JOAD tournament number 18...

So, last weekend, Noah and Micah had their first JOAD tournament of the season...number 18 for us all told, as this is our fourth season now. As tournaments go, it wasn't horrible. ;) Here's a recap:

For NOAH...he continues to shoot in a very popular division so has steep competition. Over the summer, he upgraded most all of his equipment and is generally shooting better than ever. He hasn't, though, spent very much time practicing with this new set up (and I should get new boots for not screaming "I told you so" on Saturday, lol). Regardless, he shot decently and *almost* set a new personal record and *almost* earned a new award pin for six 10s in a row. (Yeah, he was a ray of sunshine after those *almosts* lol.) In the end, his score was the fourth highest, which he's familiar with. He recently wrote a paper for his English class about the value of practice. Let's all wait and see how long it takes for him to make the connection. ;)

For MICAH...after wrapping up the state title in his division last spring, Micah decided to move up to the next division (though he's not required to do so until January). The new division means that he's now shooting from 18 meters instead of 9, which is kind of a big difference. :) (For the record, I tried to talk him out of this as I'd prefer he stop being in such a hurry to grow up, but he was adamant. He wants/needs the new challenge of the longer distance and actual competition and is now eligible to earn new awards pins, as he'd reached the end of those available at the shorter distance.)

I digress. So, he arrived at the tournament fully ready to treat this as practice (well, more practice...he's been doing an okay job of actually practicing), knowing that he hasn't shot the scores to be competitive in this division yet. His mood took a downswing when we learned that he was assigned an upper target (which he can't reach to retrieve his arrows...it doesn't affect his shooting, though, just meant that he had to ask for help pulling his arrows after every end...all 20 times) and the tournament folks wouldn't let us switch (though Noah had a lower target so it would have been a simple matter and one we've done before). On top of that, the other three shooters with him on his bale (they score in groups of four) were all new. As in, they'd never kept score before. Fortunately, Micah is Micah and has scored aplenty at team practices and other tournaments when they didn't have enough parent volunteers at the shorter distance. But. One has to question the logic of assigning the absolutely youngest kid on the main line to the target butt with the three new people.

Anyhow, despite the lucky dime that his coach gave him in an effort to help turn his mood, Micah didn't shoot well his first round (a tournament is two rounds of ten ends each...three arrows for each end). During the break in between, he returned the "unlucky" dime to his coach. :) And then the kid managed to shoot decently during the second round and somehow pulled out a first place finish! He fully understands that this was somewhat of a fluke, as two of his teammates missed this tournament and regularly shoot much higher scores in this division, but he'll take it. ;) 

So. That was our first tournament for the season.

(PS With Micah shooting at the longer distance, I now find myself with nothing to do during tournaments. At the shorter distance, they always needed parent volunteers to help the youngsters with scoring and such. At the longer distance, it's all on the archers. Suggestions? We were there for about five hours. I tried to do some reading but was also trying to watch how the boys were doing. No, Deanna, I don't think I'm ready to learn how to knit just yet, lol.)

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[YH]

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