like location: am I going to drive a long distance for a short lesson or a shorter distance and get more out of the lesson. Things like that.

Now I’m to my stage of approaching them to see if they are open to taking on any new students. Keeping in mind I already know a lot about these people and they have very busy lives. What I want just might not equal up to what they want or can give. And if at this point you are thinking that all of this must have taken forever - well, you should experience what I go through when I research for buying a new car (the last one took me six months to get to the test drive stage). Doing my research on these coaches didn’t take as long.

All three were willing to talk, but one asked questions. Tough questions. Questions that made me sit down and seriously think about my answers. Answers that ended up being a one or two typed pages long (typed mind you. I wanted to work with these guys not make them go blind trying to read my tiny hand writing). The more this one coach asked questions and made me think about my answers the more I wanted to work with this one.

[I have become very good at listening even when people don’t think I am. Keep in mind that everyone everywhere likes to put others down. If I listened to everything that was being said about every coach out there I wouldn’t work with any of them. So instead I rely on how an individual treats me and me alone. Not how they treat others. Stories can be embellished to suit ones purpose.]

Some of the things being said about the coach that was first on my list to work with were true. He’s gruff. He blunt. He speaks his mind. He tells it like it is. He tells you the truth even if it hurts. He tells you what you are doing wrong, not just what you should be doing. GREAT!!! That’s what I want in a coach. All these things that people would say about him as reason to stay away from him are the very things I consider strong attributes and I want in someone who is going to coach me.

We decided to get together for a - try out, if you will. We started out just chatting. The longer we sat there chatting the better I felt being around him and the more I would talk (and if anyone truly knows me, they know I am not one for doing a whole lot of talking). Then he had me shoot some arrows in a strategic form. He watched from several different angles. Three plus hours later he gave me the great news of that he would like to take me on as a student. I said, “Great! Now what am I doing wrong?” He said he was happy to report it wasn’t all me. In watching me shoot he found that I was shooting to the left. He speculated that it could be an alignment problem with my limbs or an alignment problem with the arrow rest. He suggested that since the bow I’m currently shooting with (a beautiful Royal Blue Hoyt Podium X) is still under warranty, that I should take it to where I bought it and have them check it out. The rest we’ll work on once the bow is in order. I’m happy to report that the limb are just fine and that it was the arrow rest that was out of alignment and causing me to shoot left.

The 4th of July weekend of 2015 was the 131st U.S. National Target Championships held in Decatur, Alabama. Outdoor Nationals is a must for any archer working towards a USAT ranking. Arizona Cup I finished 15th in my division. Gator Cup I finished 8th in my division. I was in hopes of continuing the climbing trend at Outdoor Nationals, but in the end it was not to be. In fact, Outdoor Nationals was my worst tournament of the year. I packed and prepared for extreme heat and humidity, but what we all experienced was storms after storms after storms. Everyday there were weather delays. Now don’t get me wrong. USA Archery did a great job of watching the weather and worked hard to keep all us archers safe. No one can control Mother Nature, but whomever ticked her off can you please not do that again.... She rolled thunderstorms through the area like a freight train and as everyone knows, when you have thunderstorms you have lightning and it was because of these lightning strikes that we had so many delays.

On Wednesday, I arrived at the field after my 4+ hour drive from Georgia to be immediately told to get back in my car because the field was closed due to thunderstorms. Well, there went getting any practice in. I didn’t even get to check in or my equipment inspected. I did get lucky in that I found a judge that was polite enough to talk to me. I explained that all I wanted to do was get checked in and my equipment inspected because I was scheduled to shoot first thing Thursday morning. He said not to worry. To get to the field at about 6:30 in the morning and to come see him and he’d get me checked in and get my equipment inspected before official practice started.

Out of the entire weekend, Thursday was the best run day. I got up, had my breakfast and headed to the field to find the judge I had talked to the day before. He and others got me checked in and my equipment checked so I was now official and ready to participate in the tournament. Now that that weight had been lifted all I had to do now was shoot. I shot ok. My average. Since my dad and my uncle made the trip with me, when I was done shooting for the day we went and got some lunch, back to the hotel to clean up and then used one of the perks in the tournament goody bag - a coupon for the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL. I love doing things like this. Experiencing something of the local area. All three of us were like little kids. Playing and experiencing everything from the blending wall to the throwing suction balls to the climbing wall. Ok, I experienced the climbing wall while my dad and uncle watched from the bench. It was a blast.

Thursday was the worst day. Weather delays abound. I was slated to shoot the afternoon line, but the morning line had so many delays I was beginning to wonder. They finally called a break for lunch and said they would plan for the morning line to start at 1pm with a hard stop of 4pm and the afternoon line would plan to start at 4:30pm with a hard stop on 9pm. The irony in this is when everyone scattered for lunch, the weather was actually pretty nice. Not blue sky nice, but not thundering and lightning. When 1pm rolled around and the morning line started shooting it also started raining. Mather Nature!! What are you going to do with her... Luckily for everyone, the weather didn’t do much more that rain the rest of the day. The morning line had to use their hard stop of 4pm and most of the archers only got to 42 or 48 arrows depending on which field they were on. Us on the afternoon line did get all of our 72 arrows in, but me personally, I would have rather not shot at all. I did horrible. Of course, the rain makes your arrows shoot lower than where you were aiming - but the wind. Boy, the wind was really tough to gauge. I found that the wind strength was different at the the target than it was on us at the the line. I was even tougher given that the wind didn’t change from end to end - it would often change from arrow to arrow. You’d line up a shot thinking the wind would push the arrow only to find out the arrow didn’t drift at all and would in fact land exactly where you aimed it. The next shot total opposite. Then it got dark and they turned the lights for the field on. This put the targets in a bit of a shadow for the lights were trained to shine on the field not the edge where our targets were. By this time, I admit, all I wanted was food, shower and my bed. I have a sneaking suspicion I wasn’t alone. I had shot so poorly and was so tired I was truly happy when we scored our last arrows and we could all leave the field. I do have to say that us compound women did do a great job of entertaining each other and doing our best to keep smiles on our faces in spite of all the weather delays and other problems of the day. It was really great spending two days shooting with old friends and making new ones.

Saturday dawns a new day. Today are ORs. I get to the field and to find out my first match in the 1/16th round is against one of my closest friend in the circuit. I started out strong with a 29, but then 26, 26, 26, 27 and thought for sure I was going to be packing up and heading home. But as it turned out I won by 2 points. So now I’m on to my nemesis round - the 1/8th. I have yet to find a way to get past this round. Usually in this round I’m up against Danielle Reynolds, but this time I’m up against Paige Pearce. We were both shooting strong. I even had a 30 on one end, but when things were all tallied up - the dreaded 1/8 round had gotten me again. I will beat this round one day, but this Independence Day was not going to be that day. Paige beat me by 2 points. Congratulations Paige, good luck in the next round!! My first Outdoor Nationals has come to an end. Now all is left is the drive home, but first a shower....

This past weekend (May 16th and 17th) GBAA held their 2015 State Event as a Double 900 round down in Perry, GA. Seeing as most of the first quarter of the year has been non-stop travel for tournaments, I opted to give my credit card a break and not get a hotel room. And since I didn’t want to drive down there twice, I registered to shoot the entire event in one day. I know, I know. I know exactly what most of you are thinking - “You have got to be nuts!” The answer is - “YES!” It made Saturday an extremely long day, but I had a blast.

Hey, I got to see Atlanta traffic at its lightest. Even though there were a few people out on the highway at 5:00am, it was still a very easy commute down through I-85 to I-285 to I-675 and finally merging on to I-75. A completely whole other experience than trying to transverse those roads say at 4:00pm on a Friday afternoon.

                        Photo Courtesy of John Chandler (LOGA)

The event had 4 shooting times to register for. Saturday or Sunday at 9:00am or Saturday or Sunday at 2:00pm. I chose to shoot both round on Saturday at 9:00am and 2:00pm. I had to do a little sight adjusting on the fly as I forgot GBAA does most of their shoots in Yards instead of Meters. But I think I adjusted just fine. I was really looking forward to this tournament because it was going to be the first wearing my new ArcherZUpshot Pro Staff Shooter Jersey. In fact, when I arrived on the field, my friend Lee Ford was wearing her new ArcherZUpshot Jersey too. I had a feeling it was going to be a great day…

The tournament had a roster of 47 archers (which made me laugh because that’s how many were in my high school graduation class). It’s funny how things can connect you to another time in your life.

The GBAA records for my division for a Double 900 Round was 1686 and like other times in my life I had that number written on the back of my hand, for it was the goal for the day. Of course, I took each shot as its own entity, but I was also striving for the end result for the day being breaking that record. Only after the last arrow was shot would I truly know. I had a little trouble in the morning shoot given that I was doing sight adjustments from Meters to Yards on the fly. But I still shot 274, 282 and 288 for an 844 which was a personal best from the 900 shoots I participated in last summer. Then, for my own little mind game, I decided to calculate that score times 2 to get 1688 and found that if I just shoot my first round again I’ll break the record.

I was recently named as a Pro Shooter with ArcherZUpshot. On Friday, May 8th, my shooter shirt came in the mail. It looks sweet with all the usual vendor logos. Most archers work hard to get picked up by one of these vendors as a staff/pro shooter. To get the big contracts from such companies such as Hoyt, Mathews, PSE, Carbon Express and/or Easton. To be able to access to the best, latest and greatest equipment to hit the market. To hook up with some of the other vendors such as Bohning, BCY, Specialty Archery or Brite Site for discounts and a few freebies, but mostly for the knowledge of the equipment out there to pass along to the next generation of archers coming into the sport. That’s not the case here. I am profoundly honored that Fern Slack at ArcherZUpshot has taken a chance on me and including me as part of her team. As much as I would love all of that other stuff in my archery orbit, I’m ok with that. If it’s to be, it will be.

But there is one logo on my shirt that is not part of the archery world…

I do have an extremely large support system. Who else out there can say that they have over 3000 (give or take a couple hundred or so) members of an organization who main goal is to help/support others. But support others in what you are probably asking…. I am a proud member of the largest all women’s hiking and backing organization in the country – this group is called “Trail Dames”! Trail Dames was started by my best friend Anna ‘Mud Butt’ 'Grand Pooh-Bah’ Huthmaker after she hiked more than 700 miles of the historic Appalachian Trail which runs North and South along the east coast. You might be thinking, “What’s the big deal? There are hundreds of hiking groups out there.” Well, this group is a big deal. It was started on the soul purpose of helping overweight women get out into the great outdoors in a safe and encouraging environment. No one is ever too slow, can be recently relocated, widowed, students, retired, or even recovering from an injury. It doesn’t matter in this group as to where you come from, what you’re going through - the only commonality is that everyone loves the outdoors. The members of Trail Dames spend time not only hiking and backing on trails near and far, but work on educating by sharing information on trail etiquette and hiking techniques to sponsoring the first ever all women’s 'The Summit’. 'The Summit’ is a 3 day conference which soul purpose is for the more experienced to share and educate the newer members on how to safely enter the woods so they can have the best adventure possible. We have thousands of members spanning 15 chapters, from the east coast to the west coast and the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico.

Fern wrote in my bio for the AZU web page, “When not shooting (photos or arrows), Tina can usually be found — well, she can’t be found because she’s backpacking.” Well, if you listen hard enough you just might be able to find me… in the back of the pack. I’ll be the one taking pictures, and listening to and telling stories because I will be with any number of these wonderful women enjoying all the beauty this earth has to offer. When I’m at a tournament and you see a logo on my shirt that you don’t recognize, feel free to stop me and ask for it’s the logo for Trail Dames. And if for some reason you are at a tournament and you don’t see me, don’t worry I’ll be back. I just needed to answer the call of the wild, take a path a little less traveled and some time with friends as we Dance Upon This Earth!!!

In the mean time, if you want to find out more about this great app that Fern and husband Marc have produced - head on over to www.archerzupshot.com. 

If you want to know more about Trail Dames - head on over to www.traildames.com.

Gator Cup 2015 has come and gone and it was another found of firsts and seconds for a tournament.

The seconds are: It was my second trip to the Gator Cup. It was my second USAT Series event of the year. It was my second tournament of helping coach my friends Alex and Adam. They are such great kids and they are working their tails off and become exceptional archers.

For the firsts: Ok, this is going to be a huge shock to all those who truly know me, but this was the first event I did not take a single photograph at. With competing in the tournament myself and helping to coach my friends Alex and Adam, I never took the camera out at all. I know, I know – take a moment to pick your jaws up off the floor. When the whole weekend was said and done – I was in shock too.

The other first for this tournament was I signed up to try out for the World Team. I have been shooting archery for a little over two years now and I wanted to see how I would measure up to those who are most often seen at the top of the charts. It all began with the qualification round on Friday afternoon. I unfortunately hadn’t practiced since Arizona Cup. With catching up on work that had piles up while I was in Arizona and all the thunder storms, tornado warning and being whisked away to the work tornado shelter as cells pasted overhead – practice unfortunately got pushed to the back burner. So I went into the Gator Cup Tournament determined to do the best that I can. For the most part I am very happy with my shooting and my score this past weekend. Don’t get me wrong – yes, there were definitely a few shots where you just go, “Dang it! Why did I have to shoot that?” But once they are shot they are gone – on to the next arrow. Live and learn. I shot a 654 with 9 Xs and 12 10s and actually having a very close tie with another archer. I asked the official and the head of USA Archery on site if there would be any reason later in the tournament for a shoot off. I was told that ties would be broken by Xs and 10s – I’m thinking, ok, the other archer beat with 10s. I know where I sit ranking wise. Now just to find out how other did in relation to who had signed up for the World Team Trials (WTT). Finding out how I compare to those going out for the WTT is the goal for this weekend. To judge for myself how I match up with those whose name are normally at the top of the ranking lists.

After Friday’s qualifications I was ranked 24st combined (juniors and seniors). If you take the juniors out I was ranked 8th in the Senior Division and ranked 6th in the Senior Division for those who signed up for WTT. Not bad! Not bad at all. Of course, there were a few juniors who signed up for the WTT as well and when I added those who I knew were on the entry list that dropped me down to 8th. Still not too bad! Now this is where it gets a little squirrelly. There were rumors floating around that USA Archery was allowing some to sign up at check in. Ok, I can understand that, but since no one posted anything that leaves everyone wondering just what is going on and where they stand. Then there were more rumors going around that there were people signing up after they shot their qualification round. I’m sorry, but I have a bit of a problem with that. All through Saturday nothing was being announced and again on Sunday nothing. I have to admit I was getting a little frustrated. One of my coaching friends knew that a higher positioned employee from USA Archery had flown out to help with some of the problems that were developing throughout the weekend. He introduced me to her and I asked for an update as to the status of the Senior WTT. She brought me into the trailer and looked up the spreadsheet with the list which included: Crystal Gauvin, Jamie Van Natta, Paige Pearce, Emily Bee, Danielle Reynolds, Lexi Keller, Easter Brock and Rhonda Shaner (but since Rhonda and I tied for raw score they said they were going to have a 1 arrow shoot off to determine who got the 8th spot). I decided to make things easy and since I knew Rhonda had beat me in 10s during qualifications – I opted to concede leaving Rhonda to have the 8th spot to round out the top 8 of archers to shoot in the Round Robbins on Monday. I even drew up an email right in front of the USA Archery employee stating my concession to Rhonda and watched as it was received on her phone and then I left the field and the state to go home. It wasn’t until much later that I found out that USA Archery had added yet another name to the list and placing (*) next to Rhonda’s name (now 9th) and mine (now 10th) and wanting us to be on the field to shoot the Round Robbins on Monday morning. All of this being posted in a Facebook post at 11:27pm Sunday night at which time I was just arriving home and crawling into bed in hope of going to work and salvaging some of my PTO time for another event. Knowing that the rankings are determined on a point system I can only hope that me not being there does not mess things up for the other archers. For I left the tournament believing that the top 8 archers had been determined and that I was not among them.

The start to Outdoor Season 2015 began with several firsts.

1)      On Tuesday, April 7th I boarded a Delta flight with my archery equipment for the first time. I was none too happy to find when I got to Phoenix that TSA had rummaged through the bag, but my thoughts on that can wait for another time all together.

2)      It was my first trip to the Arizona dessert for an archery tournament. One finds out real quick that the desert heat and winds change the way you view and shoot at the target.

3)      I participated in my first fun team shoot. I had never done a team round before and all I could do was pray that I wouldn’t mess things up for my teammates.

4)      Arizona Cup was the first event that I was awarded Media credentials through USA Archery and was permitted to don the Orange Media Vest.

5)      I got to help coach a friend as he progressed his way through the cadet rounds. Helping him judge the winds and locating his shots.

I obviously have a lot to learn about traveling with my archery equipment. When I got to the airport I found out my gear bag was overweight. Something that now I know I can most definitely fix for the next time.

Now on to the fun part of the adventure – The Arizona Cup!! Compound Women and Recurve Men were up first Wednesday morning. I shot pretty well, putting me qualifying 24th (or as a friend pointed out to me – 15th without the Juniors mixed in and 7th once the international archery were removed). Ok, if you look at it that way – I did pretty dang good for my first Arizona Cup. But the 24th placement is what was used for the OR rounds. Since they took the top 48 into the ORs, being 24th put me up against number 41. So another first was that I won my first OR on this trip. Any other time I’ve been in an OR at a tournament of this caliber was last year’s Gator Cup in Florida. So on to the second round of ORs and up against whom? The very same girl who beat me at last year’s Gator Cup, and you guessed it, she beat me again. I do not like this pattern, but that just means I have more work to do; but also shows that I have come further than I have in the past and am obviously making progress. Progress is good. Don’t get me wrong, the girl that beat is very sweet and polite. And if you are going to lose to anyone it might as well be to someone who will make it fun and help you learn along the way. I’m not a fan of losing, but she made it a great learning and fun experience. I’d rather lose that way than to someone who won’t even talk to you as they kick your butt….

During the qualification rounds on Wednesday, I was asked to join a couple of other girls to participate in a fun team shoot scheduled for Thursday morning. Well, there went my one and only morning to sleep in because I said yes. I thought it only fair that I make it very clear that I had never done this before, and as it happened one of the other girls had never shot a team round before either. The one girl who had participated in a team round before was great at explaining things. We got together and she went step-by-step on how things went. As it turned out we were a pretty dang good team. Next thing we knew we were in the Gold/Silver match. We unfortunately lost that match, but in the end we considered ourselves winners for making it as far as we did for having two newbies on the team. We worked and communicated really well and I learned a lot. So much so that I look forward to participating in a team round again. In fact, a couple of friends and I are already looking to team up for the fun shoot in Florida at this month’s Gator Cup. Making my first podium visit placing second during my first team event, at my first Arizona Cup with my new Hoyt Podium X Elite at its first tournament with two great girls as teammates - I’m going to have to say is going to be one of my most favorite memories.

Anyone that knows me at all knows that the absolute first thing I pack for any trip is my camera. No matter where I’m going for what I’ll be doing, the camera is packed first. All the smaller/local tournaments I’ve attended I’ve done a lot of shooting – first arrows and then photos. Then I share those photos on a Facebook page. Well, after several emails back and forth with USA Archery I was granted media privileges for this year’s Arizona Cup.  I took over 600 photos while at the Arizona Cup – most being of the cadets during their shooting time on Thursday afternoon and the Gold/Silver medal matches on Saturday. I would have gladly taken more, but I couldn’t take photos and help friend out at the same time… which leads me into my last ‘first’ of the trip.

My little buddy Alex has a coach that he goes to in Florida, but his coach was not going to be able to be in Arizona. So I bought the credentials with the express intent of helping my friend out. Now as a compound archer I will be the first to tell you I’m not verse on recurve technique, but I really didn’t have to be. Alex knows how to shoot his recurve bow, but what he needed was someone to tell him where is arrows were going and help judge the wind – and I could do that. Most importantly, I could be that someone who he trusts to just be there for support. I am a firm believer that every athlete needs encouragement – good encouragement. Someone there with a familiar and calming voice to just say, “You’ve got this. Your body knows the form. This is what the wind is doing, aim for about here, trust yourself and to keep reaching through your shot. You can do this. Stay strong.” He didn’t go all the way through the ORs, but he did reach his goal of making to the 1/8 round and getting at least a point against the person he was competing against. Next time who’s to say he won’t win it all!!! Ok, he’s my friend and I’ve VERY biased about it, but I really think he can do it and I’ll be so happy to watch him shoot for the stars!

As it turned out a friend of Alex’s, and fellow archer of the same coach in Florida, requested I help him during his match on Saturday. This time I needed more help than just being there to spur on the support. Thankfully, Coach Carl was able to help me help Adam via text. Thanks to Coach Carl, I was able to help Adam through his ¼ final, Semifinal and Bronze medal matches. Adam did great and as with Alex I see these two via for podium slots in the future. As Coach Carl said in one of his messages, “There is plenty of room at the top!”

I’ve been shooting archery for just over two years now and in the last year I’ve started to get into some of the bigger (requiring more travel) tournaments. As I sit here 3 days post IndoorNationals in Louisville, KY (which I attended for the second year in a row) Ifind it a little hard to believe Indoor Season has come to a close. Last year someone asked me, “What are you going to do now that archery season is over?” I politely informed them that there is ‘NO OFF SEASON IN ARCHERY’, that we are just at the end of Indoor Season and now begins the arduous task of getting ready for Outdoor Season.

Getting ready indeed! I’m getting a lot of things ready for Outdoor Season. I’ve got new tin markers to mark the meters from the target in my back yard. (I got sick of having to go out and re-spray paint the markers every time it came in and rained.) With the removal of a few trees (mostly because they were destroyed in our latest ice storm here in Georgia) I think I can actually get 90 Meters from the target (with a few rolling ups and downs). The builders didn’t know 20 years ago that they needed to make the yard flat for 20 years later I would want to be shooting archery back there. But even with the ups and downs it gives me a good distance to get some practice in. A friend’s mom has dubbed my back yard target as “The Lone Wolf Range”, mostly due to fact that I don’t shoot for any one club. Most of the established ranges here in Georgia are at least an hour away, which makes it tough especially during the week, to get off work and get to the range (any range). So, I do most of my practicing in my back yard - at least it’s close to home! :)

I have finally gotten my new Hoyt Podium. She got her new BCY strings put on last night, along with everything else need to start firing some arrows. And she shoots like a dream! I still have a little work on the sight to do, but that shouldn’t take too long. The real question is: Am I going to be fully comfortable shooting her, with her smooth spiral cams, in time for the start of outdoor tournaments? Not sure. I might have to Shoot Arizona Cup with my Contender. Even though I won’t be able to go for a National Ranking this year, I still want to be able to perform at my best. In spite of the fact that I’m flying, I will probably take the Podium with me. Since I don’t shoot on Thursday at all, I’ll probably use some of that time to hit the practice range and get more familiar with her.