April/May Recap 2004

RECAP:

Financial Report: 6 new sponsors came in April and May for a total of $1580. Thank you all so much! I am now up to $14080 in funds raised. Please keep telling others about me!

April/May Recap: I continued to make progress, improving on my previous month’s arrow volume yet again.

Gold Cup Tournament 2004: The last event before the Olympic Trials, I had a less than stellar qualification round placing me 14th out of 45, but I was able to get it together during the elimination rounds and bump myself up 9 spots to 5th place. I also had the third highest elimination round average out of everyone! See below for play by play detail!

National Ranking: Not including my shooting performance at Gold Cup, my 2004 national rolling ranking is 8th place. The last four rankings had me slowly creeping up the scale from 61st to 31st to 21st to 8th!

Extra Adventures: I went to the 2004 McDonald’s Air & Sea show in Fort Lauderdale with Jan and Mark Beggs. Also, I drove 25 hours over four days from Florida to Illinois just in time for mother’s day with Vic’s family, but before I left we had a BBQ at the club in Ft. Lauderdale.

THE FINANCIAL REPORT:

At the end of April an exceptional opportunity came my way. Toll Brothers, a luxury home builder has offered to pay me $50 for every realtor who brings a prospective client into their Castle Pines office – the first two weeks already brought in $550! SO, if you live in Colorado, be sure to go check their product out- make sure to sign a visitor’s card! (Call my Mom, Judy Fahrenkrog with Fuller Towne and Country Properties at 303-888-4760 for more info on how to participate.) Also, keep your eyes open for their full color ads in the paper featuring me shooting.

The past two months, additional sponsors include the Castle Rock Rotary Club, who matched a gift from one of their members, Dave Watts. I was also excited to recently learn that my Aunt Pat and Uncle Skip Jump will be paying for the full cost of my hotel room at the Olympic Trials. More sponsorship came from Ben Heavrin, Les Lilly, The Plouff Family, and Reese and Alberta Johnson, Thanks! For those of you who have given money in the past and I did not specifically mention you in E-newsletters, I apologize – I am learning as I go what people enjoy reading and adding things to make the E-newsletters better. All my sponsors are listed on the Sponsorship Thermometer page. I AM THANKFUL TO EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU!

APRIL/MAY RECAP:

April was my last month in Florida. Although I was sad to leave, I was looking forward to cooler weather. Some of our training days had hit the mid-90s with lots of humidity! As the Olympic Trials get closer, my focus has continually been on shooting more. I upped my arrow volume again by about 16% over March. 85% of my time was dedicated to shooting, 4% of my time to cardio and the remainder was recovery.

May is going well, I’ve already shot the same amount of arrows this year that I did in all of last year! I’ll have more for you in the next E-newsletter.

GOLD CUP TOURNAMENT 2004, May 22-23rd:

(see EXPLANATION OF AN OUTDOOR TOURNAMENT at the bottom of this page if you want more detail about how an outdoor tournament is run)

Bloomfield, NJ – As far as travel goes this was definitely a challenging one. Because of bad weather in Chicago, our original flight from Springfield to O’Hare was delayed, not once but three times and then cancelled. Fortunately we were able to catch a flight to St. Louis and then another one to Newark later that evening. By the time our 15-hour journey had finally ended, it was 3:30am.

Later that morning, Anthony Bellettini, my first coach and the man who got me started in archery picked me up at the hotel and took me to the field. I was lucky that I didn’t have to shoot until 2pm, but the late bedtime certainly played a role in how disoriented I felt during the qualification round. I was really happy to see that the weather was much better than Arizona and Texas, no wind and a lot of sunshine.

As I started the qualification round, I struggled to get my bearings. It was one of those days that you shoot an arrow you think should go in the middle but instead it lands on the right side. You shoot another arrow, now compensating for the reason it went to the right and it pops a left. I started to loose faith in my shooting, and I got confused and forgot how to shoot well and how to bring myself back. My score reflected it with a 561. The exact same score I had shot in Texas, and only 2 points off Arizona. The only difference? New Jersey had ideal weather; Texas and Arizona were plagued with wind!

That night I did a lot of reflecting; I called a few people who I knew I could count on to help me through the experience. No matter what happened, the next day I needed to refocus, forget about the day before and move forward. Unlike my other tournaments, I decided that I didn’t want to lookup who I was going to shot against in the elimination round the following day, what did it matter? If I was shooting well, I knew I could beat most of them. My first match was against the number two Columbia University shooter Nazreen Bakht. Right away I was up a couple of points, on my second end I shot a 55 out of 60, and closed the match with a 50, winning by about 25 points.

My next match was against the number one ranked Canadian, Marie Beaudet. She was fresh from winning the Mexican Grand Prix and was ranked third after the qualification round. I knew she would be tough to beat but there was something inside me that said I could do it if I stayed calm and took smart shots. After the first end I was up a couple of points, on the second end I picked up another point and the third end gave me a win by 10 points. Similar to Arizona, I would find myself in the quarterfinals, this time against another member of the 2003 US World’s Team, Stephanie Miller.

The match started off well, the first arrow I shot a 9, the second arrow a 7. Suddenly my focus shifted from staying relaxed to whether or not I could win if I shot another 7. Time too was running out, only 29 seconds to shoot the last arrow. I over thought the last shot and popped a 6 – so much for that 7 I was so worried about! I would have to recover well to keep a close match. Over the next two ends, I shot a 28 and a 26, both tying Stephanie. Then on the last end I shot a 27 which beat Stephanie’s 25, but wasn’t good enough to win it. I lost by 3 points but had the highest losing score putting me in 5th place overall.

I’m glad I was able to learn something new and in the process prove to myself that I had control over what I was doing.

NATIONAL RANKING:

Although where I am ranked nationally has absolutely no bearing on whether or not I make the Olympic Team, I am proud of what I have been able to accomplish in just less than a year and a half. The rolling rank is determined at different points during the year and is based on the shooter’s top 4 tournament elimination round averages. Early in the year, the rolling ranking was mostly based on the 2003 tournaments, but now the latest ranking only includes tournaments from this year.

At the beginning of this year I was ranked 61st. Many of you believed in me and came forward to sponsor me. During the second round of rankings I moved up to 31st, then in the third round, I moved up another 10 spots to 21st. The most recent ranking has me in 8th and I will most likely move up a couple of spots when Gold Cup is added. I want to thank you all for being there to support me and allowing me to train full time. I know that your commitment to me has helped make this happen!

Thank you so much!

Joy

p.s. For those of you who pray, please keep my quest to make the Olympic team in your prayers. I know it is small in the grand scheme of things, but Philippians 4:6 says, "Don't worry about anything; instead pray about everything." I will continue to keep you in my prayers and ask that you be blessed for helping me when I needed it most.

EXPLANATION OF AN OUTDOOR TOURNAMENT:

This year because it is an Olympic year, the tournaments are run similar to the Olympics. The only distance is 70 meters and the first day is spent shooting 72 arrows – this is called the qualification round. Based on your score (maximum is 10 points per arrow) you are then ranked 1 through 64, if you are 65 or lower you get cut.

The second day is called the OR Round or the Elimination Round. It is basically a bracket that pits the top archers against the weaker archers, i.e. the number one archer has to shoot his/her match against the number 64 archer, while the number 2 archer has to shoot against the number 63 archer. If you win your first match you move on, if you don’t, you’re done. The OR Round is a relatively new format developed for the Olympics in 1996 to make the sport more television friendly, it used to be whoever shot the highest score over four distances would win the gold.

Also, here is the definition of an end, many people weren’t clear what one was in my last E-newsletter – an end is each time you complete a certain number of arrows. For example, in the qualification round we shoot 12 ends of 6 arrows, up until the quarterfinals during the elimination rounds we shoot 3 ends of 6 arrows, and once we are in the quarterfinals, we shoot 4 ends of 3 arrows.

March/April Recap 2004

THE FINANCIAL REPORT:

Thank you to my sponsors who sent additional money in the past month. I was able to raise $1300, with a third of it coming from sponsors who increased, and in some cases doubled, their initial sponsorship. I will be making a rather large arrow purchase (+/- $1200) soon and I will need it!!

MARCH/APRIL RECAP:

March was another great volume month, I was able to increase my total arrow count an additional 14%. As for the percentage breakdown, having spent 83% of my time shooting, that left only 3% for time off and about 13% devoted to cardio and yoga.

April is going well, however, the volume initially dropped slightly since there were two major tournaments back to back – the Arizona Cup March 31st-April 4th and the Texas Shootout April 16th-18th. But now they are over, I’m back to my regular routine having upped it slightly to continue to build my confidence and experience.

EXPLAINATION OF AN OUTDOOR TOURNAMENT:

Let me first explain how the outdoor tournaments work since up until now I have only participated in indoor tournaments. This year because it is an Olympic year, the tournaments are run similar to the Olympics. The only distance is 70 meters and the first day is spent shooting 72 arrows – this is called the qualification round. Based on your score (maximum is 10 points per arrow) you are then ranked 1 through 64, if you are 65 or lower you get cut.

The second day is called the OR Round or the Elimination Round. It is basically a bracket that pits the top archers against the weaker archers, i.e. the number one archer has to shoot his/her match against the number 64 archer, while the number 2 archer has to shoot against the number 63 archer. If you win your first match you move on, if you don’t, you’re done. The OR Round is a relatively new format developed for the Olympics in 1996 to make the sport more television friendly, it used to be whoever shot the highest score over four distances would win the gold.

Also, here is the definition of an end, many people weren’t clear what one was in my last E-newsletter – an end is each time you complete a certain number of arrows. For example, in the qualification round we shoot 12 ends of 6 arrows, in the first three elimination rounds we shoot 3 ends of 6 arrows, and in the last three ends of the elimination rounds, we shoot 4 ends of 3 arrows.

ARIZONA CUP 2004:

So, now that you know how it works, I can explain what happened to me at the Arizona Cup. You may recall my last E-newsletter where I stated something to the effect that my main focus in Arizona was my form and I wasn’t going to be concerned with where I placed. Sometimes when you least expect it things turn out better than you could have ever imagined.

Arizona is unique in that it is the first tournament of the year. Because of its status, it attracts quite a few international archers. This year they boasted 13 countries and a record number of entries. Unlike the Olympics, the Arizona Cup held two days of qualification rounds. After the first day, I was in 26th place overall, and I was ranked 15th among Americans. I was pretty proud of how I had shot considering that it was a very windy, hot day and it was only my second major outdoor tournament since I started shooting. Although my score and placement was good, every part of me said I would have a better day the next day.

The next day came and instead of hot, windy weather, we had very cold, rainy weather – for the first time in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and California it was raining at the same time. Instead of being disappointed I was glad… rain meant less wind, and less wind meant I could really show these girls what I could do. My roommate Melissa Stone and I had everything figured out; we’d get to the range nice and early, wear plenty of warm clothes and find a nice dry spot to camp out at so we didn’t get too wet. While everyone else was complaining, we were secretly smiling at each other knowing that we were totally prepared.

We decided to only shoot two of the practice rounds instead of all four, we figured it was better to keep ourselves warm and our equipment dry. In the meantime, my mom had turned into angel of the day and had delivered some tarps and trash bags for us to keep the area around us dry. At the end of our first scoring end they decided to call the tournament for the day. The only end that counted towards our ranking was our first end. Fortunately that moved me from 26th to 23rd.

As my mom reminded me that night, the elimination round is a whole new tournament, it was time to forget about placement and focus on the best way to get through the next day. Larry Skinner, Vic’s coach came up to me right before we shot the OR round and reminded me that this tournament was all about me and my form, nothing else. Glad he reminded me!

My first match was against Lindsay Pian, she was the second place winner in Las Vegas, I was down by 7 at the start of the match, but on the second end I was able to move up a couple of points and then I shot a great last end to win the match. My second match was against Ashley Kamuf who happens to be one of Vic’s (and his sister Sally’s) good friends. I didn’t know what to expect, Ashley is usually a very strong shooter, she has a couple world championships with the compound bow and so I know she is mentally tough. After the first end it was clear though, that all I needed to do was stay strong, shoot good shots and I would win the match. My first two ends of that match, I only lost 11 points, that is less than one point per arrow! I closed the match with a score of 161 to 134, a personal best in a tournament for me and the third highest match of the entire women’s competition.

My third match was against Kathie Loesch, who is a member of this year’s national team along with Ashley. Kathie was also on the 2003 World Championship team. I was able to win that match as well, advancing to the quarter finals where I met Janet Dykman, 1996 and 2000 US Olympic Team member. Janet has been on top in this sport for years. On the first end I was able to grab a 2 point lead, then on the second end, I shot a 3. Where it came from, I will never know… my only consolation was that when I got home, I continued to test that arrow and found that in fact it would constantly shoot low on the target. My biggest mistake against Janet was that I didn’t pull the arrow. The third end went well, I shot a 27, but so did Janet. On the fourth and final end (remember quarter finals to the finals, you shoot 4 three arrow ends) I shot the same arrow again and landed in the 3 ring. Pretty much the match was over. Although I was a little disappointed that I was knocked out, I was more than thrilled to be in 8th place. Never in my life have I ever done so well individually in a sporting event! My mom nearly missed her plane she was so into the matches.

TEXAS SHOOTOUT:

Before I talk about Texas, I would like to THANK Dr. Nancy Leslie and her husband Roger for letting Emma and me stay with them. Les Lilly of the Castle Rock Rotary was able to arrange for us to stay with Nancy and Roger instead of having to stay in a hotel about 30 miles away. They were excellent hosts and I am so thankful to Rotary for its wonderful members.

One of the things I learned at Arizona Cup is that sometimes when you least expect it things will turn out great. For the Texas Shootout, I can only re-phrase that to sometimes when you lease expect it, things turn out like crap. BUT THERE IS ALWAYS A REASON!! Now, almost a week removed from Texas, I realize that it was not the end of the world and that it has no bearing on who is on the US Olympic Team…

I arrived in Texas ready to rumble. I think I figured that since I did so well in Arizona there was no stopping me. I somehow forgot that I felt completely different in Arizona, all I cared about there was getting through the weekend without embarrassing myself and sticking to my form. I would have done well to heed the lessons of the past.

The practice round went great, every arrow I shot made its way to the yellow center of the target. It was only when the real tournament started the next day that I suddenly was timid and scared of the wind. Let’s just put it this way, the wind was averaging at least 20 mph, with gusts up to 35 mph. My first arrow hit the target, my second one didn’t. It was going to be a long day.

I finished off the qualification round with a 270 and a 290 for a total of 560, only a few points off my qualification score from Arizona, putting me in 18th place. Even though I was less than thrilled with my 270, I was excited about another personal best in a tournament of 290. Unfortunately, I was a little too concerned with the score and not concerned enough with how I was going to deal with the elimination rounds the next day.

My first match in the OR was against Lieren Hackbarth, I was able to win that easily with a 148 to 126. The wind was tough but I was able to manage it. Then came my second match. I was up against Nicole Rasor, this years Las Vegas Champion. Although I didn’t realize it at the time, Nicole and I were exactly the same going into the match. She was ranked 15th and I was ranked 18th. Her last match she shot a 148, my last match I shot a 148. I misread the wind and my first shot hit the 4 ring. It took me another 5 arrows to make my way into the gold, by that point I had lost nearly 24 points in one end alone. I was going to be strong though, I shot the next end really well and even managed to eek out a few 10s. My last end however did me in pretty quickly… I started telling myself I needed to shoot a near perfect end to win the match. I’ve learned since that thinking that way was one of the main reasons I lost.

Unfortunately sometimes we have to learn lessons the hard way, hopefully that was one of the hardest ones I’ll have to learn this season, I try not to make too many mistakes twice. Thanks for reading. I apologize for the length!

Joy

Mark 10:27

p.s. Vic and I went on two mini trips around Florida. One was to the Keys for a two day break from shooting, I’ve included some of those pictures in the new Pixagogo gallery if you are interested. We got to see sunken treasure that was recovered by Mel Fisher at the Mel Fisher Museum, we ate sloppy joes at none other than Sloppy Joe’s, and we got to feed the HUGE tarpon at Robbie’s just before traveling over the famous 7-mile bridge. The second trip was to Naples, on the west coast of Florida, Vic and I went to visit some new friends. While he was out fishing, I was able to catch some great beach time.