This year 4 of our JOAD students went to Outdoor Nationals for the first time. As is generally the case, I learned as much from the experience as they did.

All of our shooters have a lot of experience shooting local and regional events, but coping with a multiple day event, with all its twists and turns was certainly an eye opener for the crew.

On the practice day there was much excitement and star gazing. Kids got autographs and pictures with the stars of the sport. There was lots of energy and the buzz was palpable. Oh and I think there was some practicing as well. I didn’t ride herd on practice, but the advice was to get acclimated, find a sight mark and shoot just enough arrows to feel comfortable without wearing yourself out. It was blistering hot out, so I believe all of our shooters heeded that advice.

On the first day of competition, one of our shooters broke a nock during scoring and had a semi dry fire. The arrow went about 2 feet forward and 3 feet to the left. I happened to be behind the shooter and she shot her 7th arrow with no penalty, as the arrow had not crossed the 3 meter line. Unfortunately the shooter next to her was negatively affected. Her coach thought she had dry fired and had her shoot a 7th arrow. Of course she was not entitled to do so and incurred a penalty. The incident left both shooters in tears. It was just an unfortunate archery incident. It took some time for both to refocus, but both did. Our shooter went on to shoot a personal best on day two. That is very cool stuff and just shows you what is possible with a positive attitude.

On day two of qualifying, both of our Cub archers had high expectations because of their performances on day one. Well, stuff never works out quite like you plan and the both started the day struggling. It took a while to find some equanimity but both did in time. As in all endeavors the people posing the biggest obstacles are ourselves. And the bigger the stage becomes the more we expect of ourselves. It is something adults have trouble with and kids even more so as they don’t have the experience. Having a less than average day at a tournament can be instructive, or destructive, if you allow it to be so. I’m happy to say our kids found the perspective to allow them to bounce back.

Day three found all of our shooters in a good frame of mind and each performed well during elimination rounds.

Day four was team rounds and two of our archers were part of Bronze medal teams. What a thrill for them. Their first Outdoor National competition and they are bringing home hardware. Those will be memories for a lifetime.

Juggling coaching and shooting was big learning experience for me as well. I could have used a better strategy for energy conservation. Thank goodness for the rain delay on day one. I was just about out of gas when they called what turned out to be a 4 hour rain delay. That afforded me the opportunity to get out of the sun, get something to eat and recover enough to compete later on. This coach will have to plan much better next year when we expect to have even more shooters attend Outdoor Nationals. Long days will be the norm and there is a cumulative effect on ones body in a multiple day tournament.

Even though I didn’t earn a medal, I consider this to have been an excellent tournament experience, with lots of fond memories. Thanks to our great JOAD families and shooters for letting me on the ride.