As freshman Ella Goins pulls back the string of her bow, eyes burning into the target, her mind goes blank and her muscles relax slightly as she allows her years of training to take over.
“I’ve been in a league for about three months, and I’ve been doing archery for a few years,” Goins said.
An experience with trying archery at a summer camp inspired Goins to get involved with the sport.
“I did it one time at a summer camp, and I just got into it after that,” Goins said. “Some of my favorite characters are also archers, which inspired me to start. It’s a mix of book characters and video game characters. They’re mainly from The Legend of Zelda and The Hunger Games.”
When Goins realized archery was something she wanted to continue, she began going to The Outdoorsman, a local sports store, two or three times a week to practice archery and improve her skills. The league, which runs through The Outdoorsman, she competes in is a way for her to compare where she is currently at to others and encourage herself to better her ability.
“It’s a solo competition,” Goins said. “It’s not super competitive. It’s more based on improving yourself. We come in whenever we want on certain hours and then we shoot our rounds. Afterwards we keep track of it and record it. The competitions themselves are in the leagues, but said leagues are mostly about self improvements. Competing is on the side.
Goins said that each league lasts around eight weeks with a small break in between. Goins recently finished a league and placed second.
“Your place is constantly changing,” Goins said. “You get points for things like beating your personal best or two bullseyes in one game. There are three games, and each game you shoot four rounds of five arrows. The points accumulate over time, so your place moves depending on how many you and others have. The amount [of other players] depends on the league, but for the one I was in I believe there were at least 5-7 people.”
Across every competition Goins has competed in, her record is currently nine bullseye’s in three games. To get ready for these competitions, Goins has to push herself past what is comfortable in order to become stronger and better at what she does.
“I increased the draw weight on my bow to get the arrow to fly farther and put more power behind it,” Goins said. “With the bow I’m using, the weight was only increased once, and it’s at its max now. To use more draw weight I’d have to switch bows, which I won’t be doing for a few months. I haven’t been going as much recently because this takes a lot more out of me.”
Increasing her draw weight, however, is only one part of what Goins does to prepare herself for competitions.
“Usually I will go in a day or two before and I will shoot just to make sure I have everything ready,” Goins said. “Then I have to train my arms and my back to make sure I can hold the bow and pull on the string.”
Goins has been practicing archery for a while now. However, the type of archery that Goins participates in is only one of many different types of archery.
“It depends on what you’re doing it for,” Goins said. “You could be doing it for hunting or for sport. If you’re going to a league like what I’m doing, you will be competing with other people to see how you can improve and how many bullseyes you can get.”
Goins’ involvement in archery has allowed her to not only have fun, but to experience and grow from struggles along the way.
“The hardest thing about archery is keeping yourself consistent because there’s so many things you have to do to get a good shot,” Goins said. “Your posture has to be good and you have to be aiming in the right place. There’s so many things to keep track of.”
Although archery can sometimes be stressful for Goins, she is rewarded for her hard work at the end of every competition.
“I would say my favorite part of archery is the end of each round when you tally up your score and you see what you got,” Goins said. “It’s the best feeling when you’re impressed with how you did.”
