Just in Time

I figured it out just in time. Okay, let me be more clear, I didn't figure it out, Megan (RA/Coach) noted I was pinching the arrow with my middle and index finger and the sudden reason for this...my finger tab spacer screw was loose which changed the position of my spacer allowing my fingers to pinch the string. My other unknown "issue" grouping high. It turns out, thanks to Jake (RA/Coach) that although my mouth was closed, I wasn't closing my teeth. :) Silly me.
So now I've got it all figured out. hehe :) and I'm ready to be National Indoor Champion 2009. lol
I've gotta run, I have a long day and drive ahead of me. Wish me luck, my journey in Recurve Archery is going to be great. Thank you everyone at the OTC for your help.

Focus Today...Succeed Tomorrow
Today I will focus on driving to my tournament.

Olympic Training Center Scores

An afternoon at the OTC goes a little something like this.
Stretch
Stretch band work (mock shooting)
Shoot
Stretch

Today I shot 70m for what was probably my 10th time EVER. I surprised myself and scored decent averaging 46/60. You see I'm kind of in a weird place this week. I'm shooting 18m indoors this weekend at the National Indoor Championships. That tournament ranks me to see if I qualify for USAT 2010 (US Archery Team). Here's the kicker 9 days after that tournament I have to shoot Baja (Mexico) to see if I can qualify to shoot Olympic Rounds to then see if I am in the top 20 US Women. All of this is necessary for me to be able to shoot at the Olympic Training Center full time and to obtain sponsorship. So its imperative that I practice distance shooting outdoors. 30/50/60/70 but when that's the kicker.
My scores are where they need to be, its just so nerve wracking. Even now when I'm shooting at the OTC and multiple people come over to watch me I get nervous.
I need to work on my mental game, seriously. I need to keep my confidence high.

Focus Today...Succeed Tomorrow
Tomorrow I will focus on me and not the target.

Training day at the OTC

Eh. It was one of those days. I was either dead on or completly off all day. This in turn encouraged my already grumpied self. Tomorrows a new day and I can't wait to start fresh.
Everytime I pick up that bow its going to be perfect. Everytime I anchor it will be perfect. Everytime I release it will be perfect.

Focus Today...Succeed Tomorrow
Tomorrow I will focus on my angular movement.

Brain waves

You want to do what? ...Measure my brain waves while shooting. Amesome! I've heard about this being done for professional athletes, but me, whoa that's so cool.
A gentleman by the name of Dr. Lee and an unnamed assistant came to the Olympic Training Center to measure the brainwaves for focus and relaxation of the athletes while shooting. (Bad sentence, but too late to keep adjusting). My turn came late in the day after wading shin deep in water. Yep, water, it rains an inch in SD and the whole county floods. Okay back on topic. I had a band put on my head with attachments to my ears, forehead and back of head. It started with me seating down being asked a serious of questions, blink, deep breath, etc. Next was a focus test, I had to watch a guage on Dr Lee's laptop and make the guage needle reach 100, after a couple of attempts I succussfully held the needle at 100 for over 10secs. (Very good I hear). After this test it was onto shooting. My focus on the shot or attention on what I was doing was 100 on almost all my shots (also very good), my relaxtion was at about 60-65, which isn't too bad. The relaxtion they say comes with confidence in my ability, which will come with more mental trainig and time.
What a cool day. I feel so privilaged to be able to experience such wonderful training methods. Thank you Coach Lee for allowing me to experience this.

Focus Today...Succeed Tomorrow
Tomorrow my focus will be my bow arm, again.

Tournament 1st Place

Wahoo! First place is always nice, but I was most excited about my score.
I shot a 691 out of 720 at 20meters outdoors with indoor arrows :)
Check out the photo, this is my last end of the tournament. A perfect 60.
shhh...ignore the fact that it's an 80 cm target. In Vegas I was shooting a 40cm target.



Focus Today...Succeed Tomorrow
Focus on Mental game, read and relax.

Shoulders Back!

Shoulder back, sounds simple enough, right? Wrong! Try lifting something and not move your shoulder out of place, meaning just move your arms and oh yeah make sure that something weighs 30+lbs and only use 3 fingers.
Let me know how that goes for you. :) Welcome to Archery.


Today I shot 100 arrows in the morning and 50 in the early afternoon. In the afternoon I went to the gym for cardio. In the evening Coach Lee came by to Coach me on my form, where I shot another 50 arrows, but probably lifted the bow back 100 times.
He is so amazing, at first I may not understand exactly how to do what it is he is saying to do, but he always finds a way to explain it or to show me so I can deliver the form right. Thank you Coach Lee and Mrs Lee.

Focus today...succeed tomorrow
Tomorrow my focus will be loading and anchor.

Archery form day

What a great day this turned out to be. I started the day shooting a single spot 40cm target at 10 meters as recommended by Coach Mel (Brady Ellison's orig.coach) I also took into consideration his recommendation to not aim at the yellow, but visualize and shoot the X. This was at first tough, but then made a huge diffenece and really tightend up my groups. I shot 19 x's (10m)40cm target.
Mid afternoon was a bit painful and frustrating. I couldn't quite shake it and continued to shoot bad form. I thought it would be best to take a break.
I'm honored to say the US National Olympic Head Coach, Kisik Lee and Asst. Coach came over to my house to coach me for just over an hour this evening and I can't stop thinking about it. Wow, I feel so privilaged, I just can't believe it sometimes.
Coach Lee is so good and so good at explaining things. He made several tweaks to my form and I can't wait to implement them into my daily training and SPT's.
Sometimes I want to pinch myself to see if this is all real.


Focus Today...Succeed Tomorrow
Tomorrow my focus will be my bow arm.

Archery Lesson 1

Shoot the correct target.

Has it been that long?

Has it really been 5 days since my last post? Lots and lots of updates. I'll try to summerise the events.
My last post on Tuesday I was shooting a 268 and was thrilled to be shooting my tied personal best (recorded). On Wednesday I shot a 268, 270 and a 272!!! Can you believe it? I'm going up in score every 2 days or so. I'm so excited for Vegas.
Thursday comes and its time to drive 5hrs to Vegas (which turned into 7hr w/stops) with a fellow Road Runner Archery memeber, Ron. When I arrive in Vegas I go straight to the Casino Convention center to practice shooting.
Practice went very very well (nearly all 9 and 10's). With such a great practice and good shoots the day before I had high expectations for Vegas, even though that wasn't my intent for this tournament.
Here comes Friday...(Stay tuned)

Whoa Super Sunday

May the force be with me? I'm not sure what came over me today, but I rocked it at the Olympic Training Center today. I wasn't scoring but was taking mental note of my scores each end. Jake (my coach today) and I both agree I probably shot around a 275-280. Keep in mind my highest score is a 268. Whoa, wahoo whoopee. Keepin my cool thats what I need to do.
I need to repeat today tomorrow and again the next day. Vegas is only 5 days away.

Focus Today...Succeed Tomorrow
My focus today was relaxing, with minimal effort.