Time Management Is Key :)

 Hey everyone!! It’s Kylee back at it again with another blog post. Today I wanted to talk to you guys about time management. I feel as though time management gets to all of us at one time or another. This often leads to not having enough time to practice what sport you may be in, and or leads to not having time to do what you want to do because you have to do something that takes up your free time. I for one have had a tough time battling my time management because of how overworked I always am. During my time at the college, I have had three jobs on top of my schoolwork and archery. This often makes It hard to fit everything in. It has been a while since I have just been able to relax. This is why I often find myself procrastinating on assignments because I just want to relax. This is also how I find myself slipping from practicing because I once again just want time to relax without having to worry about anything. 

This right here is an example of bad time management. Mine has gotten better over time, but I still sometimes find myself not doing what I am supposed to be doing because of my lack of motivation because of how tired I am. There is a way to balance this all I just haven’t found it yet. I want to get to the point where I can still relax while getting my priorities done like shooting my bow. I just need to get more motivated and just get my work done no matter if I like it or not. I encourage all of you to keep up with your time management because you will be better off because you will have more time to yourself. If you want to be better at archery you have to delegate time to shooting, but you also have to have time to yourself. After all, you can’t just keep running and not relaxing, it eventually catches up to you. 

 

Hard Work Really Does Pay Off :)

 Hey everyone!! It’s Kylee back at it again with another blog post. I just had a huge win in Illinois!! I accomplished one of my goals, which was to win a big shot while in college. Granted it was regionals, but it was still a really big win in my eyes, especially since I am a freshman. Not very many freshmen can say that they have had a win like this. I worked so hard for this win, and it feels so good to have accomplished something that I know was only possible for my dedication and hard work. I most definitely had to work for this win because while we were shooting there were 13 mph wind gusts. The fact that I was still able to shoot well in these conditions shows that I was bound and determined to win. This wind did get to men mentally a little while shooting. I had to let down so many times in one round that I had to end up taking a zero because I could not get the last shot off in time. I also had a shot where the wind blew right as soon as I shot and it blew my arrow completely off course and it did not hit my paper. I got a little frustrated at that point, but I did not let that stop me. 

How I ended up winning was when it went down to the shootdowns. I went head-to-head against girls in my same division. I ended up only winning by 2 points. How this happened was when I was going against the last girl, I actually ended up jerking my arm and missing the paper and getting a zero. Most people would have given up at this point, but I in fact did not give up. I kept my head high and shot the best that I could, and I ended up coming back and beating the girl by 2 points. This just goes to show you guys that you have to have the confidence and determination to win. If you do not have either of these things, you might as well kiss your dreams of winning goodbye. You have to have confidence in not only your shot but confidence in yourself as well. The win will come, you just have to have the confidence and believe that it will happen someday. 

Me and My Girls :)

 Hey everyone!! It’s Kylee back at it again with another blog post. This post is really going to focus on teamwork. Teamwork is very important when it comes to being on a collegiate team. I say this because sometimes you do not get an award individually and you have to work with people within your team to compete to bring home some awards. Most people think that it is all about winning individually, but sometimes this is not the case, especially in collegiate archery. When I first joined the team, I shot for I had only been shooting my compound since I first started at the university. So, I did not have that much experience when it came to shooting compounds, but I was willing to learn everything to try to get at least decent by the first shoot. I worked hard and got to a place that I thought was pretty good for only first starting. Me and my team went to Illinois for a 3D shoot. I shot the best that I could by being in my first big tournament with my team. I was a little nervous going in of course because I had never been to a shoot like that before. I did not end up winning anything individually, but there was a team shootdown that involved me and two other girls from my team going head-to-head against other girls in our division until someone took the win. It was a bracket style, so it went on until the gold medal match and my group won!!

This just goes to show that it is not all about winning individually. Sometimes you are not always going to win individually, and I am going to be honest, winning as a team feels pretty darn good. This type of win means that you have good teamwork within the team. And also when you are on a team you have to be a team player because if not, you will never go far in your archery career. People are going to beat you. You just have to be able to congratulate them and move on because there is always next time. 

Transition From Kid Bows to Big Kid Bows

 Hey everyone!! It’s Kylee back at it again with another blog post. Today I just want to talk about my compound and how much of a big transition it has been going from a little bow to a big bow. When I was in high school, I shot a 20-pound bow called a Matthews Genesis bow. It had zero sights and everyone that shot in this league had to shoot this bow. I got the form with this bow down to a science to where I was pretty good at shooting it. When I made the transition over to college, I had to change my whole setup because archery became a lot more expensive with what you had to have. I now have a Matthews TRX 34 and it is blue with blue and florescent purple strings. I also had to get a fancy sight for it and had to get stabilizers to help level out the bow with all of the weight that it had on it. Then you had to get arrows and they were not cheap at all, there was also the quiver to hold the arrows, and binoculars so you could see where you were hitting. I also had to get a range finder so that way I was not losing arrows, and a release so I could shoot my bow. This list of items is only the essential stuff. There is so much more you can get, it just at that point becomes how much do you want to spend. 

Going from high school to archery was a huge awakening because the competition got a lot steeper with people having sights. In my class I have to shoot, you basically have to shoot close to perfect if not perfect to win. This is so hard to do, but the people who are winning have figured out the method that has helped them get to that level. I am still continuing to work very hard to get up to that level because one of my goals is to win a big tournament. I know that I will get there someday because I am not going to give up and I will figure out the best way to shoot my bow to where I can be at the same level as the rest of those good archers. This just goes to show you guys that good archers only win because they work hard for it and do not quit when the going gets tough. 

The Shot Process With A Compound

 Hey everyone!! It’s Kylee back at it again with another blog post. Today I just wanted to go through what a typical shot process should be like. So first you want to make sure that you have the proper stance when standing on the line. You should put your feet at about shoulder-width apart, the weight on your feet should be even on both of your feet to ensure proper balance, and finally, you should stand at a 90-degree angle to the target. You then need to focus on your grip when you hold the bow. It should be the same every time and you should not death grip it because that can throw your shots off. When you go to pull back make sure that your arm and your shoulders are lined up to ensure the proper alignment, so it is the same every time. While pulled back you want to make sure that you are anchoring in the same spot, whether that be the corner of your mouth, the tip of your nose, or even on your chin. At this time, you are going to start aiming. You want to focus on where you want to hit. Most of the time archers focus on their pin when aiming and this often leads to shots going off to the left and right because you are not focused on where you want to hit. Breathing is also very important when it comes to shooting. If you are actively breathing while shooting, this is going to cause some inconsistency. You want to breathe in while pulling back and slowly let it out while aiming and once all of your breath is gone it is the perfect time to shoot. Then finally you release smoothly and follow through and analyze how your shot went. 

These steps will help improve your performance because it will ensure that you do the same thing every time. Every time that I shoot, I run through these steps, and when I get to the end I follow through and reflect if my shot did not go where I wanted, I would go through the steps and see which part I messed up on. Sometimes though it is hard to tell what you are doing wrong, and you need an outside source to tell you what you are doing wrong. This is why I am grateful to have coaches that are able to watch me and be able to help me with the problems that I am having. This means that you should not be afraid to get help. There is nothing wrong with asking for help.

 

My Senior Year Of High School

 Hey everyone!! It’s Kylee back at it again with another blog post. This post really is going to mean a lot to me because it is about my senior year of high school. My senior year of high school archery did not go how I planned It to go. During my senior year, I worked so hard and just was not getting the results I was hoping for. I often found myself getting very frustrated with how I was performing because I could not figure out why I was having such a hard time shooting good scores at tournaments. Now that I have graduated high school, I believe that I have figured out why I shot like I did during that year. Most kids during their senior year of high school end up quitting because they never perform how they want to. I of course wasn’t about to quit, but I did not have as much fun that year. I now know that I was in my head bad during my senior year of high school because I knew that I was done after that year, so I really wanted to win. This caused me to think way too much, and it often hurt my score. 

 

Most people do not realize that archery is a mental sport. If you go into a tournament in a bad mental state, it often leads to a poor performance. Bad shots are going to happen, you have to be able to come back from a bad shot and don’t let it ruin your whole tournament. I know it gets hard to keep your head up when you start shooting bad. You have just got to try your best to stay positive because honestly, you could be doing a lot worse than what you are. And I am sure that there are people at the same tournament that are shooting way worse. At that point, you just have to make the best of the situation and just move on. There is always a next time, the sun will rise the next day. The moral of the story is, try to stay positive, there are going to be tournaments where you just shoot off. You can’t win every single tournament, you are going to mess up, you are human. 

 

 

My First Deer :)

 Hey everyone!! It’s Kylee back at it again with another blog post. So, for today’s topic, I want to talk about a hobby of mine. I have been going hunting for as many years as I can remember. I have always gone with my dad hunting as well. This is always a good time because me and I make so many good memories together that I will never forget. I will never forget my first deer kill because of how it happened. It was like it was meant to happen like it was a script in a play. Me and my dad were sitting in a blind that was right next to a cornfield. The cornfield was cut down so you could see pretty much everything. Dad had a shooting stick and had it underneath the crossbow because I was too little to hold the crossbow up myself. We sat in this blind for a good while. We honestly thought that we were not going to see anything.

 

Next thing I know we are just sitting there, and Dad says deer. And I say where of course and he says that it is going to walk in front of us. So, little me gets all ready and starts aiming into the scope and he says to shoot, and I couldn’t see the deer yet. I just kept telling my dad I can’t see it; I can’t see it. Finally, I saw this deer in my scope, it turned out to be a doe, and I aimed right in that sweet spot and pulled the trigger. This deer ran up to the top of the hill, looked at us, and fell over dead in its tracks. Every time I tell this story I laugh because this doe just looks at us and falls over. That was the easiest tracking job in the world. I also love telling this story because back when I was young like this, I got super excited each time I shot a deer, and with this being my first my dad was super proud and we will never forget this memory for years to come. 

Archery Fun at Myrtle Beach :)

 Hey everyone!! It’s Kylee back at it again with another blog post. I just had a huge win happen in South Carolina, Myrtle Beach. This win really made me realize that hard work really does pay off. I never thought that I would have ever gotten out of my slump, but I got out of it and won on the big stage. This has made my drive for archery even stronger. This win gave me the confidence I needed that I could achieve what I set my sights on. As the saying goes, when the going gets tough, the tough gets stronger. What was great about this tournament was that I shot the same score back-to-back for different events. The scores that I shot were only 5 points from being a perfect score. When I went into this tournament, I didn’t think that I was going to do very well because of being in a slump for so long. I have lost all of my confidence and honestly, I did not really care what I shot. This mindset is a good mindset, but in this case, it was not good because I had lost all of my confidence.

 

There were some setbacks during this tournament as well that I had to overcome. Before I shot my first round, I was paired with a left-handed shooter, so we were face-to-face. I asked him if he wanted to switch sides so that way, we were not staring at each other. He denied this offer so while we were shooting, we of course were face to face. Most shooters would have let this get to them, but I just said well there is no sense dwelling on shooting with a lefty, just try to make the best of it. So, while we were shooting, I started shooting pretty well and started to have some fun and I shot my first really good score of that tournament. I distinctly remember that while shooting that kid asked me how I shot so well, and I replied with because I practice every day. 

Target Panic

 Hey everyone!! It’s Kylee back at it again to shed some wisdom. Today’s topic is going to be about target panic. This is something that all archers eventually go through sometime in their careers. It is like the mental block of all mental blocks. Target panic comes in many different forms and whichever form you may have depends on what exactly you are struggling with. One form for example is where you struggle to hold your pin in the middle of the scoring ring you are aiming at. There is going to be movement while aiming, we are human after all. In order to beat this form of target panic, you have to learn to accept this movement. Not every shot is going to be perfect, there are going to be some shots that are off, but this is completely normal. It is being able to trust the shot and not get too upset when a shot does go off. You have to be able to take the good with the bad.

 

I can remember getting target panic really bad before. I had a problem raising my arm at the last second when I would go to shoot. I still shot every single day despite having this issue. I did not let the target panic get to me, I was bound and determined to beat this target panic. It took me 3 months to beat this target panic. This hard work allowed me to get a big win and from that point on I knew that I had what it took to stay on top. I had the drive and determination to continue to shoot even though I did not like where I was shooting at the time score-wise. So my friends the moral of the story is, do not let target panic drive you to quit. There are ways to beat target panic if you take the time and put in the work to beat it. As the saying goes, winners never quit and quitters never win!!

My Trip To Tennessee :)

Hello everyone!! My name is Kylee Brookover and I have shot archery for basically my whole life. I thought it might be time that I start a blog and start documenting what I have experienced and teaching others what I have learned over the years!! There are a lot of people out there who are not willing to teach others because they are too scared that their position on the podium will be stolen from them. In my opinion, if you are a good archer, you should not be scared to spread your knowledge because obviously, you got to your position from hard work and a lot of learning. One tip I can give is not to give up when the going gets tough. Most people end up quitting archery because once they get into a slump and find themselves not getting out of it, rather than working through it and getting even better, they quit when it gets tough. However, I can say that this sport is the most frustrating sport you can ever get into, but I can also say it feels pretty good when you win because you now know that all of your hard work finally paid off. 

I want to take a quick trip down memory lane and point out where hard work paid off. Back when I shot high school archery, I had this dream of becoming a world champion, but I did not think I would ever achieve it. Man was I wrong. I practiced every day up until the big tournament and I shot bad the night before and I thought that I was not going to do very good at the tournament. My dad said to keep my head up high and that everyone shoots bad rounds, but that does not mean that the next one was going to be bad. This shoot was in Nashville, Tennessee. I went into this shoot with an open mind not expecting to win and this mindset turned out to be the best way to go into this shoot. I ended up shooting 4 points from perfect and ended up being the top overall female at the tournament. I brought home this really cool big cup trophy that actually had some weight to it. I won't forget this trip because when I was carrying my big trophy down the sidewalk, all of the people in the backs of pickup trucks were cheering. Overall the moral of this story is to not give up because good things like this happen with time.