Wow, what an experience; I have just returned home from the Pan-American Games in Lima, Peru. The weather was calm & cool but the competition was on fire. This was my first multi-sport games and third international competition. I’m so proud of what the team accomplished here and how we were all there for each other through the highs and the lows.
The practice days went really well as we settled into the daily routine at the Pan-Am Village. Mariessa, Virginie, and I really enjoyed chatting with athletes and staff from all the other countries on our quest to trade pins and to collect them all. The weather was fantastic for archery; calm, overcast, with maybe just a little too much cold. And we had the opportunity to hang out with Canadian athletes from other sports in the lounge while cheering on our Canadian teammates on TV.
Welcome session.
Me & Milco, just chillin’.
Thank you Mariessa for sharing this photo of the Canadian PanAm kit.
The food was been really good, I’m going to miss it.
In competition, I settled in quickly and found a groove to eventually improve upon my personal best by 22 points in the ranking round, placing me in 7th just 2 points behind 5th! Our men’s, women’s, and mixed teams all seeded a solid 4th! Practice and competition continued feeling really strong throughout the week. After a good start in individual eliminations, I lost my first round match in a close 6-4 battle with Maira Sepulveda of Columbia. But I was able to maintain focus and keep my emotions and stress under control during my first mixed team competition with veteran teammate Crispin Duenas which included my first two televised head-to-head matches on the big stage! In the end, we unfortunately lost two hard fought matches to the USA in the semi-finals and to Mexico in the bronze medal match to finish in 4th place. The men’s team won gold, Crispin and Eric won gold and bronze individually, and the women’s team finished in 7th. This team has a great dynamic and we are growing closer & stronger by the day!
Team selfie!
Getting some practice in.
Virgine, Stephanie, and Mariessa exploring the Village.
This week was a huge success for me and my development. Not only did I shoot a PB, but I was able to maintain that quality throughout the week as the pressure and the stakes increased. All of the support and preparation has definitely paid off; thank you so much to each and every one of you! Without your support, this year would have looked very different. Looking forward to next year, we will have two more opportunities in the spring (Mexico & Germany) to qualify for the Tokyo 2020 olympics. Please continue to follow/like/share/donate to support our journey to Olympic Gold!
Well, I seem to have done it again. Several more months have flown by without a post from me. I did partially start this blog as a journal for myself, but now that I’m using an actual journal, I sometimes find that it feels a little redundant to write it all out again. But it’s not, it’s helpful to write detailed notes immediately after a training session or tournament, just as it’s also useful to reflect and summarize them later on as well. So now that Spring is almost here, let’s walk through the Fall and Winter together and I’ll show you what I’ve been up to.
First, a quick recap of the Fall. I spent much of the Fall and early winter working on some technique changes, partly tiny optimizations, but also little tweaks to help avoid injury. This is an ongoing process, and it’s very helpful for you and your coach to work with a Physiotherapist to help identify issues that may appear with overuse, or to develop alternate movement patterns that may work better for you, and most importantly, to avoid injury.
Through the rest of the Winter, I worked hard on not only increasing my weekly arrow volume, but also on developing mental techniques and strategies to help deal with distractions, stress, and anxiety, both on and off the shooting line. Additionally, I began working on realistic goal setting procedures. The first real test for my mental game was at the 2019 Lancaster Archery Classic.
I felt a lot more confident this year than I did last year, but I think I had also put some extra expectations on myself that caused some unintentional stress. While my mental strategies worked well and helped me to recover from a poor shot, I found I had difficulty using them on every shot like I had practiced. But that’s a good thing, my results may not have been what I expected, but I learned a lot from the experience that I’ll be able to take forward into my practice and into future competitions. Here’s a good example of a mental game test, in case you were wondering what it looks like when you have an equipment failure and have to shoot a make up end .. alone .. with everyone watching:
Learning from day one, the second day went much better. While I lost my match, I succeeded in meeting (and exceeding) my performance goals!
Much of these new skills has been developed by working with the National Development and Identification Squad, lead by former national head coach Joan McDonald. It’s a wonderful group of athletes, constantly pushing and encouraging each other to do better; to be better. Sometimes, we need a break from the pressure and intensity of training, and what better way to relax and have fun than a gingerbread house building and decorating party!?
Most of the time we talk about results, performance, and what was learned at a competition, but I think it’s important to talk about the less glamorous parts of the sport too. It takes a team to make an athlete, and archery is no exception. Most athletes (if not ALL athletes) would not be where they are today without the help and support of friends, family, teammates, and club members. It’s all of these people that help with travel, planning, training, scheduling, equipment maintenance, and SO much more. As an example, at the Peel Archery Club and The Archers of Caledon, we close the range to repair all of the butts at least 2 or 3 times a year. Without the help of club members, this process would take much longer, and at times be more than a couple people could handle; those mobile butts are so heavy we need a crane!
I am very thankful and grateful that my hard work, passion, and performance improvements have been noticed with an invitation to attend one of the national team’s week long training camps in Florida. It was great opportunity and a lot of hard work, it was a very enjoyable and rewarding week of training with Team Canada. Not only was it great to get some outdoor shooting in before the season starts next month, but I learned so much and gained some valuable new mental tools to add to my collection. I’m thankful for the opportunity to shoot with, learn from, and to build friendships with the team. Look out, world!
Immediately after returning home from the training camp, I had the opportunity to put the new, and existing, techniques and strategies to good use at the Ontario Provincial Championships, followed a week later by the Canadian National Championships, and a selection camp for the team travelling to Chile at the end of March for a Pan-Am Games qualification tournament. It was a pretty intense month of training and competition, but a good opportunity to test and implement my mental strategies, especially toward the end where the intensity ramped up just as I was getting sick.
At Provincials, I had a big oops toward the end, but I was shooting really well and had found a good flow and mental state, allowing me to stick to my strategies and hold out to win gold by a few points.
A week later, at Nationals, I had a slow start and started getting into my head a little. At the break, I was able to talk with my coach and friends, which allowed me to mentally reset and refocus on my process. I managed to shoot a personal best second half of 290/300 (my first ever 290), and win the silver medal. This was the day where I started feeling sick, but I knew the next two days were extremely important since they were the selection camp. I got as much rest as I could while also staying well fed and hydrated, and I took lots of notes about all the things I had learned in the past couple weeks.
The morning of Day 1 of the camp started really well with a new 36 arrow 70m personal best of 318/360, but toward the end of the second set of 36 arrows, the sickness began to hit me. The effort of drawing the bow was quite a lot, and I had to take a while between arrows to catch my breath and recover from the effort exerted. Thankfully, I was shooting next to a wall I could use for balance between arrows. I still managed a 301 second half for a new 70m personal best of 619/720! The rest of the camp went very similar to that, I’d get some rest overnight and at lunch, but after a few hours, I was spent. Those were two long, rewarding days spent with some of the strongest, kindest, and most passionate women I know. Their friendship and support make the hardest days so much easier! Since it’s now official, I can announce that I am one of 9 athletes selected to the Final Pan American Games Qualifier in Santiago Chile!
After taking a week to recover from being ill, I’m finding it really difficult to get back into the groove that I had found myself in earlier in the month; my strength and conditioning have both declined a little. With just less than two weeks before we leave for Chile, I’ll be working extra hard to not only regain what I lost, but to improve it while also avoiding injury and getting sick again. Representing Canada at the international level has long been a dream for me, and I don’t plan on letting my country down. This opportunity to test myself and my strategies at a higher level fits right into my plan to continue learning and improving on my journey to win Olympic Gold.
Taking into account my expected competition, travel, and equipment expenses for this year, I have decided to start a Go Fund Me Campaign to help offset some of the costs. Please have a look at the campaign, share it, and if you can, please donate; every little bit helps! Additionally, please share and donate to my teammate Mariessa as well!
Our current women’s team is getting stronger, and now that our national development program is taking shape, I can tell you to watch out for Team Canada to have a very strong international showing over the next several years!
I guess it’s been a few months since my last post … let’s see, what’s been going on? Well, I have been pretty busy working on some technical changes to my form, hitting the gym with Norm, and enjoying a little time off from competition.
The form changes have settled in and are feeling really good. Recently, we’ve transitioned to working a bit on the mental side of my shot process; which is starting to feel just as strong as the technical side. The process is beginning to become automated, which I find is a difficult time. I don’t want to let it get too automated, because that’s when I find things beginning to slip out of place, or my mind starts to wander rather than staying on task. It’s been an interesting and rewarding challenge that has not only helped my archery, but also other sports I’m involved in.
Norm and I have been going to the gym a few times a week to work not only on strength and endurance, but to have something to keep us motivated to get out of bed and face the day. You see, Norm’s been working from home for the last few months and I have been focusing on archery and teaching part-time. So sometimes, those colder autumn/winter mornings can be pretty hard to deal with if you don’t actually need to leave the house. It was a pretty good deal too; the City of Mississauga‘s fitness membership includes a lot of bonuses and is half the price of most of the big chain gyms!
With the Autumn being kind of an off-season as far as travelling for tournaments goes, we’ve been able to get back into some of our hobbies again. For us, it always comes back to Dungeons & Dragons or Pathfinder; we just can’t get enough! And unfortunately, it’s often difficult to schedule a group of people to get together for more than a couple sessions before we’re all so busy again. Maybe I’ll have to introduce my archery friends to tabletop RPGs and we can play during our training breaks at the range …
Stay safe, warm, and look after each other out there this Winter. Happy holidays everyone!
With a couple false starts, Spring may have finally arrived here! And while I have been shooting 70m indoors steadily since March (and occasionally throughout the Winter) at Peel Archery Club, I have also begun venturing outdoors at The Archers of Caledon to try to squeeze as much outdoor practice in as I can early in the season. It hasn’t always been very comfortable, but it has always been pleasant. It’s all about dressing for the weather and being prepared, even at -1°C with light wind and snow:
Sometimes however, that Wintery weather is just too intense to go out. As was the case on the April 14/15 weekend, we had a pretty decent winter ice storm that made driving a little too dangerous. Thankfully, last year Norm bought me a small target butt so I can shoot at home:
It’s a tight fit, and with the renovation still underway, a little messy. Once we complete the renovation, I won’t be able to shoot in the basement anymore, so it will be back to the stairwell for me!
This past weekend though was bright, calm, and warm! I managed to get some shooting in outside before coaching on Saturday morning, and the hard packed ice/snow was still there, making me feel like an Elf while I walked to the target and back:
My 70m form has started to settle in and I managed a few good ends and even my first broken nock at 70m (unless you count Norm’s nocks that I seem to always break):
I should probably move my sight. #ThatOneArrow though!
Broken nock.
By Sunday the snow had pretty much all melted, leaving puddles of mud everywhere. It was still really nice out, and I managed to drag some friends out too!
Monday was absolutely gorgeous out as well, and I guess there can be too much of a good thing. By the end of the day, I discovered that I had gotten myself a pretty good sunburn on my face, neck and arms, complete with arm guard lines. An important reminder to always be prepared, even when the weather is nice .. wear sunscreen!
It was much worse the morning after!
And speaking of being prepared; Norm and I will be teaching this year’s Outdoor Orientation Course at The Archers of Caledon! We’re pretty excited.
Well, that’s it (almost) for my second indoor season! There are still a few more fun nights coming up, but all the major tournaments are complete and it’s time to fully focus on 70m. I have almost finalized my tournament schedule for the upcoming outdoor season, but there are still a few tournaments that I’m uncertain about; mainly because they involve a lot of travel, and the travel days are right next to some other tournaments. Meaning that I would need to leave one tournament and head straight to the next. For example, in August there’s the potential of heading out to one tournament on the 5th and going to two more consecutively, and returning home on the 27th.
I had only set a few goals for myself last fall for the indoor season, and at the time they felt a little lofty. Let’s have a look at them now:
Firstly, I would really like to be consistently shooting 270/300s and having a peak score of at least 280/300 for a half round and 560/600 for a full round.
This one I would definitely call achieved! Scores in the 260s are pretty low for me now, and I have shot several 280s and one 281 this season. I wasn’t able to hit the 560 mark, but I did shoot three scores of 556, which is pretty darn close. Because I have been plotting my arrows with Artemis, I was able to convert my IFAA (5-ring) scores to FITA (10-ring) scores to get a better picture of how the IFAA scores compared. At the IFAA Ontario Championship, I shot a 146 and 147 for a 293 total. Not only did that set a new Provincial record (barely), it was also my best performance of the season. The converted scores worked out to be a 281 and a 282 for a total of 563. So I kinda achieved my 560+ goal ..
Second, there is at least one major indoor tournament that Norm and I have talked about travelling to; the Lancaster Classic in January. If we can get the time off work and afford the trip to Pennsylvania, it will earn us some very valuable competition experience, and we’ll have the opportunity to meet and shoot with so many archers we haven’t met before.
This one is a definite ACHIEVED! Prior to heading out to Lancaster, I had been comparing last year’s tournament results with my current performance to get an idea of where I might place this year. So of course I had set a few goals for myself based on that information. Firstly, for such a huge tournament (and my first time at one), I wanted to just shoot an average score for me. Dealing with increased anxiety and pressure from such a large event with lots of pro archers was going to be a good test of my mental game. Second, I felt that I had a decent chance of making the eliminations (top 8) based on last year’s scores. And third (and most lofty of them all), I wanted to make the shootup (top 4), meaning I had to win my first match.
The results were interesting. I only shot four Xs during the entire competition (Xs counted as 11s at this tournament), but I also shot a LOT of 9s which I think was almost entirely caused by extra tension from nerves. This also means that I shot really well overall and I was very happy with how my mental game had improved. I ended up qualifying 8th, achieving my primary goal, but losing my elimination match to Mackenzie Brown. At the time, I believe she was ranked 9th in the world. It was an amazing experience, and this photo represents one my favourite memories. During the practice ends for the elimination rounds, I had noticed all these world class athletes all on the same shooting line as me! It was a really cool moment and it felt good; proper :D Check out my 2018 Lancaster Archery Classic post for more details, photos, and a video!
And finally, I would like to keep up, and advance my fitness program and arrow volume so that when Spring comes around, I’m able to go up in draw weight by a couple pounds.
With a few hiccups, I have managed to maintain my weekly arrow count, and have just started slowly increasing my draw weight. My fitness program hasn’t been as aggressive as I had hoped it would be, but taking it slow is really important, especially when you want to build and support proper form and technique. It’s not always easy to take it slow, but trust me, it’s well worth it!
I just received my order of new Easton A/C/G arrows from Canada Archery Online, but I won’t be able to really try them out until I’ve gone up a little more in weight. Hopefully I can get them to tune as well as my previous arrows were. Slightly better quality arrows should help my group sizes stay a little more consistent, especially in the wind. Which leads me into some goal setting for the upcoming outdoor season! Norm and I are now members of the Peel Archery Club which has an indoor 70m range; It’s allowed us to get an earlier start on outdoor training this year.
Based on my indoor 70m performance so far and the big major goal I have for the summer (I’ll talk about that in a moment), there are some score goals I have in mind. I think the main goal this year is to make Blue Squad. This is just a ranking system Archery Canada uses, and to make Blue Squad last year required an average of your top 5 scores to be 588+ (last year my top 5 average was 540ish). Currently, some of my poorer indoor 70m scores have been in the 560s and 570s while my better scores are in the 580s and 590s. With the assumption that I will continue improving through the Spring, and my new arrows helping to mitigate the wind a little, I’m seriously aiming to have several scores in the 630+ range. I know building goals based on scores isn’t always the best approach, but this year is a big tournament that has minimum score requirements. Which leads me to the big major goal; the Pan Am Championships. This tournament acts as the primary qualifier for next year’s Pan Am Games, which itself is a qualifier for the 2020 Olympics. You can see now how this is a big deal, right? 😀 Well, I really want to be named to the team going to the the Pan Am Championships, and do well enough there to earn Canada a spot at the Pan Am Games!
I have been thinking a lot about my mental game recently; how to get into a good mental state, and how to stay there, regardless of what else is happening around me. Coincidentally, I also recently saw a quote that evoked just the right images and emotions to help get me there:
Fate whispers to the warrior ‘You cannot withstand the storm’,
And the warrior whispers back ‘I am the storm’.
Inspirational quotes, like other art forms, are rather interesting creatures. They can mean something very different to each person who experiences them and they come in all sorts of shapes, sizes, and variations. For me, this one reminds me to be strong, proud, and confident, which just happen to be words that I already use to help my mental state on the shooting line. Be it bad weather, tough competition, a poor performance, or just feeling too lazy to train, when I need a little mental reminder, I can just whisper to myself to “be the storm” to get back on track.
Figuring out simple words or phrases to help get your mental game back where it needs to be can be really important, especially in sport. The quote above reminded me about a couple good quotes from Frank Herbert’s Dune that I’d like to share:
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
Which is often shortened to “Fear is the mind-killer.” For me, this reminds me that it’s ok to be afraid, but to not let it control you. Additionally, I could write a whole new post on positive thinking, but for now: “The mind can go either direction under stress—toward positive or toward negative; on or off.” is a really good reminder to keep thinking positive.
In other news, during a recent visit to my physiotherapist with my coach, we discovered a potential cause of some shoulder pain I have been experiencing. The fix is to ensure that I keep the lower trapezius of my front side engaged throughout my shot process, especially through the execution, ensuring that the upper trap doesn’t get overworked. I think I’ve got it figured out.
In the last week of 2017, my coach had some really helpful tips and made some subtle changes to my form. It will take some time to work the changes into my process, but I have already noticed some drastic improvements to the overall look and feel of my shot.
This morning, to start the new year off, I decided to score a round at 70m, and it turned out to be a new PB! Having access to an indoor 70m range has been fantastic for keeping my outdoor form in check, especially with all the changes we’ve been making to it.
The new form is still taking a lot of mental focus to ensure I’m not reverting back to older habits, but it is quickly settling in as the new normal. It helps that I have been shooting more than usual during the past couple weeks. I’m planning to keep a higher weekly arrow volume this year, which I think will really help to integrate any form changes more quickly.
Looking back at my goals for this indoor season, I have already had a peak score over 280, and have also many scores in the 270s (enough to call that goal achieved as well), now I just need the 560! Form changes are usually accompanied by a drop in scores until the changes get worked in, but I think these changes are coming along nicely. League this week will be the first real test to be certain. But even if my scores do drop a bit, I know my form is much better than it was, and the scores will come back.
The transition to the indoor season has nearly completed, and this upcoming weekend will mark the beginning of the indoor competition season for me. It’s looking to be pretty busy, with only 3 weekends without a tournament between now and the end of March! I’m pretty excited!
There’s a fun tournament this weekend at OCCS, and I was joking around with them that I would decorate my bow with tinsel and lights. They seemed excited and encouraging .. so I did it! Here’s a short video of the first two test firings:
I had to take the tinsel string dampeners / silencers off, partly because they were making a mess of the floor, but also because they slowed my string down so much that my arrows no longer flew consistently.
I will update this post with photos of my Christmas Elf outfit that I plan on wearing to the tournament tomorrow, and to league on Wednesday. As always, check out my various social media for more immediate updates!
Not pictured, bells on my shoes and the necklace of bells that I had to take off.
Prior to the fun bow decorating, I had a really good session with my coach at The Archers of Caledon. We managed to identify three issues and developed a plan to hopefully eliminate them.
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The first issue my coach found was that my sight pin doesn’t always track vertically down on to the target. Quite often I’ll have to adjust horizontally, which can increase the time at full draw and cause a rotation in the arm/core, both of which will lead to becoming fatigued more quickly.
The second issue I’ve been struggling with for a while now; an inconsistent vertical pressure on the grip. When I’m shooting well, the pressure on my grip is fairly centered, but sometimes that pressure will drift a little higher or lower, causing lower or higher shots respectively. After some discussion with my coach, he made a suggestion that I think is going to work very well. The suggestion was to place either a texture change or a small bump on the grip where so I can consistently focus my hand pressure on that spot. Once it becomes more natural, we can remove the aid from the grip.
And finally, during video analysis of my release, we saw that on shots that didn’t feel as good as others, I was engaging a muscle that shouldn’t be engaged. The result is very minor, but with the high speed camera, we could see that my elbow was dropping a little just before executing the shot, rather than coming straight back. The solution, for now, is to simply be a little more mentally confident and strong to ensure that the elbow stays straight all through the shot process.
Another few weeks have passed and I’ve been working away at my new fitness program and trying to make some minor form changes a natural part of my shot process. Having to think about the new changes and make sure that I’m doing them is a bit of a distraction, but the more I train, the more automatic they become.
It took a while, but now that I’ve adjusted to shooting 18m again, I’m starting to see some substantial performance improvements from last year’s indoor season. Last year, my personal best (and only score over 530) was a 532 and while I have only shot the one 530+ at a tournament this year, my league and training scores are frequently higher; into the mid 540s. Just last night at league, I bested my old PB of 544 by 1 point for a new PB of 545. Here are a few recent scores from this month; the first is from practice at Peel Archery Club. The 2nd and 4th are from league at The Archers of Caledon, and the 3rd is from a tournament at Saugeen Shafts by Peterborough Archers.
I’m really enjoying plotting my arrows and using that data to reflect on and pair with my mental image of how the shots felt. ArtemisLite is a free download on Google Play if you’re interested in trying it out.
And finally, the pins I earned from the outdoor season have arrived! During the summer, most of my scores were over 500 and a a few were over 550. That’s what earned me the white and black pins, respectively. I’m getting really close to the WA 18m indoor threshold of 550 for the blue pin too! But since the score must be shot at a World Archery registered event, I only have a few opportunities this season to qualify. Even if I don’t qualify for a pin, I’ll still be very happy with my progress and performance 😀
I’m still here! I know it’s been a few weeks since my last post, I’m sorry. But, I finally have some things to share!
First, I have started volunteering at The Archers of Caledon and with my Streetsville Bowl bowling league, and they have been keeping me very busy! Second, I have been learning a little about string making and live streaming it on my Facebook page. I have also edited out most of the downtime from the streams and uploaded them to my YouTube channel, which you can also see below. I make lots of mistakes, but manage to successfully make a recurve bow string in the first video, and talk about how to position nock points in the second one. These videos took a long time to edit and upload; they started at about 90 minutes long each!
Looking forward, Norm and I have several exciting events and dates coming up! Next week, I’m going to meet with my physiotherapist at Kings Cross Physio to figure out a fitness program for the winter (I’m really excited to finally get back to some more intense training). At the end of the month, Norm and I will be taking a coaching clinic to become trained coaches for beginner archers. Shortly after that, there is the Zombie Apocalypse event at OCCS, which is a very fun event that also helps to raise non-perishable food items for the Mississauga Food Bank. At the end of January, we’ll be travelling to Lancaster, Pennsylvania to compete in the Lancaster Archery Classic. And in February/March we’ll be competing in the Provincial, National, and Americas indoor tournaments.
Hopefully I can find a flexible job really soon that will allow me to continue training while earning an income so that I can afford to travel to some big tournaments in the US and Canada next year. I’m really looking forward to experiencing some of those huge events, but travel is very expensive. If you’re hiring, please send me a message, I have a wide variety of skills!
And finally, I’m just going to leave this epic photo of Natalee, Norm, and myself here 😀