Vegas 2018 is done and in the books for our daughter. She dropped a few points today from yesterday shooting a 281/300. Overall score was a 569/600 for 28th place in a division of 94. Yes, averaging 9.4 an arrow is 28th place. Aging up to a new division is brutal. I was reviewing the points in my mind that I wanted to make with her about the importance of keeping focus as a tournament goes on, but all that was forgotten on the final arrow.

On the final arrow of the day, she couldn't pull her bow back. She tried 5 times and could not draw back more than a few inches. With 2 seconds remaining in the end, she stepped off the line and notified the judge of an equipment failure. Both myself and her coach came forward and neither one of us could draw back her bow. The judge ruled that she would be allowed to have one makeup arrow due to the equipment failure.

Her friend, teammate and competitor Elizabeth came running forward handed Maya her own bow and told her to use it. So wth everyone in the arena watching as she was the only one on the shooting line, she stepped up with a bow she had never shot before that was probably 1-1/2 inches too long in draw length, nocked an arrow and nailed a 9 to finish out. That single arrow and 9 points was the difference between 28th and 38th place.

I'm incredibly proud of the kid for having the presence of mind to recognize the clock and call the equipment failure. I'm even more proud of her for being able to perform under pressure and nail that 9 with everyone watching.

Moments like this are why I coach, why we compete, why we train as a team and why I'm thankful that my daughter is involved in archery.

Maya's last shot of the tournament with Elizabeth's bow. And yes that is duct tape on her arm that she was using as an armguard. Who says archery is not a redneck sport?

You have good reasons to be proud of Maya, your daughter and her friends in archery competitions gives me hope for the upcoming generations.

And using duct tape for an arm guard is redneck in the best meaning of the word!

Cool story. Really neat watching her grow up.

Congrats to you and your daughter. I always enjoy reading the updates/accomplishments as she progresses. You must be tremendously proud.

YEA Maya!

Gotta love the warrior, competitor, sportsman spirit in that girl.

Congrats Maya, you can deflate my neighbors soccer ball anytime!



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What a wonderful finish!

As I went to bed last night @ 10, the last thing I did was refresh my computer screen once more to see if the update from you had been posted yet... no Joy!

Finding this with my first cuppa coffee this morning made my day! A STRONG finish to a very competitive weekend, and you have every right to be proud of Maya. She is a competitor in every true sense of the word.

Her SIGforum family is proud of her in every way!

YOU GO, GIRL!!

Don

Been following her saga and enjoy it very much. Fantastic kid and proud of her. You go girl!

That’s pretty awesome. Stepping up in classes is tough no matter what the sport. She won’t be 28th for long, that’s for sure.

Both of you have every reason to be proud!

I've also got to hand it to the PSE staff yesterday. Before she even came to the line to shoot her final arrow, two factory reps were right there asking what had happened, what could they do to fix it and how could they help.

As soon as she finished we were up in the PSE booth at the trade show going over the bow. The strange thing was it was functioning perfectly normal in the booth. Maya, me and her coach could not pull it back in the arena. The bow is going to be fully torn down, gone through, inspected and reassembled. We've got a couple of theories as to what happened but we'll have to wait for tear down and inspection to know.

I'm still amazed at the archery community. In addition to Elizabeth, Maya had two competitors that she had met at the Dream Team Camp come up and offer their bows for her to shoot. Walking the arena, casino and trade show she was getting congrats and high 5's from our extended archery family. And, she's been offered another staff shooter position, details to come once the ink has dried on the agreement.

The rough part is, she pulled a muscle hard in her right arm trying to draw the bow back. Hoping a couple of days off, ice and motrin improves things. She's got Indoor Nationals coming up in 3 weeks and needs to be training for that.

Congratulations and 3 cheers to the Maya/Z-71 team!!!

Awesomeness! Congrats Maya!

Awesome job by both of you! Shooting with an unfamiliar bow is quite a feat!

I sound like a broken record but I am amazed at how awesome the archery community is. We are new to it but I have not seen anywhere near the bad blood that I saw every single football and baseball game my kid played. It is a really fun and positive environment. I am sure that there is a bad seed here and there but for the most part the competition seems to be archers competing against themselves instead of worrying about the other shooters.

Being cool under pressure is awesome.

I was reading the same thing about Joe Montana today.

I love keeping up with how well Maya is doing. She is one cool kid with a heck of a future ahead for her.

quote:

Originally posted by dsmack:
Her SIGforum family is proud of her in every way!
YOU GO, GIRL!!
Don

Yep. ^^THIS^^ She's got the drive to do well.

Not that anyone has to tell you but do your best to keep her from putzing with a bow until her R arm muscle is GTG.

quote:

Originally posted by KMitch200:
[Not that anyone has to tell you but do your best to keep her from putzing with a bow until her R arm muscle is GTG.

The arm is much better now, but not 100%. She did some work last night during her coaching session with a lightweight recurve. She's shooting her own bow now which is a lighter draw weight than the one she was using for Vegas. Her coach also has her on a modified routine to help keep her in form. She's only to shoot 15 arrows a day, but she has to hold at full draw for 15 seconds before releasing. It's driving her nuts. But, It's still working and conditioning the muscles in her back and reducing the repetitions she's putting her bicep through.

Cool!

Is she sponsored by PSE? By chance can they dig up a back up bow for her - just in case she needs one in the future?

quote:

Originally posted by SR:
Cool!

Is she sponsored by PSE? By chance can they dig up a back up bow for her - just in case she needs one in the future?

Yes, she is a field staff shooter for PSE. She has both her bows now; one for indoor and one for outdoor and they back each other up. The problem was she did not have them with enough time before Vegas to shoot them to stretch the strings and get them settled in. She had borrowed a backup bow from a coach on our team for a couple of weeks leading up to and for Vegas. That was the one we had issues with.

Both bows will be going with us to San Diego in 3 weeks for Nationals. People ask why 2 bows instead of just making tuning adjustments to one between indoor and outdoor seasons. Well, this is why; one is none and two is one.