Coach Kyle’s Reflections on Indoor Nationals, 2022

Indoor Nationals took place over the weekend! I’d like to provide a brief overview of what that looks like and what that means. In addition, I’d like to highlight members of the Sattva community that were present and competing. My vision – I want to see at least 25 Sattva athletes at Indoor Nationals, 2023. So, if you are at all interested, let us know and let’s start training! Outdoor Nationals is in Malvern, PA, this year, and Sattva is going! More on that in another communication.

Indoor Nationals Format

Indoor Nationals occurs in a variety of locations around the United States. Athletes get to choose the location they attend, and, in this way, Indoor Nationals is much more accessible when compared to Outdoor Nationals. Outdoor Nationals takes place at one location and anyone who wants to compete must travel to that one location. One of the locations for Indoor Nationals happens to be right in Fiskdale, Massachusetts, near Sturbridge and Brimfield. After athletes compete in all locations across the USA, athlete scores from all sites are ranked nationally. While awards are not given out for how athletes rank at any given site, there are awards for top finishers once all scores across the country are ranked. In other words, an athlete may come in 1st place out of all the athletes in their division who shot at Fiskdale, but then be outperformed by 30 people nationally. Or, conversely, that person may hold onto their 1st place standing once all scores are ranked nationally. Sattva’s Cerji Colvin (barebow) took 2nd, 7th, and 3rd nationally in 2016, 2017, and 2019.

Athletes at Indoor Nationals compete over two days, shooting 60 arrows each day for a total of 120 arrows. Each day is broken into two, 30 arrow rounds. Each round consists of 10 ends of 3 arrows per end. Since the best possible per arrow score is a 10, the best possible score any athlete could achieve is a 1200.

Sattva Athletes at Fiskdale, Indoor Nationals, 2022

Rory Palmer (barebow) shot the early bird line at 8:00AM and, as such, was the first Sattva athlete to enter the Fiskdale arena for 2022.bThis was Rory’s first time at Indoor Nationals. Rory has been training both indoors and out, pickingup his Bronze Olympian pin at 50 meters outdoors, summer 2021. Rory took 55th place Nationally out of a field of 131 senior men, the largest field I’ve ever seen for barebow Indoors. I have a feeling Rory will be back again at Indoor Nationals next year – with some serious tenacity and ready to drill the 10-ring.

Peter Bienkowski (barebow) shot a personal best of 251/300 and finished the weekend with a 968/1200, beating his “best case scenario goal” of a 960. The Bronze Olympian pin for adults is awarded when a barebow athlete scores 250 points indoors. Peter, congratulations on earning your Bronze Olympian pin while at a major event! In addition, out of all the barebow athletes in Peter’s age class at the Fiskdale location, Peter placed 3rd. This was Peter’s first time at Indoor Nationals and he took 29th place Nationally out of 131 senior men.

Matt DiBartolomeo (Olympic recurve) also shot a personal best while under pressure over the weekend! Here is how that played out: Matt needed a 230 in the 4th and final scoring round to pick up his next Adult Archery Achievement pin (black). He was 20 points away and only had 3 arrows left! By no stroke of luck, Matt shot three consecutive 7’s for a final score of 231. Matt admitted getting into his head a little too much for that final end of 3 arrows and attributed the loss of focus to how he nearly missed the 20-point gap he needed to bridge. This was Matt’s first time going to Indoor Nationals. Process focus over outcome focus wins every time.

Robert Campbell (barebow) shot a 795/1200 for an average arrow value of 6.6 points per arrow that earned him 7th place amongst the other Fiskdale athletes. Robert bested his own performance at previous nationals which, as he points out, is a positive direction! In 2020 Robert shot a 741/1200 – so an improvement of 54 points – a positive direction for sure (7.28% increase in score). Robert communicated that his biggest goal this year was to enjoy the whole experience and to help keep other Sattva athletes and community members focused and feeling encouraged. Thank you, Robert, for helping keep the community together.

Elissa Campbell (barebow) scored a 622/1200 at indoor nationals this year, 2022. Consider this in the context that she shot a 530 at nationals in 2020 – pre COVID lockdown. That is an increase of 92 points, or a 17.35% increase in performance (measured by outcome only). Let’s put that in perspective for a moment. Imagine a runner who ran an 11-minute mile in 2020 and now runs a 9-minute mile in 2022. That is equivalent to a 17.35% improvement in performance. Elissa also scored better than she has in any of her other indoor tournaments leading up to Nationals. In fact, over 60 arrows, her tournament scores have climbed this year from 162 to 265 to 288, and, for her final 60 arrows at Indoor Nationals 2022, 334. Elissa reported that her focus was on form and process at Nationals this year, not the outcome of score, and that she also really wanted to be a source of support for other athletes.

Gary Scagliarini (compound) may need a blood transfusion after hitting his arm so many times with the string. Did I mention he is shooting compound? Ouch! Despite this interference and potential source of frustration . . . Gary stuck with it and scored a 1071/1200 with 19 arrows hitting the 10 and 85 arrows hitting the 9-ring, placing 3rd in the Fiskdale location. Let’s break down these numbers a bit: 104/120 arrows (86.6%) landed in the yellow. Gary shot a 986 in 2019 and a 967 in 2020, both at Fiskdale. That is a 10.75% increase in score since 2020. As Robert Campbell says, “that is a positive direction.”

Now, let’s figure out why that arm keeps getting whacked – I thought we fixed that!

Thayer and Candice Raines, two dear colleagues, friends, and former professors of mine, traveled six hours in the snowstorm from Rutland, Vermont, to compete. Their first indoor tournament was earlier this month at Hello Yellow, Sattva. Candice took 1st at Fiskdale and 3rd Nationally in the Women’s 70+ recurve division. Candi is certainly not new to archery competitions, however. She has represented the USA in national and international events for over two decades in a variety of sports, not just archery. On the other hand, this was Thayer’s 3rd archery competition ever with his first and second tournaments being at Sattva (one outdoor and one indoors) earlier this year. Given a choice, I know both would choose outdoor endeavors over indoor ones, any day, regardless of weather. If you ever get a chance to talk with either of them at a tournament, step out of your comfort zone and introduce yourself. Your life will be the richer for it.

RED athletes Abby Gordon, Sophia Latham, Cailyn Kim, Akshara Vijay, and Nathan Wilson, thank you so much for saying hello while I was at Fiskdale. A true pleasure seeing all of you again and getting to see you shoot. Ithaca Archery athletes, it was a pleasure meeting you and I truly hope you come to Fiskdale again next year – with Coach Charles in tow. In addition, to our growing number of archery fans on the north shore area, eastern MA – it is always wonderful to see you! Perhaps a group dinner next year with Ithaca, Sattva, eastern MA archers?! I would like that very much.

Thank You, SAAM

Finally, thank you so much to the team at the State Archery Association of Massachusetts (SAAM) for putting on yet another Indoor Nationals. The amount of logistical planning, problem-solving, and teamwork paid off yet again. Events like this do not simply materialize. Thank you, sincerely, for bringing this opportunity to our doorstep.

In Closing

Congratulations, athletes, for your accomplishments this year. Though the bulk of my writing above focuses on scores, please note that this is because it is easier to communicate than process. Process, not the outcome of score, is ultimately what the focus must be on to perform at optimal levels. Thank you Coach SerahRose and Coach Cerji for coaching classes on Saturday morning so that I could attend Nationals. I want to see 25 Sattva athletes competing at Indoor Nationals, 2023. It is almost always the last weekend in February. If you are inspired by this as much as I am, commit to this now and let’s continue to focus on process.

Moving Forward

We still have one more indoor Hello Yellow in the 2022 indoor season before we move outdoors. Archers – Sattva has TWO OUTDOOR tournaments in April to help RED East athletes and other competitors prepare for the outdoor season. Register for those on our website. Coach SerahRose and I are traveling to USA Archery Outdoor Nationals, with Kestrel, summer, 2022 – Malvern, PA. We would love to see you there and will send out an email soon with more information. Summer fun, here we come!

Coach Kyle