Aya's Archery News

Luck doesn't seem to be on my side when I go to the Target Nationals. Airlines lost my bows one year, got run over by the NAA president in a golf cart another, and got put against the wrong competitor and while I won, their mistake cost me the match. So I had my guard up this year just waiting for something to happen.

I went to Colorado Springs feeling good about my shooting after recently discovering a major flaw in my form that propelled my scores upward. Coming from a delayed flight into Denver, I barely made it to the field before scoring and felt rushed and wasn't settled at the start and dropped a lot of points but came on strong at the end.

The second day, I took a turn towards disaster. Something changed in my form again and by the end of 50 meters, my draw shoulder began to hurt. In 10 years of shooting I've had a few injuries but never caused from archery... until now. Since my form is still unsettled, I apparently started using my rotator cuff instead of the proper back tension.

By the final day, I was in enough pain that I actually got scared and feared screwing myself up for the upcoming World Field. I took a medical and made up missing arrows towards the end. So I watched the Shenk Award that I have won for the last 5 years go to Kari Granville who well deserved it with her strong shooting. And yet again, the 2009 US Archery Team was just out of my reach as I finished 11th.

The US Grande Prix surprised me as I won three matches shooting with the most ungodly form I could come up with to shoot with my shoulder. Now I am home and trying to unwind and get my shoulder rewired for shooting the World Field.