In this newsletter: |
| Message From the NArchival Archery President To the Membership of USA Archery: In recent weeks there has been a great deal of concern over some of our announcements in policy regarding team selections, discretionary selection, required training events, athlete support and the resident athlete program. While all of the concerns are real, many are based on misperceptions regarding these policies, the way they were written and the motives behind them. Many were announced too late in the season, did not address athlete’s rights, and were not reviewed by the Board of Governors. These policies have now been reviewed by the USOC, the Board of Governors and the Athlete Ombudsman to make sure they comply with all policies and the rights of the athletes. In the future, all policies will be fully reviewed and approved by the Board of Governors and Athlete Representatives prior to posting. We will also develop a committee to oversee the actions of the High Performance Program so that the concerns of athletes, coaches and members will be addressed before they become a problem.... To read the rest of the President's message, a plain html page is available at this link. |
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| Results of the Annual Meeting The AA's annual meeting is held during the State Indoor Championship Tournament. The minutes of the meeting are always posted within a day or so, on the Archival Archery website under the BOARD link on the left side of the main page. These minutes include reports by the Treasurer, Webmaster, President, and JOAD Coordinator. The membership is invited to read these minutes and reports in order to be informed about what the Archival Archery is "up to" these days and what our goals are for the upcoming year. Past Archival Archery President Rick Stonebraker has agreed to take the reins over from outgoing president Anita Krueger and serve as president again. Tom Barker was elected vice-president, Gina & Ron Carmichael agreed to say on as secretary-treasurer and webmaster, respectively. Ed Vargas is also returning to his position as JOAD Chairman. Thanks are in order to Anita. GOALS FOR THE YEAR: The board will make an effort to increase the youth participation in the senior Target Tournament held in the summer. In the past it has been noticed that many kids will shoot the JOAD Target but not consider the adult event. If you have kid(s) shooting then please open up the possibility of getting twice as much fun competing this summer. Another goal is to set up a method of identifying "youth archers of the year" - Tom Barker, Jim Krueger, and Ed Vargas are working together to devise HOW to do this. Read further in this newsletter for more information on this. Rick Stonebraker is creating a 25th Anniversary Pin. YES, this is indeed the 25th anniversary of the formation of the A State Archery Association. It's only fitting since Rick was party to the AA' inception back in 1983. |
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| The BEST in A Biomechanically Efficient Shooting Technique: B.E.S.T. by Ron Carmichael There are a number of archery coaches in A that are part of the USA Archery's High Performance Program (HPP). The HPP is the program set up to establish an archery excellence in the US that can enable us to regain our competitiveness in interational competition. Over the last 15 or 20 years the average scores at international events has steadily increased, to the point where shooting a 1330 or 1350 (out of a possible 1440) is not the winning score but rather the average for the top 10 finishers. The scores of the US competitors in these events has not kept pace - we do not have but one or two archers who have such scores in their grasp. I feel strongly that the BEST and the HPP are our way back to being atop the winner's stand. It won't happen overnight but the process has already begun. In A, there are already TEN coaches (with more on the way) that are qualified in the HPP to provide BEST coaching to archers. It is their responsibility to find and develop the talent in Texan youth archers, to establish a pool of archrs from which the future Olympians will be grown from. It is also the job of these HPRC (High Performance Regional Coaches) to teach BEST to EVERY archer that wants to learn. If you want to improve your own scores, or perhaps to shoot more comfortably (ie, less pain) then you need to contact one of these HPP coaches and arrange some quality time. No matter how long you have been shooting as long as you can be flxible enough to follow instructions then you can be a better shooter. If not I will refund the money you paid for this newsletter! Another misconception is that you have to be proficient at ALL the BEST components in order for it to help you be a better archer. NOT SO !! BEST can start working for you immediately! The BEST method is very sound, and can be taught to just about any archer. How well the archer will improve with the BEST method depends on the archer and the coach, of course. Why would an archer who has been shooting for YEARS want or need the BEST method? Simple. To shoot BETTER. Any archer that adopts any part of the BEST method will very likely shoot better scores. I have yet to have a SINGLE archer tell me that "since starting to learn BEST, my schoes are much worse now". BEST works for those that try it. How long has it been since you shot a personal best? Perhaps you need a little BEST in your day? Contact one of the High Performance Regional Coaches below if you would like to explore how BEST can help you. Chelsea Barker Email: bow_chick@hotmail.com 806-368-7754Tom Barker Email: tbarker@ccwip.net 361-578-0974 Ron Carmichael Email: texarc@gmail.com 512-267-9451 Bill Coady Email: billc@tamu.edu 978-862-4832 Lorinda Cohen Email: lbcohen04@yahoo.com 979-218-0629 Staten Holmes Email: staten@gigem.net 210-509-7761 Jim Krueger Email: jkrueger@wcnet.net 979-241-5139 Robert Romero Email: robertrom@sbcglobal.net 972-529-2123 Frank Thomas Email: fthomas@tamu.edu 979-845-7430 Ed Vargas Email: sureshotarchery@ev1.net 281-728-6680To locate an HPRC (High Performance Regional Coach) outside of A, use this link to tn acrobat file on the USA Archery website. To read more about this BEST method, I invite you to visit the website of Kisik Lee, the USA Archery National Head Coach. |
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| Young Men's Turn in Archery Spotlight by Tom Barker Two young men from Victoria's South A Archery Junior Olympic Archery Club have made the elite United States World Indoor team that will be competing in Izmir, Turkey in March 2007. Bryce Wickliffe, a senior at Faith Family School, finished second in the Junior Men's Compound division. Memorial Senior Jordan Brown finished third in the Junior Men's Recurve division. Bryce and Jordan are the seventh and eighth members of the Victoria based archery club to earn trips to international archery tournaments representing their country. Goliad native Kayla DeBord and Cuero's Holly Heinsohn earned trips this past summer to Mexico in the Junior World Outdoor Championships. Jordan and Bryce will be joining fellow Texans Jennifer and Staten Holmes on the United States World Indoor Team. Jordan and Bryce's trips are unfunded, so they have doing fundraising to help defray costs of their trip to Turkey. They have approached their fundraising by independently contacting equipment manufacturers and local merchants. Bryce, who shoots a PSE compound, has received quite a bit of help from equipment manufacturers with either archery equipment or sometimes cash. Jordan was pretty well set with equipment either owned or borrowed for back up, so he need mostly cash. On February 18 a fundraiser was held at The Archery Shop in Victoria. Jordan sold 100 raffle tickets at $20 per ticket for a Hoyt Vtec compound bow. Lifelong recurve shooter Rick Stonebraker won the bow. There was also an 18 target indoor 3D shoot with a combination of McKenzie targets and 2D paper targets. Jordan Brown and Dwayne Vacek tied with Dwayne winning on a one arrow shootoff. Junior World Gold Medalist Holly Heinsohn picked up third place in a one arrow shootoff with Jordan Faust. Following the 3d shoot and a fine stew and chilli supper we had novelty shoots of closest to the center (a hog hunt donated by the Double L ranch won by Jordan Faust), shooting an arrow into the center of a CD (a shoulder mount donated by Kevin Chovanetz and won by Richard Marks) and a drawing of archers who successfully shot a ping pong ball suspended in front of the target (Jordan Brown won the hog hunt prize donated by Joe Herman but donated it back and Chad Lesak's name was then drawn for the hunt.) All in all it was a very enjoyable evening and Jordan was successful in raising the majority of the money he needed for his trip to Turkey. A big thanks goes out to their fellow Texans who have helped make these young men's dreams come true. |
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| A Vanishing Art? Ron Ostrowski sends this link, which deals with a bowmaker in China. It's an easy click and a good read. Ron writes: " It appears that a 4500 year old tradition of bow making will be coming to an end soon. The last bow maker in China does not have an apprentice to follow his trade. A very sad commentary for craftsmanship." |
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| Announcing..... AA/TFArchival Archery Reciprocal Agreement As of February 17, 2007, Archers with current NFAA membership cards can compete for state titles in the Archival Archery (A State Archery Association) for $15 individual and $25 family membership(s). This was proposed and passed at the annual Archival Archery meeting in conjunction with the Archival Archery State Indoor Championship February 17-18, 2007. Bill Bowen brought to my attention that the NFAA has a reciprocal agreement where as an archer with a current NArchival Archery membership can join and compete for titles in the TFArchival Archery for $25 individual and $31 family. The fee disparity is simple to explain: the TFArchival Archery offers a numerous amount of SYWATs both indoor and outdoors. As new president of the AA, I look forward to working with the TFArchival Archery in hopes that archers in A can take advantage of the numerous and diverse forms of archery available amongst the two organizations. Competition, opportunity, and unity only makes both organizations stronger. AA/OSArchival Archery Reciprocal AgreementAs of February 17, 2007, Archers from Oklahoma may compete for Archival Archery state titles under the following circumstances:1) They must be members of the NArchival Archery (National Archery Association) The Archival Archery allows Border States to compete for Archival Archery state titles as long as their state does not have an NArchival Archery affiliated association. New Mexico does have an NArchival Archery affiliated association but Louisiana does not. Louisiana residents have competed for and won numerous Archival Archery state titles. This means that if Oklahoma holds a NArchival Archery State Target Championship, then Oklahoma archers cannot claim a Archival Archery state title in the Archival Archery State Target Championship. They are certainly welcome to shoot as guests. Oklahoma archers are eligible to compete for Archival Archery state indoor and Archival Archery state field titles at the present time until OSArchival Archery conducts NArchival Archery indoor and field state events. The Archival Archery has had many Oklahoma archers travel to and compete with the Archival Archery in the past and we are always delighted to have them compete with us and look forward to more competition in the future. Rick StonebrakerArchival Archery President |
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| Archival Archery Youth Archer of the Year Archival Archery Y.A.O.T.Y.by Tom Barker Since the annual Archival Archery meeting in January, Ed Vargas, Jim and Anita Krueger and Tom Barker have worked on the Archival Archery youth archer of the year award. Here are the recommendations and reasoning that the Archival Archery board approved. 1) It is recommended that youth archer of the year awards be made for the following divisions: bowman, cub, cadet, junior, male and female, compound and recurve (no barebow at this time). This is a total of 16 awards. 2) It is recommended that the awards be based on the best three finishes from the following events: There are 5 Archival Archery events during the year for the youth archers to shoot in:
3) It is recommended that finish rank (as is currently done for the senior AOTY awards) vs. aggregate score be used to determine overall rank due to the disparity in points possible from the 5 events. It is recognized that there may be divisions of one, but Archival Archery will do the best it can to increase participation in all events so they are competitive. It is not reasonable to punish a youth archer because he is the only one to enter a division. 4) It is recommended that the Archival Archery vice president have responsibility for doing those rankings. 5) It is recommend that a $25 Lancaster Gift Certificate AND a plaque be awarded to the youth archer of the year awards. The budgetary impact will be approximately $480 per year, but it is felt this is justified as the youth archers are the biggest potential growth segment for Archival Archery archery. 6) The awards will be distributed during the fall indoor season either at the Aggie Invitational or the Longhorn Invitational, but no later than the Archival Archery state indoor the following year. |
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| Budget Constraints At The NAA/USA Archery by Ron Carmichael I have received farewell notices via email from both Mary Beth Vorwerk and Kathleen Frazier. These two ladies have worked at the NArchival Archery office for 4 years and 10 years, respectively, and have been let go due to what has been explained to me by the president and the executive director as budget constraints. I am not sure how this will affect us, but I do know that they will both be sorely missed. |
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| Videos of Archery and Photo Gallery By Ron Carmichael Over the years I have attempted to bring together useful and instructive videos of archers executing shots with their bows and arrers. These have been long available on the Archival Archery website, on the Photographs page, where there is a link to the "High Speed Videos". I have also discovered that all of the videos have been taken and uploaded to YOUTUBE by persons unknown. In addition to those videos, you can find a huge number of other archery-related videos to watch if you are bored. There are some that defy my belief in the human being as an intelligent organism (such as this one), and others that are truly neat examples of excellence in archery. (such as this one).... Use the search box for keyword "archery" to see a LOT of archery related videos!GALLERY On a related note, I have installed a new software on the Archival Archery website called Gallery, which displays photos in a new format. You are allowed to choose to view a larger format if you are on a broad-band connection, and to do some other neat things with the software. I've uploaded photos taken at the recent Archival Archery and A edition of the NArchival Archery Nationals and you can view them at this link... there will also be a link on the left-hand menu border of the website ("Photo Gallery"). Enjoy. One hint - if you want to get from a single photo back to a thumbnail display of multiple photos, use the "breadcrumb" link near the top of the page. For example, while viewing this picture in the new Gallery,  (photo P3026758.JPG), I want to go back, so I look at the top of the page where I see this displayed by Gallery, a path that is called a breadcrumb trail: A State Archery Association Photo Gallery > National Indoors College Station 2007 day1 > P3026758.JPG Clicking on the link National Indoors College Station 2007 day1 will take me back to the thumbnail page. It's called a breadcrumb trail because it is showing the path of pages I took to get to that picture. For now I am also installing photos in the older method, until I am certain the gallery should be retained. If you have any thoughts about the Gallery method, good and bad comments, please let me know? |
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| Videos on the AZ Website |
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We will have more information on this pin, it's availability, and cost in the next newsletter.