Building Up

Quick Version:

3/31-4/3 - TEXAS SHOOTOUT: 1st place finish in the team round with team members Angela Teggart and Nikki Stull. 3rd place finish individually, my highest outdoor finish yet. Read on...

4/4-4/7 - FARGO/WINNIPEG: After the Texas Shootout, Joe Courneya arranged for me to fly out to Fargo, ND and Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada) to talk to students and physical education teachers about why archery should be in schools. Read on...

4/13-4/15 – ARIZONA CUP: Team PSE (Jenny and Mandy Nichols and myself) finished up 1st beating the team from Poland in the final. Individually, I finished in 9th place. Read on...

NEW SPONSORS: Brunton, Easton Arrows, Doinker, and 4 new personal sponsors.Read on...

UPCOMING EVENTS: 2005 World Outdoor Trials – May 10th-15th in Orlando, FL.Read on... Results should be posted on www.usarchery.org.

Long Version

3/31-4/3 - TEXAS SHOOTOUT:

Ever had the feeling that you weren’t prepared to do something, but that you had to do it anyway – no matter the outcome? That was how I felt going into Texas. I went in part because I had already scratched from three major indoor tournaments and I was itching to compete again. I think the other half of me just wanted to get the first outdoor tournament out of the way, get the jitters out. If archery has taught me anything, it is that I have to be patient and trust that the outcome will be in God’s hands, good or bad, and not in mine. That being said, I still have to show up at every tournament as prepared as I can be and not be scared to do well or even to flop.

Probably the best part about the trip was getting to stay with Drs. Nancy Leslie and Roger Smith for the second year in a row. Last year, one of my Rotary sponsors, Les Lilly helped me get connected with them. It was a lot of fun to hang out with them again and spend some one on one time with Roger’s mom, Sue – who by the way makes an excellent casserole. While I was there, Nancy had me try a computer program that uses virtual reality and body signs such as your heart rate and your breathing to lift balls into the air, build staircases, and even shoot an arrow.

I arrived in Texas a day early. I learned last year that flying in on the practice day can be dangerous if the weather is bad or if your bow doesn’t arrive. An extra day always gives you a cushion in case anything dramatic happens. It also helps get over the plane sickness you get after flying on the puddle jumper from Houston to College Station, something which I inevitably suffer from every time.

I went to the practice range to sign in and shoot a couple rounds of arrows only to find out that the wind was steadily blowing at around 20 miles per hour, with gusts up to 30 mph. At that point, I only had 8 arrows to compete with (you get 6) and I was afraid that if I lost anymore I’d be in trouble. That night I stocked up on my traditional balance bars and orange juice and headed off to bed not knowing what the next day would bring.

If you have been following my E-newsletters, you will know that one of the most important things that I stress is that success comes not without failure (or at least some dips along the way). The first day of the tournament was one of those days that I wished that saying wasn’t true. I shot terribly, so terribly in fact that I missed my last arrow at 50 meters out of pure frustration.

My frustration that had been building all morning exploded after the miss. I had promised myself that outcome didn’t matter, yet I wanted to do so well. I had told myself that I didn’t care about score, only about form, yet I felt like a total fish out of water. My form felt awful, my attitude was terrible and it seemed as though nothing I did would help. Fortunately for me, Kate Anderson (2005 US Indoor National Champion) and Stephanie Arnold (2004 Olympian) both came up to me and were very consoling. They didn’t have to be nice, after all they were my competitors, but they were true sportswomen.

After a rough day, I had an option to call it a day or stay another hour and shoot in the team round. I decided I needed to get rid of some of the cob webs and put a team together. We called ourselves stealth and despite having never practiced together, we managed to beat three varsity teams to win the gold.

Although the team round win was a very positive experience, my individual shooting had still shot a hole in my confidence. That night I had to make a decision about my attitude, I needed to change it around somehow. I needed to enjoy the tournament and not dread it. I went to Target to buy a cheapo watch because I didn’t have one that was functioning and while I was there, I happened to see a pair of Superwoman underwear. I figured that the tournament couldn’t get much worse, so I was going to have fun the next day knowing that I was the only woman out there wearing hot pink superwoman underwear.

The decision must have been a good one because the next day was a totally new day – and it went really well. My first match was against one of the Texas A&M aggies who had just started shooting archery and my second match was against Angela Taggert, one of my teammates from the team round the night before. Although I got through my first match pretty easily, it was the start of the second match that was a little more challenging. At the end of the first end against Angela, I only had one or two points up on her. I really had to dig deep to open up the point spread on the second end. It can always be a bit more challenging to beat a friend than someone you know, but I wasn’t about to go out in the second round – I had no desire to repeat last year’s 30th place finish when I freaked out against Nicole Rasor.

My next match was against Stephanie Miller from Columbia University. Stephanie, as you may recall from Gold Cup 2004, was on the 2003 gold medal Pan American Team as well as the team the US sent to the world championships in 2003. She is ranked 2nd in the US and was seeded 1st after the qualification round. I was excited, yet calm at the same time. I love that feeling right before you go into a really tough match and your heart starts beating. I love steep competition and challenging my mind to think clearly and my body to react smoothly. Despite some wind, I managed to win with a couple points to spare and for the first time in any national-level competition, I managed to make the top 4 cut.

Once you make the top four you still have to win your next match in order to go into the gold medal match. My semi-final match was against Lindsay Carmichael, a member of the 2004 Paralympic team who set several world records in Athens this past summer. I wasn’t necessarily nervous about shooting against her, I had beat her team in the team round the night before, but I think I was a little too focused on shooting perfectly so that I could shoot for the gold. You may know exactly what I’m talking about… it is like taking a test and trying so hard to remember everything that your mind goes blank and you can’t even begin to think about what the right answer is or how to solve it. Basically in archery, your body just shuts down and you can’t remember what you are supposed to be doing to make the arrow go in the middle. My very first arrow was a miss. The match was over before it even got started. It is nearly impossible to come back in a 12 arrow match with a miss. My destiny for this tournament was not a gold medal.

I entered the bronze medal match with mixed emotions. I knew I was good enough to be in the gold medal match but there was no point in dwelling on that, it would only cause me to loose my focus on the task at hand which was to do the best job I could do to give myself the best chance at winning the bronze. My opponent was 2004 Olympian Stephanie Arnold. Stephanie had been so nice to me when I was struggling the day before and here I was, finding myself shooting against her for the 3rd place spot. After the first end, I was up a few points and by the half, I was up enough that she couldn’t come back and win. I remember thinking, Wow! finally my first medal finish in any major outdoor tournament! Of course sharing the moment with my hosts who had seen me go home extremely disappointed the year before was on of the best parts. The first person to congratulate me was the gal handing out the awards, the second was the US Anti-doping agency escort.

The dope testing was quite the process. You have to be followed around until you are ready to go to the bathroom. Once you are ready to go, they escort you to the testing area where they ask you pee in a cup in front of someone. I was a little nervous about the testing because I had just started on a new vitamin regimen and USADA (US Anti-doping agency) won’t tell you what vitamins you can or can’t take. Fortunately, I was pretty sure that they wouldn’t cause any problems because I was assured by my nutritionist, Dr. Smith that the vitamins were made out of whole foods. Still, you never know and I was very happy when I received a letter on the 25th saying that I had passed the doping test.

In the end, I think I was a bit relieved that I had finished 3rd despite feeling totally unprepared. It taught me a lot about my inner strength and my ability to turn a bad start to a tournament around.

4/4-4/7 - FARGO/WINNIPEG:

In between the Texas Shootout and the Arizona Cup, I flew to Fargo, ND and Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada) thanks to a lot of hard work on the part of Joe Courneya, the 4-H director for North Dakota. In Fargo, I spoke briefly in front of a JOAD (Junior Olympic Archery Development) program that was just getting started. I then gave a demonstration, hitting balloons first and then an apple and then strawberries. After the shooting, I signed autographed cards provided by PSE.

For many of the kids in attendance at the meet and greet, it was their first time shooting and their enthusiasm was extremely inviting. The amazing thing about the program is that it wouldn’t even exist if a guy named “Rags” didn’t offer to volunteer and Joe Courneya hadn’t put it together. I am always encouraged to see such willing volunteers.

The next morning Joe arranged for me to film a public service announcement that will air on television promoting 4-H shooting sports and local JOAD programs in North Dakota and the surrounding states with the possibility of being aired on a national level.

After shooting the psa, we went to Centennial grade school. Before meeting with the students, I had an opportunity to speak with physical education teachers from several different school districts about the benefits of the NASP (National Archery in the Schools Program). I also learned a lot about the statistical impact of archery in schools. Did you know that attendance goes up on days that students participate in archery? Or that discipline issues are lower on archery days? The main thing I talked about was how archery can be used as a character building tool as well as a platform to teach math and physics, and finally as a sport that increases agility and ear/body coordination (i.e. getting your body to do what you are asking it to do).

Although speaking with the teachers was important and I enjoyed it very much, it was being around the 5th graders that really made my day. Many of them had never seen a bow before let alone shot at a target with one. I had a blast talking to them about encouraging their fellow students and really enjoyed getting them riled up. I asked them to yell “you can do it!” and they were all over it, the noise in the room was deafening! The best part though was when their fellow classmates came up to shoot and you could hear them continue to yell and cheer on their friends whether they hit the gold or not. Afterwards, I stuck around to sign more PSE autograph cards which the kids really loved.

The Fargo Forum wrote a really nice article about the event, click the link below to read it and see a fantastic picture of one of the young girls shooting her arrow with me cheering right next to her:

The Fargo trip didn’t end with the school visit. A friend of Joe’s, Delmere, contacted Joe and I to see if we would be interested in making a home visit to a local archer. Having spoken with Joe a little bit about Chick, I knew that she was disabled but had no idea what a champion she really was until we arrived at her home. You see, Chick has practically the same injury as Christopher Reeve had and she is confined permanently not only to her wheelchair, but to her home. Because of state laws, she is not aloud to leave her house, let alone her state.

Before Chick was injured she was a 4-H volunteer teaching archery and an active archer herself as well. After her car accident 9 years ago this July, it was a miracle that she even lived let alone started shooting archery again. With the help of Al from Scheels All Sports in Fargo, they were able to develop a PSE crossbow that aims with a laser and that she shoots with a button she presses with her cheek. This amazing woman continues to press on and has not only continued to do something that she loves but has come up with other ways to occupy her time. One way of doing this was to write a cookbook using computer equipment specialized to her. Soon, you will be able to purchase Chick’s cookbook from my website for just $12 and 100% of the profits will go to help fund a nursing scholarship that she set up to honor the student nurse who saved her life. I will send a link in the next e-newsletter.

My trip in Fargo was then followed by a four hour drive to Winnipeg. I have only been to Canada twice before, once for a rowing trip to Toronto and a second time to visit a friend in Montreal. I was very excited to have the opportunity to visit a more western part of Canada. In the process, I learned an extensive amount about the Red River and the problems that are currently being caused by its overflow into Canada. My purpose for being at the water conference was to speak to high school students about making their dreams become a reality and I did my best to do that. I also learned that a few of them had dreams of their own… one student wanted to change the snowboarding world another wanted to run her own nightclub business… and yet another wanted to be the left arm wrestling champion of the world.

Overall the trip was a fantastic opportunity for me to encourage the growth of archery and learn a lot at the same time. I only hope that opportunities like these will continue to exist. If you know of any club or team or corporation that would be interested in having me speak to them, I would be more than happy to do this again.

4/13-4/15 – ARIZONA CUP:

After coming back from Winnipeg, I started shooting again and things seemed to be going from bad to worse in practice. I was just getting over a cold and a muscle in my back had been acting up. Part of me started putting a lot of pressure on myself to do well and during my last practice before the tournament my coach and I had a long discussion about whether or not I should even attend. I shot one more end, nearly all of my arrows hitting the blue ring and decided to throw in the towel on the tournament.

When I got home, I called my mom to ask her if I could come out and stay with her for the weekend instead of shooting the tournament. She said I could if I really wanted to, but she helped me to talk through why I really wanted to scratch the tournament. In reality, one of the main reasons I didn’t want to go was that I was afraid I would flop. The only way I was going to get through the tournament was if I thought that the most important thing was not how I did, but that I participated and didn’t give up. So with that, I packed my bags and drove to Phoenix.

I had a better first two days than Texas and was able to build up my confidence a little bit. My first match in the elimination round was against a gal from Pima community College who, like the girl in my first match in Texas, had just started shooting archery. I won easily by over 100 points. My second match was a little more difficult, I had to shoot against a friend that I train with in Tucson, Maggie Huff. Maggie was a member of the 2004 Junior World’s team and was a JR national champion last year. At the end of the first end, I was down by 5 points. Even though I really like and respect Maggie, my brain kicked in and pushed me into the zone. The next end, I shot nearly every arrow in the gold and not only reclaimed my deficit, but pushed ahead by about 6 points. On the last end we both shot the same score and I moved on to the quarter finals where I had to shoot against Marie-Pierre Beaudet.

Marie and I had shot against each other the previous year during the 1/16th round at the Gold Cup in New Jersey. There, I managed to beat her and finish 5th overall after losing to Stephanie Miller in the quarter finals. I knew I was capable of beating her, but that my focus had to be on my form. At this point, my form still didn’t feel right and so finding my confidence in that was a bit more difficult. During the previous match I was able to sight in (meaning move my sight) despite the wind but at the start of this match, the wind had picked up strongly in a different direction. I adjusted my sight the way I thought I needed to and then shot the first arrow. It was a low 6. I didn’t know whether it was me or the wind, and seeing as how I had just changed my sight I figured it must have been me, so I shot another one and it too hit a low blue. I knew that Marie-Pierre wouldn’t give me much breathing room and that those first two arrows would be tough to recover from. I calmed myself down and tried to focus on form and adjusted my sight one more time. I shot a low 7. 11 points dropped on the first 3 arrows. I couldn’t believe it. On the next end, I just went for it, I shot quickly, I shot strong and I barely missed the gold – probably because I wasn’t focused on it.

As we started the last end, I shot pretty well, my form, still not feeling very comfortable came through for me. In the end, I lost the match by 6 points but cut my deficit in half. Despite not winning, I shot the highest losing score and finished 9th. This tournament taught me a lot about the importance of participation. As Tiger Woods said before this years masters when questioned about why he went to all the other majors when he was struggling with his form, “If you don’t go, you don’t have a shot, if you go, at least you have a chance.”

In the end, even though both the Texas Shootout and the Arizona Cup were very stressful and at some points frustrating, they were excellent preparation for the Olympic Trials to be held in a little less than 3 years from now. Thanks sponsors for helping make these tournaments a huge success!!

NEW SPONSORS:

The past two months have been very exciting. Brunton made me a member of it’s national staff, providing me with top of the line optics equipment (www.brunton.com). Doinker has set me up with new stabilizers and accessories just in time for the 2005 World Outdoor Trials (www.doinker.com). Easton provided me with 2 sets of X-10 arrows (www.eastonarchery.com). New personal sponsors include Paul Roden from Homestead Ag Products (Bronze), Paul Smith (Silver - who I made a web site for: www.hocawards.com), Joe Courneya (Gold), and my mom (Platinum).

UPCOMING EVENTS:

2005 World Outdoor Trials – May 10th-15th in Orlando, FL. Results should be posted on www.usarchery.org.

The Season Begins

The Short Version:

LATEST RESULTS!!

*2005 World Indoor Team Trials - The World Indoor trials were held in Hillsboro, Texas in mid-January. I had a 5th place finish.

CHANGES FOR 2005!!

*The Big Move - In February, I drove cross-country from Chicago, IL to Tucson, AZ to start training with my new coach, Alexander Kirillov at the awesome PSE training facility.

*My New Coach - I am now working with 2004 USA Archery Coach of the year, Alexander Kirillov. Among his many accomplishments, he helped coach the former Soviet Union team to a gold medal at the 1989 World Championships as well as Jenny Nichols to a 1st place ranking in the US and a spot on the 2004 Olympic team.

*New Bow - I have also made a significant change in my equipment. I am now shooting a PSE X-factor and soon will be shooting with their new limbs.

*New Form - I have modified my form considerably and for that reason, I scratched the remaining 3 indoor tournaments for the 2005 season.

UPCOMING EVENTS!!

*2005 Indoor World Championships - Although I am not going as a member of the team (I'm the second alternate), I will be excited to see how my friends compete. If you would like to follow the results as well, go to this link: www.archeryindoor2005.com

*Texas Shootout - Two weeks from today, I'll be on the line in my first outdoor archery tournament since the change in my form and coaches. Should be interesting!

*Fargo & Winnipeg - Although this is not a tournament, I feel that this might be a highlight of the 2005 season. The 4H club of Fargo, North Dakota has asked me to come out and speak with PE teachers about the importance of archery in schools. I will also be speaking at a water conference in Winnipeg, Manitoba a couple hours north of Fargo.

*Arizona Cup - A week after getting back from Fargo & Winnipeg, I will be heading off to the Arizona Cup after a training camp with the top girls in the country in Tucson.

The Long Version:

LATEST RESULTS!!

WORLD INDOOR TEAM TRIALS:

The World Indoor Championships come around every odd year in the spring. Because I had just started archery in December of 2002, I was not good enough to go to the trials in 2003. The 2005 World Indoor Team Trials were held in Hillsboro, TX in mid-January. I managed to hold steady in 3rd place the entire tournament up until the last few matches where I dropped slightly and didn't have enough time to recover. My goal was to get through the entire tournament without focusing on score or my opponents in match play. For the most part, I was able to do that and I only had one bad match out of 15. I also shot personal best back to back scores of 1121 and 1122 out of 1200. In 2003, you needed an average of 112 out of 120 in order to make the team, this year you needed to shoot slightly higher. I did however, manage a 112 average and was extremely proud of that. It is very hard to shoot the same scores in a tournament that you shoot in practice, but I was able to do it, so that was another accomplishment. I am also very thankful to friends and family (and sponsors) who were able to make it. John and Ruth Hogue (Anne Jones’s mom and dad) made the trip from Dallas to watch the finals as did my best friend from Kanakuk Lauren Asher and her boyfriend. Kelly Day, a former co-worker of mine from Chicago and her boyfriend Jeremy also came to cheer me on. Lauren and Kelly were also nice enough to let me stay with them the night I arrived and the night before I left to go back.

CHANGES FOR 2005!!

MY NEW COACH:

After the World Indoor Trials, I made a decision to try out a new coach. My old coaches, Vic and Terry Wunderle, are two of the best coaches in the United States and I was extremely lucky to have had the opportunity to work with them. I made my decision for a lot of reasons, but one was so that Vic could concentrate more on his personal training. A second reason was because my new coach, Alexander Kirillov had just been named the head women's coach by the National Archery Association (NAA). Alexander coaches both Jenny and Mandy Nichols, the sisters from Wyoming who just placed 1st and 2nd at the World Indoor Trials as well as Kathie McCart, who, in the last few arrows of the world trials surpassed me to make the team. He was also named 2005 NAA Coach of the Year. You can read the article on PSE's website by going to:

www.pse-archery.com/Features/Archives/2005/ak_coach_of_year.htm

THE BIG MOVE:

Last year as you might recall, I drove cross country from Boston to Ft. Lauderdale with Emma, one of the girls on the local archery team I used to coach. This year I drove cross country from Chicago to Tucson with my co-worker Sophia Kokonas. The 2,300 mile trip was quite long, but a lot of fun. We made a stop in Denver to eat lunch with my mom and go out for a drink with one of my good friends, Ben Heavrin (also a sponsor). We also managed to blow out yet another tire (you might remember this happened in West Virginia the last trip) on the border of Colorado and New Mexico. I quickly became a member of Triple A and we were safely towed to the nearest town.

NEW BOW:

For the first two years that I shot, I used a Win & Win Infinite, which I really liked. I had at one point in time switched to a Hoyt Aerotech and immediately my scores dropped dramatically. It took me about 3 months to get back to the level I was when I shot the W&W Infinite. The day I switched back to the W&W, I shot a personal best. Sooo... needless to say, I was very concerned that this would happen again and so my stipulation for testing out the PSE X-factor was that I would only shoot it if my scores stayed the same immediately upon shooting it. I was very lucky in that my scores were actually better... some people call it the "new bow effect" but given the fact that I had experienced something totally different the last time I switched bows, I knew this was the right change to make. With the new bow comes new opportunities as well, PSE has a contingency program for their Pro shooting staff, which means that if I do well in tournaments, I can start making some money. This was not an opportunity I had with W&W and I am very thankful to David Kronengold and Pete Shepley for making this happen!

NEW FORM:

Wow! There is really now way to describe the ups and downs emotionally when you change your form. One day I'm overjoyed because I've figured out how to do something that Alexander wants me to change and the next day I'm in tears because it isn't working the way it was the day before. For those of you who have spoken to me on the phone in the last few weeks, first, I apologize for my down attitude, second, I want to thank you very much for your positive, encouraging support - it has made a world of difference. I have to keep reminding myself to practice what I preach - a good attitude will get you farther in whatever you are doing than a negative one ever will. The bottom line is that everything I do between now and the 2008 Olympic Trials are just stepping stones, a form change in archery can take as little as one week to as much as 5 years. In my case let’s hope it just takes a couple of months. ;)

UPCOMING EVENTS!!

2005 WORLD INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS:

The 2005 World Indoor Championships women's recurve team will be Jenny Nichols, Mandy Nichols, and Kathie McCart. Because I finished 5th in the trials by a mere 8 points out of over 2,300 I will not be attending. However, they may be fun to follow as the US teams might have a chance to medal. In 2003, Jenny Nichols was the World Indoor Silver Medallist. The Men's recurve team will be made up of 2x Olympian Vic Wunderle and 4x Olympian Butch Johnson as well as Vic's old college teammate, Staton Holmes. You can follow the results for the World Championships at: www.archeryindoor2005.com.

TEXAS SHOOTOUT:

This is the first outdoor archery tournament on the national circuit for 2005. I'm very excited to be back in a tournament situation again since I haven't competed since the coaching change. I am also excited to stay with Nancy Leslie and her husband Roger again for the second year in a row. Nancy is a member of the Rotary Club and last year offered to host me (and Emma) at her home, you may recall they were featured on my Texas shootout postcard. Because of the form changes and Texas' propensity for heavy wind, I am looking forward to the challenge and am as curious as you are to see how it will go. The website for the Texas Shootout is:

http://www.geocities.com/utahtxag/shootoutinfomap.html

FARGO & WINNIPEG:

As I mentioned in the short version, although this is not a tournament, I think it will be a highlight of the season. I have been asked by Joe Courneya to come out to Fargo and Winnipeg to talk about why archery should be in schools. This is a fantastic opportunity to help develop the sport and I'm extremely honored to be asked to do this. In addition to speaking with PE teachers and other educators, I will be giving an archery demonstration to a local elementary school as well as doing a couple of appearances and autograph signings in some of the sports stores in the Fargo area that sell archery equipment.

ARIZONA CUP:

Last year this was the first outdoor tournament of the season and it was a rainy one! The great thing about living in Tucson this year is that all I have to do is drive up to Phoenix for the tournament. I am also very luck as my cousins, the Joneses, have invited me to stay with them. I will be going to the AZ Cup after spending a week in a training camp at the PSE training facility with the top shooters in the country. You can access the results and more information at: www.arizonacup.com.

End of 2004 - Face 2 Face

Happy New Year! This is the first E-newsletter of 2005 (or the last of 2004). If you do not want to receive these in the future, please respond to this email with "take me off the newsletter" in the subject line.

2004 YEAR RECAP: Overall, my 2004 season couldn't have been better. Although missing the Olympic team by a mere 40 points, I finished in the top 8 in 7 of the 9 national and international tournaments I attended. To see all the 2004 results click on: http://www.joyfahrenkrog.com/id42.html

NEXT WEEK!! World Indoor Trials, Hillsboro, TX: Next Thursday, I will be leaving for the World Indoor Trials which will be held in Hillsboro, TX. Results will be posted along with a press release on my website on the evening of the 16th. You will also get an email within 24 hours of the tournament stating my result - a feature of the 2005 sponsorship program! Within a week, y! ou will be able to see video of me shooting in the tournament as well as download my scorecard should it be provided - another new feature of the 2005 sponsorship program! The NAA should be updating the results as well... you can check for them on www.usarchery.org.

THREE WEEKS AGO!! Face 2 Face Tournament, Amsterdam: The Face 2 Face tournament finished up December 12th in Amsterdam. I had the third highest score overall on the final day of the tournament but only placed 5th because I didn't not win enough matches to advance to the finals. A full recap of the tournament is below. You can also read the press release at: http://www.joyfahrenkrog.com/id58.html. The pictures of the Americans at the tournament can be found by clicking on: http://www.pixagogo.com/7158835235. My personal photo album from the tournament can be found by clicking on: http://www.pixagogo.com/3152805754. Be sure to enter the password: sponsor.

Face 2 Face Tournament Recap (for the reading hardy):

I arrived in Amsterdam on the 8th after taking an overnight flight from Chicago which connected in Zurich. The airfare for the trip was provided by USA Crossbow president, Bill Pimm. Given that the cost of a week long international tournament without airfare runs around $800, I would not have been able to attend this tournament had it not been for Bill's generosity.

The anticipation of this tournament had been building for some time. Having only shot a couple of local tournaments since the end of the US Nationals in July, I was excited to be in a high profile, high pressure tournament once again. But the real anticipation was its own dichotomy. On the one hand, the anxiety I felt could be contributed to not knowing how I was going to fair in my first international tournament. On the other hand, I could trace the feelings that I was having to knowing that I had been shooting well enough in the weeks prior to fly home with hardware. I've learned that the latter is much more powerful ! of an obstacle to overcome than the former and I know that is one of the reasons why I advanced to the second qualification round was nothing less than a gift.

Don't fool yourselves; Europe in the winter is cold. Having lived in London and France already (each for a year) and having never come home with a tan from either place, you might think that I would have remembered this tiny little detail. While it was 50 degrees in Chicago, I was sitting in a freezer in the Netherlands - but, I used the extra 24 hours I had worked into my trip as to cope with jet lag, one way to keep warm was to do some indoor sight seeing before the main event got underway.

For those of you who've read Anne Frank's Diary, you'll appreciate the fact that I actually stood in the secret annex that she and her family hid in during World War II. Having read the diary, I was surprised that I couldn't recall the writing ambitions that young Anne had, on May 11th, 1944 she wrote "You've known for a long time that my greatest wish is to be a journalist and later on, a famous writer. In any case, after the war I'd like to publish a book called The Secret Annex." Inspiration comes in many ways, but given the course of history that ended Anne's life, the following entry written by Anne when she was but 15 years old moved me in a way that only confirmed all things in life are possible - even when you don't live to! see the outcome. March 25, 1944 "I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people. And therefore I am so grateful to God for giving me this gift of writing, of expressing all that is in me!"

Needless to say, I left the Anne Frank House with a sense of hope and encouragement. Two hours later I was in the practice hall warming up, focused on the next few days and what they might bring. My practice went well, but not great. The fatigue from travel was wearing on me and after only shooting 60 arrows, a fraction of what I shoot at home, I took a small break so that I wouldn't get overly frustrated with myself. One of the main things that I've learned from Archery is that frustration kills the moment, the end, the day, the everything. It is important to stay focused on the big picture and not on the little one, especially the day before a stepping-stone in the plan.

Friday was the first day of the competition, I arrived at the venue an hour early, warmed up and started soaking everything in. The day before, only the competitors from the US and countries further away from Amsterdam had arrived so today there was a montage of national team warm up suits and a buzz in the air of ja's and oui's, hallo's and si's. Having not competed in an international tournament outside the US, I didn't know many of the competitors. Many of them were nice and by the end of the week, I had a couple of new Dutch, Slovenian and British friends.

As I walked from the practice hall to the competition hall, my mind was racing with the overwhelming feeling of wanting to do well having come all this way and not wanting to focus on wanting to do just that. I knew that only 4 or 5 girls were getting cut on the first day and that all I really needed to do was focus on the right things, shoot like I did at home and I'd be competing in the second round... but something didn't feel right and somehow I had a sense that this day was going to be a struggle. Only three of my matches were against opponents, while two of my matches were for score. As I allowed the frustration to settle in, I started trying to hard to aim - and even though I thought I was in control of my out of control feelings - I had lost my focu! s. These feelings manifested themselves particularly well in my last match against Naomi Folkland.

I knew Naomi was coming and of all the girls at the tournament, I knew Naomi was one of the ones to beat. Naomi was a member of the British Olympic Team this past summer as well as a 5 time British National Indoor Champion. The problem with knowing this is that you can dwell on it and by the time you stand next to her on the line, you'd rather have her autograph than shoot against her. At the end of the first three arrows, and having not won any of my matches to this point, I was two points up on her. You might recall the match this past summer when I beat the Canadian Olympian Marie Pierre Beuadet - it wasn't entirely as if I hadn't been in this type pr! essure situation before. Despite thinking I was ready for it, the expectation and the anticipation that mounted forced me to drop 4 points on next end, tying up the match. During the third end, I dropped a 6 and during the fourth end, I missed - my once 2 point lead was now a devastating 12 point deficit. A sudden wave of panic hit me. I did not come all this way to miss the first cut, I did not enlist a sponsor for the airfare of a trip that I was only going to be competing in for one hour. But at this point there was nothing I could do, my fate at the tournament was to be determined by whether or not I could qualify by score.

The next 5-10 minutes felt like an hour. I found myself all of the sudden having to figure out what I would do if I didn't make it. Then suddenly I saw it - the screen flashed the names of the top four non-automatic scorers who would advance to the second round. I had grabbed the last spot by just 4 points. It is amazing how when it is all said and done, you have no idea how important those precious points are until they save you. Relieved as I was, I had to wait there until I saw my name pop again. I knew that anything was possible and they could come back and say they miscalculated a score and I'd be out. After it came up a second time, I packed up my stuff and headed to the practice range to brush up on my shooting issues.

That night I got on the phone with my tournament coach and we laid down the rules for the second day. I spent another 15 minutes that evening outlining what I wanted to keep focused on during the second round. Amazingly, that night I had an excellent night's sleep and woke up refreshed with a few butterflies. I don't think it is good to be so nervous you can't focus, but I tend to find that when there is some edginess I can concentrate just that much more.

I took the next morning easy but was constantly aware that I had a job to do later that day. To get my mind off of the impending tournament, I decided that laughing would be the cure. So, to accomplish this goal, I decided to watch a lighthearted movie. Looking through my DVD stack, my chick flick choices ranged from Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in You've Got Mail and Renee Zellwinger's Brigit Jones Diary to college cult favorites Happy Gilmore and The Wedding Singer starring Adam Sandler. I avoided at all costs the temptation to pick a movie from my inspirational stack The Cutting Edge, Rudy, and Miracle. I've found that although they may motivate one to perform well, the basis for each movie's plot is that people come from behind and win. Not that winning is a bad thing - it is thinking about it that can get in the way of doing it in a sport like archery.

In the end, I settled for golf and Happy Gillmore's happy place. Yes, yes, you could argue that the plot of the movie is similar to what I was trying to avoid, yet there is something about hand eating alligators and beer drinking fans that distract one from such plot.

As the movie came to an end, I stood up stretched and as if in slow motion, calmly got up, very aware of my breathing, and started to get ready to leave. 20 minutes and a cup of sugar-free decaffeinated coffee later (trust me it is not as bad as it sounds) I was loading my stuff into the van and on my way to the sport hall.

As I set my stuff up, I made eye contact with various other archers nodding my head and smiling as if to say, "best of luck to you." Today, I would shoot just enough to get sited in and muscles warm. I had no desire to wear my arms out early as I had done the day before. After shooting a little, I went out to watch the men's compound as they wrapped up. I had two friends shooting in it who were capable of winning and I wanted to be there to support them. With 30 minutes left before we started shooting, I shot another two ends on the practice range and then headed out to the competition range.

The hall had emptied out during the short break between the divisions and I was alone on the competition floor. I set my USA jacket up to face the crowd, placed my bow strategically next to my chair and sat down, plugging my head phones in to keep me calm. As I looked around, I soaked it all in. I love competing, in fact that is the biggest difference from when I used to row. As a rower, I would walk into a race wishing it was already over. The pain associated with winning was not nearly as enjoyable to me as a 90 minute steady state row on the Charles.! In archery it is not so much painful as it is mentally straining. Most tournaments take about 2-4 hours and in some cases all day, the mental preparation for an 8 minute race versus a 4 hour shoot is hardly similar. Given the choice, I'd rather 4 hours of mental strain to 8 minutes of sheer pain.

Suddenly the room went dark, the lights started flashing and techno music began playing. Clearly, I had missed the memo on something. Turning around, I saw the parade of athletes as they entered the room. Realizing I missed the grand entry, I turned back around, upped the volume on my diskman and continued to focus on my breathing. I knew I felt different from the day before, I knew I had one thing to do and that was focus on form and I would be fine.

I hadn't checked my grouping until we started and it was then that I noticed that I had the tougher group. Both the top girls who had been in my group yesterday were again in my group today. My first match would be against the top Dutch shooter, Femke Bonnen. Although I didn't mind shooting against her, it wasn't exactly the easiest first match. Her near perfect score of 119 out of 120 earned her a win to my 114 - a personal best 12 arrow match. My second match was against Naomi. Having crumbled against her the day prior,! I kept my focus on my form and off her or the score. Although we were tied for most of the match, a one-point slip somewhere along the line lost me the match (114 to 113) yet again. With the two toughest girls out of the way, the pressure was on to win the next three matches... of course if you haven't picked up on it by now, in archery focusing on the outcome can be disastrous.

I don't remember the names of the next three matches, although I believe two of the girls were on the Ukrainian team and one on the Dutch team. The dynamic of these 12 arrow matches is that typically, if you can get a couple of points on someone in the first two ends, there is little room for the opponent to come back barring any major mistakes on the leader's side. During my third match, I was at least 4 points up after my second end and I remember a sort of weight lifting off my shoulders. It wasn't as though I could give up, rather if I put my energy into the right thoughts, I would be ok. The end result was a 117 on my part, enough to win easily and set a new personal tournament best.

The trouble with shooting to your max is that sometimes your brain and body get excited and it is hard to stay intent on the thing that are important... then when try to level yourself, you end up trying too hard. Such was my problem, something that only experience can tame. My next match, I got caught up on score and the fact that I was tied most of the match. On one end, I dropped enough points that in any other match I would have lost. Fortunately, my opponent was having a similar issue and the end result was a tie. I suppose a tie is better than losing, but the experience was invaluable. My last match was similar to the ! fourth, not having the experience to bounce back from the mental pressure of the day, I again lost by just one point (112 to 111) and finished the day with only 3 match points to my name.

Deflated, I waited to see the scores. I knew that I wasn't in the finals, but that my score couldn't have been too bad, maybe good enough for a top 5 finish. It was the first time all day that I had looked up at the scoreboard, something I had failed to do during the Olympic Trials this past summer. As the scores popped up it became clear to me that although I had secured a 5th place (the highest losing scorer), I had shot the third highest score overall - higher than every single girl in the other qualifying group. Happy with my placement, happy with my score, my heart broke to know that I was good enough to be in the finals, but would be watching from the sidelines instead. I pushed my stabilizer into the ground a few times, took a moment to pack up and slowly walked out of the competition range, the crowd a blur as the images in front of me seemed to merge together.

By the time I reached the practice range, my emotions were gone and my attitude positive. I smiled to passers by and to the question "Are you through?" I at first said yes, then realizing they meant though to the finals, I quickly said "No, but it was a great experience." And that is what it was at the very least. It was the first time I had traveled abroad to compete, it was the first time I had shot against archers from Europe, many of whom will be attending the World Indoor Championships in March... to not be ecstatic about the experience would be a big mistake.

Out of respect for the archers who did make the finals, I did go and watch the following day. I also got to shoot (and win) a mini tournament that was held by Beiter (a major equipment manufacturer from Germany). The target is black foam with 6 plastic yellow circles. Each archer, there are six in a game, shoots one arrow at a time, the person who hits the most out of six wins. My score of 5 out of 6 was enough to win me 1st and 30 euro to cover dinner that night.

2004 Olympics and US Nationals

FINANCIAL UPDATE:

As the trials came to an end, so to did the sponsorship money. However, I was able to bring in another $100 from Pam Fales, an agent at Fuller Towne and Country. Thank you all for your support for the 2004 season. I am trying to gather information about whether or not to continue my sponsorship program for next season, please take a few seconds to fill out the survey that is attached to your email.

JUNE/JULY RECAP:

After the trials finished up, I spent my last few weeks of the 2004 season preparing for the US Nationals. A 7th place finish along with a successful last minute attempt to shoot a qualifying score was enough to secure my spot on the 2005 US Archery Team. Read the article in my Latest Articles section or click on: http://www.aim4athens.com/id36.html (you can also find a copy of the article on the usarchery.org site). See below for the full detail on how the tournament progressed.

FINAL RANKING:

I finished up the year ranked 6th for the National Team and 6th for the Rolling Rank. You can see how I measure up to the rest of the US Women by clicking on: http://www.thearcher.com/usarchery/rollingranking/.

2004 OLYMPICS:

Despite not making the team, my mom thought it would be a good idea if I was able to experience the Olympics first hand and she generously offered to fly me out to Athens for two and a half weeks. No doubt that I learned a lot for next time. Thanks Mom! The trip started with the Opening Ceremonies and while I was there I saw every archery match I could possibly see including Vic’s excellent top 8 finish individually and his 4th place finish in the team round. I was also able to see the US women win the gymnastics team silver, the hammer throw and the decathlon, Michael Phelps win his first gold in swimming, and a gold medal men’s 8 performance in rowing. Click here to see my photo album: www.pixagogo.com/6158585171. Special thanks also go to Scripture Union and Athletes in Action for finding me housing for the second week and to John Hodges for his company and fluent Greek which kept me entertained!

WHAT IS NEXT:

I’m looking for ways to broaden my sponsorship and yes… I’m looking for a job. If you know of any Companies interested in sponsoring athletes I would love to talk to them about how they might want to sponsor me. My phone number is 309-303-5650 and you can direct them to my website.

US NATIONALS REACAP:

Reading, PA – After the trials I took a four day break to regroup, reflect and most importantly look at what my options were. My 6th place finish had put me in a great position to make a run at the US National team, so I decided to push the job hunt off until after the Nationals. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the US Outdoor Nationals, it is a four distance tournament (called a FITA) as opposed to the single 70 meter distance I’ve been shooting all year long. We still shoot 70 meters, but it is only ¼ of our final score. Basically, each archer shoots a total of 144 arrows, 36 arrows at each distance. The women shoot 70, 60, 50, and 30 meters, while the men shoot 90, 70, 50, and 30 meters. The total amount of points in a FITA are 1440.

Last year, I shot 4 FITAs and had improved scorewise from 981 to 1150 by the end of the season. For these Nationals, I had two goals in mind. First, I wanted to improve aspects of my game that I felt I had struggled with at the trials, and second, I wanted to shoot well enough to grab a spot on the 8 member 2005 US Women’s Archery Team.

The first day of the Nationals went pretty well despite struggling to come out of the gates strong. It would be day two that would prove to be the most challenging of the whole tournament. That morning we woke up to threats of a thunderstorm which quickly became a reality as soon as the whistle blew to commence shooting. Shooting in the rain for archery is similar to running a race with a ten pound weight on your back. The good news is that it handicaps everyone, the bad news is that if you don’t have a lot of experience shooting in it, you may end up with problems. Again, I struggled in the beginning, but as I got used to the rain and started feeling less timid, I made some progress and finished my fifth ever FITA with a personal best of 1220/1440.

Day three was similar to the first day, for some reason throughout the tournament I continued to struggle on the first half, but would get my act together for the second half. I felt as though I was lacking the confidence I needed. But there was another reason why I was struggling with my shooting. This one I could explain. The NAA has a set of standards you need to meet in order to qualify for the US Archery Team. I needed a top 8 finish in overall standing (which is composed of your US Nationals finish and the next two highest finishes) as well as a series of qualifying scores.

The qualifying scores they require to make the team had been recently raised and I needed to have shot a 158+ and a 106+ in the elimination rounds at some point during the year. Fortunately I had done both, I shot a 161 in Arizona and a 110 in Ohio at the trials. The third qualifying score I needed was either a 1260 on a FITA or a 630 on a double 70. At the Olympic trials I had come within 9 points of the 630, but it wasn’t good enough. My first FITA at the nationals was well below where I needed to be and so I risked making the US team but not qualifying for it.

I was faced with a decision, do I try to shoot my 1260 despite the chance of bad weather or do I shoot a third FITA after the morning 70 and 60 meters are done? Needless to say, once I start focusing on score, I struggle to shoot my best. I decided to wait until the third day was over, and then see if I thought I could shoot the 1260 I needed. If I felt that I couldn’t, I would go ahead and shoot the third FITA I had pre-registered just in case.

At the end of the first 72 arrows, I had a score of 611, meaning I would need a 649 the following day. It was a close call, and I had struggled with the pressure all day. It was more important to me that I didn’t risk it, so I went a head with the third FITA. After asking my training partner Ashley Kamuf and Emma Gillespie, one of my team mates from Boston to help me score, I headed over to the practice field to get the ball rolling. Three hours later, and 10 hours after I had started shooting that day, I qualified with only 2 points to spare. With the pressure off, I was able to finish up the last day on a high note, placing 7th overall. Not only had I made the National team, but I had qualified as well despite having to score an additional 144 arrows.

US OPEN RECAP:

By the time the US Open rolled around, I was relieved that I had made USAT and was looking forward to shooting elimination matches again. I really enjoy the thrill of individual matches. At the same time, I was ready to go home, exhausted from the pressure I had put on myself. Despite the mixed emotions, my first match couldn’t have been better. My head was in the right place, it was the first time the whole tournament where I came out confident and strong. I won my first match easily, and moved into the top 32.

My next match would be my last. I started out on pace, but then struggled through the second end. I lost my focus and shot a 9 on the wrong target. In archery when you shoot the wrong target you have to forfeit the points that you would have received. Going into the last end I was down about 15 points. A deficit that is usually unrecoverable. Despite this the person I was shooting against got shaky and had a really bad end. I had an excellent last end shooting a 57 out of a possible 60. I recovered 10 points but it wasn’t enough to win, I placed 22nd over all.

Although I learned a tough lesson, it was a really valuable one. Sometimes you learn more when you have to struggle than when you have an easy ride!

Olympic Trials Special

RECAP:

The trials finally came and went. I have to admit this is one of the hardest E-newsletters for me to write. I have selfishly spent over a week trying to find the right words. I apologize for taking so long. My hope for you is that you might have gained something from this experience – that you might have learned, along with me, what an amazing difference you can make in someone’s life simply by believing in him or her. Had it not been for you, I know that I could not have placed 6th in the Finals of the Olympic Trials only 18 months after putting a bow in my hands.

A Special Thank You: In addition to my sponsors, I’d like to take a moment to recognize those who worked with me on a personal basis the last 6-18 months.

2004 US Olympic Trials Results: Although I didn’t make the US Olympic Team, I had a good run and finished 6th in the country, technically putting me on the alternate team. See below for the day-to-day results. Next stop: US Nationals in Reading, PA.

Financial Report: Another good month for fundraising, I was able to bring in $800!

May/June Recap: Leading up to the Olympic Trials, I had some amazing practices and continued to make progress with my arrow volume.

A SPECIAL THANK YOU

One thing this journey has taught me is that you cannot do things on your own; you need other talented, positive people to help you accomplish your goals in life. In addition to the 100+ individuals and families who have emailed, called and written with support and donated hard earned money, a few exceptional people who have worked with me personally over the last 6 to 18 months need to be recognized. My sports psychologist Alan Goldberg of Competitive Advantage (www.competitiveadvantage.com), has done tremendous mental work with me the past 6 months on a weekly basis and every day during the trials. Terry Wunderle a.k.a. The Shot Doctor for giving me enormous help during the trials, watching every shot and keeping me cool. Special thanks to my mom and sister for flying out to Ohio to watch me in the finals and give me family support (my mom also flew to Arizona). Jeanne Wunderle for listening to me when I needed an ear and giving me a room in their home the last 2 months. Doc Brandfass for housing Vic and I four months free of charge while we were in Florida. Anthony Bellettini for not laughing 18 months ago when I said I wanted to start Archery to go to the Olympics. Finally, Vic Wunderle, for introducing himself and asking me out to dinner a year ago – my life and my archery will never be the same.

2004 US OLYMPIC TRIALS 6/12/04-6/19/04:

Below is an excerpt from a follow-up interview I did with Mike Oakley from the Castle Rock Daily Star; I think it gives you the best recap of the week.

Can you describe the experience of the trials and the emotions you felt?

There was a mix of emotions, to say the least. On the first day, I spent most of the morning in 2nd place having worked my way up from 9th, but finished in 7th only 8 points out of 2nd. On the second day, the wind kicked up and my inexperience definitely showed. The day started out well, I was able to move up to 4th place right away, but then as the day wore on, I slowly moved back down and finished in 8th. I made a huge charge on the third day, winning 6 straight matches (only losing the first one) and worked my way back up to the 5th place spot hardly out of fourth and still close to 3rd. The fourth day was again another lack-luster day and pushed me back to 7th place. This particular day frustrated me because I knew I could shoot hand over fist better than I did and I felt as though every time I had a legitimate shot at making the team, my body and my mind refused to accept it. The last day I remember waking up knowing that there was an outside chance I could still make the alternate spot, as I was only 30 points or so out of 4th place. The day before had been bad but not too damaging. I basically figured I had nothing to loose and went out with a great attitude, winning 4 of my 7 matches and moving up one spot to finish in 6th place. My last match was exceptionally exciting, if I won it Kendra Harvey, the 16 year old would be get the Alternate spot and if I lost it, Jessica Carleton, who had been the alternate for the past 2 Olympics would have made it 3. Needless to say, for my own pride, I wasn’t about to lose the last match of the Trials and I won by 1 point!

You had to face several cuts - the first one to 16 and then the next one to eight. When you made the cut to eight, was it tough to sleep at night?

The cuts were definitely interesting. Until this point, I had not had a successful start in any of my tournaments. My qualification rounds usually put me in 14th to 18th place and then I would work my way up during the elimination matches the next day usually to 4th or 5th place. I knew going into this tournament that placing that low in the qualification round would put me in a tough spot for having any hope at all of making the team. I had expressed these concerns to my sports psychologist, Alan Goldberg with Competitive Advantage and he had helped me shift my focus from making the qualification round one of the most important days to "just another day." I think you saw a lot of the women put too much emphasis on the first day, for example, number 4 ranked Stephanie Miller didn't even make the first cut, neither did number 2 ranked and 2000 Olympian Karen Scavatto. Once I was able to get through the first cut, I was pretty happy with myself, for starters because the tournament had started out so well, and also there is some weight lifted off your shoulders knowing that you aren't going home.

My biggest concern about making the top 8 was that my mom and sister wouldn't get to see me compete. I had told my mom not to come until the last two days because I thought that would be when I needed them most. Of course at the end of the second day, all sorts of thoughts were running through my head. First, I didn't know it, but the computer system had a glitch and had me in 10th place instead of 8th, so I went home thinking that there was a real chance I wasn't going to make the cut if I didn't have a better third day. Fortunately for me, I was a little more occupied with my shooting than with the computer error. It wasn’t until the day was over that I realized, even with the scores fixed, I had only been "in the cut" by 2 points. Not knowing how close I was to the edge, I blindly went in the next day telling myself I was going to do the best form I could and hope it was enough. It was and I can promise you I slept well that night! I had made the finals of the Olympic Archery Trials.

What were your expectations heading into the trials? Obviously, you feel some disappointment at not making the final three, but isn't there a lot of pride in finishing sixth overall?

As far as expectations leading into the trials, I was trying to focus on not having any. I know it sounds like a hard concept to grasp, but I've found through working with Alan Goldberg and attending different tournaments, when you expect things, they usually don't happen. Needless to say, although I was working on not having expectations, it is hard to deny that deep down I wanted a spot on that Olympic team; maybe in the end that was my downfall.

Having said that, there is an enormous amount of respect reserved for those who make the final 8 in the archery world. Technically, spots 4, 5, and 6 make up the alternate team even though only the 4th spot is announced and awarded. So I do feel very honored and privileged to have made it that far.

What does the future hold? You are still really young. Will you continue to compete?

First stop, the 2004 US National Outdoor Championships in Reading, Pennsylvania. Shooting good form there could put me on the 2005 US Archery Team and put me in a position to be selected for next year’s European Grand Prix Team. Next stop, Athens, Greece. I will be going to cheer Vic on. He placed 1st in the Olympic Trials and will hopefully lead the US Men’s Team to a third consecutive Olympic Medal. I am very thankful that my mom has stepped in and offered to cover the cost of my trip. She wants me to experience it now so that I have something to look forward to the next four years.

After Greece, I plan to take some time off to get refreshed for the next season, which kicks off with an invitational match play tournament in Amsterdam the second week in December.

THE FINANCIAL REPORT:

Thank you all for keeping the sponsorship money coming! I had three new sponsors sign up during the Olympic Trials for a total of $800. Jack and Pat Durliat, neighbors of mine when I was growing up signed up as Silver Medal Sponsors. The Madigans, old time friends of my parents signed up as Gold Medal Sponsors. Finally Mike Reddin, the man who admitted me to the London School of Economics in 2000 sent me a nicely decorated $50 bill to help pay for food while I was at the trials.

MAY/JUNE RECAP:

May shooting leveled off a bit as I was approaching the Olympic trials, I increased my shooting by 2%. The last month before trials, I continued to focus on my shooting, getting 65 practices in which accounted for 83% of my time. 11% was spent off and 5% was dedicated to weights and cardio.

June is winding down and so has the shooting, after the Trials were over I took 4 days off to figure out the next step. I’m back in training now and setting my sights on the US Nationals next month in Reading, PA.

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.