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Range Captain
By: Jim Teel - Club Range Captain
Archery and Mental Health
When most people begin shooting field archery, they approach it as a sport. And practice makes perfect, right? The more you practice, the better you get. As you hone your archery skills, the natural progression is to begin competing in tournaments to measure yourself against other archers. But what drew me to archery had nothing to do with competition or even fitness for that matter. I happened to stumble upon archery in a very round-a-bout way. And the difference it made in my life was nothing short of life-changing.
Ten years ago this month, I suffered the traumatic loss of my 17 year old son, Jacob. If you’re a parent yourself, then the first thought that probably went through your mind as you read that statement was probably something along the lines of “I couldn’t even imagine…”
And the truth is that I don’t want you to. The thought alone is enough to bring any loving parent to their knees. The painful truth is that it is far worse than you could possibly imagine.
I was in a very dark place for a very long time before I found archery. As a veteran, I had access to support groups and a variety of antidepressants, none of which ever really solved the problem. And even though I relied heavily upon the medications that I took every single day, my mental health wasn’t really improving and I doubted that I would ever be free of the depression that utterly crippled me.
It was during a trip to Big Bear Lake with my girlfriend, Leigh Anne that I would discover how much better I felt when I was on the water. We rented a canoe and spent the day fishing for trout. I don’t think we even caught anything that day, but being on the water felt so much better than anything I’d tried up until that point. I decided to purchase a canoe of my own and I made a habit out of going to the lake. Within the first couple of months, I found that Big Bear had a substantial carp problem. Some mornings, the carp were so thick that they would literally hit the side of the canoe as they swam away from my silent approach.
“If I had a bow and arrow,” I reasoned, “this would be child’s play”
…or so I thought, anyways.
So I bought a bow, got the necessary bow fishing gear and began bow fishing right along with my regular fishing gear. It didn’t take long for me to decide that I only wanted to bow fish and stopped taking my other fishing equipment altogether.
I was hooked.
I didn’t know how to articulate it at the time, but the time I spent on the water, hunting down carp and repeating that sequence of drawing a bow over and over again was providing me with a degree of peace that I never thought I would find again. And when the summer ended and there were no more carp to shoot, I knew once again that I needed to continue shooting a bow. So I looked online for an archery club and I found Oranco Bowmen.
I shot as often as I could and applied all of the points of instruction (generously offered by members) I received along the way. At the time, I didn’t understand why I was feeling just a little bit better every day that I had a bow in my hand. But the longer I shot - the better I felt on a day to day basis.
So I continued to shoot.
Like many archers new to the sport, I was reluctant to shoot any tournaments, reasoning that I wasn’t good enough, etc. But I was talked into it by a community that welcomed me with open arms. I didn’t win any awards straight out of the gate, but I did make a lot of friends and I always enjoyed the time I spent on the range.
I was in the process of finally healing and I didn’t even know it.
A couple of years after I joined the club, I was able to wean myself off of the medications I’d relied so heavily on - for so many years. And I owe that to the sport of archery and to this community that promotes it. Without knowing what to call this relationship between archery and my steadily improving mental health, the improvements in my quality of life were undeniable. I drank less and I could see firsthand how my participation in the sport was very systematically reducing my depression and increasing my sense of well-being.
Somatic movement is the term for a form of mindful physical activity that focuses on the internal experience of the body rather than external goals or performance.
◦ Stress and Anxiety Reduction:
Somatic movements can help release tension, improve breathing patterns, and promote a sense of calm.
◦ Increased Body Awareness:
By paying attention to sensations and movements in the body, individuals can gain a deeper understanding of their physical selves.
◦ Improved Mobility and Flexibility:
Exploratory movements can gently stretch and release muscles, enhancing mobility and flexibility.
◦ Emotional Release:
Somatic movement can facilitate the expression and release of emotions that may be stored in the body.
◦ Enhanced Body-Mind Connection:
By cultivating a mindful approach to movement, individuals can strengthen their connection between their physical and mental states.
Now, if you’re an archer - then you probably just read that section and said silently to yourself, “That’s archery.” And you’d be right.
Turns out, that by repeating that sequence of minding all of the details that accompany a perfectly released arrow, you gain something far more profound than the thrill of an arrow hitting the mark…you gain peace of mind. The same can be said for people who embrace similar sports where all of your attention has to be focused on a combination of factors to ensure proficiency. Take surfing for example. If you’re going to do it well, you can’t be thinking about anything other than staying on that surfboard. There’s no time to think about financial woes, the fight you just had with your significant other, or anything other than staying on that board. A perfectly released arrow also demands that same level of heightened awareness. It’s an endless pursuit of fleeting perfection. You never “arrive” per se, and every new arrow you nock onto your bowstring requires the same level of attention as the one you shot before it. You may never find yourself on the podium for a state championship and you may never unseat one of the big shots in Las Vegas. But every single person who continues to shoot will continue to reap the rewards of a mind more at ease.
Anxiety due to money or relationship problems? Go shoot your bow. PTSD weighing on you like a Mack truck? Go shoot your bow. Difficulty finding peace? Go shoot your bow.
There will always be those individuals who excel in any given sport. I’ve won a couple of competitions here and there and don’t get me wrong - it does feel good to be celebrated for that brief moment in time.
But the lasting effects of shooting your bow every week are where the real rewards are found. The friendships you make along the way are equally important. Most of my best friends are within the field archery and bow fishing communities. I put a lot of my time and energy into supporting this club because I know that the life-line I personally received will be needed by someone else in the future.
To be part of the team and part of the community that provides that healing environment is quite simply my greatest honor.
I wanted to remind all of you that the healing ability of this sport and of this community should be what you value the most. You can only put an award on your wall and show it off once in a while to a house guest. But what you get out of archery on a personal level is by far the greatest reward. I’ve put off writing this article for a long time for personal reasons. I didn’t want to identify myself by the tragedy in my past. But it’s been long enough now and I feel it needed to be said.
So thank you for taking the time to read this long overdue testimonial.
I’ll see you on the range.
-Jim Teel
Range Captain
Jim Teel
ob.rangecaptain@outlook.com
(818) 317-91109
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