My proud dad moment of the morning, my daughter at the 2017 USA Archery Compound Junior Dream Team Invitee Camp. Honored to see my daughter on the line with the best youth archers in the country.

The Dream Team was originally started for recurve archers not old enough to be eligible for the US Olympic Team who should great potential. It was an opportunity for them to train with the US Olympic coaches in preparation for a possible Olympic qualification. Two years ago they started a similar program for compound archers. Our daughter received the invitation to come work with the team and their coaches for the Invitee Camp here in Phoenix. The Selection Camp for the 2018 team will be held in November here in Phoenix. Hoping that she gets the invitation to that camp as well.

Have to admire the commitment of all of the archers out on the range this morning. The temperature at 8:00AM this morning when they started was already 100 degrees. Misters are set up and the kids are being constantly reminded to use them and hydrate. They've also moved a lot of the camp indoors to our home club. Phoenix was intentionally chosen as the site for this year's camp. World Youth Championships are going to held in Buenos Aires and they want these kids used to shooting in the heat for that.

To make me even more proud, instead of shooting her own age division and distance at 30 meters, she chose to shoot 2 divisions up at 50 meters. Why? "30 is too easy dad."



Update:

Day 2 was completed late last night. They got an earlier start to try and finish before the heat got bad. Our daughter shot a lot better yesterday and made a great friend in one of her bale mates. In the afternoon she worked one on one with a couple of coaches. One worked closely with her to better tune and fit her bow to her. The other worked with her extensively to fine tune her release technique.

I don't think I've ever heard my daughter so excited and so committed to archery. She's absolutely fascinated now by bio-mechanics. She's focusing now that every movement she makes has an affect on the flight of the arrow. She's also very aware of techniques to minimize the risk of physical injury.

My proud dad moment came from listening to her talk about her new friend/bale mate and their interactions with their other bale mates. She said their two other bale mates were constantly talking about how bad they were doing. She said she thought they were just looking for people to praise them, that it wasn't that bad and they really were better than that. Our daughter and her new found friend didn't buy in. Instead when one of the others would say, "Oh my God, I can't believe I shot this bad!" Their response would be, "Yep, that's pretty bad." Or, "What happened with that one way to the right?" So she's now learning one of the more brutal sides of competition, how to get inside an opponent's head.

Yes, Lord of the Flies with teenage girls and bows, what could go wrong?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: 2000Z-71,

Good on her. Looking forward to seeing her in the Olympics soon.

quote:

Originally posted by jmalb:
Good on her. Looking forward to seeing her in the Olympics soon.

Yeah, but she has to learn to shoot recurve for that... or are they adding compound and I missed it?

-Rob

I think they just added 3on3 basketball. They can add compound bow as well. Slackers.

quote:

Originally posted by BurtonRW:

quote:

Originally posted by jmalb:
Good on her. Looking forward to seeing her in the Olympics soon.

Yeah, but she has to learn to shoot recurve for that... or are they adding compound and I missed it?

-Rob

There are rumors and hopes that compound archery may be added. They did add compound archery to the Pan Am games and that's given more hope that the Olympics may follow. It's a logistics thing, it's not just the athletes, it's the coaches, trainers, families etc. that have to be accommodated. It's at the point where in order to be added, another sport would have to be dropped. My daughter wants to start a petition to have synchronized swimming eliminated.

Even without the Olympics, the US still has a national team in compound that competes on the World Cup circuit and that's what a lot of these kids are training for. USA Archery took the Compound JDT team to Canada this past season to compete in the Canadian National Championships and they always compete in the world youth championships in whichever country hosts.

Rough day for our daughter. I picked up three of our archers after this morning's 72 arrow qualification round and shuttled them back to the indoor range at our club.

Our daughter was beyond pissed, on the verge of tears but she wasn't going to let anybody see that. Having just returned yesterday from a week and half long European cruise, she's out of practice and jet lagged. She did not shoot her best and was pissed about that. Then one of her bale mates told her that she didn't deserve to be at camp. That really pissed her off. I told her to remember it, use it as motivation, shoot her best tomorrow and beat her malemute tomorrow.

It's one of the unfortunate things of having a daughter who competes. Men and women approach competition in fundamentally different ways. Men can compete and treat each other with respect. With women it becomes personal, vindictive and nasty. But this is one of those things that if she wants to compete at an elite level, she's going to have to learn to deal with and stand on her own. I did mention what happened to her personal coach who is also on staff with the JDT. I asked him to pull her aside and talk with her. I also made it clear I wasn't looking for preferential treatment and for him to make things right. I want him to talk with her and coach her through how to deal with this. Right now it's just a camp, later on it may be a national championship.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: 2000Z-71,

quote:

Originally posted by 2000Z-71:
Then one of her bale mates told her that she didn't deserve to be at camp.

"Accidental discharge" to the foot?

Maya is a far better competitor than her bale mate. She will rise above.

I might be remembering the story wrong, but didn't she recently take someone to school that taunted her by winning a bet or bets with the taunter? She had the right frame of mind then, pull them closer and stab the taint. Remind her of that.

Now, if I'm remembering incorrectly, then simply ignore me, I'll be over in the corner.

Yeah, she kind of has a history of rising to the occasion when she gets pissed. There's a couple of us that are very curious to see how she does tomorrow.

My guess is if she has the same bale mate, they will be asking for a new bale mate to avoid further humiliation.

quote:

Originally posted by 2000Z-71:
Yeah, she kind of has a history of rising to the occasion when she gets pissed. There's a couple of us that are very curious to see how she does tomorrow.

Do you think she's good enough at 50m to humiliate her nemesis? God, I hope so. For multiple reasons.

-Rob

Ask her if she remembers that $20 she won. Then watch her roast the cretin with the mouth! Follow that with a parting comment inquiring if this balemouth ever competed 2 levels above her age group either. Kapow! Love it!

She had a much better attitude tonight when I picked her up after dinner. They worked extensively on the mental game and afterwards there was a lot of one on one coaching from the staff. She was feeling positive this evening and thinking the camp is a great experience in helping her become a better archer.

Also feeling proud as a coach and a member of the Arizona archery community. This is a national camp and there were many that applied and were not invited to attend. Of the 48 archers at this camp, 5 are from Arizona, 4 from our club, one is my daughter and another is a personally coached student of mine.

I always love these posts. There is hope. Thanks.

^^^^^me too!
Please keep us updated!

Go Maya!

Update to original post.

Interesting how different people respond to a challenge. Maya clearly finds some deeper strength she didn't know she had.

Based on what you've written, I don't think there's a reader of this thread who didn't fully expect day 2 to go the way it did.

Great stories, keep them up!!

quote:

Their response would be, "Yep, that's pretty bad." Or, "What happened with that one way to the right?" So she's now learning one of the more brutal sides of competition, how to get inside an opponent's head.

To improve upon that, I'd suggest:

Wow. I'm 2 years younger than you, shooting up two divisions and doing better than that. Yea, that was pretty bad.

The only problem with using the "yeah, that was bad" idea is that someone's reply some time will get you off balance. Best to just let them vent and keep things positive with the bale mates.