No she hasn't won any tournaments lately, she hasn't set any records later, she hasn't even shot a tournament lately and I couldn't be more proud.

Junior Olympic Nationals last July in North Carolina did not go well. We got into an argument as only a father and daughter can. She saw an archer that she had respected get away with cheating on her score sheet. To top it off, in the first round of eliminations, she went out to Ryane, who went on to win the National championship.

Teenage angst set in and she decided to, "Take a break". Then she came back and stressed her trapezius muscle. She's been working with a physical therapist and he's instructed her to not even pick up her bow until they were done rehabbing her back and shoulder. She missed Vegas due to the injury. She just now received clearance from PT to start shooting again.

Turns out she really missed Vegas. She has a plan now. She's gone back to shooting her old bow, a Mathews Chill SDX, it's smaller and a lot lighter than her PSE PerformX 3D. It's a lot easier for her to lift hold and shoot, a lot less stress on her shoulder and back. She's working with a new coach for the time being and learning a lot from him. And all of this is her ideas and plans.

She's setup her old bow, changed out the old draw length modules, experimented with different modules and set her own draw length. Reset the draw weight, tied in a new D-loop, moved over and tied in the peep from one of her PSE's and tuned the bow. She's worked with the bow techs in the shop and done all the work herself. She's learned how use a bow press, how to put in and take out twists of cables and strings to tune it. This is from the girl whose technical language before was thingie, doohickey, spinny thing and roundy thing. She's become her own bow tech.

Then there's her selection of a coach, Cooper French. Yes, the same 18 year old kid from Arizona who won the pre-Vegas money shoot this year against some of the best pros in the world. Her explanation was she's learned a lot of the technical side of things from Coach Steve and she'll probably return to him. But for now, she says she needs to learn the mental game from Cooper of how to compete and have fun at the same time.

I'm really impressed. She doesn't look at this as taking a step back, she looks at it as her path for getting back. We're staying in the background, letting her set her own course. It's exciting and scary at the same time. Exciting in watching her grow and show maturity. Scary in that I'm afraid to talk with her about for fear of saying the wrong thing and screwing it up.

So a couple of nights ago was a mandatory meeting for the shop's pro staff. She hadn't been active but asked to go. Why? To tell Kenny Cuchiara, the shop's owner that she was coming back!

Getting back into it with the old bow.


Right after telling Kenny she was coming back. And thanks to Bud Lord for the photo bomb! I'm just glad to see her back in a pro staff jersey with a smile on her face!

We Need a "Like" button !!

Congrats and best of luck to her!!
Your daughter is chock full of maturity and determination. Kudos to you.

Welcome back, Maya. We missed you.

Glad to see a happy update.

That's awesome to hear!

Best of all to the lot of ya'!

These reports have been sorely missing on SF for a while! Tell Maya all her invisible friends are cheering her on!

Cheers, and good luck to her.

Pleased to see she (and you) are feeling positive again. It has been a pleasure watching her grow up into a young woman.

You've already won the best prize a Dad could ever have.

quote:

Originally posted by Eponym:
Welcome back, Maya. We missed you.

+1

Yep we’ve all missed Maya’s progress.

Best of luck going forward.

Is that really the same girl? I mean no glasses! LOL Just kidding.

Maya, YOU GO GIRL!!!

Good God, girl I love you!! Well you know what I mean, welcome back kid, go get'm ....

We are always pulling for you !

Looks like she just needed to remember why she began shooting in the first place (first place... ... see what I did there).

Excellent News. Glad to see she is back in the game. Good luck to her!

Oh. 2 month old thread back from the dead.

quote:

Originally posted by Paten:
Oh. 2 month old thread back from the dead.

So what? It’s a good thread. I missed it in February and was glad to read it.

OP, I hope she’s doing great with the new coach and finding her love of archery again!

She'll be shooting Arizona Junior Olympic Championships at the end of the month. That's going to be her first tournament since Nationals back in July. We'll see how it goes, I just hope she enjoys it and has a smile on her face.