Navigating the Archery Journey:
Insights from Archery Mom Jody Wacowich
Hello, Archery Parents!
Welcome to the newest instalment of the Archery Parent Podcast blog.
In this episode, Manisha sits down with Jody Wacowich, an Archer, Archery coach, and Archery parent from Alberta. Together, they explore the world of Archery from a different vantage point than the previous episodes. They delve into topics that will resonate deeply with every Archery parent, coach, and Archer, providing valuable insights and practical advice along the way.
Meet Jody Wacowich
Jody Wacowich is a multi-faceted coach involved with 4-H, Jim-Bow’s Juniors, and Ignite Archery in Alberta. Her journey into becoming a coach began with a desire to support her daughter Brynnleigh’s interests. Jody highlights her pursuit of coaching certifications to deepen her understanding of the sport and the ripple effect it has had.
She shares her experiences coaching Team Saskatchewan at the Canada Winter Games in Prince Edward Island, and as an Archery parent and media personnel for Archery Canada across international waters when she attended the World Archery Youth Championship (WAYC) in Limerick, Ireland in 2023.
Weathering the Elements and Navigating Competitions
From her time coaching in Prince Edward Island in March, where she faced unexpected weather challenges, a key takeaway from Jody’s experience was the resilience and adaptability required by both Archers and their support systems.
From her travels to Ireland alongside Brynnleigh, Jody provides insights into the unique opportunities and considerations of being a parent with Media access at an international event. Her role allowed her to bridge the gap for parents back home, showcasing the celebrations and challenges faced by the participating Canadian Archers on a global stage, some for the first time.
Very importantly, Jody provides a reality check for parents when it comes to travelling to a World Archery event to be with their Archer. It's not what they think it will be. She outlines the expectations and limitations of access when an Archer makes an international team and how parents can make the best of it.
Supporting Your Archer Through Thick and Thin
Every Archery parent is aware of the varied dimensions the drive home post-competition can take. Jody and Manisha stress the need for parents to understand their Archer’s emotional and mental requirements. This includes setting pre-agreed conversation boundaries and using travel time for positive reinforcement and reflection.
Supporting an Archer means recognizing when they need space and when they need connection. Do they want to talk? Do they just want to listen to music? Do they want to sleep?
The Team Dynamics in Archery
Although Archery seems like a solitary sport, Jody brings to light the incredible team dynamics involved. Athletes thrive with practice partners and support from fellow Archers, transforming the sport into a collaborative effort much like other team sports.
Jody’s even recounts the time she and her Archer shared the competitive stage, vying for a win against one another. Through this, she reveals, with humour and love, the close-knit yet competitive nature of Archery families. These moments are opportunities for teaching invaluable life lessons about competitiveness, support, and grace.
Mental Wellness and Balancing the Archery Life
Balancing life as an Archery parent or coach demands awareness of mental wellness.
Jody underlines the importance of recognizing the signs of stress in athletes and the necessity of breaks to prevent burnout.
Maintaining a focus on mental health ensures Archers, especially those new to the sport, continue to enjoy their passion and develop wholistically.
Travel Tips for Archery Competitions
Manisha and Jody even exchanged travel tips for competitions:
- Allocate buffer days (when possible)
- Take time to acclimate and address unforeseen delays
- Keep essential items like tabs/releases in your carry-on
- Always have at least one set of competition clothing in your personal item
This practical advice prepares Archers and their families for the logistical challenges often encountered in sports travel.
Enjoying the journey, as Jody aptly puts it, should be at the heart of every Archery experience. Whether as a parent, coach, or athlete, focusing on finding joy in the participation, growth, and community that Archery provides can make all the difference.
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Stay tuned to the Archery Parent Podcast for more insights and ideas to support you and your Archery family in this fulfilling journey, one arrow at a time.
Thank you for joining us in this exploration. Subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Instagram (@archeryparentpodcast) for more tips and stories to support your Archer's journey.
ATTRIBUTION: Permission granted for the use of "The Stranger" by Michal Menert and Adam Corey Tenenbaum of Wooden Flowers, for Season 1 of "The Archery Parent Podcast".
MUSIC: "The Stranger"
ARTIST: Wooden Flowers (Michael Menert and Adam Corey Tenenbaum)
ALBUM: "Goldtrails", Gravitas Records
INSTAGRAM: @giantmetalcrickets2020
WEBSITE: https://giantmetalcrickets.bandcamp.com
YOUTUBE: @giantmetalcrickets2020
FACEBOOK: Giant Metal Crickets
Listen to Wooden Flowers "The Stranger" on Spotify and all other streaming platforms:
https://open.spotify.com/track/0ixurL...
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Transcript
Manisha: Hello, Archery Family. I'm Manisha, and welcome to the Archery Parent Podcast - What you need to know to best support your Archer. Archery life can come at you quickly, and there are often a lot of questions, but not a lot of answers. We are here to change that. We will share tips, how-tos, and what to expect to help you navigate your new Archery lifestyle.
You'll hear from other Archery parents, coaches, and Archers themselves. We are going to do this one arrow at a time.
Hello everyone, this is the Archery Parent Podcast. I'm Manisha, your host, and we have Jody Wacowich from Alberta today. Jody, how's it going?
Jody: It's going great today.
Manisha: Jody is a coach with 4-H, Jim-Bow’s Juniors, and Ignite Archery in Alberta. So Jody, tell us a little bit about yourself. Why did you become a coach?
Jody: I got into Archery to do hunting. And, my daughter decided that she wanted to do that as a 4-H project. So that's why I lead it in 4-H. And, at the 4-H level, she was looking for more competition.
There [weren’t] very many kids to compete against. So we started to attend some of the local Alberta Archery events. And now, this summer we got to go to Ireland and represent Canada with the team. As part of that process, I felt like I needed to know more about what we were doing, and especially with leading the 4-H project.
So, I started to get my coaching certifications and I got my Introduction and my Intermediate and then through the Canada Winter Games process. There was some funding to train some coaches here in the province on the Competitive Development level. And so I took the opportunity to complete that training as well.
And you can see the flag where I actually got to coach Team Saskatchewan at the Canada Winter Games.
Manisha: What was that like to be able to coach for another province?
Jody: A lot of fun. I went out to Saskatchewan a few times leading up to the event to get to know the kids. The team had already been selected before I got selected to coach them.
So, working with the kids and jumping into a set of kids that I didn't know was an interesting opportunity. You kind of start to grow up with some of these kids and really know what their challenges are. So learning - some new kids and what makes them tick and how to make them perform. So that was a lot of fun.
Manisha: I didn't realize that you did that. So you're basically jumping over to Saskatchewan from Alberta - it was in Prince Edward Island?
Jody: Yeah, that was in March. We went to PEI, and gave those kids a chance to go because they didn't have a coach
Manisha: So you stepped in right when they needed you. So what was the weather like in March in Prince Edward Island?
Jody: The biggest challenge there was with the heating in the building we were shooting in, so I actually wore my parka the whole time we were at the event.
Manisha: Oh, no. And to stress, this is an indoor event.
Jody: Yeah.
Manisha: You mentioned Ireland and you went with Brynnleigh. She was on the compound side. Let's talk about - so, not only were you a parent there, you actually somehow got media access. So you were able to be closer to the athletes. Tell us about that process because that is fairly rare, but a great opportunity.
Jody: I do have media credentials and when we started looking at going to Ireland, I looked at the opportunity to say: Hey, there's a lot of parents who can't come. The cost of it, the timing, all of those sorts of thing; and I did have the opportunity to go and take some pictures of the kids and had the support of Archery Canada. I was sending [the photos] off to Archery Canada, so they could make the posts about the kids, and [I was] putting the pictures all up on Flickr for the kids so that they had pictures of themselves at a really cool event.
Manisha: When an Archer goes away and parents aren't allowed to join them, sometimes you don't always get a proof of life kind of thing. Okay, are they all right? Because as many parents know, our Archers don't always correspond with us. You can say: “Hey, are you there?”
And no reply, no reply. Or, “Yeah.” And that's all you get.
Jody: Yes. Yeah.
Manisha: So it's always nice to get some sort of communication back from someone. And yeah, I'm sure that you brought a lot of relief to a lot of parents too.
Jody: Yeah. I'd actually touched base with a few of them over the summer at different events and got a lot of thank you’s for the pictures that were sent.
Manisha: Can you just describe the different lines and where you stood and what sort of access were you allowed?
Jody: Okay. So when we're shooting, we have the shooting line, the next line back is actually the media line. And then there's one more line back and that's the coach's line. So I actually got to be a little bit closer than the coaches when taking my pictures. I can get ahead of the crowd and actually get some really nice shots of the Archers, and be right up there with the kids seeing some of the emotion and the struggle and the wins and the celebrating when things are going well. So it was pretty cool to be that close to the action.
Manisha: So some of the rules with regards to media that I've come across, and they're more based on World Archery rules, which will eventually trickle down to the different national and regional events, is that media is typically allowed to walk down with the Archers, but you're not allowed to interact with them. You're not allowed to obviously move the arrows or anything like that.
Jody: Right.
Manisha: Were there any other rules that you had to be aware of?
Jody: So I had to get a pinny identifying me as media, bright blue, kind of over top of everything else that I wore. It's a lot of fun to be media, but yeah, it can be a little tricky. I know when I did a little bit of it at Nationals, the judges were really great to work with. The judges all kind of know me now and yeah, come on down, come do this, come here's where you can stand.
And, and so they work really well with me, too. So that helps.
Manisha: So we're going to move forward now. Let's talk about the drive home, and conversations that happen. How to be supportive during the drive home.
Jody: Certainly you have things that you want to say or, directions that you want to take the conversation.
But I think maybe one of the first conversations is - before you even go to any events - is what does your athlete want to talk about on the way home? Do they want to decompress, process, do that sort of stuff and just not talk about it until we get home? You know, do we just talk about other, maybe, fluffy topics to get through the ride home.
You really should be that source of confidence for them. So, the challenge to make sure that the conversation is moving in a positive direction and you want to instil confidence in your athlete as to how their day went. And I think one of the things that Brynnleigh and I really like to do on the drive to the event is just go over the goals for the day.
I ask her when we get in the car, what are the goals for the day? Because I certainly have some that I'd like for her, but I want to know what it is she's focusing on for the day. Because maybe the drive home comes back to those if she's willing to talk about it. If we need to wait longer, that's fine too, but okay, did we meet those goals? What happened, what challenged you in meeting those goals? And, we don't just come with one goal. It's here's our A level goal. And here's some other things that we want to work on that, are achievable for the day. So, just debriefing on whether we met those.
Or, what we can take away from this and bring to the next event. So, add to the goals for next time or change things up because that didn't quite work as well as we wanted it to. I think one of the key things is making sure that you've given them that time and space to digest.
I know that sometimes when nothing went right today, I can see it in her. Sometimes it's just, okay, I'm going to give her her time and I'm not going to talk to her until we have to in the car or they just need that time to process. And sometimes being a parent, it makes it harder if we're in there saying things.
Manisha: And sometimes there are archers who are I don't want to talk about what's about to happen on the car ride there. And, really parents need to ask because you need to figure out what your Archer needs before the fact. So instead of getting into the car and going, Hey, so do you want to talk about this? Maybe a couple of days before going in and saying, Okay, how do you want our competition day to be? How do you want us to be? Do you want to talk about it in the car? Do you want to talk about it the day before? Do you want to talk about it in the car on the way home?
Something that Dawn Groszko and I spoke about during our interview together was “respecting your athlete” - finding out what they need, when. But you're not going to know that unless you ask.
Jody: Yeah, and some days that changes. You know, if something went really haywire or they've been thrown from what they thought was going to happen and they just need that time to process. And, maybe normally we do talk in the car, but today we're going to have an hour or two of driving where we just don't talk about anything. We just turn up the music.
I talked about building their confidence, but telling them that you love watching them shoot and that you're proud of what they've done, even if they don't feel that way today.
Manisha: True. Very true. Yeah. Because even though things to everyone else went well, sometimes it doesn't go well to their plan.
Let's talk about Archery as a team sport. So you mentioned getting to know the kids in Saskatchewan. You know a number of Archers from Alberta and you're getting to know them across Canada. Let's talk about the idea that many people just think Archery is an individual sport, For many of us, we do know it is a team sport, although it doesn't seem like it.
Can you expand on that?
Jody: So, yeah, certainly, you go from being that individual Archer shooting in your own province to ending up going to Nationals and competing against other provinces, and then the next thing you know you're on a team and you are a team together instead of competing against each other as much. But, this is where I'm going to take it a little bit away from Archery when I'm in Karate class, it's the same thing.
It looks very much like an individual sport. When I have to get up on the mat to do a kata or to spar, that is just me against my opponent, in order to get to that point, I had to train with my team. I had to spar the other members of my club. They helped me get better, get stronger, to learn where my weaknesses are, to do all that.
So while it's an individual sport, I need that full team around me to help me learn, to help me get better. And it's the same thing in Archery. When we're practicing shoot-offs or doing team rounds together, we need those other people to make us all better and certainly our sensei in Karate says that a lot.
This is a team sport and we're here. And I mean, just last weekend we were at a tournament everybody's on the mats, coaching where they can, cheering for athletes, taking pictures. It was a full team there and not all of us were individuals on the mat at any one given time.
So, kind of cool to see that, but I see the same thing happen in Archery even at Nationals, as the people fell out of the individual rounds and you work your way through that, I'm finished shooting, now I'm going to cheer for those guys who are still going on in my category, or I'm going to jump over to the next category where my friends are and cheer for them.
Manisha: We were in Arizona this year, Reece and Crispin were the only senior men that went. The NextGen group had gone down to Arizona, as well.
Jody: Yeah.
Manisha: And, during the matches, a number of the NextGen Archers had come early. Their qualifications and matches weren't until the afternoon, but we were shooting in the morning.
And, they all came. They supported Reece. It made such a difference. And you think you're out there by yourself, but you're not. Just being able to see someone with the same shirt. You know that they are there for you. It just means so much.
Jody: I think what I've really noticed, because we didn't get started at the international, national level until after COVID, but, you're used to shooting here by yourself in your backyard at your range. Sometimes it's even by yourself cause it's so quiet, but the opportunity to get to these events and find your people, other people who are doing Archery, who understand, who get why you put hours in, in the range by yourself, And that sort of thing, and that's what I've really noticed about the kids - that team that went to Ireland, or even the team that went to the Youth Pan Am Championships the year before in Halifax, is they all kind of found each other. Now they're all connecting and we have the Alberta Youth Championships coming up here in January, and my daughter Brynnleigh’s been inviting everybody from across Canada: "Come. Come shoot our Championships.”
Let's have fun.
Manisha: There is always something that inevitably ends up happening when in international events - today, when we're recording this, it's actually the day after the Pan Am Games in Santiago, Chile, has wrapped up. And during the competition on the Recurve Men's side, Crispin and Brandon ended up having to shoot against each other.
And it was, it was like, “Oh no. No, no, no, no, no. There are so many countries here right now.” So many countries here right now and inevitably just by the way they fell in the ranking...
Jody: Yes.
Manisha: ...there are two of our Canadians going against each other, which, there are two sides: “Oh,” or, but then you know that at least one of them is going to go on opposed to them being in separate matches.
I've seen many times where, they'll still be cheering each other on as teammates, but, they want to win still. So that's kind of when the lines get a little blurry.
Jody: Sometimes there's almost more pressure because it's like: I know I've practiced against this guy and yes….
Manisha: Yes, I've won against them before. Oh my gosh, this is a bigger stage. So let's see how this is going to work out.
So, I want to go back you mentioned goal setting. The World Archery Youth Championships is coming up in Winnipeg in 2025. Do you have any idea of any goals that are being set by particular Archers?
Jody: Yeah, I know that some of the debriefing from Ireland was for some of those kids who could go on to shoot in the next one and saying: If that's your next goal, you've now been here, you know what this event feels like. Okay. And, start to build some of those pieces into your plans.
So knowing what the qualification scores were for Ireland, we need to make sure that we're consistently shooting over that. And okay so I managed to shoot that qualification score to go to Ireland, but where did that place me this year?
And, and so now: do I need to work on my skills to get myself a little bit higher in those rankings and set that goal a little bit higher? Sometimes we have these big overarching goals and sometimes the athletes forget to build some of those steps or pieces in place to how are we going to get there?
Or, what little pieces are we going to work on? Or what's that next goal, small goal step to get to the bigger goal.
Manisha: The idea of goal setting for an event two years away is not uncommon. I just wanted to share too, so the World Archery Youth Championships are held every two years in a country around the world. 2025 is being held in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Can you just talk about the criteria, so age, what does “youth” mean, what are the age groups, and what are the different disciplines that can attend, if you can share that.
Jody: So, yeah, it's, it's both Recurve and Compound. It's for our slightly older youth age group. So, U21 and U18, and there was - what did we take…? Three per age group, per gender. So it starts to get to be a little bit…. There's a little less on the Recurve side. I think we had a full complement on the Compound side.
When they got there, they got to shoot a qualification match, shoot individual matches, there was three-person team matches and then mixed team matches. So, they were kept busy most days. I think there was only one day where we only had Compound or only had Recurve.
Manisha: What were the provinces that the compound team was comprised of?
Jody: So we had Alberta, Manitoba, PEI - trying to think of who all was on the team. So we were spread out across the - I think Nova Scotia as well. Oh. Yeah, it was a nice spread across the group.
Manisha: And, and how did they qualify? Because the Recurve qualifications were different than Compound. How did Compounds qualify for this event?
Jody: So yeah, the Recurves had a camp to determine who was going to attend, but the Compounds had to shoot a qualifying score. So, there was a minimum, and then they got additional points for their match play points.
But they had to be shot at National level - Canada Cup or an international event to get those points called.
Manisha: And, the Recurve Camp was actually held in Ontario, so if parents are thinking, oh, we might just be able to stay in our respective area to qualify, depending on their discipline, they either have to attend a different province for a specific camp, or they need to be at a national event, which I mean, the chances of it being in their particular province is kind of low, but they do have to travel to qualify for these events.
Jody: Yeah, and certainly attending Nationals to make sure that you have some of those scores. And, the nice thing about Nationals is while it does feel far away on one year, like this year, it'll be New Brunswick, then it goes to the other side of the country in the following year. So, in 2025, it will be in Alberta.
Manisha: Yay, yes. So, we've been hopscotching. So, we've done - let's see - we've done Quebec, we've done Saskatchewan. This year was in British Columbia. Next year we'll be in New Brunswick, and then, as you said, Alberta.
So, parents know that you're going to be traveling. You’re going to be hopscotching across the country. So travel will be involved, a lot of it. And actually in future episodes, we're going to talk about travel with your Archery equipment and your Archer, so make sure you stay tuned for that.
So, Jody, one of the things that has happened to you because you took up the sport, is you ended up competing against your own Archer. And what was that like?
Jody: So, actually, it was this year at our outdoor provincials in August. What they ended up doing was combining the U21s and the ladies. They did it because they were going to put a cash prize on it. Some of the kids shot up to the ladies category to try and win the cash prize.
That added some interesting challenges for some of us, as I'm quite happy to shoot in the ladies area, but some of these up-and-coming Archers are quite a bit stronger than me. I will admit that. They all have the nice equipment because this is what they're doing and I'm still doing it with my hunting bow.
It ended up this year that Brynnleigh and I, when it all shook out, had to shoot the first round against each other. Of course the crowd knows that too, because they know who we are. And, and so there's some cheering and some razzing going on about who's going to beat who. And, some fun stuff like that.
Manisha: So, how do you support your Archer? Yeah, how do you go about supporting your Archer? It's a little bit different, right? And you being someone who has a sport history, I imagine that you're not non-competitive. So how do you support your Archer when you're in the car?
And you're like, yeah, so “What are your plans for the day?”
Jody: Yeah, that conversation didn't happen in the morning.
Manisha: "Don't beat your mother.”
Jody: Yeah, we didn't expect that. But, when we did see it show up on the grid, I did walk over and say, "Hey, we're shooting against each other. So, you know, what do we say we make this interesting and winner drives home or something fun like that?” Because it was a good five-hour drive home.
Manisha: And it can be very quiet. Possibly a very quiet drive.
Jody: So we did end up shooting off against each other, and wouldn't you know it, we ended up having to go to a one arrow shoot-off.
Manisha: And we would love to have known her inner commentary, “Mom, I am going to beat you”. I would have loved to have known what she was thinking because what were you thinking at the time?
Jody: “I can't believe I’m this close to her!”
Manisha: And I can't take a photo of her.
Jody: Yeah.
Manisha: What were you thinking? Were you treating her like just some other Archer or how did you separate that? Because, this was to move on.
Jody: Yeah, I mean, we tell the kids it's part of your process and you need to stay in your process. So I am doing what I need to do and telling myself what I need to tell myself to make that shot and I did end up eliminating her. I got closer to the 10.
Manisha: Now that's for all the Moms out there who shoot. Yes. Yeah.
Jody: So I still had to drive home.
Manisha: So did she - how did she congratulate you? Did she kind of give you a bit of a side eye? How did that - what were the few minutes after that? A quiet walk to the target?
Jody: Yeah, it was a quiet walk, because we could see it.
We knew what had happened, but there was a hug at the end. She was disappointed that she'd been eliminated so early and I was a little disappointed that I had to be the one who had done it.
Manisha: Right. Yeah. Mixed emotions for sure, but did she become part of your cheering squad for your next match?
Jody: Oh yeah, she was sitting behind all of us and I ended up shooting against one of her friends, and so that probably was a tough choice too.
Manisha: Oh no! That was a difficult kind of day for her.
So what happened to that match?
Jody: The next match I went into, I lost. But then I ended up in the Bronze medal match and then I lost to that girl.
Manisha: Oh, but you know what? We moms are proud of you for sure. Definitely proud of you.
Anything else that you would like to share with parents about anything that we've talked about? Any last minute tips or moments of wisdom that came up
Anything like that?
Jody: I guess a couple of things. One of the first things that I thought about after when we were talking about Ireland. I've had the opportunity to go to Ireland with my athlete, and then she was also at the Youth Pan Am Championships in Halifax. I went out there to cheer for her there.
If you're expecting as a parent to see them a lot and spend time with them at these events, it doesn't happen. So, be aware of that. If you're going to pay for this trip, it's not necessarily a family holiday. They are in with the team. They're doing things with the team.
There's some expectations from the coaches to go to practices, to do some things or be places at certain times. I know that was a little bit of a surprise when I first went to Halifax with her. We hardly got to see her and we were staying right there. But, I expected that more when I went to Ireland and I did walk up to the village and get to see them a little bit in the village as well.
But they're there to do a thing and they're being told what to do by their coaches. So you have to kind of respect that and give the space. I know that may have been even a little bit more challenging for some of the other parents that went to Ireland, because what we found out when we got there was that there was a VIP area and they charged a lot of money to be in that VIP area.
And so most parents were sitting almost a football field back from where the Archers were. So that probably made it a little bit tougher.
Manisha: Wow. That's good info to know. Yeah, and you were just referring to the “village”. The village is the Athlete's Village. So, for a lot of these big events, from the Olympics down, is that they - and even nationals - if there's a team, typically they're not allowed to stay with the parents or their support crew.
They are in a separate hotel that's booked for them. So it's the field that you're able to see them and hopefully see them, if you're not too far away.
We know people who will go, say, to Nationals. And the purpose is to go to Nationals, except it's a province that they've not been to, so they want to explore it a little bit.
Sometimes to the detriment of their athlete is that they'll go sightseeing. They'll spend hours and hours walking around, driving around, eating foods that are different than what the Archer would have. And it can be detrimental because then they show up at practice or for their main qualifying event and the Archers are tired. They didn't sleep well. They were up late talking about the adventures of the day. And that's something that parents should think about. When you are traveling, if you're going to add on extra days, do it at the end.
Jody: For sure.
Manisha: Is that something that you found too?
Jody: Yeah, definitely. I mean, certainly there's some advantages to getting there a little bit early and acclimatizing when there's a significant time zone change. And maybe even to a slight adjustment to foods, if you have some issues with foods, but yeah, we strongly recommend as coaches that you do that stuff on the tail end when you can actually enjoy it.
And I mean, in my professional life, we talk a lot about risk management, and so, going touring - and I do recall hearing girls saying - I think it was at the PEI Nationals - that they had gone out bungee jumping the one afternoon. And yes, it's pretty safe. But what happens if one of the activities you did, you got hurt right in the middle of doing Nationals, and now you can't shoot?
Manisha: Great example.
Jody: Yeah. Strongly recommend doing things afterwards and enjoying it, having fun and trying that out, but you did all the work to get to Nationals. You should make sure you get to shoot it.
Manisha: Yeah. When we travel to another city, depending on scheduling, we allow for a buffer day. So we'll travel sometimes two days out and then they can still practice wherever the facility is. Usually most tournaments will allow some sort of practice, an unofficial practice before the official practice day. It's just to chill, make sure your equipment's all right. If there's a store nearby and you need to get something else, at least you're there and can acclimate like you said, but it's not just for time. It's for everything - you can check your equipment, to redo your veins or arrows, or whatever.
Jody: Make sure your equipment arrived if you happen to be traveling by plane….
Manisha: Very true. That extra buffer day can allow for your airline to be delivering your equipment. There are so many stories where equipment doesn't always arrive.
Jody: Or clothes. I've heard challenges about clothing.
Manisha: Yes. Especially in international travel. As a little tip, always carry at least one set of clothing, a toothbrush - make sure it's either your release or your tab - that you have with you in your carry-on.
Don't rely - don't think, it'll be fine because we know archers who - they didn't pack an extra shirt with them and equipment didn't arrive and they had to wear somebody else's shirt. So always pack your shirt with your person, not in your suitcase - not in your checked bag.
Yeah, but that's not always a luxury that everyone can have. So if you're flying in that day, make sure that what you have is with you. And just hope your stuff gets there.
Jody: I was going to add one more thing.
Just from my professional side of life, but from managing some teenagers, I've got three girls, I think mental wellness is something that we really have to focus on with our kids these days, and sometimes we can drive really hard in Archery. You need to practice, you need to do this many arrows, you need to do this and, yeah, we build training plans that do that, but we need to make sure that they're mixing it up, too. And, doing something different and going out with friends and, remembering to enjoy the other side of life. Making sure that they're connecting with people outside the Archery world who are there to support them, and lifelong friends,
And, making sure that we have healthy conversations around that. If you're struggling and as a coach or as the parent I can see that you're struggling, let's have that conversation. And do we need, and I know this is almost like a negative, but do we need to take a break?
Sometimes we need to take a break because the body forces us, you know, there's an injury, but we never see the mental health injury. And that's just as important. And we need to make sure that we take a break from the pressures that we're putting on ourselves that way, too.
So, just making sure you're checking in and supporting your athlete that way.
Manisha: Right, and talking about the break, especially if it is a forced break. So, during the break, talking about it, because there are some - the mentality can sometimes be: I'm letting people down. I'm letting my coach down. I'm letting myself down. How am I going to recoup this time that I've lost?
It is a bit of a controversial idea in the Archery world about tapering. In tapering, you can actually get stronger, so as you're healing from something else, you can become stronger, and it's not to say that you're sitting around, but you can go for walks. There are mental challenges, too during breaks that need to be discussed, either with a coach, parent, or, say, a mental performance consultant. It is important to keep talking.
Jody: And checking in on your athletes who are off on injury or off, like you said, they're going to feel like they're getting further and further behind because everybody else continues to train and they're not.
So, is it mixing it up with some mental arrows and really focusing on meditation and bringing some of those other pieces in, and really honing in on them, so that when they do get a chance to come back, those are really strong.
Manisha: Right. And that we can go back to goal-setting, too.
Even if you have to take a break, still keep with a plan of some sort. Make goals. Every day I'm going to try to meditate for two minutes, five minutes. And exactly what you said, checking in as a coach on your athletes so that they don't feel isolated as well, because that can impact them significantly.
Jody: It's interesting because I spent the weekend watching my two daughters play, other two daughters, play volleyball, and there are girls who are injured on the team, but they still dress and come to the bench. And are part of the team. And sometimes maybe we need to do that a little bit with Archery.
Yeah. Hey, we know you can't shoot, but come to the range and just hang out and socialize and visit too.
Manisha: Right. Right. Keep them involved. Is there anything else you want to share?
Jody: All I want to say is just enjoy the journey. As a parent, as a coach, as an athlete. This is all about enjoying it.
This is your free time, essentially. So if you're not enjoying it, then you better maybe sit down and reassess your goals.
Manisha: I have a joke for you.
What did the Archer say to their coach as the temperature began to drop?
Jody: I don't know.
Manisha: I'm quivering.
And being that you're in Alberta, you've had some weather that is definitely cold. I think that joke is very apropos, still bad, but apropos for what's going on.
Thank you, Jody, for being here with us today, and to parents out there, if you have any questions or topics that you want to be addressed or discussed here on the podcast, let us know.
We want you to know that this show is for you, so contact us. I'm Manisha, that's Jody, and this is the Archery Parent Podcast. We will see you again soon.
Outro:
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Archery Parent podcast. This show is for Archery parents by an Archery parent. You can find more episodes at archeryparentpodcast.ca. While there, sign up for our newsletter and check out our blog.
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The Archery Parent Podcast is hosted and produced by me, Manisha.
Reece Wilson-Poyton and Elissa Foley are our resident Archery consultants and contributors.
Fact checking by Manisha, Reece, and Elissa.
Our theme music is The Stranger by Wooden Flowers. Michael Menart, and Giant Metal Crickets. Sound production is by ARmedia. ca.
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I'm Manisha of the Archery Parent Podcast.
We're doing this one arrow at a time.
