Archery

In middle school and high school, I made sure to be involved in some sort of athletic activity, as I didn’t consider marching band to be particularly strenuous. Most of the physical exertion involved surviving the Texas heat and holding up my instrument. Consequently, in middle school, I participated in both track and basketball, which kept me in shape and occupied. In high school, I continued with basketball and ran a lot on my own.

When I arrived at Amherst, I wanted to continue playing a sport at some level. I noticed there was an archery team, a sport I had tried a few times before and always enjoyed watching during the Summer Olympics. I decided to give it a shot and quickly fell in love with it.

I quickly took over the archery team at Amherst and discovered that I was a much better coach than an actual archer, despite earning a good number of achievement pins, which are akin to martial arts belts. I earned my USA Archery Level 2 coaching certification, as well as a Level 1 judge certification.

How does archery help me stay in shape, though? While archery doesn’t require cardio, it does demand significant upper body strength and, most importantly, an incredible amount of body control. I draw about 35 pounds on my bow, which becomes quite exhausting after 60 arrows. An archer is shooting at distances that range from 50-70 meters for competition and aiming to get their arrow in a ring that is about 5 inches in diameter. This is quite difficult, especially for me since I shoot barebow (no sights, fancy stablilizers, etc); just the bow and an arrow. Any small change in form can result in a drastic change in results.

Unfortunately, archery is an extremely cost-prohibitive sport. Thankfully, Amherst, being a well-funded institution, provided everything we needed to have a competitive team at no additional cost beyond our general student activity fee. At UT, $50 a semester covers everything, but since I live quite far from the athletic fields, it’s a struggle to get out there and shoot on a regular schedule. I still managed to participate in a tournament in the previous year, though!

Will update this with photos at some point.