Can you get her a second bow and just have her use both of them equally so she's confident in both and always has a "backup"?

She's got 2 bows now, one for indoor and one for outdoor and they back each other up. With her bows showing up literally 2 days before Vegas, there wasn't time to get them setup, tuned and shot in before the tournament. We decided to stick with the bow she had been lent for the tournament.

Both Cyndi and Freddie will be making the trip out to San Diego for Nationals. For the first time ever my daughter named her bows. Her indoor bow is a bright purple and named for Cyndi Lauper and her pink and purple hair. Her outdoor bow is rose gold, flashy and, "Fabulous" and named after Freddie Mercury. Yes, I have a 12 year old with a unique personality, an old soul and a fascination with the 80's.

quote:

Originally posted by 2000Z-71:

quote:

Originally posted by KMitch200:
ETA - I hope PSE got an earfull after the equipment SNAFU.

No reason to give PSE an earful. They had 2 reps on the arena floor in Vegas offering to help before she could get set for her last arrow. The bow's been fully torn down and gone through, we're waiting to hear what the issue was. Things don't always go right and mechanical things can fail. Learning how to overcome is part of competition and life. She was able to overcome it at the moment, now she needs to overcome it and be able to move on.

Just wondering out loud here but do many of the archers bring a spare bow with them already tuned up so if a rare equipment malfunction were to occur she could just replace the equipment?

Edit to see that you have just answered my question. All the best!

I deal with this quite often with goaltenders, especially younger or newer ones. Usually it is not an equipment failure but a horrible game. Knowing the athlete dictates delivery, but these are a few of the key points that I get across.

1. Bad games/Failure/injuries, etc., will happen if you do this long enough
2. You cannot change #1
3. This is one of 500 games you'll play in your career, in the grand scheme the failure means nothing. How you move forward means everything.
4. The ability to get pushed down hard and come back fighting is what separates the champion

You might consider finding the Jerry Miculek video where he breaks a firing pin on the first trigger squeeze of the first stage. Done, out. Back for the next match. His handling of the situation may be helpful.

Probably not something that you would want to hear, but maybe some time off may be warranted? That and talking to a professional about her anxiety? As someone who very recently got my first bow, I can attest to the frustration in not being able to attain ones goals with a bow and arrow. Whether it is due to lack of skill, usually for me, or a failure of equipment, which has also happened to me, it does take the wind out of ones sails. As with any skill that takes practice to learn and master, if it isn't fun and enjoyable, one, especially young ones, aren't going to want to practice. It sounds like your daughter's equipment failure has taken a bit of the joy out of the sport for her, even though she handled the situation way better than I would have. Maybe she just needs to find her love for the sport again.

I wish you both the best of luck.

She needs to remember why she started in the first place, fun. If it stops being fun she'll walk away from it. I shot states and Vegas for several years but I became so one dimensional I stopped having fun and it was all about being the best. Now I bowhunt, shoot in the yard and love shooting the 3d course at my club before season. A little time off might be the best medicine for her.

quote:

Originally posted by 2000Z-71:
Her outdoor bow is rose gold, flashy and, "Fabulous" and named after Freddie Mercury.

You have a 12 year old daughter who named her bow after Freddie Mercury?

That’s some serious parent of the year type stuff there.

"Girls Just Want to Have Fun"
and
"We Are The Champions"

Maya you rock!!!

Get a good laugh out of her with:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qpaue3Jhn1o

I like the way her coach handled it tonight, first thing he said to her.

"Maya, how long have you been shooting?"

"Six years."

"In six years, how many arrows have you shot?"

"I don't know."

"Thousands?"

"Yeah!"

"Tens of thousands?"

"Probably."

"How many times have you had a bow malfunction?"

"Um, once."

"It happened once in tens of thousands of arrows, it will probably happen again in another 30 or 40 thousand. Get over it and go shoot your bow!"

"OK."

Not saying that it solved the problem but it put things in perspective for her. Sometimes a simple approach works best. Most of the time it's better received coming from someone other than a parent.

She's under instructions to shoot a, "Crap ton" of arrows through her bow the next few days to make sure the strings are stretched and settled in. We'll do a final tune on it next Tuesday during her lesson and it's off to Nationals next Thursday.

Sounds like a good coach to me. I agree with an earlier poster, sounds like she simply has a case of the yips.

https://www.mlb.com/news/the-y...t-to-cure/c-47124896

Lanny Bassham.

I noticed something in one of your additional posts in this thread.

You mentioned that after the equipment failure your daughter used a bow that was loaned to her, not fitted to her, that she had never shot before, and drilled a 9 under pressure.

That tells me that your daughter has impressive shooting skills and was able to adapt to adversity in a way that I'd bet most shooters couldn't in that situation. Seems like that was a major win and should be an area of focus.

It also brings up a wise piece of advice that I heard walking through the staging area of an IBS match a decade ago from one of the 'wise old guys' to what appeared to be a new guy in the game: "Son, never come to a competition without at least two of everything, 2 guns, 2 rests, 2 rods, 2 jags... something will fail and if you don't have a back up you're going home early."

Might it be that as she enters her teen years her interest are changing?
Hormones are starting to shift gears around this age to a lot of girls, they lose interest in something's and grow in others.

Might be wise to back off a bit. Let nature take it's course.


I am NOT an expert on the subject but I did raise 2 daughters (46 & 39 years old at this point) so I have a bit of experience on the subject.

Can you explain the differences between an outdoor bow and an indoor bow?
Having only ever shot recurves and long bows instinctively, no sights, the equipment differences must be nght and day!

quote:

Originally posted by Rightwire:
I deal with this quite often with goaltenders, especially younger or newer ones. Usually it is not an equipment failure but a horrible game. Knowing the athlete dictates delivery, but these are a few of the key points that I get across.

1. Bad games/Failure/injuries, etc., will happen if you do this long enough
2. You cannot change #1
3. This is one of 500 games you'll play in your career, in the grand scheme the failure means nothing. How you move forward means everything.
4. The ability to get pushed down hard and come back fighting is what separates the champion

You might consider finding the Jerry Miculek video where he breaks a firing pin on the first trigger squeeze of the first stage. Done, out. Back for the next match. His handling of the situation may be helpful.

This seems the most useful advice, mentally, of all that I have read here.

Getting more familiarity with the bow and mechanical workings are great, but the real thing is to be able to work through the mental block created by a failure, whether that failure is mechanical or mental or a physical technique failure on her part.

I really think it is mental will that separates the greats in sport from the others.

Jack Nicklaus was an incredibly good golfer. But he didn't win 18 majors because he was the best hitter of the golf ball. He won because he was mentally tough, and incredibly determined. He always played to win, and knew how to shake off a bad shot or a bad round. You may not be a golf fan, but Sergio Garcia is the opposite - he is also a talented golfer with far better skills than most. But when he goes a little wrong, he often swerves into the ditch. If you see Sergio hit two or three bad shots, bet against him. He just can't handle a setback.

Work with her on that.

quote:

Originally posted by walkinghorse:
Can you explain the differences between an outdoor bow and an indoor bow?
Having only ever shot recurves and long bows instinctively, no sights, the equipment differences must be nght and day!

The biggest difference between indoor and outdoor is arrows. What we jokingly refer to as Lincoln Logs and toothpicks.

For indoor, one wants to shoot the largest legal diameter arrow; 27/64" for NFAA events and 9.3mm for USA and World archery events. Lincoln Logs. The arrow only has to make contact with the scoring ring to get credit for the next highest score. The bigger hole punched in the paper, the bigger chance of clipping a line. Indoor events are typically at 18 yards, 20 meters and a few at 25 meters. It's relatively short range so arrow drop isn't an issue. The shafts tend to weigh more and tip weights usually tend to be a lot higher.

Outdoor arrows, one wants to shoot the thinest shaft available to cut down on wind resistance. Toothpicks. Distances tend to be longer, usually 50 meters for compound so arrow drop comes into play. Tip weights tend to be lighter due to smaller diameter. There's also a balancing act on tip weight between lighter for higher velocity and heavier so that arrow flight is less affected by wind.

As far as the bows, there's not a huge difference in equipment, the biggest difference is tuning. They need to be tuned specifically for the arrow being shot. A large diameter heavy arrow reacts very differently than a small diameter lightweight arrow when shot out of a bow. When using a blade type arrow rest, for indoor the blade may need to be thicker to support the additional weight and may need to be wider so that the arrow does not fall off the rest.

Our daughter uses a blade rest on her indoor bow but prefers a drop away rest on her outdoor bow. On a drop away rest, the arrow is supported by sitting in a u-shaped fork. There's a cable from the rest to either the control cable on the bow or a limb on the bow. When an arrow is released, that cable is pulled tight and the rest drops out of the way. She prefers it since it provides some side to side support of the arrow. She has in the past had the wind literally blow an arrow off the rest of her bow while at full draw.

She also uses a sight with additional vertical adjustment on her outdoor bow. The only reason for this is with her lighter poundage she has less velocity and more arrow drop than an adult shooting a heavier draw weight. While most state, national and international outdoor competitions for compound are shot at 50 meters, there are a few formats that call for 70 and 90 meters.

While not ideal, either bow can be shot for indoor or outdoor so they do back each other up if there's an equipment failure. Most of the youth archers on our team use one bow and make tuning adjustments between seasons. That said, our archers that compete on the national level all have at least 2 bows.

Apologies for the long winded response, but that's the major differences. There's more subtleties to it as well.

Thanks, not long winded at all!! Nice explanation of things!
Bet the equipment details could fill up many pages!!
Good luck getting the equipment sorted out and the bugs worked out with her game.
Just a blip, and more experience towards her goals!!!