JOAD update

Just quickly...last Sunday we had another JOAD tournament. It was in Denver again and we ended up split up again. Noah shot in the morning and set a new personal best of 268 (a 45 point improvement over his previous best which was set last March) and was floating (well, as "floating" as a stoic twelve year old can be, lol). ;) His new personal best also just happens to "best" Micah's current personal best of 267, making it all the sweeter, of course. Unfortunately, his division happens to be the largest and chances of actually placing are slim right now. He's hoping to improve his odds after Christmas, as his wish list consists almost entirely of new archery gear. ;)

Micah shot in the afternoon and again took first (this time with a trophy instead of just a medal so he was stoked), though he didn't set a new personal best. He did, though, shoot at a three spot target for the first time and took solace in the fact that his total score (for two rounds) topped Noah's still (though only by four points). 

And that was our Sunday (from a bit before 7 am to just after 7 pm)...

Archery...

So...our weekly homeschool archery classes are now over (finished last week) until August-ish...and we had our last JOAD tournament of the season (Oct-Apr) last weekend. (More on that in a moment...) This means that instead of archery twice a week for all three boys, we now have NO ARCHERY. Woohoo! Except. We'll probably end up at the archery range at least weekly as a family now. That was part of our plan when we decided to invest in all this. But. Those visits will be as they fit into our schedule and aren't set. It feels lovely. ;) 

Now. That last tournament. Let's just say that Noah and Asher weren't having their best days...primarily in their attitudes, which reflected in their shooting (though Noah refuses to see the connection...which is obviously a big part of the problem, lol). They managed to pull it together by the end (barely) and we only had a few bouts of crying. :) Micah, on the other hand, managed to set a new personal best overall score of 468 over the two rounds. And, he took third:

And this time, folks, there were more than three boys in his division! Yup, he managed to beat out one other little boy and couldn't be prouder. He's shot against all three of the other boys (and come in behind all three of the other boys in varying combinations), so this last tournament was sweet for him. He was the best darn six year old archer there that day. And I can say that without bias because he was the only six year old archer there that day. :) (Yeah, he's tiny out there but it doesn't phase him in the least.) Yay!

Oh. And I don't think I ever posted a picture of *my* new bow (taken a few weeks ago):

You can see Nathan behind me with his bow, too. :) Aren't we cute? ;)

Yesterday

Had our second JOAD tournament yesterday. It was down in Denver and we were fortunate enough to get the afternoon session (the morning session had to check in at 7:00 am). All three boys shot well and set new personal bests. :) Noah even managed a bullseye:

(He took this shot head on with my iphone.) And Micah brought home another third place medal:

(Yes, there are still only three boys in his division, lol.)

Yup. Still enjoying archery... ;)

First JOAD tournament.

The boys participated in their first JOAD tournament yesterday. Since we've had the bows and gear for less than two weeks, we went into it as a learning opportunity. It went pretty well. :) Here are the boys before we headed to the tournament:

At the tournament:

The top picture shows part of the boys' JOAD team warming up. (We have a fairly large team...more than 40 kids, I think.) Noah and Asher are off on the left.

The second picture is the side room that Micah and the other younger kids were in. Micah's the far right archer. (Yes, he appeared to definitely be the smallest kid at the tournament...out of 112 registered kids.) The younger kids shoot from 9 meters.

The bottom picture shows the main group of compound archers retrieving their arrows after one of the ends. Noah and Asher are on the far right. (Yeah, Asher's the shortest one out there. And, yes, that's a lot of kids, lol. It was crazy busy there.) The older kids all shoot from 18 meters.

In any case, the boys shot well. They all set personal bests and managed to make it through two full rounds (a round is 10 ends...so 30 arrows) without any major breakdowns. Honestly, that was our biggest concern and is one of the things we most value about archery, as it's been helping them work on the ability to brush things off and refocus, if that makes any sense. Also, they've not shot a full two rounds before and were pretty tired by the end. We were there from noon until just before 6 pm.

(This was actually not bad compared to the folks who were there for the entire tournament. It's broken into two parts...the recurve shooters and the compound shooters. Our half of the day started at noon; the recurve shooters started at about 8 am, and most everyone else had to travel (some from as far as Colorado Springs) since this was one of the tournaments that was local for us. Oy.)

And...

Micah brought home a bronze medal!

Yeah, he's pretty pleased with himself. ;) In all fairness, I suppose I should point out that there were only three boys in Micah's division (under 9 year old boys). Still. The other two boys have been doing this a bit and Micah set a personal best that was significantly higher than his previous scores. (His first round was a 223...out of 300. Each of the 30 arrows is counted and the bullseye is a 10...each ring further out decreases a point. I don't think he's ever shot over 200 before or anywhere close, really.) So. He's darn happy. ;) 

Noah would like me to also say that there were about 14 boys in the division that he and Asher are in (9-11 year olds)...most of whom have been doing this for years. ;) Regardless, Noah and Asher held their own, and Noah even managed to improve in his second round.

So. That was our first JOAD tournament. Whew.