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.