Off to a fabulous start!

Noah and Micah had their first JOAD tournament of the season yesterday in south Denver. It was a new location for us (which is always a bit iffy for certain eldest sons who appreciate knowing what to expect, lol), but it turned out pretty well. Our team put in a strong showing, having by far the most shooters during the Saturday afternoon session that we were at. Here's the team stretching and warming up ahead of time. 

(Noah and Micah are the ones on the far right.) Our team actually has more than 50 shooters this year (so this is less than half of them) and is almost certainly the largest JOAD team in the state. Given the increase in archers (thanks to the Olympics and movies like The Hunger Games and Avengers and Brave and such), Colorado JOAD tournaments this year will all be larger...this first one had four sessions (Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon, Sunday morning and Sunday afternoon) to try to accommodate everyone and still had people on a waiting list.

In any case, we arrived shortly after lunch and got set up, stretched, took the two practice ends and got underway.

(Sidenote: For our purposes (and to explain very generally), an "end" is shooting three arrows within a set amount of time. The bullseye is worth ten points, with each ring out from there being one less point. Each "round" consists of ten ends...so a possible total score of 300. In a tournament, we shoot two rounds. Awards are based on total scores, so out of a possible 600. Shooters are divided by class (whether they shoot recurve, barebow or compound), gender, and division (age). It's a long day, lol.)

Here's Micah shooting. He's the one with the mohawk (though it's hard to see here), lol. He and the other yeomen (under 9 years old) shoot at a shorter distance than everyone else:

There aren't as many yeomen as the other divisions, hence the only one target butt arranged for the shorter distance. In fact, at this session, all four of the yeomen were from our team.

So. In their first rounds of the day, both Noah and Micah set new personal best scores! Micah scored 270, beating his previous best by three points. (And that previous best had been last November...he hadn't scored nearly as well between then and now.) He didn't shoot as strongly in the second round (which is pretty normal as he starts getting distracted and tired, lol) but still shot decently. He also managed to take first...

...which wasn't terribly difficult being as there was no one else in his division, lol. (In all fairness, his score still would have earned him first almost assuredly even if other shooters had been at this tournament.)

Meanwhile, Noah shot a 272 in his first round! That beat his previous high by four points and, like Micah, had been set last November, without many rounds coming close between then and now. For Noah, being as he's at the standard distance unlike Micah, it also meant he finally earned his yellow pin that he's been after since last year. :) And, because he managed a solid second round, he was only three points off of the podium, which I don't think he's ever come so close to before. (This was our twelfth JOAD tournament, and we've always stressed personal goals over placing...particularly as Noah is in a larger and more competitive division. Still, I think he was privately pretty happy about being so close, though he was also sincerely relieved not to have to stand on a podium in front of people, lol.) 

Truly, though, we were most proud of how well both boys handled themselves throughout the tournament. We've come a long ways from the days of our first tournaments where the goal was simply not to make a scene crying. ;) Even within the past month (during dress rehearsals--basically tournaments just for our own team--and at practice), both boys have still had their moments...with letting a poor shot get to them and affect their behavior and shooting. Yesterday, though, they did fabulously! There was no crying or stomping or slamming of bows or glaring at people who happened to be near them, lol. They kept themselves in check and were able to just take a deep breath and refocus after poor shots. Seriously. That was awesome progress! Woohoo!

(Note, amazing how keeping one's self in check resulted in better scores overall...not that we haven't been saying that for years now, right?)

Whew. Here's hoping the rest of the season goes as well... 

Comments

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Congratulations to Noah and Micah! Being able to control emotional expression is a real skill that they are developing. You've done a good job working with them on that.