I've been practicing Olympic style recurve archery in the SF Bay Area since late 2016.

I am guided by the words of wisdom and stern talking-to's from award-winning archer, coach and spirit guide Nico Gallegos, the founder of fantastic Ohlone Archery. More than just a range, Nico has created a close, supportive community of local archers in an environment where you get better proportionately to the ends you're willing to lob at targets for hours at a time.

As a competitive archer, my aspiration is to become what poet Stephanie Burt calls the sport’s “…elevated counselors / of the air, which will not take / anything but our most forceful advice.”

Archery has been the ultimate practice of mindfulness and I have the aching arms and shoulders to show for it.

...and let the glove move where we draw the wire,

scared that the machinery

will misinterpret us,

that we may not stop trembling, that we may lose

our belief in ourselves

before anything is released, or shared, or sent...

-Stephanie Burt, “Archery”

// Orlando Archery Academy

Super fortunate to get some 1:1 instruction with Coach Randy Sims, an NTS Level 4 Olympic recurve coach. Spent most of the time breaking apart old habits and building in some new ones.

By biggest takeaway from Coach Sims was this frank, but polite understatement, “Your shot sequence needs a lot of work.”

Yes it does, and where do I sign.

// ChatGPT AI Gives Us Pointers on Becoming a Better Archer

Full response here (via ChatGPT web app):

Becoming a better archer takes dedication, practice, and a good understanding of the proper technique. Here are a few steps you can take to improve your archery skills:

1. Start by practicing proper form. This includes a relaxed stance, with your feet shoulder-width apart and your body facing the target. Hold the bow correctly, with your non-dominant hand gripping the bow and your dominant hand pulling back the string.

2. Work on developing a consistent, smooth draw. This means pulling the string back to the same spot on your face every time, and using the same amount of force.

3. Practice aiming. Take your time to line up your shot, and focus on the center of the target.

4. Try to shoot from different distances and angles to improve your versatility.

5. Consider joining a local archery club or taking lessons from a certified instructor to get personalized feedback and guidance.

6. Most importantly, be patient and keep practicing. Archery is a skill that takes time to develop, so don't get discouraged if you don't see improvement right away.

// Geena Davis and Archery

// Advice from Paulo Coehlo

“You have skill, dignity, and posture,” said Tetsuya. “You have a good grasp of technique and you have mastered the bow, but you have not mastered your mind. You know how to shoot when all the circumstances are favorable, but if you are on dangerous ground, you cannot hit the target. The archer cannot always choose the battlefield, so start your training again and be prepared for unfavorable conditions.”

-Paulo Coehlo, The Archer

// Strength Training in Archery

In November 2020 I made the decision to start working with a strength coach specific to archery and it has made all the world of difference in my endurance and performance. A couple months in I can already feel the difference that some targeted training has had on my form and archery stamina. Not to mention this cross-trains extremely well with my arm, shoulder and core strength needs in competitive climbing and fencing.

// THE ROAD TO SEVENTY-SEVEN

Through a little more practice, watching videos of my form and shot sequence, and tuning my setup, I finally broke through the 70 yard and 77 yard (70 meter) mental wall and have started shooting comfortably at this competition distance. It’s an exciting milestone for me as an athlete but just entry-level table stakes for the competitive archery world.

// THE GOLDEN ARCHER

Unlike the Golden Archer, I wouldn’t need to write a new quatrain each time I loosed an arrow. I would just re-use this one:

Austin’s Quatrain from 70 Meters (#1)

I try hard to improve

and yet from this distance

I just can’t deny

my poor form’s resistance.

// THE 40 YARD LINE

Getting more consistent (and overcoming stage fright) at longer distances now. Shooting forty yards for the first time, I started with two primary goals (a) don’t lose any arrows and (b) hit the target butt. Anywhere at all on the target butt.

With some slow and steady practice this day, I ended up with solid three-arrow ends consistently hitting paper, including a luck-induced X-bullseye.

// HAVE BOW, WILL TRAVEL

While traveling through Raleigh-Durham I was given the opportunity to take a lesson from NTS Certified coach John Kristoff at his range, Lifetime Archery.

While I had been training on form for over a year, working with Coach John was my first lesson formally under the NTS methodology. After a morning of private instruction, I left with a notebook scrawled with new ideas and practice points. My fingers were raw, my spirit was lifted. Bonus that this all happened against a 1990s music playlist featuring The Crash Test Dummies.

// TBT: EARLY DAYS AT OHLONE

// EPHEMERARCHERY

// BO KNOWS…ARCHERY

Just watched an incredible documentary on the late 1980s powerhouse that was Bo Jackson in the fantastic ESPN series 30 for 30. 

This Heisman Trophy winner at Auburn University would become the only pro athlete to become an All Star in two sports: football with the LA Raiders and baseball with the Kansas City Royals (and later Chicago White Sox). He was a superhuman in both, for his strength (breaking baseball bats over his leg), speed (tearing through walls of linebackers in real live, being Super Mario star level invincible in Tecmo Bowl on the Nintendo NES), and agility (running up an outfield wall to catch a baseball). In the 1980s, you could't get more viral a video than being featured in your own Nike commercial.

Jackson also worked out his compound bow skills throughout his pro career and his personal retreat is into his man cave, where he builds arrows under the gaze of all of his game hunting trophies.

Just so inspired by a person who pushed himself to dominate two tough sports so handedly, using his grit and determination to sharpen his preternatural athletic gifts. And then finding peace with a bow and arrow.

// EPHEMERARCHERY

// "NIL DESPERANDUM..."

"Despair in no way," says Teucer (via Horace), to inspire continued journeys and self-discovery.  I take this to mean, "Don't worry, you'll finally master your shot sequence and raise your average six arrow end score into the low fifties."

// EPHEMERARCHERY

// NIGHTS WITH YONDO

// EPHEMERARCHERY

In the professional quality assurance world we already known that being consistent is not great if you are only ever consistently bad.  Don't despair. Practice.

// WELCOME TO THE TEAGARDEN

I transitioned from archery enthusiast to competitive archer in training thanks to this quiet corner of an industrial park in San Leandro, twenty miles outside of San Francisco.

Being a factory rat in my professional life and spending a vast part of my day job in factories, the manufacturing and workshop environments that lined Teagarden Street felt familiar and like home. When I saw the industrial garage that had been converted into a twenty yard indoor archery range, I knew I was in the right place.

My first day, I met the owner Nico Gallegos and walked through the introductory protocol. My morning was spent in the formal beginners class, learning the basic mechanics of shooting a recurve bow. After a lunch break at a small sushi spot across the street called Sushi Avenue, I came back for another hour of shooting to practice what I had learned that morning.

It was a day of new roads and new destinations. My newbie aching shoulders and I drove home towards the Oakland weekend traffic, feeling like I was exactly where I needed to be.

// TBT: BEFORE I KNEW WHAT “SHOOTING SPLIT FINGER” MEANT