The Arizona Cup in Phoenix was held at Ben Avery Shooting Complex, and the guys in Phoenix worked magic to greatly increase the size of the shooting field. Shooting went smoothly as there was no moving of the targets back and forth - a decided benefit to shooting 70 meter OR Qualifying rounds instead of FITA rounds. The ever-energetic Bob Pian seemed to be everywhere I looked, taking care of literally anything that needed doing, and the folks supporting the event did a great job. Each morning brought a number of hot air balloons on the horizon, and one came directly overhead much to the bemusement of some. I suspect there were some archers that never noticed.

I think that his presentations to archers and others at these two events were aimed primarily at conveying to us that these precepts, these component methods of BEST, are the result of applying the scientific method to the execution of the archery shot. Time and again he goes to great effort to establish the "why" of a given part of the shot must be done according to the method he defines. In fact, he has diagrammed the entire archery shot execution as a "shot cycle". And each time I see his presentations, from the first time at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado a month ago through the just-completed A Shootout, I see a little more precisely just what he is relating to us all.

And the presentation that Tom Parrish provides to lay the groundwork is a continuation of the many articles he has written for the USA Archery magazine. To condense his presentation down to a sentence is tacitly unfair, but here goes: While American archers have gotten better over the years, it does little good to send them abroad to TRY to compete when their average best score is 40 or 50 points LESS than their competition's.

We in the US cannot continue doing what we have done in the past and expect to win where it matters most. Tom's analysis of scores also includes the fact that of the top 4 archers in 12-arrow matchplay in recent WTC and Olympics THREE are Kisik Lee students. Clearly, BEST-method archers are better able to hold up under the stress of competitions because they are using better shot processes. Tom also points out that the FITA is still an accurate predictor of excellence in competition - in the last two WTC 32 and 40 recurve finishers shot greater than 1300, and that if an archer was not in the top half of the brackets beginning the OR, he had a 15% chance of winning that first round. (!) Shooting 1300 is no longer "good enough" - the archer with gold in mind must be able to reliably score at least 1330.

We in the US are indeed fortunate that Tom Parrish chose to recruit Coach Lee, and that Coach Lee agreed to make a huge leap of faith to come to the US and attempt to alter the course of archery here. Coach Lee has played a hand in nine of the 18 Olympic Gold medals won since 1984. I am hopeful that in another few Olympiads that ratio is even better.

The pool of competitive archers with disabilities is relatively small, especially considering the size of the population in the US. But it is growing more and more as word circulates and people discover the sport and the possibilities.

Help to get the word out and about.

If you know someone with a physical disability that shoots archery, please put them in touch with me. There is every chance that he/she might be able to represent the US in international competition or even the Paralympics in 2008 and beyond.

Learning to use the lower back muscles utilizing the Biomechanically Efficient Shooting Technique.