What an exciting weekend we had at the World Archery Festival 2018 The Vegas Shoot! Congratulations Gabi the 2018 Vegas Shoot Champion!

Gabi’s first day of shooting on Friday was within her average with a score of 285 (max points 300) – a fine score despite shooting two uncharacteristic 26’s. She finished the day in a tied score with her friend but ahead by way of the tiebreaker rule of X count – Gabi’s 10 X’s to her friend’s 6 X’s. Later that evening we met up with her friend from Colorado and they had a chance to catch up and enjoy each others company. Watching the two of them talk and laugh you couldn’t tell it had been 6 months since the last time they saw each other at the 2017 JOAD Outdoor Nationals.

Day two Gabi warmed up and looked fantastic. Strong aggressive shots with rock solid follow through. Official practice began on time, still shooting flawlessly. No need to stress out up in the spectator seats – right? First end 27 (round of 3 arrows worth 10 points each and a total of 10 ends) – ok just a little nerves happening, no big deal. Second end 27 – worry starts to creep in, is she getting overwhelmed? Third end 29 – nice, she is settling in. Fourth end 27 – she is now struggling and needs to get back to her process. After end number 5 all competitors switch targets from top to bottom/bottom to top. With her new target position on the bottom I was a concerned whatever was bothering her on the top could be amplified. The change was good for her – Gabi opened end six with a 29 followed by two more 29’s. She had momentum and nothing could stop her.

Most of the morning Gabi was trailing by 4 points – not insurmountable but significantly substantial in the short daily 300 Vegas Round format. Slowly she made her way back to an even score with Gabi ahead by X count. Then on the 9th end the unthinkable happened; Gabi shot a 26! My heart sank but I remained positive she would finish strong. Then the unthinkable happened again; her friend shot 25 on the same end! On the tenth and final end Gabi followed up her 26 with another 29 and finished with a two day total of 565-14x to her friend’s 562-8x.

I recently read an article about the dominating National Korean archery program. In the article the team’s sport psychologist said archery is 80% mental. This weekend Gabi demonstrated her mental strength, she never gave up even after falling behind. She said she stayed in the moment and focused on her process. She self evaluated through her struggles, stuck with what worked and changed what needed to be changed.

Thank you so much to those who helped and supported Gabi on her archery journey – Next Step Archery TheNock Point Darrin Barry Bob Hickey Bill Hickey Karin Nelson Cook Rob Cook Faith Cook Timm Hines and Josh Raby. Special thanks to Gabi’s biggest fan Gracie and mama!