Reality Check

I fell prey to a terrible trap for new archers. We see archers competing on the world circuit and analyze every.single.thing.about.them. How do they stand? Which brand do they use? Are those foam or wood limbs? Her release is like that but his release is like that. And what is their poundage?

We totally forget that most of these archers have been shooting for a very long time and have earned that high poundage.

Then other more experienced archers tell you, it's not about the poundage. It's about the form. The poundage will come with strength gained from proper form; however only injury will come from shooting too much poundage too soon.

I heard the more experienced archers, worked really hard at achieving the strength to increase poundage and then it sunk in...it really isn't about the numbers. You don't need fancy equipment. It just needs to be tuned. And then you need to work very hard.

I had to make a judgement call this past Sunday. I had intended to find my 70m sight mark and also tune my bow with new Winex limbs. I had literally started the process of sighting in different distances when another archer showed up and advised me to choose. She pointed out I would reach the 70m faster in the long run with the Winex limbs because of the speed, but I would be struggling with the heavier poundage and would have to wait a bit to actually reach 70m.

Do you see my dilemma?

If I can't shoot 70m yet, there is no state competition for me end of August. I would focus the rest of the summer on distances such as 40m and so on until I reach it. The reason why I am over complicating this is because I want to compete safely. And I don't want to lose my arrows needlessly in the field trying to find my sight marks. I also am having head placement problems. My arrows keep grouping right and I am troubleshooting it, some pun intended there.

My gut is telling me I need to focus on strength training with these new limbs to handle the weight. And since so much of archery is instinctual, I am going to trust my gut and let go of attending state in August. My new long term goal is to master this current poundage (again the number is NOT important) by this time next year without losing any of the form I've worked so hard to build. And if I can only tackle 70m next August, then so be it.

I do not care if I don't screw my limb bolts in for another 4 years to increase the poundage and maximize the limbs. I would rather shoot with strength and perfect form now then hurt myself and risk never shooting again or for a very long time.

The higher poundage will always come. And something tells me, call it instinct, that my coach and 2 others archers I trust, and my gut will all concur when that time comes.

Watching and Waiting

Like most archery fans I'm keeping tabs on the USA olympic trials and all the athletes competing. One female recurve archer from my own club placed 9th at the Arizona cup. The final scores were very close which shows how much talent is on the field. Best of luck to my fellow recurve gal and friend Darcy in the next tournament!

Despite tons of rain, switching jobs and parenting and deciding to go back to school, I have not forgotten my own archery dreams. Most of my training right now is visual. I'm watching videos like crazy of the best to learn technique and reading resources through kisikleeinternationalacademy.com to learn more technical aspects of each shot. For example, "transferring and holding" was very vague to me. But once a friend pointed out how my shoulders should move and I practiced with my bow trainer, it became more clear and I practiced the motion to obtain that familiar feeling in my back muscles over and over. I could finally see the results of mimicking the motion after shooting my bow this past week. I could set up with correct shoulder position and load, transfer and hold much better. There are other technical feats to chase now, like my release, which although a lot smoother, is still really sloppy.

I can only get to the range once a week now so most nights after my kids are in bed, I plug in my earbuds with my favorite music and pull out my finger tab and bow trainer. Although slightly different, I try to stay as close to the form I use on the field and after a few pulls of the third band on the bow trainer, I feel much looser and my back starts responding as it should. For me right now it's about quality over quantity, resistance training, visualizing the shot process and also trusting the process. I am so impatient but I've been told 'time is your friend'. I won't be moving higher in weight until I master 30#s. It may happen by the end of the summer or in December. Whenever it happens, I will gladly make the jump into 32# or 34# winex limbs. I can't WAIT to feel that smoothness from the carbon foam again. Light as a feather yet strong and quick.

I've noticed that most risers jump out of the archer's hand and into the finger sling after each shot. Right now mine doesn't. I would put weights on the end of the stabs except my riser doesn't want to seem to move at all after the shot and I am not gripping it tight at all. I'm curious to see after this season of outdoor shooting if that will change especially if I can get higher limbs by the end of the year.

So here's to another week of waiting, learning, bow training, technical reading on the shot sequence, new job training and general life all around. I can see it will all come together eventually. Can't wait to get back to the range!

2016 Archery Resolutions

Wow...I've had this blog 2 years and started it as a journal for my archery progress. I'd heard of other bloggers talking about blog analytics but thought, yeah right that'll never happen to me. At first, I didn't even make this blog public. Imagine my eyes bulging a foot in front of my head  shock as I saw I had viewers from Egypt? Hong Kong? Mexico! This is truly amazing. I've met quite a few archers from the US and other countries on tumblr and as one said recently though a message, 'Meeting archers online is always bittersweet.' But you never know, I have many travels in my future and I hope that the majority of them are archery related. And I will always try to reach out to fellow archers. That's what's so great about the archery community.

As everything else in my life is getting a revamp, why not the ol' blog too? Let's be honest, even my tumblr account colors make me cross eyed. I want to offer my readers a polished, quirky place to read about my journey and all things archery obsessed. I don't know about you all, but the airplane window template and the dandelions in the grass with the blue sky just aren't cutting it for me anymore.

Some equipment news-I finally managed to sell my yellow infitec challenger riser to a JOAD club in Florida. And my SF axiom + stabs and Beiter vbar, are on their way to another archer in California. Great thing about selling archery equipment? I suddenly had money to buy HMC+ stabs I found on archerytalk. I got them for a great deal (hi Scott!). I've ordered this vbar and the thing most archers seem to swear by, a bow trainer. There's no other way for me to build strength since my ceilings are too low for my bow and it's too cold to shoot outside. And honestly, shooting at an indoor range is a luxury right now so it doesn't happen often. Can I move here yet?

I really want Winex limbs. So archery resolution #2 for 2016 is to be at 34# draw weight by the end of the year. The only way I will get there is if I can pull a bow string or something similar every day. And the only way I can justify paying that much is if I can make a 4# jump. And get my family to chip in for maybe half the price? (Good thing Christmas and my birthday pretty much rub their backs together lol.) And with new limbs will come new arrows but I'll cross that  bill erm bridge when I come to it. I don't anticipate X10's happening this year.

So a recap:

Archery resolution #1:  to upgrade to HMC+ stabs
Archery resolution #2: to upgrade A Southpaw Archer Girl-make it worth reading and easy to navigate!
Archery resolution #2: to buy 34# Winex limbs by the end of  2016.   Accomplished in July 2016!

And that's only my archery list. But I'm already good on goal #1 on my other list-I passed my CPT exam! I'm starting out at a gym soon and I don't think "NEWBIE" could be written bigger on my forehead but I everyone starts somewhere! I've picked up Pilates seriously again and am loaning my new trainer my archery book put out by Kisik Lee and his team of coaches and archers. I'm really interested in getting more certifications through NASM and getting certified in Pilates too.

If you've hung in there with this post for this long I applaud you! Lots more to accomplish this year!

New Year, New Plans

Wow...2015 was one hell of a year. I faced major personal issues and although they are not resolved yet, some aspects of them will be closed soon. I am figuring out who I am, how I want to parent my kids and how to provide for them.

I started taking my certified personal trainer course last year and I will test out of it in 2 days. Then I can be hired at a gym as a trainer, build my business and provide for myself and my kids. I have a very strong desire to be my own boss, decide my own hours and be completely independent. It will take awhile to build my own business as a trainer but I am not afraid of hard work and sharing my passion about fitness and health with other people.

Archery is by no means going by the way side. But I learned some hard lessons. I learned after I had already been strength training awhile that I was on the wrong track for archery strength training. My upper back started getting much too built for my comfort, while I shook and struggled at a draw weight I had been shooting prior for months comfortably. It seriously freaked me out that I was building muscle that didn't help me shoot better. So I am training myself and doing pilates to help build long and lean muscle. I focus a lot on core and back strength. I will be working with much lighter weights than before so as to prevent my back muscles from getting any bigger. I will also be using my bow and hopefully a bow trainer once I can swing it, to gain the strength I need to increase draw weight. The weather is much warmer than normal for my area but still too cold to shoot outside. (Hey I'm not Korean and not on the Korean team!)

The most important lessons I learned last year is that success takes time, independence and skill take time to achieve and build. But there's nothing to be afraid of. I will stick with my crappy 30# limbs till I have mastered them and save and work my butt off to provide for my kids and save for these limbs at 68, 34#, mediums. The best deal brand new is on alternativess.com. But I will keep my eyes out for deals on used ones. I will also be on the hunt for a better stab set and then of course i will have to budget for new arrows along with the 34# limbs. I am already researching for indoor arrows to have at ready for competition next indoor season.

I joined tumblr recently! I found a bunch of other archers on it. It's a great way to share bits and spurts of info with pics quickly. It's very cool to see fellow recurve archers in other countries work hard to achieve their archery dreams too. My color scheme looks revolting but I am waiting on better pictures to update it.

Here's to a year of super hard work and hustle; this year I can be whom I choose to be!