Why did I post that picture? It's because expectations always arise from success of some sort or another. Some people have realistic expectations, and others have expectations that even the best of the best couldn't fulfill. I can tell you firsthand that the best shooters don't have any expectations at all. They can avoid the pitfall that comes along with being successful on the biggest stage. Those guys just go shoot their bows. While they might get ticked off about their scores from time to time, they don't let it bother them to the point that it creates tension.
When I won the award above, I was on a roll. Although it's a team award, everyone knows you have to pull your own weight on a team. Fortunately, IBO teams are made up of four shooters and the lowest score of the four shooters gets dropped. Well, the year I signed the team up for this event, I figured we had a really good team. After finishing the tournament, I found out that we only had three guys: Wade Chandler, Mike Parker and myself. When the scores were tallied, we didn't have an extra person to drop a score. Instead, we had to keep all three of our scores. Amazingly, all three of us finished in the top 15, with two of us in the top 10, and that year there were approximately 800 shooters in the class.
Looking back at it, I had no expectations, even though I had just come off a year with two top 10s in two legs and a top 10 in the triple crown. I think that's probably why it was so easy for me to go and continue my run.........I just went and shot my bow.
The stuff I just wrote about is the reason why you see so many people get to the top, then disappear from the leaderboard. You might see them here and there along the way, but you never see that steady appearance like the one year they couldn't seem to have a bad tournament. I've been on both sides of the fence, and I'll tell you that it's a hell of a lot easier to get to the top than it is to stay there. With success comes expectations, and with expectations comes a whole lot of self-induced pressure.
I shot with three of my friends today, all of whom I respect a great deal. I respect them as people and as archers. Any of them would do anything to help me, and I appreciate their honesty and encouragement. Although none of them saw me at my best, they have all seen me perform at a fairly high level over the last few years. I consider these people to be a lot like me, and knowing myself, I'm sure they probably see my aggravation, frustration and disappointment building from week to week. I've watched people in similar predicaments over the years, and it's never fun to watch if the person is one of your friends. So with those thoughts in mind, I apologize to any of the people I've shot with over the last month or so if I'm bringing you down. Trust me when I tell you I'm trying, and I'll continue trying until I'm blue in the face. I have considered taking some time off from 3D shooting, but every week, I can't seem to make myself do it. I always think that this week is the week, the week I will break out of it and old Todd will enter from stage right and stand in the center of the stage while the audience stares in disbelief.
Well, that week most definitely was not this week. I basically stunk the joint up this week. My one bad course did me in, and that's the story of my year. For some unknown reason I can't avoid the one horrendous course. When you shoot two fives and two eights on your first four targets, it makes it hard to feel good about the start of your day. I always try to stay positive, but sometimes that's hard to do, especially when it feels like the archery world I have always known is caving in around me. Today, when I shot the New Hampshire IBO State Championship, the first loop of 10 targets made me feel like I didn't know how to shoot a bow properly. My incredible week of practice flew right out of the chicken coop with the bats and rats. The nasty little critters ran wild once they got out from behind the chicken wire, and that's exactly how I felt my arrows appeared on the target. They hit everywhere except where they were supposed to be hitting. Unlike most days recently, these arrows deserved to be where they hit. After getting that out of my system, I seemed to do okay. I definitely didn't shoot well, but I did okay considering many of the "obstacles" encountered on the course, which is a topic that needs to be discussed............at least with a few words so people get a general idea about what I'm talking about.
I've been shooting in state, regional, national and world events since 1989, so I believe I have the foundation to voice some concerns. I've seen archery increase and decrease in participation and have realized that it's a cyclical sport. All of the different types of archery have peaks and valleys, and most of them have survived, although a few of them are treading water.
For many years in the '90s, I never missed a national or world IBO event. In that time, I can count on one hand the number of targets that I shot which were purposely set up to have any type of angle on them. While I did see a few here and there that were mistakenly set up so there might have been a slightly quartering angle, very rarely -- if ever -- did I come across a target that wasn't broadside. People travel many miles to attend these events, and they spend a lot of money to shoot. The vast majority of these people will NEVER win an event, or for that matter, even come close to the top of the pack. Those are the people that we need to cater to. We need to give them a reason to keep coming back, whether it is helping them to get better or keeping our heads on our shoulders while setting courses. In all of those years of shooting, I can also remember some of the shots I had where the footing was not good, and most of those shots were either in Nelsonville, Ohio, at the third leg or they were at one of the mountain resorts (Peak n' Peak, Snowshoe, Holiday Valley, Seven Springs), and the reason the footing wasn't good was because there was no place else to pound the stake. The people setting the courses DO NOT go out of their way to purposely set stakes up so it's virtually impossible to stand and make a "safe" shot. Stakes do not need to be put where the footing is horrible to get people ready for national events, simply because you're just not going to see that type of stuff on any regular basis. When I beat someone, I want to beat him because I had a better number. I don't want to beat him because I got lucky and didn't lose footing, and he slipped loss back tension and hit a target in the back (like I did today). There's absolutely no reason for that. The courses are hard enough without having to feel the need to go out of your way to make the footing that ridiculous. That's just my opinion on the topic, and I'm sure many will agree -- and disagree. I'm just basing my opinion on all of my years of shooting national level shoots in three different organizations and what I've seen at them. Many people don't realize that angling a javelina, coyote or badger when it is more than 35 yards when they're on hills basically cuts the kill in half or even more. Good shooters will probably still get the 10 and average shooters might miss or spray arrows all over. People like shooting good scores, and last week's comments from many people tell me that. Some people can't decipher the difficulty level of courses from week to week and many can. I do know that high scores usually make a whole lot of people happy. I think we should all work together to sort out a few issues that we've encountered and listen to the people who have traveled all over the country to shoot.
Okay, enough of that. I felt bad for my dad today because he was telling me he couldn't wait to shoot in the Massachusetts Senior Games next weekend. Barry Gates had already told me that the Mass. games were being held today. Dad has been shooting scores in the 880 range on the 900 round, and he almost always shoots the same scores in practice as he does in the tournaments. He was a little disappointed that he had written down the wrong dates.
The target shooting thing brings me to a concern I've encountered recently. Am I putting too much pressure on myself to perform at these weekly state and regional shoots? Honestly, I don't feel like I am doing that, but many people seem to think that I am. Although I'm disappointed, I don't feel like I'm trying too hard. If anything, I might not be concentrating hard enough. I've been a superhero in my backyard shooting at dots, but the success hasn't followed me anyplace I've been. That's getting really discouraging. Last year, I think I shot even or up at three of the shoots in New England and two of them in New York. I really don't think the courses have gotten any harder, which makes me realize that I'm a million miles away from where I was just a year ago. Those miles in front of me right now feel like I'm heading into them with no soles on my boots and blisters all over the bottom of my feet.
I guess Sean might have put it in perspective today when he asked me what Mike Price said to me when I was out there in the winter when I made the form changes. He told me it would take a while, maybe months to get back to where I was in the past. Then, when talking with the guys on the way home, they said something to me that I thought might have some truth behind it, too. They said, "You watch, one of these days it will just come back like it was never gone."
I think I'm going to approach it that way and see what happens. I do know that I'm thinking too much about how to shoot a bow right now. My conscious mind has been overly involved, and I believe that might be getting in the way a little bit. It doesn't seem to do that in the yard. There's no fear of missing in the yard, so I just wing arrows until I'm tired. If I miss, it's no big deal. I'll just shoot another arrow.
The lesson of the week is to leave your expectations in the truck. Actually, you can leave them in a far-off land. After you win, the win is done and over. You aren't going to win that tournament again, and you are never going to shoot in that one again. Leave that one behind and go after the next one. People have already forgotten who won last week. Although you remember, nobody else does. The same holds true if you lay an egg. People don't remember. They might gossip a little bit, but it will never affect you. Lets all try to move forward with no expectations, and let's all try to make our courses better to achiever more positive feedback. Once we receive the feedback, we should listen and make the adjustments. It makes it more enjoyable for everyone involved.
Although I usually post a picture of my score card, it's not possible today because I didn't take a picture. I was preoccupied when I finished and totally forgot about it. To sum it up, on the three courses I shot 83,93,94. While it's not stellar, I guess if I could just get rid of a few blunders along the way, I might gain some ground.
Shooter Profile of the Week: George Connors
Most of you in New England know George. How can you not know him? He's the guy who drives the short bus that sometimes gets taken home on a flatbed. I think the coolest sight I've seen is when he and his Vermont pals showed up at the Rhode Island state shoot in a Ford Focus they had to rent after the big daddy Ford broke down on the highway. Four Vermonters packed into that Ford Focus was a pretty sight. Poor guy, if he had driven a Chevy, he probably would have just suffered from "Chevy Knee," as he calls it.
Well, anyhow, the year after my shoulder surgery, I spent some time at my local club. I hadn't shot much and I was on the mend. I couldn't shoot many arrows, but I spent a lot of time there with my dad. That's when I met George and Chuck, two hillbillies from Vermont. They figured they would come to the indoor winter league and shoot 20-yard bullseyes and never miss. Well, they were right.............they very rarely missed the 15x15 sheet of paper that all of the bullseyes were on. I didn't say much to either one of them, but like I always do, I watched from afar. I never offer an opinion unless asked. I did hear both of them say they were going to the Lancaster Classic. I laughed to myself and told my dad that they were going to have a rude awakening. I also told them about many of my friends from years of shooting, and I'm not sure they believed me. I told them to introduce themselves to those guys and tell them that I said hello. At least they believed me when they came home and all of those dudes in the magazines knew me and sent the good words back to me.
Well, they came home after finishing right at the bottom of the pack. On their way home, they realized they needed to do something to improve. That's when they started asking around for help. I'm not sure who pointed them in my direction, but someone told them to look me up and ask me their questions because I had had a lot of success at national events. I really liked these guys, so I told both of them that I would help them. George was a trigger punching fool. I'm not sure I've ever seen a guy who could turn a Carter Chocolate Addiction into something that looked more like chocolate diarrhea, but he accomplished it. I gently told him we would have to work on fixing that problem. I also made it very clear to both of them that many winners aren't liked. I asked both of them if they had thick skin because they were going to need it. I told them that I had faith in both of them, and since many people respected me but didn't exactly like me, they would hear a lot of shit and become outcasts. They both laughed a little, and I'm sure they didn't believe me at the time.
Once we started working on correcting the few problems that George had in his shooting, we quickly started making headway. Before long, they were both shooting better, and George jumped to an elite level. He stayed there for a bit but was missing a few things. He frustrated the living hell out of me because he just wouldn't do something I kept telling him to do, and I knew he would be a lot better if he did it: he needed to lower his bow shoulder.
Finally, I convinced him to go the first leg of the national triple crown with me in West Virginia. We drove through the night and got there to shoot in some rain and less than ideal conditions. I had a good weekend and finished it off with a 3rd place finish. George, however, had a less than stellar weekend and finished second from last or thereabouts. The silver lining in that cloud is that George got to shoot with Bobby Worthington, a world famous hunter and recurve archer. Bobby told George the same thing I had been telling him about the bow shoulder, and it finally clicked. It's just that way sometimes. Sometimes someone different speaks a different dialect, and we just get it. That was the case with George and Bobby. George finally got it. When he came home, he went to work and began destroying people. He wasn't just winning, he was crushing people. He shot a 317 in one of the state shoots and continued shooting at that pace through the end when he won the NY and NE Championships.
The success didn't stop there, though. George went on to win the Indoor New England Sectional, then made the cut at the Lancaster Classic, advancing through a few stages before finally being eliminated. Yes, the same George Connors who finished dead last and centimeters away from making it into the last stage of shoot-offs on the big screen.
Although George's work schedule doesn't work well for traveling to the big stuff, I finally convinced him to go to the IBO World last year. He got out of work at 7 p.m. and drove through the night to shoot. He got up the first day after sleeping for two hours, and he left a few points on the course, which would later haunt him. He ended up being the first guy to miss the cut, a position I'm all too familiar with since I've been there in SPM, MBO and MBR. I've been in the same place multiple times, and it flat out sucks. Every time it happened to me, I honestly felt like crying.........and could have. Well, since George is such a ball buster, he had this once coming to him. When I got up to get ready to go to the shoot-off that year, our buddy Doug Vaughn ran into the room and said, "George, George, you're late for your shoot-off time!! You better get going." After George looked at him, Doug smiled and said, "Awww, I'm sorry George. I forgot, you're the guy who missed by a point." We all laughed, but I did -- and do -- feel George's pain, especially because he doesn't get the opportunity to travel like many of us.
It wouldn't be right for me not to mention George's help, either. George has gone out of his way to help me become better. He spends countless hours working on my equipment. Although we work together from time to time, he does much of there work on his own. His help has allowed my father and I to secure some really big wins. Although I know how to work on bows, I don't like doing it to the same level that George does, and he loves doing it. This makes it nice for me because we can bounce things off from each other. So George, I want you to know how thankful I am for your time and friendship, even though you owe me and Chuck the AW belt buckle.
I enjoy seeing people I help get to the top; it feels pretty good. Many people would get mad, too, if their student surpasses the them. This doesn't matter to me at all. It makes me proud to admit that George shoots better than me. I feel like it's a direct reflection of a tiny bit of my influence. I'm glad I was able to help him a tiny bit as much as he has helped me.
I'll end with a few thoughts. Courses don't need all sorts of crazy stake settings to be difficult. They just need a creative mind. Think of ways you can fool someone. I'm very proud of the course I set last year in which so many compliments were given. There was no bad footing, no shooting around trees, no targets put in the dark and being shot from a lighted area. Instead, the targets were set using deep thought about how I could most easily trick someone. I thought of things that trick me, and I tried to work some magic. I was ecstatic that not one person complained about any part of the course. Instead, they applauded the efforts. Strive for that if you ever set a course. Think of the things you can do for compliments rather than complaints.
Here's a picture of my dad and Barry Gates. It looks like Dad gave Barry a lesson on killing elk. Barry, I hope you listened, because this guy is as good as it gets when bugling elk are in front of him. I apologize for all of the typos. I'm not reading it over. I also applaud the 1,600 readers that read my rant from the middle of the week. I hope many of you take the constructive criticism that was presented. We can all work together to support each other. I'm working for you, and I will work even harder if you work with me and for me. Thank you for you support.
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