Catching Up With Competitive Archer Leann Drake

This week on the Missouri Woods & Water podcast the guys get to catch up with local competitive archer Leann Drake.  Leann is a 17 year old Missouri native who has been shooting since she was 10 years old and has been on fire this year winning many tournaments including making the world team that will be competing against over 60 different countries in Ireland in a few months.  First, we discuss some of the tournaments she has been in since we last talked.  Then we get into her process and how she is able to maintain consistency while shooting and what she does if she starts to struggle.  We also talk about some of her gear and what her future might hold, including the possibility of turning pro very soon.  Join us in wishing Leann and the US team luck in Ireland and thanks for listening!

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Missouri Woods and Water Podcast with your host, Andy. Mike and Nate. Great job. Did you like that one? Not saying anything. Yeah. That's probably best proud of you. Probably best this may or may not be the second time we've hit the record button. You have to jack everything up. Hi guys.

Andy, how is it out there in the fields? Dry. Dry. Except for that one spot. Yeah. Except for that one spot Dad found. Dad found the only mud in Lafayette County. Nice. Yeah. Rod drop Pops. Roger was able to get a 270 horsepower [00:01:00] tractor stuck in a ditch. Not even a ditch. It was a waterway. Crossing a waterway. But I think, I don't know if there's a spring in that waterway or, I know that sounds dumb. If it's the waterway. I'm assuming he was in that thing's always wet. Like it just seems like it's, there's one spot in that waterway. Does. Yeah. Yeah. Holds, I don't know. Oh, rod, he buried her. Good.

We got it out though. Everything, nothing was tore up. Did you pull it out with the Kyo Caddy? He just put it four low. Yeah. I didn't want, I didn't wanna make him feel that little, so while I got a tractor, actually he got the tractor. I just got in and drove it. By the time I got there, he had everything already set up to get pulled out.

So you just had to pop the clutch and let a ride, huh? That's right. That's right. Nice. Easy rider. Yeah. So you guys wanna talk about who we got on today? I do. Let's jump in it. Let's hear it. Who we got on today? Leanne Drake. Yeah. Which you guys ha entered. She was on the show prior, what was it? 52?

Episode 52. Episode 52. I wasn't able to make [00:02:00] it back then. I don't, obviously that was two years ago, so who knows what I was doing? I remember specifically what you were doing was being a giant piece of shit. That's what it was. He always goes too far every time. I'm just saying I remembered what happened that night.

Okay. However, this is episode 1 56. Yep. Which is exactly two years. It's, this is our 104 episodes later. 52 plus 52. So we've officially been 104 for three, four years of episodes. That means she's exactly two years ago when we, when you interview, I think what Amy's trying to say is we've been doing this, been two weeks, there's 52 weeks in a year.

This is our third. Third full year officially as of this episode, I would say that's about right. Yeah. We started about this time in 2020. No, we did start this time. This is 56. No, we started March or May our first episode released on [00:03:00] Memorial Day. 2020. Yeah. On Memorial Day. Yeah. Cuz it was like, we started out on Mondays, like the first two episodes or something like that.

They moves those. That's incorrect. You've always been Tuesdays? No, I'm pretty sure like our first one was like on Monday. I will challenge you. Okay. Okay. Good story guys. Listeners really about care about that. But back to, we were having on Leanne Drake prof, no, not technically a professional archer, but yet, shortly on her way, she's thinking about making the change next year.

Rank number one at 18 u in the, was it Uua? What do they call it? U a t. She threw a u lot of U 18. There's, there was a lot of letters. I just know she's really good at what she does. Yeah. And she's going, she's been traveling, doing a lot and obviously we talk about what she's going doing on the show.

So we'll let you get into that. But before we do that, let's take care of some sponsors. Good idea. Cuz I don't want to admit that I was wrong. Thank you. Let's start [00:04:00] Weber Outfitters. Micah and Andy, were actually just fighting about Weber Outfitters trying to get, so trying to get down there. Someone's not hanging out.

Andy wants to know when it's gonna rain. That's what he asked you. And you can't answer 'em, that, that's God's choice. That's up to Dar Eack over here? No. Brian Busby. Brian Busby. Yeah. Brian Busby. Yeah. Bud Webber Outfitters. Check 'em out. Webber outfitters.com. They're out in Hawk Point.

Missouri gonna be doing some cool shows with them when we make it out there. Not really sure what the shows are gonna consist of, but it's gonna be around helping you select a bow, you fit it for a bow, you're gonna follow us in our process. Especially a guy like me who hasn't wanted to switch in years because he doesn't like change or just understand the process.

It's gonna be a good show. So check 'em out. Weber Outfitters on X just sent an email to our buddy Jared over at OnX. Yep. Used the code MWW [00:05:00] 24 20%. I got a fellow employee signed up the other day using that. So nice. Save himself a little money. Saved some cash. Yes, sir. He get that elite membership?

No he just did it from Missouri. Yeah. He needed it for mainly for work. Yep. So Makes sense. Yeah, that's what though, what's cool about is there's so many uses for it, whether it's farming, hunting, delivering, propane, Yeah. Yep. Log. Do you use that every day? Every day. Oh, I didn't know that actually, guys, I sent you guys a pen today that I'm hoping works out.

It's gonna help me out. I was gonna say, I hope works out for you. I'm getting lot. You can. Cool. You can come. I'm getting a lot of pins. If I open up my OnX, it is just clustered with whether it's coyote hunting, deer hunting, whatever it is, plastered with it.

Properties we've looked at. Yeah. There's definitely a few in there I need to get rid of. Yeah, same here. Doesn't work. Oh, I deleted the lease properties we looked at just because, yeah. Fuck those guys. But I said I wouldn't say anything bad. Is that bad? I think so. Oh, okay. My bad.

We just didn't, we didn't [00:06:00] say weird. The shoe. If the shoe fits. Yeah. Alon optics. Yeah. Don't say it. Please don't. Not this time. Really freaking good. Optics. They're awesome. Sharp. I'm gonna get our words weem to change item. Sharp, tight, and price just right. Really freaking good. Tell really freaking good.

Nah we love Athlon. We've been shooting them even before, they were sponsors that's a pretty good indication that they have high quality products. Also congrats to our contact Drake out there. He Slade a Missouri and Kansas bird with his buddy. That's right.

Yeah. We were hoping to, he needed to call my ass back and come out and do a fun show on that. Yeah, man, we just wanna hear, I, not too many people have been killing birds, so you've killed two and him and his buddy doubled up in Missouri and then went Kansas, did the same thing. That's awesome. That's cool.

So Congrat pretty awesome. Congrats buddy. Yep. So check 'em out, athlon optics.com. Find a dealer near you, hunt worth gear. Use the code Mww 15 for 15% off. I know it's May, but I think they got a [00:07:00] 20% going on, right? They do now. They, it's a Turkey sale. Yeah. Oh. So don't use our code, use the code, use that instead.

20%. But start off some, this is a good time to try out the lights late or early season stuff. And if you like it, which you will, then you can move on and get you some. And they've got a lot of options. Get the Shelton hoodie. Do yourself a favor. Yeah. I was just gonna say they've got a lot of options.

A way that we have thought about to help you in that situation is we have a website now, Missouri Woods and water.com. We're, we have a gearbox page and each of us is gonna go through and list what we wear and why we wear it. I've got some of mine built out, Andy and Micah. Andy doesn't even know how to do it yet, but I'm gonna show 'em tonight.

And we're gonna build out our gearbox pages and. You can go in and see what it is we wear. Yeah. Andy wears different stuff than I do. Micah wear, likes different things. Shop in the men's section. Okay, there we go there ladies. This is cheaper. And you went down a different road there, down a different road there bud.

I guess they don't have kids, yeah. We got a lot of hunt worth stuff [00:08:00] in there because we love their shit. We wear it. So check it out. Hunt worth gear.com. Black Ovis used the code M ww 10 for 10% off. They got everything. Everything that you pretty much need. They got you coverage.

Oh, in the show I reference I stopped by Walmart looking for a decoy and the whole time like should just, should have planned ahead and ordered one off Black Ovis. They probably have an overnight shipping I guarantee they probably do. I need to get on there. Oh actually funny.

Wanna stru a decoy? I just went to their website and I was looking at Walker game ears. I love my For mowing. I love my walker. Gamer, if you mowing, do you, what do you, which ones you wear those ones second one to the right. Those? Yep. I want to get the ones that are wireless Bluetooth. Oh, that's sweet.

Yeah. Didn't know that was an option. It is an option, yeah. Cause don't know. I got the ones that you can plug in. I stopped looking. Oh, right here. Walker or Bluetooth? What's the price on the 36 bucks? No, that can't be the right ones. Those aren't the ones I've found. This is as low as $36. Yeah, but I found a different one, but I stopped [00:09:00] looking and I got busy and forgot.

I don't know. I got they do have those. Yeah, I got the ones that you can plug in. They got the, obviously whenever a loud sound goes off, it muffles it for you. That's sort thing. But Right. I plug my phone in, listen to whatever. As you can tell, they have a little bit of everything. Yep.

So also sister company camo fire. You gonna jump on there? Oh. Did you see that message we got today from our, one of our listeners? I think it was Bryce. Oh. About the Leopold glasses. The little pulled glasses. He's I got you. Need to buy some off of there. Those are pretty awesome glasses. And of course let's go through, they're not on there anymore.

But maybe for the next time I might have to jump on those cuz they look like they would be enjoyable. And I got two pairs of sunglasses that are messed up. Yep. They're not on there right now. They got a bunch of cheers stuff. Little bits and stuff on there earlier. Variety of things. Decoyed. Hey look, trekking poles that I'll never [00:10:00] use.

Yeah. That's be true. Be killed in elk night. They might, but then they're at camp, so yeah. Ziemer lamb boots, season's gonna be coming up pretty soon, so you wanna get your boots early so you can make sure you break 'em in, make sure they're the right fit. That's what hell of a point. Sir. I love my crests.

My cresta one 12. I grow, they're 11 twelves. Yeah, I, when I first got 'em, I didn't think I'd want, I'd like 'em cuz they're taller boots. But they're so light, but also have major ankle support of a bigger boot. Yeah. I'm wearing 'em Turkey hunting, I'm wearing 'em, coyote hunting, like everything any hunting.

Like I'm gonna be doing massive walking in. I'm wearing 'em. So those are money. I was looking at those. I was also looking at the highly recommend. Yeah. So it's interesting, like we all have a different favorite pair, because I went, I originally were gonna order the 11 elevens, the shorter ones.

And I have, and I don't like those as much as I like my links. Yeah. They didn't have those in my size. And so they convinced me to try these, and I'm glad they [00:11:00] did. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. Crazy. They knew what they were talking about. They know what they're doing over there. Check 'em out. Za land usa.com.

Habitat works. Dustin, I wonder if his ear was burning. I was talking about him today, weren't you? Yeah. I saw some people burning on the way to your house. I saw that as well. Yeah. Your neighbors were burning fence rows or something like that. Like I got to see that as well since Nate didn't tell me he was a bridge out on the way I normally come to Yeah.

To be fair, different way. I didn't know it was the bridge. I just assumed it was, how often does he guy go that way? Decent amount of times. Yeah. I guess figure going that way cuz it said road closed. So I assumed it was the bridge, but it couldn't, there wasn't even a road close sign coming from that way.

There's a big old excavator sitting right in the middle of the road. No, no bridge. Oh yeah. It's like you should have traded out. See if the cow caddy could have been So there was a like bypass around the edge. It looked like equipment had crawled up and down. Ooh. Contemplated it. You thought about Kyle Caddy for a minute.

Yeah, John, take old caddy up it. You should have tried. [00:12:00] Nice. But anyways, back to Habitat Works. You can email him at Habitat Works llc gmail.com or you can give him a call at (816) 752-7390. He especially likes phone calls after midnight. Really enjoys them. Yeah. You get a discount actually. Yeah. Yeah. 15% just be like, Hey, the guys told me to call you after midnight.

Dustin, I'm sorry man. We're actually probably gonna be doing a show with him sometime in the summer. About summer fire. So that'll be a pretty good one. I think that would be a really good one. And I think that is the sponsors, right? I think so. We got 'em. All right. Let's get into the show. Don't forget to get on our website guys.

We got a new website. Check it out. Yep, for sure. This is the Missouri Woods and Water Podcast.[00:13:00]

Okay. With us tonight, we have returning guest, Leanne Drake on with us. Leanne, how you doing? I'm doing good. How about you? We're good. Good. Lots of cha. It was two years ago since we talked to her, I think last time. Yep. We just looked it up. It was episode 52 and we're on what, Nate? This will be 1 56.

Yeah, so it's been two years up. It's a hundred. A hundred episodes. Is that almost exactly. 1 56. Yeah, that's two years. Exactly. It would be two years to the episode. Yeah. That's pretty good. That's funny. That is, we did not plan that way, but a lot has happened since then. And I would encourage people, by the way, to go back and listen to that episode if they want to epi episode number 52.

Some stupid title, but it's about archery. But it is Leon Leanne on with us and remember that one? Cuz that was the first one we recorded outdoors. Yeah. We were sitting on Andy's back porch and did that one. That was a nice night. Little nicer than tonight. I don't know. It's not that bad.

It's nice outside. It's pretty weather. We're having little crisp. Andy's [00:14:00] eating it up gets do all is planting. No, we aren't planting right now. Having any rain. Yeah, that's true. So we're not, we're trying, tractors are stuck. Yeah. Tractors. There's no rain Boomers still getting tractors stuck.

Yeah. But a lot has changed because you showed up to our studio. This tonight. And you're driving. That's right. Yep. So that was weird. So how old are you exactly? I'm 17. 17 years old. Okay. Yeah, I remember. I thought she was somewhere close to the same age as my daughter. I thought a year older, but so yeah, cuz I don't remember if you were driving back then or not.

I'd have been what, 15, two years. You would've either had your permit, let's math a little bit here. Possible permit at that time. I don't know. She could be old for 17, so she would already had that permit at the time. Who knows. But I did find it weird when she got out of the truck and I'm like, you were just driving.

Makes she feel old. It does make me feel old. Time flies when you're having fun and she's now taller than you too. That's not difficult. That's not difficult. It's taller than me. Smarter than Andy. That is hard to do that part probably. Yeah. [00:15:00] That's pretty accurate. So what have you been up to?

Obviously shooting your bow still. Yep, just shooting and practicing mostly every day. So hunting. Have you been able to do any Turkey hunting yet? I was just gonna ask, we were talking about that a little bit. Yeah, I did some Turkey hunting. Haven't been successful, haven't heard much of anything. So Micah mentioned something about that same boat, I don't know what it is, but this year it seems like just like social, you meet social media and everything.

I just haven't seen as many birds on the ground. No. Even on opening day, I didn't see him any. Yeah. Yeah. Micah was saying it just pictures. He didn't really see any, I think people with good spots are getting into 'em, but it's just not I don't know. Yeah. I've noticed, and I'm gonna try, if I can get my hands on one, but I went to lack of planning on my part, went to Walmart to look, and obviously they don't have anything, but a lot of people are saying like, full strut decoys right now.

Yeah. They're being really aggressive like the Toms are. Yeah, because I had a hin decoy out and I've for two times now went out and I've had hens come out and they just keep on trucking. [00:16:00] There's no tom, no gobbler around. But somebody said that they're having good luck with challenging him with kind of another fan in Decoy.

We talked about this last show on our intro, and me and Leanne's dad was talking about it before when he first, when they first got here. I ain't got no Turkeys nowhere. And the one place that has started to get 'em back a little bit, they're there, but not really. And I bet they're gone by now.

How much you wanna bet? Have you seen anything last weekend? I seen last weekend though. I seen some. Yeah. So yeah. It's not consistent like it used to be. Yeah. Yeah. Two years ago they actually came back. Came back. And I actually went. That's when we took my son hunting out there. And actually had a chance to kill a tom. It was pretty cool. But So are you hunting 'em with your bow or are you gonna blow their heads off with a shotgun? I've taken the shotgun and then I give up on that hoping they'll kill him a little closer. So I take the bow every now and then. Dad takes the shotgun.

Yeah. Yeah. Bring back up. Yep. I get it. Last year we needed it. Mike Hunsucker decapitated one today at [00:17:00] nine yards. Yeah. Yeah, the He can do that. That'll happen. Yeah. His capa was dictated with a bow. Obviously it's Harland Bow Hunter. That's all they use. This is about, they go goose hunting with bows.

That's pretty crazy. Yeah. But you have any any deer hunting success this year? Anything? Yeah, I shot Nine this year. He did some crazy things, but yeah, did that. And then I shot a, what I thought was a dough and it ended up being a button buck, but I literally destroyed it, so I was like, whatever.

It was my first solo hunt, so Oh, nice. It was definitely a, yeah. Interesting time. I thought I was gonna fall out of the tree stand, but hybrid elating the thing, it didn't sound any excitement. Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yep. That's awesome. My son Chase actually killed what we thought was a dough also this year button buck, it happens.

Thanks, Andy. It happens every year for sure. We walked up to it. Oh, that's a button bucket. My, it looked really small once we got up to it, it was like, I was like, that thing was bigger whenever I shot it than it is [00:18:00] now. They always are. They always are. That'll happen to you every time. Yeah. You've had some exciting things happen here in the last couple months though.

Tell us a little bit about about that. So we just ended indoor season and I had a phenomenal indoor season. I went to Lancaster again this year and I ended up back on the stage and I ended up taking first on that. I went to Vegas. Thank you. I went to Vegas took first in that and I won a few other tournaments, national tournaments.

And then I shot USA Indoor nationals and I took second in that. And then I shot Joe a USA indoor Nationals and I ended up taking first in that with the no big deal, some of the biggest indoor terms, in the United States, but yeah. The USA indoor Nationals, that also goes into a combined combined rankings.

So it takes the top eight archers from all [00:19:00] compound women. So that includes like your seniors, your cubs, your youth, your cadet, whatever. And then your top eight go to a shoot off at indoor nationals. And It's like head to heads and you get knocked out by whoever you're seeing. It's a step ladder, right?

Yep. It's like March Madness. It's like a bracket. Yeah, it's like a step, it's step ladder. So eight place, seven winner goes. Six winner goes five. Oh, okay. Yeah. Maybe I'm wrong. Yeah, one to eight and then two to seven. It's a bracket. Bracket, so it's a bracket. I'm wrong. Okay. Remember I told you're smarter, Andy.

It happens. There's so many different brackets that it just, sometimes it gets confusing, so Yeah. So how did you, what was your scene? Oh so I walked in there in seventh and then I got knocked out my first match. I just, so we shoot a 10 ring the size of a dime and if you miss that, you hit a nine automatically.

And I just really couldn't get the bow to. Perform [00:20:00] as good as I had been at home. I wasn't really nervous, but I did get knocked out my first match, so I ended up taking seventh. I didn't move any places, but it was still fun. I went up against the best in the world yeah. It was definitely, yeah, an experience.

How far of a shot is that? Is it 20 yards? Yep, it's 20 yards. All my indoor stuff is 20 yards and then we go outdoors. For all the UATs and all the USA events, I shoot 55 yards, which is also 50 meters. And then I'm not really into 3d. And then I also shoot some like field stuff, which is multiple different distances and some different targets.

You got three different targets for three different days. But moving on to outdoor season it just started we went to Arizona probably what, a week ago. And We got there and I really didn't wanna go. I just wasn't performing very well. I was struggling and I got it figured out whenever I got there and I was just whatever happens.

And I chose the bow whenever I got there. I took two of 'em with me and [00:21:00] then we got there and I shot the Youth World Team trials. This is something I've never done before. It's just something that it's, it only happens two every two years. Okay. So this year is for the USA target team, which is 55 yards.

And then next year will be for the field team. So it'll be for like the three different targets for three different days. And that was actually in the United States last year, and I Okay. Didn't have the opportunity to go so It was my first time ever doing something like this. So we started and we shot a 72 arrow match which you can score a seven 20 and I ended up shooting as 6 86, which isn't bad.

It's definitely really good for the wind in your conditions. It's very hard to shoot perfect out there. So that was my personal best out there. Nice. And so you ha it cuts the top eight to the top eight. So I think there was like 32 or [00:22:00] 34 kids in my class or girls in my class.

I shoot the cadet class, so that's anybody under the age of 18 or you can also call it the U 18. And they cut to the top eight and I was sitting in fourth. So that afternoon we ended up going into a round robin match. And so it's all off of a point system. So like you get four points for being in fourth place, but then you also get a certain number of points for being above a six 80.

Gotcha. So you just, it it all really goes by points. It doesn't go about how you perform or anything. Yes, your score does count. But so we end up shooting against every other girl. So I shot against seven girls. And You're not gonna win every match, win and lose some. And so I ended up making the team to go to Ireland in July.

How many get to do that? There's only three of us that get to do it, and then there's an alternate. Okay. She does not get to participate or go. So you got top three pretty much. Yeah, I was in third, awesome. It was, that's awesome. [00:23:00] Yeah. How's that travel budget looking? Mom and dad.

And then that same week I shot the Arizona Cup. I had a phenomenal time out there. Qualification matches. That's again a 72 arrow match. I ended up in second for that by my 10 count. I had, me and the girl in first place were tied on score. I had a higher X count. You had more tens? She had more tens, but I had more Xs, so she ended up taking first.

Oh, okay. And then I ended up taking second. This also cuts to the top 32. So then the rest of us, so the top two of us had to buy. Cuz there was only 30 people. And We got to shoot the eliminations, which this is another bracket. So like first against, 30th or how many other peoples left in there?

Top seed and bottom seed, yep. Yeah. Yep. All the way through. And I won all my matches and I ended up taking first in that. Nice. It was definitely a good weekend out there. It was very hot and got very sunburnt, but some could say That's all right. [00:24:00] Some can say you're the national champ. Yeah. Speaking of which mean, I think so.

I think that's what that means. Yeah. Speaking of which I, so we get a national ranking for the U team and currently I am ranked number one for NICE the usa. Nice. Pretty awesome. Yeah. So in the 18 U, you are ranked as a number one. Yep. Outdoor female. This also goes for indoors. So the, okay, cool. USA indoor and then all the UATs, so there's five UATs and those all count.

So like for Arizona, I would've gotten like one and a half points. Because I took second or two and a half or something like that. So it's all just off of a point system. And then whoever has the lowest number of points by the end of the year is who makes the team. And that takes the top four or five, five.

And I made that last year. So it's my golf. So it's kinda like golf. Like you want to have a low score. Yeah. That's okay. That's the one thing I don't like about that. Then [00:25:00] I don't like golf so what does that mean that your top five get, you get to do what? Absolutely nothing. Fantastic. So what you do cool.

It's something you put it on your resume type thing, right? So we get a A whatchacallit RAC patch. It's not even that cool. It's a piece of paper that says you made it. And then, but we do get a really diploma cool jersey. We get a diploma. We do get a really cool jersey. You shouldn't say it to a high school girl, they don't mean anything.

Hey mama. That Andy dude, he said it's not important to graduate. Don't worry about that. We did get a jersey and a certificate that says that you made it. We don't get to travel anywhere or anything like that, but it's kinda like bragging rights though, right? Top five in the nation. Yeah.

The jerseys are new this year, so that was pretty cool. You can't just go out and buy one and be like, Hey, I made the team. No, these are brand new, so nobody has them but the people that made the team. So it's pretty cool. Is there like a team store where people can go buy a Leanne Drake jersey?

No, I don't think so. They should do that. You should do that. Yeah. [00:26:00] That's cool. One thing I want, actually I want talk about shooting in a second, but how nervous are you? About your Bose whenever you're traveling? Very. Is it like a child to you? Yes. It's literally everything to me like that.

I'm so like sentimental about it. It's like whenever we're in an airport, we drive mostly everywhere, but whenever we go to an airport then if we have to like change planes or something, then I'm like, okay, where's my bow at? Is it going up? The little thing. So what's your best practice?

Like what, how, what do you find works the best on. On transporting your bow, what type of case do you like to use? What works for you guys? So I use an elevation case. I also am able to pack my clothes in it and everything. And so you just pack everything on top of it? So yeah, I break it all down and then everything goes in, it's a little compartment.

I put a blanket around it most of the time just to keep it a little more protected, especially since I run a blade on my wrist. So I don't want it to get bent or anything like that. The [00:27:00] security people that go through it, so it really doesn't matter. Yeah. But don't touch that. That's what I'm saying.

I'm like, dad, are they gonna open it? That was the first question I asked. Are they gonna open my bow case? Probably. So they're yanking stuff out. Yeah. What kind of bow do you shoot? I shoot on Matthews. Okay. So I think she says same one. She was shooting that two years ago. Recorded. Where's TX 30? Tx.

Okay. Yep. I also have a 34 now TX 34. Nice. Okay. And that, but is that shorter axle to axle? Is that what that's meaning? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Do you have a, this is one thing I've always struggled with, so I was curious how you handle indoor and outdoor league or competitions. Do you have problems seeing your sites more indoors, outdoors?

Does something change for you at all? Do you have to adjust? Yeah. So whenever I go indoors in my peep I have a clarifier and an aperture. I normally change my aperture to either gather more light or to, so my eye can gather more light or, so it makes it a little dimmer [00:28:00] so that I'm able to like, It's almost like a compare and contrast of if I want it lighter or if I want it darker, if this is a happier, happy medium type thing. So I don't ever shoot indoors. Yeah. But before I finish this basement, I've got like almost 30 yards from, that's not the end of my basement. It keeps going. And we used to shoot a little bit down here. Yeah. We used to shoot in here. Yeah. What I'd noticed is if there was light above me, I couldn't see my peep.

Like it was just gone. It definitely messes with me a little bit and my pins would starburst a little bit too. Yeah. So I hated shooting in here and so I would wait till it was nice outside and I'd go outside and shoot. And I always wonder, someone who's competing, you're doing it indoors and then, two weeks later you're outdoors.

Yeah. How does that mess with you guys? Even just like different arenas that I shoot in. So like whenever I went to the Iowa ProAm, that's a super dark arena and It's it's really almost like you're in a really dark basement, but it's like there's still light, but the lights are so high in the ceiling that it just [00:29:00] is really dim.

I just kinda if I can't see very well, then I'll change my aperture. I don't like change at all. I would literally cry if something were to ever be changed. So it's just all personal preference. But whenever I go outdoors, we can't use any electronics. So I can't have a sight light or anything like that on my bow.

So it's okay, I need to find the app that works for me. I need to find the clarifier that works for me to make my pin. Through my eyes the way I want to see it. Do you do that during a practice round? Oh yeah. That's what's happening. Yeah. Sometimes if I'm there at a tournament, which is very seldom I'll change my aperture, but again, I don't like change, so I really don't change anything at a tournament.

Which makes sense. I do a lot of, not a lot, but I do make small minute adjustments in practice sometimes. Lot tinkering. Making sure everything's a little fine tuned. Yeah. Gotcha. One question I had all these tournaments stuff, and I know the answer from talking to you before, but tell us a little bit like where some of these other people are from you're [00:30:00] facing your top five in the nation, where are some of these other people from?

Cause I think it's cool that this is not a Missouri thing by any means. No. They're from all over the world. So like the people that shoot the UATs that's only for the United States. Every country has their own Organization. So there's in the top five from last year we have Hawaii.

Pennsylvania. That'd be a cool place to be from, right? Pennsylvania, Virginia, Missouri, and Utah are all the top five. Who was the Missouri kid? Me? Didn't know if there was another one. Amazing. I just had to do it. Smart. Smarter than Andy. Huh? I did that on purpose. See, that's nothing Andy. Just I'm sorry.

We're gonna fight tonight, aren't we? Probably. I, and I didn't realize, that each country also had, so when you go to Ireland, okay, so whenever I go to Ireland, there'll be 60 different countries there. So [00:31:00] they've all, they, each country takes three girls, three guys, U 18, three girls, three guys, U 21 for both Compound and Recurve.

So there'll be approximately 60 countries there. So they all have like their own I don't know what they call 'em over there, but we call ours UATs. So who, what country is typically like the country to beat? Yeah. Is it usa, is it Germany? What's the shit talking here?

Yeah. I really have no idea. Mexico's definitely been on top for a little while. India's coming up. I know that. I was gonna say, India's gotta be, I would think that they would be number up there ranks in would recurve, I would say China. They'd. Be up there. Some surprises to me. If I was just guessing, who would be like the powerhouses?

If we're talking about basketball, right? Everybody knows the United States is the best basketball country. Talk about soccer. It ain't us. You're right. Yeah. Didn't we win Germany? Didn't we win a few years ago though? We've never won [00:32:00] the World Cup. Yeah, we got fair, we got into the, to, we got into the tournament this last time and they got our asses beat.

I have no idea. You guys know I didn't won a game in the tournament. We got out pool play for the first time in whatever, and then just got murdered by whoever. And we didn't even win baseball this year. No, we did not. Puerto Rico did. Which that's a hell of a country for baseball. It is. Anyways, I would not have guessed Mexico to be like a big time archery country.

I was just thinking what do they hunt down there? They hunt really tiny ass deer. So that makes sense now. COOs deer. I don't think they're the ones hunting 'em. I think we go over there and hunt. That might be true too. Think they're a big hunting community. The United States. Infectious got back from Turkey and the women's senior team took first.

Nice. So that was definitely a big step for the United States. But yeah, Mexico's been up there for a little while. That's pretty cool. And that happens when Next year. What? When you go to Ireland? I go in July this year. Oh, you went in July. It's pretty quick. And it's coming up. It's coming up. [00:33:00] That's pretty cool.

So what are you doing to prepare? You just shoot every day? Yeah, tinker. I shoot and I wasn't gonna go to SoCal, but there was gonna be this, the outdoor right? Yeah. Yeah. I wasn't gonna go to SoCal, but I'm gonna go now because there's gonna be a month between and I need a little bit of pressure cuz.

There's not many tournaments like this in Missouri. And so it's just, I need the pressure situations. I don't gotta stay sharp. Yeah. I was worried about my daughter traveling for comp softball this summer. I don't think I have to worry as much now. I've been talking to you. We're going to different places, but Southern California, you guys flying out there or you gonna drive?

We're flying. Yeah. That's a bit of a, we drove it last year. Yeah. It was a long drive. I'm just glad you're not my daughter because I hate, I hate flying and I would do everything in my power to, to drive to Southern California and I wouldn't care if it took me four extra days, cuz then I'm not in a plane.

But we saw some pretty cool stuff going out there though. The year before that we made it like a vacation and we went [00:34:00] up and seen the red sequoias and there is too much asphalt out there. I was ready to be home. We've got to see some pretty cool things out there though. Like we stayed right next to the Mexican border.

Some pretty interesting things going on around there. Oh, I'm sure they are. I'm sure they are. But we went to the Grand Canyon last year on our way home. That's cool. It was got to make it a little bit of a trip while you're out there. Yeah. Yep. Do you have any brothers or sisters? I do not. No. So it's just you?

Yep. Okay. Just me. Makes it a little easier. Yeah. Trying to figure out those. Definitely make it a little easier. So what's a day of practice for you? You get outta school, I'm assuming you're senior, junior. No, I'm a junior. Junior and I'm homeschooled, okay. I just, so you get your, I was homeschooled.

You get that homework done in five minutes Yeah. And then you go out, do your thing. Yep. Some days I take a little longer on school than others, or some days I wanna shoot in the morning rather than the afternoon. I just go out and currently I'm working with two different bows. Same exact bow, they feel different.

I'm just trying Why are you doing that? Just outta curiosity. So if I get [00:35:00] over, or in fact if I get anywhere and I have a bow that's broken, we're in trouble, blew a bearing, I'm in trouble. You have the exact same bow, I have the exact same bow that I can shoot. That's the main reason.

Yeah. And then I just set up, I set up my target. It's always set up. And then I just shoot, there's no way that you can, you can keep score, but it's never gonna be the same. It's always gonna fluctuate. You got the wind, you got the sun, you got, different climate.

I don't really keep score very often, but I group tune. Before I even start shooting outdoors, I'll paper tune and all that kind of stuff. But are you paper tuning every time? Like before I go shooting? Like by, before every practice or? No. Nope. I paper tune and then I flex my airs.

That is a hell of a process. I know. I was no. Nope. I just go out and I shoot and just shoot as many arrows as I feel. Some days it'll be, 72, some days it'll be 150, just all fluctuate. Yeah. Do you change the time of the day? Just cuz you never know, like in a tournament one you're gonna shoot are you talking about like [00:36:00] when time of day, for outdoor, I would assume like maybe Morning Sun's in a different position yeah. So each course is laid out differently. So some of them, like I'm left-handed, so sometimes I'll be facing the sun, sometimes the sun will be on the other side of me. So I'll just change the time for the sun to be different, because that also changes my site picture.

If there's a glare or whatnot. So I just, go whenever I feel like it. Or if there's something going on in the morning, then I'll shoot in the afternoon or something. Yeah. What do you feel like is the biggest everybody listening to this show when they listen to it, is most likely not as good as Archer, as lean DRA is.

Right? Pro, not pro. Pro not. But we all think about similar stuff probably that you do. And one thing that I think about is when I'm not shooting well, What is it? What the hell is it that I'm doing to not shoot well right now? What do you find is maybe your largest, I don't know. What if struggle is the word I'm trying to use, but [00:37:00] if with, if you're not doing something, either it, your concentration or whatever what do you find that affects you the most in a negative way? And then how do you overcome that? Overcome it? So most people think it's the bow. That's their automatic thought. Oh, it's the bow. So something's wrong with the bow. Something is wrong. I like to go above my sight. Our buddy Pat used to like to ground tune his.

He does. He's perfecting, he's perfected ground tuning. Yeah. It is definitely you, I've learned that the hard way. It, you have to realize that you are the one making the mistakes. It's not always about Yeah. Sometimes about can, there's, can be something wrong with it. In fact, the week before I went to Arizona, I was like, I am struggling.

Like I am not going to Arizona. I blew a bearing in my cam and I shot it in Arizona just like that too, cuz I couldn't get cams fast enough really. My biggest struggle is I will be shooting really well and then all of a sudden I'll just have one round that just isn't good and I will get so mad [00:38:00] and so aggravated with myself and I'll just be like, what's going on?

And I start looking at the bow and I know it's not the bow and it's me and I just need to calm down and yeah, I check everything over, make sure everything's tight. And then I just do a mental reset like stop and take a drink of water, go and get something to eat and come back.

Just something to break my concentration of it. But I don't really change anything on the bow unless I know it's the bow. That's just what I do is just mentally reset myself and. Yeah, go back and do it again. That's probably, I think that's would be, my answer is very similar when I'm not it's, I think more rushing is what I feel like I'm doing sometimes, which is a form of just not settling down and, Yeah.

Whatever you wanna call it. And everybody has those things where you're like, what's wrong with my bow? What do I need to change? Oh, is the side off? Do I need to, mess with it a little bit. You just, you said earlier you like to tinker. That's me. Yeah. I'll change my sight even though it's probably my fault.

And then I'm, changing, fixing [00:39:00] something that I probably shouldn't be fixing. Everybody goes through that. And I think it's, for the people listening, I'm not saying they necessarily want to be, professional archers, but every bow hunter out there or every archer out there wants to be proficient in what they do.

Yeah. Like for me I'm not saying if you're a bow hunter do this. If you have a three pin or whatever, but I have a very adjustable site. It has, my new adjustments, I can go one click and it like, just moves it just a tad. Sometimes every arrow I'm clicking it one way or the other.

And that's just for my own preference. It's just okay, that was, my X rings here I'm a little bit to the right. I need to move that one click over. It's just a satisfaction. What is that site? Yeah. Yeah. That's probably another being serious. Go ahead and tell me what that said.

Oh, I would assume that's probably not one that you would want to take out. Probably not hunting. I wouldn't have a problem with it. Go ahead and let me know what that site is. It's an Excel achieve xp. All right. Geez. [00:40:00] You can also get the landslide. If you wanna get a little more technical, go ahead and write landslide down.

You can look at both of 'em. Okay. I'll do that. Sorry. I'm sorry. I'm getting a new bow. I'm just saying. Might be a time to look at that, but the way we shoot the one click, it's not gonna matter. Yeah, it's not gonna matter for us. Look, I'm a little bit less far off. She knows she's shot, right?

So she can make a click. Oh, that's hilarious. I hit the grain bin and it was my fault. Remember that tree in Colorado, the tree in Colorado? There's been a few, but that tree died. It was a beautiful shot on the tree. I think it was dead before I hit it. The log in, the dead log dead. There's actually been two dead trees in Colorado.

Yeah. Oh yeah. The mule deer and the elk, right? Nope. There was my first elk. I hit a tree uhhuh. Then last year I hit a tree with the mule deer. Or was that the year before? No, was with the elk. I shot the mule deer. Just you shot at something last year. We [00:41:00] sh he shot at the elk, the cow elk. Am I forgetting about this?

Yeah, probably sounds like it. Cause he definitely shot an elk. We had alt me, him and Pat. We were all together. We had a swarm come through. Oh. It was the day he was busy breaking my truck. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Did I break his truck? Yeah, he broke his screen. I did not break your screen. Oh, that was a horrible day for me.

Horrible day for you too. Sorry. So on a tournament or whatever you wanna call it competition, like what's your day look like? So do you get I'm assuming you get a timeframe, be like, Hey, you're shooting x time. Yeah. Where do you, so how's your day start? So if I shoot really early in the morning, then that kind of just, I go practice as much practice time as I can get.

So they have a side range You can, yeah. Or is you ha hey, your practice slot is from here to here. Sometimes it is like that, but most of the time there's like a practice range that we can go to. But normally if I shoot in the afternoon, I'll [00:42:00] go, I'll eat breakfast and I'll stay away from the tournament.

Yeah. I'll go watch people or whatever. But I just isolate myself a little bit. Get my head in the game. Yeah. I'll go warm up for, 30 arrows. It takes me about 30 arrows to get warmed up. And then Is that it, dude? Really? You couldn't wait or anything? The show couldn't waited.

Yeah. Yeah. We're go, we're gonna let your site up. Add to cart. Yeah. Yeah. And then so I go in practice, it normally takes me, 60 to, or 30 to 60 arrows to warm up. So I'll warm up a little bit. We get two official practice ins. I make sure to eat and drink most of the time. I eat the sausages and drink body armor.

There you go. That's my go-to snack. And then I just get my head in the game. I don't sit up and talk with the other girls. They're a bunch of drama, so you don't have many friends out there? Is that where you say, Hey, be number one man? Nope. Most of the time I just come back and talk to my dad or sit with him or whatever, and just, [00:43:00] it's just kind of me and him.

I talk to my mom. But that's pretty, not to, to it, There's a focus aspect, right? If you're, yeah. So if you're over there chat, with high school sports all the time, right? It's different competitors act different ways. Exactly. It's a, there's this click of girls that'll just be like all giddy with each other.

Talking about whatever they're talking about. And there'll be like these really shy girls or just odd girls. And then there's just like me, just just off by myself doing what I need to do. Yeah. You're doing your own thing. Yeah. Sometimes I get a little distracted and talk to people, but it's funny how, I would've never talked, if me and Andy were getting ready to race each other or something back in the day, I would've never spoke to him.

My daughter is a track girl right now. She'll sit there and talk to all the girls. She's getting ready to race. Yeah. And I'm like, Nope. There's a lot of girls that will walk by me like, ah, just small talk. And then I beat 'em. No. Okay, that works. There's a lot of girls that they'll like, speak to me.

Yeah, I'll speak back to them, but Right. You want me to, I'm not here for a whole hour long [00:44:00] conversation. Like whenever I go down and pull my arrows, I'm like, come on. Yeah. We're getting this done and over with. I'm pulling my arrows and I'm going back most of the time. I'm the first one to walk back and I'm walking back alone.

Yeah. I just don't talk to anybody. Just kind do my own thing. Although, if I were gonna make friends with any of the other top five, it'd be the girl that lives in Hawaii just saying, yep. She's a really nice girl. I really, because she also lives in Hawaii. Hawaii, yeah. So just remember that.

Yep. You gotta be smart about that. Pennsylvania, I really feel like going there. Those deer are small down there. Go hunt some of them axes, deer down there. That'd be a good time. Exactly. See it's smart. You just gotta, and you gotta play a mind game with them, be like, Hey, I'll come hang out with you.

You might get better. You could be number one too. I've definitely had a few run-ins with some girls that just don't like me. Yeah. I don't like them. There's girls that I'll try to talk to or some girls try to talk to me and I just don't talk to me. Yeah. Like I don't say that, but I'm just.

Don't, I'm doing short. That happens in competitions. I say, I was gonna say, any competition like that, you're gonna have, the teams, you like the teams, you don't like [00:45:00] the kids, you get along with the ones you don't, yeah. Just how it goes in competition. So with some of your, your, gear that you're using, you've been using the same bow now since we talked to you last time, which was almost two years ago.

Yep. I think we figured out it almost exactly two years maybe. But in that world though, that's like the go-to bow, isn't it? There's, yeah. This is the original TX 38. There's a new one, which is the G two. Okay. I just haven't made the switch again, I don't like change, so I just, I'm rolling with it and I'm doing just fine.

Yeah. Precision stuff like that, yeah. What's comfortable is what matters, what's not broke. Don't fix. See that. It's giving me even more pause on just keeping the assassin, just saying. But anyways, when you're, when you get a new bow and you're going through. What works for you? How many, like different fletching setups are you going through?

Are you trying all kinds of different stuff or do you have a certain, I like boning blazers, or I like this and that, and you try to make those work? Or how do you figure out what's gonna, give you the most accurate flight?[00:46:00] With arrows, I have played around with some fletching, not very much.

But I shoot the AE hybrid. I think you said that. Yeah. And it just, it seems to just do really well. I roll with it and then like with the bow and stuff, if I get a new bow, I run the same stabilizer, same site, same, Same rundown, but it all just depends like the weight set up that I want or how I want my back stabilizer sitting cuz I have all kinds of adjustments back there.

So there's some differences. Not everything is gonna be set up the same it's all just what feels the best in my hand. What levels the best, all that kind of stuff. On your flexions, do you have any type of helical on it or any? Mine's pretty much, I would say it's probably like a two degree.

It's not very much. I used to have a really big. Helical on it. And it was hitting my blade I ended up taking the helical off. It's not straight. Yeah. There's definitely a left helical on it if you look at it. A lot of people won't be able to recognize it, but there is. [00:47:00] And that's just everybody's personal preference, and how they fly outta the bow. Or if they're left or right. Helical. Do you like f fleshing your own arrows? It sucks. I know. I used to like it. It takes so long. It just takes forever. I don't have the time for it. That's my biggest problem. I cannot just, I got a whole set up stand there and I cannot just sit there and do it.

We kind went through a phase. We all like doing. We all did for a minute. We're busy and just, yeah. We used to all share Russell's. Oh, what the heck is the jig that we have? The, I don't know, what's the popular jig? Bits and burger. Bits and burger. Yep. Yep. Russell, we'd all share Russell's bits and burger.

And then I bought one. I got one, Andy bought one and we all like f fleshed the hell out of our stuff for a water. Yeah. I realize I was putting the wrong helic on all my nose. But then we got to the point where, it, it takes, half an hour at least to fle a few arrows. Yeah. And I'm a perfectionist.

So if I get a dabba glue what do you, what's the glue? I use it, do a tip and a tail on my stuff. And if I tip a tail, huh? I think it's tip and tail glue. Yeah. A tip and tail. I can't remember what I used at the time, but if it wasn't like a [00:48:00] perfect little circle, start over. And I remember I fletched those ones for you?

And it took me like six hours and it took forever. I'm never doing your shit again, man. But I mean it's important and it's, what's interesting is funny is like we all, I think we all shoot different FFLs. You shoot what she shoots, correct? I think so. I shoot a Russell C hybrid. No, mine.

The, which is what she shoots. Yeah. A hybrid's. Him. I'm the bon boning heat. You're the boning heat. I'm the old fashioned boning blazer. Russell shoots something totally different than all of us. Personal preferences is interesting Yeah. When it comes to those things. Yep. And then releases were all different as well.

And I know at least I thought back tension. Yep. I did shoot a hu a thumb for a while and then just got a little shot. When you first started shooting, like did you shoot traditional trigger releases or, yeah, I shut a wrist strap. And then I've gradually just went up and I like my hinge a lot.

I liked my button for a while until I got trigger happy with it, and then I switched back to my hinge and [00:49:00] everything's fine now. Yeah. Cuz with the hinge release, you're, it's the tension is what's causing the arrow to release. Just pull in with my back. So you're not really trying to.

The biggest thing you're getting away from is anticipating that shot. Yep. You can still anticipate it real well, right? You can just roll through it or, rip through it, but it really, if you set it cold, then she's gonna take a while to get to go off, yep. That's interesting.

Which I've never even tried one of those. I shot your thumb. I tried to one time, but I don't know if it was, it probably wasn't set up for my bow, but I'd get like halfway through my draw and it'd start clicking. Like it would do that, like initial click or something like that. And he's it's about to go off.

I'm like, okay. I'm like, I'm not doing this. Yeah. There's mine has a click in it. I can take my click out, but mine ha mine does have a click in it and I'll get to about here and I'll get to settling in and then it'll click and I know, okay, I need to get on and I need to go through my shot process.

So what is your shot press? Shot process? So it's just after every shot or before every [00:50:00] shot, I mentally reset myself. It all starts my feet and goes up from there. And so I load my arrow. Most of the time I look back at my dad, just get the mental Okay, he's back there.

I see him. We're good. How you, how are you, dad? Are you one of those, like you can do it kiddo, or are you like, you better get this? He always told me before Arizona, I'll get back to what I was saying, but before Arizona, he told me that he was gonna get a big tattoo of an X on his chest and rip his shirt open every time I shot an X.

And I told him absolutely not. But no, hey, I'll pay for it. But no, the podcast just pay for that. We need video evidence. Yes. Yeah. You know what, that's called content. But I make sure that he's back there and that I can see him and. I don't have 'em in practice most of the time. Sometimes I do, but in tournaments then I see 'em and I load my bow and look at the target and I tunnel vision myself.

So it's just me and the target, me, the bow of the target, the, wind. I look at my [00:51:00] wind, socks and flags and all that kind of stuff and I pull back and I I don't really, I can't really tell you what I think about cuz it's always different, but I'm always constantly telling myself, okay pull or, if I was shooting a thumb I'd be like, squeeze right. Or just work through the shot or if I'm really anxious, then calm down or, make clean shots. But. If I'm like struggling in a tournament, then it looks a little bit different. I'm like, okay, this one needs to hit the middle.

What can I do different from this previous shot that didn't hit the middle to the one to this shot I'm about to shoot? What can I process through my mind to make myself calm down and just refocus as I'm shooting? So it's definitely, no, I understand that. Yeah, I compare it to like everything to baseball, but.

Hitting in baseball. Like people are like, you have to have, what do you think about what you're hitting? You don't, yeah. It all just happens. Like it's, you just let it take over. [00:52:00] It's so consistent. Cuz I shoot so much. It's just like muscle memory. My body knows what to do, right?

So it's like my mind doesn't really wonder if you're thinking you're overthinking. If I'm like thinking, okay, this has gotta go in the middle, am I pulling hard enough? Yeah. There would be sometimes that I am thinking that, am I pulling hard enough? Is this gonna hit the middle?

But if I'm just sitting there like calmly shooting in fact on the Lancaster stage I was very calm. I had been there once the year before and me and my dad had absolutely no idea what was going on. Never seen my mom in the stands and I just, Was so overwhelmed, like it was just in a flash.

I can barely tell you anything about it. And so this year I was much more calm and I just made clean, consistent shots just like I normally do. And I shot the highest scores I had in under pressure in, years. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah, but she says years. She says it's been six years, so she's been doing it for a minute.

Haven't I haven't shot a 600 in [00:53:00] ages, but No, it's, it just reflects on what that previous era was or, so speaking of that kind of, the joke of years, but you've been doing this at six years now competitively, I assume. Has there been like, training process, have you went and got like formal training or has this been.

You and your parents and just hashing it out. Is this a YouTube thing? How have you learned to get to the le level of where you're at today? If people starting out now, did you get formal training? Did you, like, how did you get to the level you are today?

Okay. I don't know if we talked about this in the last podcast, but I used to shoot right-handed. I feel like I have talked about this. Yeah, I That you could shoot right-handed. Yeah, I shot right-handed and I just really started struggling. I was doing fine for the first few years and then I was like, I would go and get under pressure and I just couldn't kni the target.

And I ended up switching left-handed. My dad watched a lot of YouTube videos [00:54:00] because you're left eye dominant, correct? Correct. Yep. So we talked about it. And her right elbow was, both of them do it. Oh my God. Now her watching for everybody, not, she just like bent to her arms in two different directions.

See if I, no snap. But. Before I switched left-handed, my dad watched a lot of YouTube videos. We all watched a lot of the YouTube videos, just trying to figure something out. I switched left-handed and from the get-go, I've always been self-taught, but once I switched left-handed, I was really self-taught.

Yeah. They helped me out, but they don't shoot left-handed. So it was like I'm learning everything over again after I've been shooting for four years Right-handed. But now everything feels natural. Yeah. So it's just like it was a learning process, but it was so natural that it was just.

Muscle memory of it happening after, yeah. A few weeks of training. Because I think one of the things we talked about was your eye dominance. And I'm the same way. I shoot right-handed, but I'm left eye dominant and I'm not switching cuz I know the problems he [00:55:00] has finding both. So I'm staying right eye.

It's okay, Andy. I understand. Yeah. But it's funny those things that, you know, those small aju those changes, which is a huge change can do for you. Yeah. My daughter's right eye dominant. She just switched to the left side of the plate for softball. So now they're her right eye is the first eye.

She switched to the correct side. Yeah, she's a lefty now and she's a right-handed person. She's always hit right-handed, but that's only been about a month, so we're still working on it. But, it's interesting what eye dominance hit from. Huh? What? I didn't hear you. Where hitters hit from. I'm okay with that.

I hope that's the case. She hit 3 75 in her first tournament ever. So I'll take it. But anyway, I don't know how's good, how important. That's pretty, I dunno what it means. How important do you feel like your eye dominance played into that change? It was very important. It was just like you got this pair of shoes, this one feels better than this one.

And it was definitely, the left eye was definitely, see that blows my [00:56:00] mind because like we were talking about it at work the other day and I just can't fathom shooting with my left at all. It just, no coordination. All I'm sure she couldn neither I, at the time, I never imagined myself to do it.

And I was in Vegas and I was shooting a Genesis Bow with Jesse Broadwater just for fun. And I actually shot it with my left hand and I was like, man, dad, this feels so natural. I'll never forget that. And I was like, yep, this is, it was a good move. It definitely was. But I would say that, If somebody's right or left eye dominant and they're shooting right-handed, I would switch.

It's don't say that. Yes, I just have to do this because I can't keep both eyes open. It's definitely worth the time. Do you shoot both eyes open? Yeah. Which you can now, because it's right dominant. It's it's squinted, but it's like I can still see, but yeah. I can't really shut my eyes very well.

Like when you wink, it's yeah, I can't do it both eyes. [00:57:00] What are you doing right now? What are you doing with your face? Yeah, sometimes if you guys go watch the Lancaster shoot, then you can see my eye like opening and closing, like trying to draw more lighter. Just trying to focus my other eye.

I hate blinking during a shot. Throws me off. So if I were to blink, like outdoors, I blink just because the sun or if the wind's bling in my eyes. But normally it's never over six times. I'll blink six times, and that's about it. You count indoors, you count that, you count your blink.

Oh, I've learned it. Like I've definitely sitting thinging like, what? Dude? I can't like, but like indoors it'll be like, my eyes are, they're not like wide open. They're not like, but they're like, just open normally. And I don't blink. It's just I blink after the shot, but it's just kinda, I like stare, but that makes sense outdoors.

It's but they're like timed out. Yeah. They're like, they're not like just part of the process of that. It's just yeah. Yeah. I gotcha. If I told myself, don't blink, I [00:58:00] would just be doing this. Not, I'd be just blinking nonstop. Is that guy having a seizure? What's going on there? I saw this one girl and she was like, blinking like this the whole time.

And I'm like, how do you even see her pen? My, your eyes aren't even open long enough. Yeah. That's no. Drive me nuts. That's an interesting process. I'm a non blinker as well, like in serious situations. They're like concentration. I catch myself not blinking whatsoever. Just I've never once thought about it.

I haven't, I have no idea. I've never been like, you know what? I should probably blink now. I don't think about it. And all of a sudden, oh, my eyes are dry. Holy crap. Like I can't wait until you guys wrestle again out in the mountains and I'm gonna watch Andy be like, what? See how serious he is right now?

Just both beat the hell outta him. I'm down for that. Andy was gonna walk towards me. Liar. The best part is the people listening to us are, have no idea what we're doing right now. But whatever. I had another question about being left eye dominant. Cool kids. Yeah. You guys are just odd for being right-handed.[00:59:00]

I w Oh, sorry. So that was the thing I was gonna say. Yes. No you got me right back on track. Lean we're the only ones in our right mind. I, that's what I'm saying. Left, but right. No, correct. We're correct. Liz. Let's say the people are right brain dominant, so we are the correct, we are in our right mind people.

I hear what you're saying. Okay. Okay. See, he's right-handed, so he see in his left side. I wish somebody would've, seems like I saying somebody would make up to sound cooler for a second or something. I don't know. Factual when I was like, when you were how old when you were like 12 ish when you made the switch then to left-handed somewhere in there.

13. It was 2019. So something like that. Okay. I wish somebody would've got ahold of me when I was that age and said, do it now. All of those things. I'm just, I'm too old and my You're old dog. Old dog. You just gotta go for it. Andy will help you. I don't want Andy's help. Andy's got, I got my own problems.

Why don't we just put, take one one to Andy's spare bows And do what with it? [01:00:00] Bring it down. Bring it down to a 24 inch draw. I gonna use, he see if it shoots. What is your draw length? Just curious. 24 and a half. Okay. What's yours? 27. 27. Okay. Andy, with a 37 inch draw is making fun of people.

Keep you're, it's not my fault you can't find Bowes. You're the weird one. Not me. I can, any bow, I know any bow shop out there, I can walk into it and be like, let me try one and I'll be able to try 'em all. Hey, but who's shooting the 11 year old though? Yeah. Oh, okay. I didn't say I, I think that's preference, but I get what you're saying.

Yeah. But okay. So that, that, that's pretty cool. And you're going to. Ireland in July. Two months. Yep. July 1st through the 10th. So I get to spend 4th of July in a different country. That'd be cool. That'd be cool. I'm still wondering if they're able to shoot fireworks off. I highly doubt it. Yeah, it's probably not going to be anything I'd imagine.

Yeah. Yeah, I think you can drink over there though, at 16. [01:01:00] I'll tell your parents that we were in fact, just talking about that on the way here. I was like, did you know that they could drink at 16 years old over there? It is. And they're like, yeah, but you can't. It is Ireland. Let's be real here.

No so what's it gonna be like? What are you planning on? What's the competition gonna be like? Can people watch it? What, do you know anything about it yet? The best I can tell you is that there's gonna be a lot of people there and that we're gonna be shooting at 55 yards. And that's about all I know.

We're gonna have bows with us. We're gonna be shooting against other people. How long are you gonna be over there for? Nine days. Nine days, 10 days. Okay. Something like that. Just like I just picture you gonna stay a little extra? No I'm guessing you guys have never been to Ireland. I'm guessing they're probably shooting every day or like all day, every day.

So we Sure. Like after it's over they're gonna go check out, some pubs obviously not her, which might some coolest stuff in Ireland. Yeah. So like we, [01:02:00] so the compound and recurve are there the same week. So like the days that the recurve shooters get to shoot, then we go adventure.

You guys get off day and that's cool. We shoot like teams. I do know that. So we shoot individuals, so that's just, me against everybody else. And then whoever makes, whatever the cut is then goes into elimination matches. And then we have mixed teams, which we're not really sure how that works, if it's gonna be like, The top girl and top boy just shooting together.

Gotcha. Or if it's gonna be, the bottom girl and the top boy shooting together. Top girl. Bottom boy. Shooting too. Do you guys have a coach? Yeah. Fair enough. That's good. Okay. Is it, that sounded, yeah. Cool. I was just curious if there's like something, how's that work organized? I dunno, is that like a strategic, like strategic thing?

Like maybe the coach picks that, like the pairings? I don't know. Yeah. Yeah, that's what I was curious. I would say that the, I've never done it before, so I'm just in a, just longer ride can use it right now. But tell me where to [01:03:00] stand coach. But it's definitely if my parents didn't get the v i P passed to get on the field, then they wouldn't be able to see anything that I'm doing.

Oh really? Yeah. So it's like very Concealed, right? I don't know. So there's not like a big stage where like everybody can watch or something like that isn't, you gotta think there's 60 different countries there with three, six at 9, 12, 12 shooters there with, I don't know, parents to go to every one of them.

There's gonna be a lot of people there, but. Not all of them are gonna buy the V IP power. That's 720 different competitors. Yeah. I did that in my head just now. Or the phone that was in your hands, but yeah. Nope. You take that times three, essentially, and that's, two parents for a kid.

And the kids. Yeah. Thousand, there's gonna be thousands of people there. Yeah. Just between, parents. Yeah. Don't know if whatever. Spectators are a lot in there. I would assume since like the parents have to literally pay to go in there then I don't think that there's gonna be just like, yeah, local archery tournament.

Let's go watch it. [01:04:00] If you can drink at 16 in Ireland, I'm sure they'll check it out, yeah. I just pick, keep picturing 'em on my mind. Like you see those movies, like those old school movies or like the archery competitions? Yeah. I don't know, just. You'll have to let us know if it's gonna be televised so we can Yeah, check it out.

I'm return on live like Lancaster was, Las Vegas was, I've texted her on like ESPN before or something like that. And I don't know what it was, but I've definitely seen some archery stuff. I think that the gold medal matches and stuff will be televised. And like the team matches will be televised, but I'm not sure this is what it looks like where I'm staying or where we're gonna be at that.

That's pretty cool. So it's, we're gonna be like on the right on the river. That river ocean. There's an ocean. I have to find the picture, but there's like an ocean right there. It's just like there's where we're gonna be like shooting wise and you gotta think about like the ocean breeze, probably I mean that being a Oh, I'm sure it's gonna affect your shot.

Yeah. This is Not too many miles from where I'm shooting. Oh, that's pretty cool. That's cool. Yeah. Very cool. That's beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A girl in the office, [01:05:00] she just got back from Ireland. Her and her mom, they went on vacation there and said it was just amazing. So it'll be fun either way.

Yeah. But what's the end goal here? What was my next question? Yeah, like what, after this do you wanna just, what's Drake's ultimate goal? My ultimate goal is just to, succeed in what I'm doing. I want this to be a career. Yeah. I've def I definitely don't think of this as a hobby or a sport.

I think of it as a career already. It's what I look forward to doing every day, whenever I get outta bed. And so I just wanna keep going. I'm not always gonna be at the top. I'm gonna win. I'm gonna lose some, so I don't expect to win every tournament or, so I know there's some college teams out there are you is that yeah.

On the radar team for a college? I wanna go to college. To, I. Have you like already looked at what schools have? Schools good. Archery programs, major? I've had some colleges reach out to me. I haven't really done my research. I have my mindset on where I want to go. I don't want to go and learn English and math and all that.

[01:06:00] Again, I learned enough of that in high school. I'd like to just be, I like to be hands on with everything. I wanna do stuff with like food plots and Yeah. Just agricultural type stuff. Layout food plots and whatnot, kind conservation type stuff. Yeah. Keep going with the trend, like my trend.

Staying in that world and hunting and yeah. Fishing, loving every day. Yeah. I will tell you this, so go ahead. I was gonna ask you, so you're 18 u you're ranked number one right now. Yep. Is that considered pro? Are you pro, are you amateur? What is your status? And can you be a pro at I under 18?

I can I could have went pro this year. I'm considering going pro next year. No promises. What does that mean? Yeah, what does that mean when you say you go pro? What does that start to, does that mean sponsorships? Does that mean I have some sponsorships currently, but it's just get your name out there a little more.

You just get to shoot with the top archers in the world instead of like your amateurs. And shoot for, shoot for money. Oh yeah. And money. Yeah. Yeah. That's cool. So there's no money [01:07:00] in what you're in now. Some tournaments, there are some N F A tournaments. It goes to scholarships.

The scholarships probably. And then like Lancaster, that's like in your pocket. There's a few different ones that are in your pocket, but most of them are scholarships for anybody under the age of 18. Because like they can't like pay. People like that. Cuz then it just if you go shoot it at college, there used to be some different rules there and I don't know how that's affected it.

The change now, n i l right now, you have your Yeah. Name and likeness you're able to make money off of, but used to not be able to. Sure. But, so it's, yeah. That's cool. I'm sure that has to do with some of that stuff you'll find out soon. You're gonna be a senior next year. Yep. So college is right around the corner.

You start looking at what am I going doing there and Yep. It'd be kind nice to go win some tournaments, make some cash at the same time. Yeah. But what I plan on going pro next year, but it's pretty cool. So that will kick you up into a different maybe category? Yep. Okay. So it'll be like people from like the age of 50 down to, [01:08:00] however play old you wanna be to go pro.

So I mean there's like girls that are 15 that are shooting in there right now that are pro and. In fact, the girl from Hawaii shoots pro. She's been pro Oh, cool. She won Vegas two years ago. You're talking like the most famous one. People like Levi Morgan, right? Or Levi, I was just gonna mention that.

It's Morgan, isn't it? Oh, by the way, me and Mike are cool now. We met Levi shook his hand. Shook his hand, just saying Andy's not it is I'm being serious. We did meet Levi Morgan, but it was like for two seconds at ATA this year. But seems like a real nice guy. Yeah. And he's made a career out of this.

He has, this, that's what he does. Yeah. Is that kind of a similar path you're thinking about taking with archery is, obviously you want to potentially get a education for next to nothing or free and then you can decide what you're gonna do, but archery might be a part of it moving forward as far as you can tell.

Yeah, I definitely want archery to be like my main career, but I also wanna You never know [01:09:00] what can happen. One day I could, break an arm or something and I can't shoot anymore. Knock on what hasn't happened. But you keep doing that to your arms. It might happen one day, just pop.

But no I've really been thinking about like food plots and stuff like that, just to keep going and keeping the same side of people. Levi Morgan, he hunts, he's got TV show. Yeah. And that kind of side. Where like Paige Pierce, she also goes hunting. I don't know if you guys know who that is or not.

Chris B for example. Like they all do something with hunting and I feel like food plots or something with agriculture, horticulture biology type stuff. Yeah. Yeah. And then at the same time, remembering you're 17 years old, things change Yeah. Really quickly for young folks. And Yep.

By the time you're 21, you might decide, you know what, I'm gonna be a doctor Archer. Yeah. I wanted to be vet forever. Yeah. And I was like, I feel like she said that last you crazy. I feel like that was, yeah. But I've went through a lot of different spells. I was like, man, a dentist, I wanna be a dentist. And then I went to the vet and now I'm, you're supposed to be thinking about [01:10:00] those things.

That's, yeah. It's a good thing to be thinking about those things instead of you were, when I was 22 years old going, I should probably decide what I want to do in college, shouldn't I? That's a bad time to start thinking about those things. So it's a good thing that you have had those on your mind already.

What else, boys? What do you got for her? I can't think of any other questions. I'm just excited to see how she does in July. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we've been follow along with, since you were on our show last year, we see your post and see how you've been doing and yeah, I don't know what the hell any of it means.

Whenever I'm like, I got first in this and I'm like, good job. I dunno what that means. That, that gets alike. It sounds like Ireland's gonna be pretty big. So we are gonna be keeping an eye on that. We will we'll keep our listeners posted on how it's going and if we can share if it is on television or the internet or whatever, we'll try to share it so they can watch Lean Drake.

Compete in the worlds, what's it called? Youth World Championships. World Championships. That sounds important. It's [01:11:00] basically like the Olympics because there is no Olympics, there's no Olympic compound until 2028, right? Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Cause they just, it is just long though right now, right?

Recurve recur. Yeah. Yeah, whatever. Yeah. Yeah. So tall ones the ones who are bigger than me. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah, we. All three of us wish you the best of luck and hope that you go kill it for us Missouri folks. Yeah, in Ireland. Yep. Thank you. I was trying to think of, do you wanna actually got any social media or anything you wanna plug?

Yeah. But I do have a question for you first or for all three of you, thank God. Like why are you looking at me for, sorry. Let it be Nate. Okay. So you mentioned that like you not knowing what I'm saying whenever I post anything on Facebook, what is something like if I were to post a post, then what is something that you look for to like maybe get an explanation of what I'm doing, if that makes sense?

I think it's like all the different tournaments that are out there. Unless you're in that world, you just don't understand what that tournament [01:12:00] means. It, I equate it to I tell these guys about my daughter's comps, softball all the time. No idea what he's talking about. They have no freaking clue what I'm talking about.

She plays a gold level ball. Do you know what that means? Nope. Exactly right. It's just hard to, it's hard to explain something if you're not in it. So I think a really big thing is explaining those when you're doing those posts or talking about what you're doing. This is a tournament for archers under the age of 18 that are in the region of from Mississippi River over.

Okay. And if I do good at this one, then that can put me in, I can go to this one next, or maybe something along those lines. Okay. Yeah. That, cuz you gotta think like when you're doing those things, you gotta think of someone who's reading it or watching it that has no freaking clue what you do.

And they have to understand what it is, what you do. There are some people we understand what you do, but we still have really no clue what the different tournaments, the different sanctions are. That sort of stuff because we're not in that life. So [01:13:00] given like Ed, basically educating people every time you do something is will gonna go a long way in your sport too.

People will understand what more, advocate for your sport. Like NFL football, most people understand how teams get to the playoffs what playoffs are, because it's a huge multi-billion dollars industry. Archery's not as big as that so people aren't gonna understand as easily. So just educate your followers or your fans cuz you got 'em out there and I guarantee you there's a 10 year old girl out there thinking about doing the same thing that you're now doing.

Yeah. That if you can educate her or him on those things that'll go a long way and, grow in your sport. Yeah. Yeah. I took that one over you guys. No, I think for me it's like where you know where your other people are from, that you're shooting against. Cause that tells you how big of a stage it is, right?

Yeah. This isn't. The Lafayette County tournament that, whatever this is obviously Las Vegas, you're not, that's all over the [01:14:00] world. Yeah exactly. Lancaster, so some of it is, people who are going to follow you will know what some of those are, some of those other ones, I think it's, this was where it's at.

Obviously you traveled to get there, and then how far did other people travel for that specific one? Did you have to qualify to get there? That speaks a lot to, the stages and steps you went through. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, it's similar, like to our show. Sometimes I hate writing posts or talking about what we're doing, but if you don't explain it it's difficult to do, I thought the question you were gonna ask was, who's the best archer?

And it's obviously me out of the three of us. That now educates the listener that Nate's better than Micah and Andy, and that's all there is to it. It's done now. Now the listener knows how many trees have you hit? Zero. What about grain bins? Time out. He looked at me. You were like borderline ready to ground tune your bow.

The last shoot I did with you, and not one arrow, but two arrows at the same target. At the same target. [01:15:00] I had shot really good all day. We get to the last target. And the first arrow I let go Grenade slap. No, it slapped the side of that tree. Oh, second arrow in front of us, grenade like 10 yards in front of us.

The target was like 45 yards downhill, and I slapped the side of this tree with my arrow and it just explodes. Andy, I'm pulling for you. Yeah. So then the next, then I get pissed. The next shot. What did I hit under the target or, yeah. Cuz the tree was behind it. And then I took off running downhill because I was mad at the target cuz I wanted to find my arrow that I just lost.

Remind me never to go out on a three day course with you, but Andy, I'll go with you. Oh, let's talk about Andy. He, I don't know, Andy just seems I just break whole bows. He brokes whole bows. Oh. Maybe not hits grain bins. That was just because I've not hit a grain vodka joke. I've never hit a grain bin.

It wasn't his fault. The bow broke. It was his fault that, that was two weeks before we left for Colorado. That was crazy. [01:16:00] I drew back on the second half of a 3D course and we all heard something and we're like, what was that? And then he released and the arrow landed like about halfway there.

I think I remember you telling me about that. Yeah. Yeah. Was like, how It was like 20 yards short and we're like, ah. And then I started looking and his limbs, you Oh, yeah. The hairline fracture acrossed him. Yep. Yep. That bowed no more. Nope. But anyway, that's a good question. Yeah, it got turned on us a little bit.

I almost got nervous for a second. All right, stepbrothers, we're gonna do be doing the interview. We're gonna interview you now. So yeah, where can people follow you? Instagram will be Drake underscore Leanne and Facebook is just Leanne Drake. That's l e a n d r a k e. Yep. Check her out. She posts, her stuff and you can follow her there.

And then, like I said, she's going to Ireland in a few months and we're anxious to see how she's gonna do there. And best of luck to you. Thank you. I appreciate it. Absolutely. All right. Thanks for coming on with us tonight. Thanks.[01:17:00]

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