Now, I'll try to give you a few details from my weekend. This won't be too terribly long because I don't have much to say about it. I'll preface it by telling you that sometimes we never truly know what others are thinking or what they're battling. Going into this event, I was dealing with a few things that have taken up a lot of space in my mind and made it difficult to focus and concentrate.
Although archery has always given me the things I need to quiet my mind, that has been almost impossible in the last month. It has not been easy to focus on anything involving archery, and I probably paid the price for it last weekend. I will not lie and tell you I wasn't prepared, though. I put the time in, and I focused on the things I figured I would encounter.
My practice was the best it has been in two years, and I had 100% confidence that I would be in the shootdown round and maintain the third-place position in the National Triple Crown. I felt so good about it, I would have bet the house on it. I felt like I had a legitimate chance to win this event. I didn't go into it with any expectations. Instead, I went with confidence and knew I would put my practice into play.
Dad, Jeff Wagoner and I shot a really short practice course in the morning. It didn't do much for us, as there wasn't enough yardage on it to test any yardage-judging abilities. After finishing, we ate some lunch and headed onto the other practice range. As we began making our way through it, Jacob met up with us and we took it to the end. I did not hold or execute well during the practice round, but I figured it was probably from traveling. I ignored it and hit the pillow early. I couldn't wait to start the round the next day.
Day 1
Sitting under a tree with Jeff and Tyler, we lost track of time. Jacob's mother pulled in next to us and asked what we were doing. We suddenly realized we were late to the meeting and began hustling to get to it on time. It got me out of rhythm and made me feel anxious. I only had a few seconds to catch my breath after arriving at the meeting place, so I took it in and tried to relax... it didn't work.
The walk to the target took me along winding trails and up steep hills until I finally arrived at our starting point. Looking down the lane, I saw the new big ram. I felt a sense of relief to see that we would be starting on a big target. That always brings a sense of relief with it. After drawing the cards, it didn't bother me to see that I would be leading it off.
When the horn blew to start the round, we had barely had enough time to recover from the walk. I was dripping with sweat due to the humidity, and I felt somewhat lightheaded. I could tell it was going to be difficult to focus. When I drew my bow, I felt good about my number, but the sight picture wasn't what I expected. I had a lot more movement than I had anticipated, but I kept pulling until the shot fired. I was a little long in my hold and felt a lot of tension in my forearm and upper arm. I knew the pin was in the 10-ring when the release broke free from the string. I felt relieved when I heard Gillingham say it was a tweener 10 at 4 o'clock, meaning it was halfway between the 11 and 10.
After pulling our arrows, we wandered over to the next stake, which had a black bear at the end of the lane. Looking at it, the number stood out, and I couldn't wait to shoot it. When it was my turn, I drew the bow and hit anchor. Once again, I could feel abnormal tension in my forearm and shoulder. I hadn't experienced anything of the sort since I started shooting this bow, and the feeling was awkward. I wasn't sure how to battle it or get rid of it, so I let the pin dance wildly across the 10-ring while I pulled. When the release fired, the arrow landed in the 10-ring again.
As we made our way through the next few targets, the sight picture didn't seem to want to settle down. I didn't feel overly nervous, so I wasn't sure what was causing the issue. Looking back on it, I still can't identify the source of the feelings I experienced. However, the sight settled when I drew on a close boar and put the arrow in the place I was staring. Unfortunately, it was a hair to the right of the 11.
My hold finally settled nicely on the howling wolf, and I felt great about the shot. I was sure I had smoked the 11 when the shot broke. Once again, I missed it by a smidgeon. As we continued, through the first 10 targets, I battled everything an archer can battle, but I withstood all of the punches the archery gods threw at me. I took a few glancing blows and dodged a jab or two. I even dodged a big uppercut on an uphill fallow deer and put an arrow on the line of the 10 at 4 o'clock. I was taking every punch that was being thrown at me. Thankfully, my training saved me, as I continued protecting myself to get through each round.
After shooting a medium alert deer on the side of a hill, then walking a few feet to shoot at a bedded buck that had a good angle to it, I felt great about the shots when I walked out of the small hollow they were set in. Turning the corner, I knew I was looking at a back breaker. You always come across shots that are meant to separate the field, and the lynx across a small flat between two big ridges was definitely set to be one of those targets. Jeff Kirkland led it off with a great marker. The arrow was on the edge of the 10 at 9 o'clock, but we couldn't tell whether it was in or out. The lynx is one of my favorite targets, and I have done well on it the last few years. My pin settled nicely beside Jeff's arrow, and the shot broke effortlessly. I had secured a 10 on my scorecard. I felt good to escape the target with double digits.
Walking away from the lynx, I saw the large white goat on a flat spot up a hill. When I looked at it, a number registered in my head, but I ignored the number. When I didn't see any arrow holes above the 10-ring, I began adding yardage and kept going. Ignoring what the target looked like, I made a crucial mistake. I even knew I was doing it when I shot my arrow. The arrow landed near the 8 line above the 10-ring. I was irritated with the way I ignored everything I've ever practiced. My focus just wasn't where it needed to be.
Moving to the next target, a really steep uphill bear, I knew I had to recover and make a good shot. I did just that, smoking the 11-ring on the bear. It was one of my best and most powerful shots of the day. However, the pin was still not sitting remotely still. I was still taking the punches. My legs were getting wobbly, but I knew I was headed toward the end of the fight.
When we had five targets left, some more tension crept in and the nonstop uphill shots finally caught up to me. My unsteady hold and inability to keep the shot solidly in my back caused a few issues. I'm not sure if it was my mental or physical exhaustion that caused it. It could've possibly been the mental landslide I've faced over the last month. Maybe it just came crashing down on top of me. I tried my best to hold on and shot a 10 on the last target of the round, which is where I got backed up to the edge of a cliff and decided I was not going to be pushed over it.
Unfortunately, there was an arrow on the bottom of the 10-ring. The arrow had landed in a hole in the middle of the ring. Although two people in the group had already scored it as a 10 and one scored it as an 8, I was still asked for my opinion. I looked at it and said I thought it was a 10 due to the arrow being in the hole that was where the 10-ring line should've been.
This created an all-out argument that took a lot of twists and turns over the course of five minutes. A few minutes into it, my character was put into question, and that's all I could take. Do not question my character due to your unsportsmanlike tendencies and behavior. That's all I will say on this now, but in the coming days, I'm going to address the entire incident in another article. I believe it deserves its own space and should not be included in this. I got off the course at 11 down and dropped 11 points in the last five targets. I was highly disappointed, but knew I could come back the next day. Gillingham was sitting in 5th at 8 down, only three points above me and Digger. Kirkland shot the high round of the day at +1. Many others fell between 8 and 13 down. I knew a solid day would give me a shot at making it into the shootdown round, and I figured I would not have another day of a constant struggle with everything involving 3D archery. I somehow survived all the punches and never got knocked out. I learned to withstand the punches and not get negative as the blood was dripping from my eyes and mouth. I still had a chance. The skunk next to Jeff at dinner after Day 1 summed up what I thought of my performance.
Day 2
Going into Day 2, I felt confident. Unlike Day 1, my shots felt great at the target butt, and I was ready to make a run. Getting to my target, I saw that I would be shooting a turkey to start my day. Being dark, I knew it was going to be really difficult to see, but I've always done well on turkeys, so I didn't worry too much about it.
When I drew my bow, I couldn't see that well, but I chose to keep pulling and see what happened. When the shot fired, I had not idea where the arrow landed. Then, I saw it... and it wasn't good. It was high and right, well above the core. That definitely wasn't the start I was hoping for, but I let it go and moved on. I had 19 targets to get it back. I knew I could do it.
The next target was a long, uphill antelope. I led it off and made the best shot I could make. Unfortunately, my bow wasn't holding well for the second day in a row, and I knew it was going to be a struggle once again. I had to figure out how I could navigate the day and limit the damage. I was shaking like a dog shitting razor blades on the first two shots, just like I had done the entire day before.
As we picked our way through the next few targets, I tried to ignore the rapid movement in my sight picture. I seemed to get through it, but it was unnerving at times. After making a great shot at a relatively close mule deer across a swamp, I felt good about the direction I was headed. Although my hold could make a person dizzy, my shots were pretty smooth.
When we arrived at the next station, we had to wait for the group in front of us to shoot the target. It was a wolverine at the top of a gut, and we were shooting it from a stake that was set on a side hill where there was no good footing. My first glance at the target didn't give me any special feelings, but I did notice the size of the target didn't remotely resemble what I was seeing on the ground. Being a target judger, I knew it was between 40 and 45 and thought it was about right in the middle. Totally ignoring that important part of the process, I set my sight and waited after the other group cleared out. They had arrows all over it, and one shooter's arrow was in the dirt behind it. He missed it on the low side.
I felt confident when I drew the bow. However, when the target appeared in my lens, I knew I had picked the wrong number. The image didn't correspond to the number I had picked. It corresponded to what the target looked like when I ignored it. Ignoring that too, I tried making the best shot I could with my heals going down the hill. A few seconds into the shot, the pin began having a mind of its own and the unsteadiness I had experienced all weekend took over. Seconds later, I was looking at my bright orange vanes sticking out of the dirt between the wolverine's legs. I had missed it low. It was a combination of a bad number and weak shot. Thirty-seven yards didn't get me there. Tony shot it for 42 and got an 11.
Stepping off the stake, I had a talk with myself and realized I had 14 targets left for the day. I was 14 down with a miss and a five. I researched my memory to see if I could find a bit of data from the past that would help me understand I could dig myself out of the hole I had created. Then, I remembered a time when I shot a 5 on the first target on the second day of the World and went on to hit eight of my last 10 targets for 11s. I knew I had the ability and decided I would give it everything I had.
I quickly got back on track, as I shot an 11 on the next target and barely missed the next one. A few targets later, I was staring at a bomb of a gator. It stuck out to me as being 50 yards, and there was no doubt in my mind. It was across a ravine and on the side of a hill. Having 11d the previous target, a black bear, I felt good about the streak I was experiencing.
The pin continued dancing when I tried settling on the gator. Luckily, the shot broke when it was dancing like a drunken chick at a sorority party. I hung a 10 and breathed a sigh of relief. As I moved through the rest of the course, I remained stable and did the best I could to limit anymore damage. Finally, when the curtain was closed on the final leg of the National Triple Crown, I walked off the course knowing I saved a total disaster. The end result was not what I had hoped for, and it was not what I had expected when I headed to the tournament a few days earlier. However, it happened, and I was glad to shut the door on it and begin working toward the next one.
My Final Thoughts
Although this may sound arrogant, I felt like I had a good chance to win this event when we hit the road and headed to Ohio. Everything had been falling into place, and I was confident with my yardage and my shot. I had 100% trust in every part of my game. If I didn't win, I knew I would definitely be in the hunt.
However, when I arrived at the event, nothing seemed to fall into place. I had an extremely difficult time holding the bow and executing good shots. I felt distracted and my head seemed cloudy the entire time. It felt like a health issue, but it wasn't, so I'm not sure what it was that caused me to feel that way. It's something I haven't experienced at an event in a long time. It was difficult for me to focus or hold my attention on anything for any length of time.
This tournament taught me many things I can use in the future. I learned that I can persevere when I don't have my A-game. I felt like a pitcher who knows he doesn't have his good stuff, but he finds a way to get through five innings with minimal damage before leaving the rest of the game for the bullpen. I withstood the punches throughout both rounds and didn't let them affect me mentally.
I'm a target judger, and I saw the yardage on two targets I can recall and decided I wouldn't trust what my sight was telling me. Both times, I changed my number and convinced myself the targets were closer than they appeared. These were bad mistakes, and my inability to focus is what caused me to make them. I'm not sure if the focus problem was created by all the other things on my mind over the last month or if it just happened to be one of those weekends that all of us encounter every now and then. I made complacent errors that led to damage that I don't usually experience.
Normally, a performance like this one would eat me alive. This one hasn't done that. Instead, I look at all of the positives that came out of it, and I'll use them to improve at the next one. We are winding down quickly now, and there isn't much time left. I have chosen to shoot yet another bow at the ASA Classic in a few weeks. I'll be shooting my black Veracity 35. I'm holding less weight with it, and it allows me to be more relaxed at full draw. I experience far less pain in my shoulders while shooting this bow compared to the other two I've used for 3Ds this year. I"m not sure if going to less holding weight will help or hurt, but I guess I'll find out in a few weeks. I feel that I can aim the bow longer and still get a good shot off if the hold goes too long. I feel I can overarm it. I can also hold the bow steadier, and the groups seem to be a tad better than they are out of the other bows.
I'll keep giving it everything I have and see where I land when the dust settles. This year has been trying at best, but I feel I have what it takes. It's just a matter of having it come out at the right time. My confidence is high, and I have 100% confidence in my ability and my shot. That confidence has been growing by the day.
I almost forgot to mention that my team, Team Darton, won every leg of the National Triple Crown and the overall championship. My teammates are Bill McCall, Jeff Kirkland and Digger Cogar. I'd say we were definitely underdogs going into it, but we found a way to work together and bail each other out to win the title. My teammates did more bailing than me, but we all had a part in it. I'll write more about this after we get our awards at the IBO World Championship.
I also had a great time with my group on the way home. I taught Tony Tazza, Loren Lohr and Jim Livak a few things that they had never heard in the past. Tony was so intrigued about the lessons he learned, he sent me a text to tell me he stopped at Sheets on the way home to grab a few hotdogs for dinner and shared them with his buddies. He didn't say if he made Brad go first, though. I'll have to ask him at the next one.
Shoot straight and have fun out there. We are headed down the homestretch not, and this is when you want to peak. Keep grinding and putting the work in.
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