Future Focus: Fostering Archery at the Rocky Mountain Classic

Future Focus: Fostering Archery at the Rocky Mountain Classic

Manisha: Hello Archery Family. I'm Manisha and welcome to the Archery Parent Podcast. What you need to know to best support your Archer. Archery life can come at you quickly and there are often a lot of questions, but not a lot of answers. We are here to change that. We will share tips, how to’s and what to expect to help you navigate your new Archery lifestyle.

You'll hear from other Archery parents, coaches, and Archers themselves. We are going to do this one arrow at a time.

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Hello Archery Family. It's Manisha of the Archery Parent Podcast, what you need to know to best support your Archer today. We have friend of the podcast, Dawn Grozsko joining us today.

Dawn: Thank you for inviting me to be on this podcast. Thank you for wanting to know more about the Rocky Mountain Classic.

Manisha: Please introduce yourself.

Dawn: Name's Dawn Grozsko. I am a coach. I'm an Archer. I've been involved in Archery for over 40 years, so it's a passion of mine. I love it. We now have this Rocky Mountain Classic that we've developed in Alberta.

Manisha:

What is the origin story of it?

Dawn: So the Rocky Mountain Classic came about back in COVID. Sport Alberta decided that they were reviewing Alberta Winter Games. We didn't know if it was going to still be around for our athletes. So it's like, what can we do for athletes to have a high level Archery tournament that includes team, match play, and have it for youth?

So that's, that's where it started.

Manisha: And can you just share the team that puts on the Rocky Mountain Classic. Who was involved in those original conversations and who is involved now?

Dawn: Originally, it was Archery Alberta who was involved, and Jim-Bow's Juniors Archery Club started it. A big supporter of it was a friend of mine, Wayne Puchinger. And he just like, "Hey, what if we do this? What do you think?" The whole goal of Rocky Mountain Classic is to bring the experience and break even as a club.

Manisha: Ideally, break even is a good thing.

Dawn: Yeah, profit is nice, but we at least want to break even, because the experience of the event is the most important part.

Manisha: So give us the details. Date. Where is it? And who is it specifically geared to?

Dawn: Okay. The date for 2026 is January 2nd to 4th. It's geared to anybody, basically U25 and under. We'd like to cut it off about 10. That's for the youngest age. That's kind of a touchy area for some, like do they get into competitiveness? Do they still have fun? Overall, we still want to maintain fun in this event. We also operate in a small community just north of Red Deer, called Blackfalds. They have an amazing facility called the Abbey Centre.

Manisha: How far away is Blackfalds from Calgary?

Dawn: Sub two-hour drive.

Manisha: So for those flying into Calgary, get ready for a bit of a road trip.

Dawn: Yeah. But you can also fly into Edmonton.

Luckily, Edmonton's airport is on the south side of town and Calgary's is on the north, end of town north. So you're not driving through the cities.

Manisha: So first of all, how many Classics have you actually held?

Dawn: This is our sixth, I believe? There's six Classics.

Yeah. It originally started as the Alberta Youth Championships. And then when our club, Jim-Bow's Juniors took over, we changed the name for the Rocky Mountain Classic Youth and Collegiate Championships.

Manisha: And how has the, the vision evolved over those six years?

Dawn: So, we started off with U21.

We've expanded it to collegiate now because for some of the athletes entering into senior, it could be more difficult. There's more athletes.So it's still giving them experience, still giving them pressure, competing under pressure, all that, and still getting to know new people, making friends along the way.

Manisha: This is an indoor tournament?

Dawn: Correct.

Manisha: And can you share how is this different from other tournaments that are held in Canada?

Dawn: For indoors? We don't have such an event for youth. I'm not aware of anything really for our adults, either, Seniors, Masters. We have a qualification round. We have a two-person team round event. And then we finish it up with our match play. The match play events are how we determine the winners. And, it's great that there's actually match play in indoors.

Manisha: I'm not sure if you saw, but Lancaster is actually doing match play this year, well for 2026, so that's a little exciting.

In Canada, match play for years was not even acknowledged. And then as, especially on the Recurve side, as match play got introduced into the Olympics, all of a sudden everybody woke up and said, "Oh my gosh, we have to do match play." Match play has become so important on all Archery levels.

Dawn: Hundred percent agree. Archers could shoot amazing in the Qualification round, as soon as it comes to head to head, that little bit of tension in their shot creates a totally different score outcome. It is hard to create that pressure in a practice environment, in a camp environment. Over the years there's been people saying, oh, we don't need it for provincials. It takes too long. You can do that in a training camp.

For a $7 medal, I cannot recreate that same pressure that we can create in a tournament.

Manisha: Exactly. What are the core values and mission of the Rocky Mountain Classic?

Dawn: Our core values and missions, again, the experience, but it's also getting our athletes to compete under pressure and perform well. So controlling the emotions. One bad shot does not make a score.

You can come back from that. You don't know what's going to happen with your opponent. So trusting your process. Okay, one bad shot, I could still win this. Developing our Youth. Developing our women. LA2028, we have some very strong men shooters across the countries and we need to get our women to that same level.

There are a couple that are up and coming, but we're still not quite at the level that we need to compete on the world stage to earn one, what is it? Twelve spots. So one of 12 spots. That's not many.

Manisha: Agreed. And you know, a lot of people think, well, they've got time. 2028 is far away. But truly it is not. If you do the math, you can't be at your best in 2028.

You have to be your best in '27, because you need to be traveling around the world, qualifying for various things, getting that experience on the international stage, which means 2026, you better be showing up.

Dawn: And, potentially probably on the podium to make sure that you can win it. We haven't heard how the teams are being chosen, so I'm thinking you need to be on the podium.

Manisha: Exactly.

Dawn: Starting in '26. Yep.

Manisha: There's always a breakout athlete, you know?

Dawn: Yep.

Manisha: There's always that, but for 2028, there is so much mystery behind, and you referred to the qualification process of it. And because there are fewer Recurve teams to accommodate the Compound teams, you have to be at your best all the time going forward now.

Dawn: Yep. And you look at how many countries have strong teams and other teams, you can see them putting the pieces of the puzzle together to create those teams. They're getting the coaches, they're getting the athletes. Logistically, we're such a big country that it's hard. We don't have everybody all in one spot. It's hard to have athletes trained together all the time, so you know when you're competing what they're thinking. You know what their reactions are. You know their emotions.

Manisha: And, you were mentioning other countries, especially where they have one very strong athlete, particularly on the Compound side. Everybody's sort of wondering where is the second half of that going to come? And there's a lot of discussion going on about can people move countries because there is that one-year no compete.

And I know we've gotten way off topic, but this is really important. It is actually connected. I love talking about it too, so I'll bring you back. That was my bad.

But it did come from the fact that you've integrated match play into the Rocky Mountain Classic and how important match play is really for the future. So pivotal right now for LA 2028 with the huge decision of Compound being included in Team match play.

Dawn: And even our teams at Rocky Mountain Classic, anybody that wants to participate, we get them in. So yes, we start off by first making sure it's the traditional male-female, and then it's like, "Oh, we got more females", so a couple female teams, or two male teams, or we got one extra Recurve and we have one extra Compound. And we've done this in the past and we've come to the top Recurve who is quite strong. Would you like to shoot in the Compound? Because we can't ask Compound to go the other way. And that team medaled that year.

Manisha: So, let's talk about the inclusion of the Rocky Mountain Classic. Talk about the different categories if you could please, as well as bow disciplines.

Dawn: Okay, we have Compound, Barebow, Recurve. We do the traditional Archery Canada. We've created our own with U25, but U25, U21, U18, U15.

NASP shoots at either 10 or 15 meters. We have 4H, which is kind of our introductory, come-on-out and let's come experience a target event. And they can shoot 10, 15, or 18 meters on a 40-centimeter target.

Manisha: And they are allowed to pick their own, correct?

Dawn: Yes. Yes. We do like to review. If you've shot in the 4H category before, we'll monitor it and go, you know what you shot in it last year. How about moving up to the the bigger categories, the 600. But it doesn't matter which category, you will still get Team, you will still get match play. We do reserve the right to combine categories, age groups, as we see needed so that we can have a match play event for every Archer.

Manisha: And how many Archers did you have signed up this year for 2025?

Dawn: Oh, for 2025, total participants was I think 95. I'm trying to think how many coaches we had, 15 to 20, so we had 75 to 80 participants. And we had from everywhere, basically from Ontario to BC.

Manisha: And how many are you hoping to have for 2026?

Dawn: Hoping to hit 90 for actual Archers.

Ontario is talking about sending a team. Saskatchewan is funding athletes to come. Manitoba is sending. We have BC people registered. So it's nice that it's gone national. We had one prominent Archer from Ontario come out last year and really thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Thought it was an amazing event. And, I think that's why Ontario's now funding a team to come.

And, it's a good buildup for Canada Winter Games too, which is in 2027.

Manisha: Now, what can a first time Archer experience or what can they expect? So they arrive at, you said, the Abbey Centre.

Dawn: Yes.

Manisha: What happens as soon as I walk through the door?

Can you just give us a little bit of a run through?

Dawn: Soon as you walk through the door, you head to the gym and we have a crew there waiting to welcome everybody in. There's check-in. You get your swag bag. You get your t-shirt, or if you upgraded, you can upgrade to hoodies.

Friday night we have an open practice. Plus this year we're actually doing, we're calling it the JGC Rumble. So it's a take on the Rushmore Rumble. So five arrows. Yeah, so something a little different from Friday night, but that's optional. But, we'll be able to have open practice and that.

And then Saturday, you come back and again, check-in is there. We'll have officials there for inspection. And then we start with our first 600. We usually have two flights. And, then in about an hour after the second flight, we start our team event.

Manisha: All right. And if people get their equipment inspected on the Friday, do they need to get it inspected on the Saturday?

Dawn: Nope. They just need to have it inspected once.

Judges will be there. They'll have a Registration list and can check off. The list is by flight. So if there's somebody that hasn't had their equipment inspection, they'll check and see and announce it before they start shooting.

Manisha: And can you just share with anybody new, what is the inspection all about? Why is there an inspection?

Dawn: It's just to make sure that you are shooting in the correct category and you're not having a piece of equipment that's not allowed. So, for our categories, we're not allowing any Unlimited categories.

So anybody that shoots 21+, you're still with the Compound. You have to be Compound, 23 size arrows, no lights. 60 pound limits max. Barebow are checked to make sure there's no sidebars, sights. Recurve, checking to make sure it's a tab, it's not a release. There's no magnified sight.

Manisha: And for, especially for Compound, it would be wise for the Archer to know what is their draw weight, just in case, because judges can sometimes ask.

Dawn: They actually will measure that. They will measure that on the Compound side. So it will be measured and you will have to adjust if you're over the 60 pounds.

Manisha: And to make sure that your arrows are indicating your name either with stickers or initials, but make sure your arrows are marked with your name.

Dawn: Yep.

Manisha: So that...

Dawn: On the shaft.

Manisha: ...you know that they're yours.

Dawn: Yes.

Manisha: Up around the shaft by the vanes.

Dawn: But not on the vane. Sometimes it's easier to mark them on a vane, but vanes can come off. Yep. So they check arrow size, make sure they're the correct diameter.

Probably more with our introductory groups, our judges will be a little more lenient and “just okay, for next time, you need to remember that you need to have all matching nocks”. You need to have everything matching. Just so that it's a learning curve. They don't get penalized for it. We do expect our Archers going into the Archery Canada categories to have everything matching. All their arrows look alike. The nocks, the feathers, the fletch, whatever. They're all matching.

Manisha: And can you share what is NASP.

Dawn: The National...

Manisha: Archery in Schools program.

Dawn: So they have a very basic Compound bow. No sights. They use finger releases. It's an introductory program. There's, in Alberta, I think I've heard something like there are 10,000 kids shooting NASP.

I'd love to get them into our stream. It was developed so that everybody has the same equipment. There's no differences. There's not an Archer showing up with the $200 Recurve basic bow versus the kid that's got the $10,000 satellite-attracting bow with all those bells and whistles.

So it keeps everything on an equal playing field. But, it would be nice to attract more of them. Once you get past 17, you can do this with NASP. There's another Archery community.

Manisha: Yeah. NASP is more relevant in sort of Northern Ontario and they use the Genesis bows.

Dawn: Yep.

Manisha: And I met the Coordinator and he goes all over Ontario and runs little tournaments. And, I'm sure in Alberta they run little regional tournaments as well. And it would be really interesting for them to go and to swim in a bigger pool, if you will, not just the NASP organization, and they can meet more Archers. Exactly.

Dawn: We do reach out to them. Because it's a huge untouched community.

Manisha: Definitely. Yeah. How do you ensure that this, although it is a competition, how do you ensure that this tournament is going to still be fun?

Dawn: It comes down to individuals and how the Archers act. But we do try to keep it fun. So we're lucky at our facility, we have the gymnasium. And the only ones allowed on the field of play are the Archers, our officials, volunteers, and registered coaches.

We don't have all the parents down on the floor. Provides a bit of separation. We try and support them with having coaches there. If an Archer does get in trouble and they don't really have a coach there, we do have wonderful coaches across Canada. And if they see somebody in trouble and don't have a coach, they will step in and try and turn that tournament around. In past, I've seen Archers that had gotten into trouble, emotionally. Equipment was falling apart and another coach has stepped in and contacted their personal coach and put them all back together.

And when they left, they left with a smile.

Manisha: So how long do they have to shoot their arrows per end?

Dawn: Two minutes per end in our standard Qualification round. Match play is two minutes per end. And in the team event, it's 80 seconds per end.

Manisha: Okay. And how many arrows in the team event, does each Archer get to shoot?

Dawn: Each Archer will get to shoot two arrows each. So the team of two, they have a total of four arrows. This where it gets interesting. So, if we get an Archer that's used to shooting a single face and an Archer that's used to shooting a triple face, we will combine the two so that somebody is not penalized and have to learn to shoot a target all of a sudden that they're not used to shooting.

Manisha: And how many teams will you have or do you allocate for.

Dawn: So it just depends on registration, but we try to keep them in their age groups. We try to keep them in their equipment groups.

Manisha: So it just depends. And when did registration open and when does registration close?

Dawn: Registration opened November 1st. Early bird ends midnight on November [30th], so you get a $20 discount. But officially we do shut down registration December 20th.

Manisha: And there are no walk-ons allowed, correct?

Dawn: No walk-ons, no.

Manisha: Alright. We're going to talk about something a little broader now. What life skills do you believe that an Archer will acquire from Archery that they can take into their lives?

Dawn: Archery, it's like most sports. You learn how to win and you learn how to lose gracefully, because life's about winning and losing. You're always competing when you go for job interviews.

It's emotional control. Keeping your thoughts in control under pressure. There are jobs out there that you need to be making decisions on the fly. And even though it might be pressure, can you operate in that pressure and make the right decisions?

Manisha: What feedback have you heard from parents, from Archers, about the Rocky Mountain Classic that has made it so popular and and growing as it is?

Dawn: I think it's because the three events we offer. It's got the qualification. We have the match play. We have the team event.

Our judges, even our judges, were trying to make it more fun. So last year we had some really skilled Archers in our U25. And so they actually, in the match play, were turning around on them. They were actually like, “Okay, we want to see you take out the six ring.” You guys both have to take out the six ring because they're both skilled up to do it. So they were just adding a different dimension for it.

Manisha: What advice do you have for parents whose Archer is going to the Rocky Mountain Classic for the first time?

Dawn: Just encourage them to go have fun. Make a new friend. Our events become successful because of the Archers. Their connections and how they talk to each other create them wanting to come to an event.

They interact, they talk, they share their social media, texting and all that. And it's like: “Are you going?” “Are you going?” So that creates that word-of-mouth. Creates interest in an event.

Manisha: And I wanted you to expand on something that you talked about earlier. Why is it important to focus on the development of Youth in Canada right now?

Dawn: Youth is our future. We need to see more Archers come out. Youth Archers go into our Senior categories. So that we have more Archers that are interested in going onto national teams and competing and vying for spots and representing Canada across the world. So if we train them and get them used to the pressure younger as they grow in the sport, it's just natural.

And then they become better at it. Could be our future world champions.

Manisha: It is a great place for Archers to learn and then decide if they want to take a step forward.

Dawn: Do you want to go to the next? Exactly. And it's encouraging them. You have to be really careful how you talk to your athlete.

And how the athlete will interpret something. I had a discussion with a parent the other day. We were at a camp in Red Deer, and the parent was talking to his daughter: "Well, do you really want to shoot in that category because so-and-so is coming." So it was - basically told the individual, you can't win if so-and-so’s coming.

So you've already put pressure on that athlete. You've told them that unless they win, they're not good enough. You need to go have fun.

Even if the athlete's worst day on the playing field; if they give a hundred percent. And that's the tough one because the parents will come up, you're a parent, and you'll go out and have a great day.

So how does Reece interpret that? What does that mean? What does Mom mean? Does that mean if I'm not on the podium, Mom's going to be mad at me. Or, does that mean if I make a new friend, my Mom's going to be super happy? I remember we took a group of athletes to Vegas one year and there were two Archers and they tend to just stay to themselves and they ended up shooting together.

And you should have seen these two parents, they were over the moon because two athletes talked to other athletes. They were like, “Oh, my God, they talked to somebody else!” That was like a totally different expectation, right? But the expectation wasn't on the results.

There are times when results are definitely important. I get that, but you also have to be enjoying it. You also have to have fun. You have to make friends.

Manisha: Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up because achieving success can mean so many different things for so many different people. And you know, if you are a beginner, what is success?

Dawn: Or, you have another athlete who's very experienced and they have equipment issues or there's something else going on at home and they're dealing with all this other stuff. And so Archery's kind of like their escape. And that weekend, it wasn't about performance for them. It was about escaping whatever was happening at home or wherever.

Manisha: And, so you brought up Reece, my Archer. Success for him is when he has established a plan and how closely the day went to that plan.

And for someone's plan, they need to decide, is that plausible for you? Do the tens really matter for you? There are some people who getting it into the red is the goal. Maybe not going into the blue rings is the goal.

Dawn: Maybe they're working on a recovery. "Okay, I had one bad shot. What is my recovery?” “Can I implement that and have a really great shot 90% of the time on those shots?” “Can I recover quickly on those shots?”

Those are goals. It's a spot where you can test that out, right? There's distractions. “How do I get back on focus?” “How do I get back on the rails.”

Manisha: And for someone new, maybe just showing up is their goal, right? They've been wanting to do this for a long time. They've been terrified to do this, but just stepping in that door, signing up, registering, getting their bib number, putting it on their quiver. Everybody's goal is going to be different. Score has nothing to do with it.

Dawn: Not all the time.

There's some that they made some equipment changes or just got a brand new bow and they're like, okay, this is what I normally shoot, but it's all brand new. Or they're trying to work on the pressure and match play. “How do I overcome my, my nervousness?”

How do I put that energy, how do I name it, and put it into my shot and come out strong on the other end, so that they can take those winnings onto the next big thing that they're going to.

Manisha: Maybe one of the goals is compatibility with your partner, for team.

Dawn: And the way we do it, everybody's mixed. You could get a really strong shooter with a really weak shooter, so it's learning to talk and how do you get along.

Manisha: How many volunteers and team members does it take to put this event on?

Dawn: Well, Wayne and I are the core. And then we have a bunch that come for set up, bringing the butts in and setting them up because each of the butts, I think weighs 2 to 300 pounds each.

Wayne's actually got it down to science. They can set it all up in two hours now. He's got so much energy and he just gets focused on something. This shoot would not be what it is without him.

Manisha: Shout out to Wayne.

Dawn: Big time.

Manisha: So if someone wanted to help or a parent or a club or someone wanted to volunteer, are you still accepting volunteers?

Dawn: Oh, definitely, definitely. Go to our website. You could reach out to us on there. So our website is jimbowsjuniors, no hyphens or anything, .ca, and all the registration information is there, hotel information. Although I understand hotels are getting booked up.

And if you need to reach out to us for any questions, we've already had a number of questions, just reach out to us and, and we troubleshoot everything.

Manisha: What is the email that they can contact you at?

Dawn: jjacshoots@gmail.com.

Manisha: And for people that this might be their first away tournament, they really have to understand that it is an expense.

Dawn: Mm-hmm.

Manisha: So, not only the registration. You're paying for potentially a little bit of new equipment or that backup to the backup. I'm not saying at this point that they necessarily have to have a full backup set, but, maybe extra nocks, maybe some of the smaller things that are actually quite vital.

Dawn: Make sure you have more than three arrows.

Manisha: So you've got registration, you've got extra equipment, you've got hotels, potentially a car that you're renting.

You've got food from the day that you get there, to the day that you leave.

If you're flying, you might have to pay for oversize, depending on the size of the bow case. You might actually have to buy a bow case because you can't travel with a backpack, if that's what your Archer typically carries.

So you've got to actually upgrade to a harder or more travel-friendly case.

Dawn: An airline-approved bowcase.

Manisha: There are quite a few things that do add up very quickly if you are going to go to an away event. You do have to budget for these things, too.

Dawn: Yeah. And away events, no matter where you're going nowadays, even if you're just going three hours to the nearest city for a tournament, there's still huge costs involved with hotels.

We live in an environment right now where hotels are not cheap. Car rentals and gas and everything is not cheap, so it is an expense. You just have to make sure you budget for it.

Manisha: And for parents that are new to the Archery community, you may never, ever take just a family vacation again.

You might actually have to incorporate an Archery tournament into that. And when you do eventually take a non-archery vacation, it'll blow your mind. You can go on vacations without a bow bag?

That happens? What do you mean?

Dawn: No, what do you mean? Yeah, exactly.

Manisha: And that could be for a decade or more.

Dawn: Exactly, exactly. It just depends how old your child is, and now if they still want you coming or how independent. I have to say a shout out to our core volunteers that do come because we're in Blackfalds.

Kudos to all our volunteers because it's a huge expense for our volunteers, too, that make the time and the effort to go to these events. They're giving this time. That is amazing, amazing for people to do that.

Wayne and I do, but I always think of all our volunteers and it's amazing. There's a few of our volunteers, they don't even have kids that are shooting. They still come and support it. So it's just, yeah, unbelievable. Always. It warms the heart how they just want to participate and be involved.

Manisha: The Archery community is a great community, really. And if someone wants to follow along, is there a way to follow scores?

Dawn: We've been working on that because that is one of my goals. I want to get electronic scoring going. So we've been working on it. I don't know if we're going to have that up and ready for 2026.

So we do post results at the end of the day. That is the best that we can do.

Manisha: Is that through IANSEO or somewhere else?

Dawn: They will be listed in IANSEO, but we also post them on our JJAC Facebook page, also on Archery Alberta's Facebook page.

Manisha: And is there a guest category for non-Canadians?

Dawn: We have not had any non-Canadians, but if there is somebody that wants to, we'll figure it out. We will work with Archery Canada in figuring out how we get them all registered just like at any of our Canada Cups and Nationals.

Reach out. The worst we can say is no. We want people to come.

Manisha: For our American friends, what is really great about coming into Canada for a tournament, A) your dollar goes further, but you get a chance to learn about crossing the border, either land or flying, but you learn how to travel with your equipment.You are going to another country where we share languages, so you don't have to worry about language, but you learn how to travel with Archery equipment. It's not like a regular suitcase.

There are certain things that you should say and definitely not say, and you learn the process of something that is potentially going to be very vital and a very regular thing for you, if you continue on in Archery.

Dawn: And every airport is different.

Manisha: Every airport is different. Every airline is different. And learning how to be self-sufficient. You've mentioned Jim-Bows. Will they actually have a booth?

Dawn: No. But if people get in trouble, we have people there that can help troubleshoot it. We can get people fixed up and going again. And we've run into that issue before.

There's always a tackle kit somewhere got stashed in their vehicle and they bring it inside because just in case. There is a shop in Red Deer too, Grand Central Archery. And they have helped a bunch of our Archers out, at times, too.

Manisha: What's great about traveling is sometimes you can get tested and learn so much more and you get to grow so much more.

So I do encourage non-Canadians to come to the Rocky Mountain Classic, as well, because everything that you will take part in is just going to really help you as an athlete going forward.

Let's just talk about the website again and where Archers can register.

Dawn: So, all the registration information and links you can find on Jimbow’s Junior, so J-I-M-B-O-W-S-J-U-N-I-O-R-S.ca. And all the information on the Rocky Mountain Classic is there. So, costs, hotels, where it is, and the registration links are all there. Reach out if you have any questions.

Manisha: And we'll make sure that we have all the contact information in all of our show notes and blog just in case anybody wants that additional information. Is there anything else you wanted to say about the Rocky Mountain Classic, at all?

Dawn: Come out, try it, come experience it. Meet a new friend. That's the important part.

Manisha: So to close, I wanted to ask you one question. You've been an Archer for a long time. You've traveled a significant amount. All over the world, really, I think.

What is your top travel tip?

Dawn: I carry a bottle of Febreze with me because when you don't have time to wash your shirts every night, you can spritz them down and then hang them in the closet and then your shirts last a couple days longer.

Manisha: That's a great tip. Other than that, is there something that when you're traveling, you never leave home without?

Dawn: When I'm traveling to foreign countries, not necessarily like Europe, but when I went to China, I carry a jar of peanut butter because most countries have a form of bread. So if I'm not not really into the food, at least I have something to eat.

Manisha: Make sure it's in your checked bag, especially if it's over a hundred millilitres. Because peanut butter is considered a liquid. Some countries are moving away from the 100-millilitre, but make sure that's in your checked bag.

Dawn: It's additional weight. It's not a light thing to carry. I also took some dehydrated soups because they had hot water everywhere.

Manisha: There's nothing wrong with taking comfort foods and foods that you are familiar with when you're traveling. Especially if there are dietary issues.

Dawn: There's a lot of athletes that don't like to eat breakfast. We need energy. Even if you're shooting the local tournament, that when you start feeling like you need something or the butterflies have worn off, you have a granola bar, you have a piece of fruit, whatever it is, so that you could be fuelling your body as you shoot.

Even if we don't feel hungry, you need energy, right? You need a resource bank. So you want to make sure that you're feeding it so you don't get on the line and all of a sudden, everybody down the line could eat your stomach growling.

The other thing I have heard, if you're a person that likes to eat carrots or crunchy. My big thing was always snap peas. If you're having a bad day, sometimes eating a crunchy food distracts.

Manisha: Oh, there's a psychological sporting tip there. That's a good one.

Dawn: I know one of the kids like to carry their snack bags that go on their Archery quiver. They got candy and all kinds of stuff in it. I'm not a promoter of candy all the time because it's a quick sugar, but you know, every now and again doesn't hurt.

Manisha: That time between I've finished shooting my arrows to the time that the buzzer goes off to retrieve, quite often Archers don't know what to do with themselves. So it's okay to bring earbuds, depending on the rules, bring a book. It's okay to distract yourself.

Dawn: I see people knitting.

Manisha: It can help your focus.

Dawn: Making jewellery.

Manisha: You don't need to feel awkward about that time. Maybe that's something for someone who is doing this tournament for the first time.

Dawn: Even for ones experienced. As long as the earbuds are taken off when they're standing on the line and shooting, or they're walking down to retrieve. But when you're not shooting, you could still have your earbuds in.

You could still be listening to, if you even have a book on tape. Nobody needs to know what you're listening to. Maybe it's just a point that you just don't want anybody talking to you. So visual, people won't talk to you as much. Sometimes you just need that quiet time. I really started telling athletes that I'm working with, you go to an event in the first couple days, it's great camaraderie. You're having tons of fun, but as soon as that first scoring arrow changes, everything slightly changes. And some athletes may pull back from that. And it's not because they're mad at you or not.

They're doing what they need to do for their outcome, so just respect what they need to do. If somebody starts talking to you too much, just go, “You know what? I just need to go over here. I need to look for something.” Find an excuse and then go put your AirPods in.

If you need somebody to talk to, find a coach. Or, if there's an athlete from your team standing behind, go chat with them.

It's respecting yours and everybody else's what they need to do.

Manisha: And I guess my final tip for Archers that might be doing this for the first time. If you have a line cutter, meaning an arrow that hits the line or you think it's close, it's okay to call over a judge.

You need to get your points. You need to stand up for yourself. And you need to understand that that is part of the sport as well. Don't give away points.

Dawn: Nope. Don't give away points. If it's that close, call it in. And if it's somebody else's arrows, somebody else who stands back and calls the judge over. A lot of time we're getting into the area where, if there's three or four people, those four people or three people have to decide.

So everybody steps up, takes a look at it, and then it's thumbs up, it's in, and thumbs down, majority rules. Yeah, you need to fight for your points. Find out what the rules are. Can I ask for a judge? The arrow has to be called first. You can't stand there and go, well I think it's this.

No, if it's your arrow, you own it. It's a 10. Own it. And it's up to everybody else to go: no, it's not. So own the call.

Manisha: For a long time, Canadians never did that. And that's why I bring this up. It was only really, I guess less than 10 years ago where there was a move, I guess more on the Recurve side. Maybe it was different for Compound. But for a long time, Canadian Recurve Archers did not fight for their points. And start young, start at the beginning. Believe in your arrows.

Dawn: Yep. When I'm shooting with somebody and they're calling, I'm like, no, you have to make the call. If I'm a judge, somebody has to make the call and then decide if you really need me. You need to make the call. You need to own the arrow call. And at the end of the day, if you call it wrong.... If they're going to get mad at you for that, they're having a rough date.

Manisha: True, true. Dawn, thank you so much for being on the episode today and sharing about the Rocky Mountain Classic. Something that is such an important youth development tournament in Canada. It's playing a very vital role in the development of Archers, and I encourage everyone to go to Blackfalds.

Dawn: Yeah.

Manisha: From January 2nd to 4th.

Dawn: That's correct. Visit our website at JimbowsJuniors.ca and come on out and experience it. It's a fun weekend. It's an exhausting weekend, but it's a fun weekend.

Manisha: It could be such a core memory for an Archer. Who knows? In several years, who knows where we could see them.

Dawn: It's not always about the score that creates the memories. Yes, of course when you win a world medal, you remember that. Or, at least you watch the reel of it to remember it, after shooting in it. We remember a lot of the conversations, the antics, the goofiness, the good laughs along the way.

Manisha: And for everyone listening, consider maybe not for 2026, but for the future if your Archer is interested, and not just for Archery Canada Archers, but NASP, as well as 4H, because it's a whole new experience that could really change the way they see the sport.

Dawn: Yep. As always about learning, we're always learning about ourselves, about everything. We're always learning something.

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Thanks for listening to this episode of The Archery Parent Podcast.

You can find more episodes at archeryparentpodcast.ca. While there, sign up for our newsletter and check out our blog.

The Archery Parent Podcast is hosted and produced by me, Manisha. Reece Wilson-Poyton and Elissa Foley are our resident Archery consultants and contributors. Fact checking by Manisha, Reece, and Elissa. Our theme music is "The Stranger" by Wooden Flowers, Michal Menert, and Giant Metal Crickets.

I'm Manisha of the Archery Parent Podcast. We're doing this one arrow at a time.