Kind of a bittersweet weekend for me today. It was the 2018 AZ State Junior Olympic Outdoor Championships and our daughter spent the weekend at home with the stomach flu. I spent part of yesterday coaching 2 of my personal students as well as other archers from our club. Then spent today shadowing the Director of Scoring as he ran the timing system and the tournament.

It was a good day to watch the field from the DOS stand. Without our daughter there I didn't have the emotional involvement that I typically do as a parent. I could watch the matches and actually objectively enjoy them. Except for when my students were competing...

Elimination rounds are tough. Single round elimination, go on or go home. You stand on the line directly adjacent to your opponent. Throughout the round you are aware of your score and your opponents score as well. Any weakness in the mental game comes through as demons and doubts creep in.

I watched one of my students shoot his way to a bronze medal. Really proud of him, he's been competing for a little over a year now and he's doing great.

My other student I could not be more proud of. He's a great archer competing in one of the toughest divisions in one of the toughest states. Seven of the top 20 nationally ranked archers for his division are from Arizona and were competing this weekend. By the way, he's in that group at 14th. We've been working on elimination rounds for well over a year. He starts off great but then loses confidence and starts a gradual decline as the match goes on. He hasn't won an elimination round in competition until today.

He started off with a one point lead in the first end and never looked back winning the match after 5 ends.

His reward, having to shoot in the second round against the 1st place seed and, this year's national indoor champion and current no. 1 ranked archer in the nation. Did I also mention that they're teammates? I have to hand it to my student he stayed in and fought then entire match. Like clockwork he finished 1 point behind his opponent on the first 4 ends. If there was any type of an opening he was there to take it. They tied on the last end and he lost the round by 4 points shooting a 144/150. 144/150 is damn near perfection and usually enough to win any match.

But this is why I coach. I don't coach to make kids better archers, I coach to help archers be able to think for themselves, face a challenge and learn whether they win or lose. Watching my student gain confidence and be able to compete against the best has been incredibly rewarding. Even more rewarding has been watching the friendship between these two young men grow to the point where it has turned into a mentorship.

It's good to take a step back every now and then and watch as a bystander. This will be one of those days that I remember when having a bad day. One of this days I'll remember when I question my involvement in the sport. One of those days I'll remember when somebody spouts off that everybody should get a trophy, when for a trophy to actually mean something it needs to be earned.

Sad that Maya was down and out (prayers for a quick recovery) but great to know it was a good day for you & one of your students!!