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[00:00] And you see that bows and arrows. Yeah. Yeah. Like like on Wii but real life.
[00:10] Yeah. Just like the Wii. A little bit different.
[00:13] Yeah. You’re probably right. Are you Jessica? That is me, the one and only.
[00:18] It’s nice to meet you. Your mom speaks the world of you. And I’m excited for our lesson today.
[00:23] It’s going to be a fun one. We’re going to shoot straight or shoot a lot. That’s for sure.
[00:28] There you go. I love it. Ann’s got a book. She has some toys as well. She should be fine sitting back over here. She’s pretty much always with me.
[00:38] Hey, I got two kids, so I feel you on that. Always listening and always watching. That one.
[00:45] Very true. I’m learning that the hard way to be honest with you. She’s learning to cuss like a sailor. So, I have to watch that.
[00:54] Yeah. Me, too. Don’t worry about it. Me, too.
[00:59] But I just want to I guess ask I know your name is Jessica. Do you go by Jess? Do you have a preference?
[01:06] So most people call me Jess. My full name is Jessica. And when people call me Jessica, I just feel like I’m in trouble.
[01:15] Okay.
[01:16] Yeah. Gets gets me nervous. My dad used to call me Jessica when I got in trouble. So I just go by Jess. It’s easy and it’s not as basic as Jessica.
[01:24] All right. A little bit about personality.
[01:28] I love it. Not as basic. So, I was talking with your mom and she mentioned you have a background in archery. I’ve
[01:35] been curious about it and she offered to hook us up and I jumped at the chance.
[01:41] So, once again, thank you very much for taking the time to meet with me.
[01:46] Oh, yeah. No problem. If I have an opportunity to teach someone archery, I jump on it because archery, it’s not
[01:53] just a hobby to me. It’s a passion. It’s a lifestyle. It’s really everything to me. It defines who I am. So, I’m willing
[02:01] to share that with anybody who wants to learn.
[02:03] I love that. And I get to learn from the best. So, that’s that’s awesome. But, I guess before we get started, safety, is
[02:11] there anything you can kind of share with me? I mean, I don’t know. Where do we get started? I just always think safety.
[02:16] Not many people think it’s a, you know, as dangerous as firearms, but it very much well could be. You can’t just grab
[02:25] a bow and decide, “Hey, I’m going to shoot it and see what happens.” You’re holding a a bow that has poundage behind
[02:32] the limbs. My bows, there’s 60 lb limbs on them. If something happens with that bow, that thing explodes, you can hit
[02:39] your face, you can cut your finger open, you can severely hurt yourself. So, there is a lot of safety that does come with archery. One, you got to make sure
[02:47] that you’re able to pull the bow back without a struggle. Because if you can’t pull that bow back, you risk not only
[02:55] blowing up the bow and again hurting yourself, breaking the bow, but you risk hurting muscles, straining muscles, and
[03:03] all of that. So, there’s that aspect of it as far as shooting a bow. And then Makes sense. Yeah, I work on bows for a
[03:11] living and I had a bow blow up on me and it actually took the skin off of my finger to where I could see my bone on
[03:19] my finger and it it’s they can get pretty dangerous.
[03:23] Yeah, I can imagine. So, can I like I’m trying to visualize this. I’m a sailor.
[03:27] When you’re tying a ship down, we’re there’s a thing that we are always terrified about where a line snaps and
[03:35] it’ll it’s they always show you you see a video twice a year of snapback. I guess snapback I guess that’s what it is
[03:41] where a sailor lost his legs or a couple of sailors lost their legs because of the tension on that line. Is that essentially the same thing?
[03:53] Yeah. So imagine, so you have most men shoot around a 70 80 lb bow. So you have
[04:00] this bow that has 80 lb worth of force on the limbs and the only thing holding those limbs down is that string that’s tied up around the cams.
[04:10] And so if you pull it back and you don’t pull it back correctly, you chance that string sliding off the cams and then
[04:18] exploding. And it could if it hits your arm, it’s called string slap. And it could Oh, it hurts like a [ __ ] It It’s
[04:26] It’s not fun. Things on the bow can start flying and then all of that pound, it’s like the poundage if it hits you, it can
[04:33] slice your face open. I mean, it’s essentially just like the sailors.
[04:39] If something happens, they can lose a leg.
[04:41] I mean, you’re not going to lose a limb from the string, but it’s it can cause some severe damage. Just like if you
[04:48] pull a bow back without an arrow. This is probably a very big rule, by the way. Huh.
[04:54] Don’t ever pull a bow back without an arrow knocked. I did not know.
[05:00] Yeah. Cuz if you pull a bow back and there’s no arrow Mhm.
[05:04] where is all that poundage going on your finger?
[05:06] It’s going to go Well, it’s going to go straight back into the bow. Oh.
[05:10] Cuz that string’s not pushing anything forward. It has nowhere to put all that pressure into to launch the arrow.
[05:17] So, if you don’t have an arrow, you risk dry firing a bow, and that’s what it’s called. So, if you pull back a
[05:24] bow and there’s no arrow and you shoot it Mhm.
[05:27] all that poundage is going back into the limbs, and that’s what’ll blow up a bow usually 98% of the time.
[05:36] I had no idea, but it makes total sense. Wow.
[05:40] Yeah. So, you’re kind of holding a ticking time bomb if you don’t know what you’re doing with a bow.
[05:45] That’s what it sounds like. Uh, but there there is protective gear, right? I see an arm guard here and a glove. And
[05:55] I don’t know. It’s some kind of sling thing. I’m not sure.
[05:58] What is the arm guard? And the What is this equipment for?
[06:01] The arm guard is a lot of that stuff is for re curve bows. So, there’s different type of bows in the archery world. Do you have
[06:10] compound bows, recurve bows, long bows, crossbows? So the the arm guards and the finger guards, stuff like that, that’s
[06:18] going to be recurve type equipment. I mean, you can use an arm guard for compound bows. It’s not like you can’t,
[06:25] but a lot of people will use that for recurve cuz you have more of a chance slapping your arm with the string. And
[06:32] that’s what the arm guard’s for is to protect your arm from getting a string slap, which
[06:39] that can leave a leave a mark. That doesn’t feel good.
[06:43] Yeah, I’ve got a lot to learn. But arrows, that’s cool. And it’s kind of obvious on this one, right?
[06:51] You know, with arrows that a lot of people are just like, “Hey, I’m going to go get an arrow and shoot it out of a bow.” But there’s so much that goes into the arrows that you choose to shoot.
[07:02] Can you uh so share what in a nutshell what that is?
[07:07] Yeah. So you have obviously the length of an arrow. Uhhuh.
[07:11] You have to cut the length of the arrow correctly to your draw length of the bow. You don’t want it too short because
[07:20] then you risk having it behind the rest of your bow and then you can shoot
[07:27] yourself or break a bow or completely shatter the arrow and then all of the carbon fiber goes into your hand or your face.
[07:36] Uh oh. Yeah.
[07:38] Yeah. And if it’s too long, you risk losing speed. And in a hunting scenario, that’s very important is your speed of
[07:45] an arrow. So length of an arrow is a big one. You do want to get the correct spine of an arrow. So spine,
[07:52] what that means is the spine of the arrow is the flexibility of an arrow. Okay?
[07:58] So depending on what poundage you shoot, that is going to tell your spine. So I shoot 60 lb. And based off the poundage
[08:07] I shoot and my draw length, there’s kind of an equation that you would do to give you your your spine of the arrow. And so
[08:15] I shoot a 400 spine. So it’s going to be a little bit more flexible than say a 350 or 300 spined arrow.
[08:23] Um just because I’m shooting less poundage.
[08:27] Put in your brain, you’re shooting an arrow at less poundage, you’re going to want it to flex a little bit more to get
[08:35] a little better flight. But if you’re shooting 80 pounds, you don’t want that arrow to flex too much because the 80
[08:42] pounds is gonna mess up the the arrow flight. So you want it to be stiffer. Yeah. Yep.
[08:48] So that’s what the spine is about. And that helps with the arrow flight, which is obviously important when it comes to
[08:55] coming out of the bow. And then um you obviously have diameter of an arrow. You can do 6 mm diameter, 5 mil, 4 mil. I
[09:05] shoot 4 mil diameters and that depends on I guess preference really. I like the
[09:12] four ms because they usually are lighter and me shooting 60 lb I like to go with a lighter bow to get a lighter arrow to get the speed that I’m looking for.
[09:24] So, huh. Yeah, a lot goes into the arrow. That’s crazy.
[09:28] I never imagined this is this is turning you really really fun. I have a fun range story for you someday over coffee.
[09:37] So that was when I was in the police academy. I ended up shooting the roofings at the range on 32nd Street Naval Base down in San Diego once during
[09:45] a rapid fire event. That was fun. But I mean I by the way I did graduate and I did serve as auxiliary security force officer there.
[09:54] But yes, I did shoot the roof there. So uh that was a little embarrassing.
[09:58] There you go. At least you at least you shot something.
[10:00] There you go. There you go. Right. I mean to find target. Really? Yeah. The glasses half full. There you go.
[10:09] Um well, you’ve mentioned some serious issues with regards to the string.
[10:14] What’s the worst archery accident you’ve seen, if you don’t mind?
[10:18] Oh man, the worst archery accident. I haven’t seen much. Thank goodness. I’ve had to fix bows
[10:27] and I’ve had to help people who’ve had issues with bows out in the field. And because I’m an archery tech, I’ve heard
[10:36] some stories, but I’ve never The worst one that I’ve witnessed is my dumbass
[10:43] that blew up a bow and it ripped my skin off of my bone and I had to get rushed to the ER to get stitches on my finger. So, that’s the worst one that I’ve seen.
[10:53] Yeah. But I’ve Oh, I’ve heard some gnarly ones. For example, one of my
[10:59] mentors, he was working on a bow, and there’s different types of bows. And so, with different bows, you have to learn
[11:08] how to tune or fix each bow. Mhm. So, he he forgot, I guess, that step.
[11:15] And so, he was adjusting the draw length on a bow, a certain bow. And in order to do it on this bow, you have to put it in
[11:24] a bow press to take the pressure off the limbs. And he forgot to do that. So when he did it, it actually snapped the cams,
[11:31] which is what the strings go on on the limbs. What turns the string. Yeah.
[11:36] The cam snapped and got his finger inside of the limb between the limb and the cam and just completely crushed his finger.
[11:46] And it was stuck. And he there’s nothing he could do because his finger stuck between an 80 lb limb and a cam. Oh my gosh.
[11:54] And it it tore his finger his thumb apart. It was a crazy story. It made me just want to throw up.
[12:01] Yeah. That’s that’s terrible. That’s But
[12:08] here here’s kind of a sidebar question, I guess, that talking about unsafe things. I I know your uncle used to do some unsafe things.
[12:16] Oh god.
[12:19] How much of what not to do did you learn from him?
[12:24] Everything. I just I’d look at him and be like, “Okay, maybe I shouldn’t do that.”
[12:31] He He’s something. He was something else. I’ll tell you that much. Yeah. Oh, boy.
[12:37] Did he egg you on quite a bit? I kind of have that feeling. Yeah. I love it.
[12:42] Oh, yeah. Him and I. So, I don’t know how much my mom’s told you about our relationship, but not too much other than you guys were
[12:50] close. He taught you how to ride, and I think that’s about the extent of it.
[12:55] Yeah. Him and I had a very special relationship. I don’t really have a good relationship with any of my aunts or
[13:04] uncles from both sides of my family, but the one relationship that I had was with my uncle. And it all started just from
[13:13] him and I rzing each other and yeah, just poking fun of each other, making fun of each other. He’d make fun of the
[13:21] fact that I was blonde. I’d make fun of the fact that he was called Harry, but he was bald. I mean,
[13:30] I love it. Yeah, that’s that that’s a truth right there.
[13:33] It is. I mean, he’s bald and his name’s Harry. What a I mean, that’s contradicting. I Your whole life is contradicting right there.
[13:42] But we had a very special relationship all the way up until he passed and I’ll hold that close to my heart for sure.
[13:50] Yeah, that’s wonderful thing to hold. I think he’s a fascinating person. Hal, I think your entire family is fascinating.
[13:58] So, I’m probably going to ask you a few more questions about him and your family if you don’t mind while we’re doing this lesson.
[14:04] Hey, I love to talk. So, we’re and I love to talk about me and my family. So, let’s do it.
[14:09] I love it. Um, well, so all right, so I ask one more quick question. All right, so you two got into fun. What have you,
[14:18] doesn’t have to be fun, but what did you learn from Harry? Kind of in a nutshell.
[14:27] Honestly, he is the one that kind of showed me and taught me to just [ __ ] go for it.
[14:40] And those were his words. About two years ago, I was on my way to I work
[14:48] hunting expose and I was on my way to a hunting expo and I hadn’t talked to him in a while, but he called me. I was
[14:55] going through a divorce and I was just telling he was asking me about you know the hunting business and
[15:03] how I want to be someone in the hunting industry and how I want to go somewhere and you know I’m I have this passion for
[15:10] something and it’s just difficult and he he was just telling me you know what just [ __ ] the hat am I allowed to cuss you can cuss yes
[15:18] okay he’s just like you know [ __ ] the haters [ __ ] what people think if you love what you’re doing, then [ __ ] go
[15:26] for it. Follow your passion and do what you’re good at doing. He’s like, you
[15:32] know what? You’re my badass niece, and I want to show the world how badass you are, and you just you need to follow
[15:40] what you love. And that’s that’s something that he he taught me is if you love what you’re doing, then just keep
[15:47] going. Don’t don’t listen to stupid people. Don’t listen to anyone who says I can’t do it. Just [ __ ] go and do it.
[15:56] Y and it was pretty cool. I had him on my side and he helped me. I mean, he’d always post about me. Yeah.
[16:04] Try and you talk to his sponsors and he would get me some sponsors and in a way he hooked me up with you now. So,
[16:12] yeah, he’s not even here and he hooked us up which is pretty cool. Right.
[16:16] There have been a lot there have been so many wonderful things that have come about in my life because of him and I
[16:24] never met him. So like that’s just the reality of the situation, right? It’s just all this kind of snowballed. And I
[16:32] I really appreciate your family. I mean your mom has been just she’s she’s been amazing and I really appreciate her.
[16:42] Yeah, she’s an amazing amazing woman.
[16:45] She’s I mean just like my uncle too, they both have gone through hell and back and
[16:52] they had their faults and they had their fallouts. My uncle and I had our fallouts for a while and
[16:59] our family always seems to find our way back to each other. No matter the crazy, no matter the pain. Yeah.
[17:06] We’re always there to support each other. And my mom’s pretty amazing and my uncle was too even though he was a dumbass.
[17:13] You have to say, well, I’m going to table that statement. But your Well, your mom called him a dumbass. Let’s just say that. Oh, we’re on the same page.
[17:22] There you go. So, oh, but speaking of that dumbass, do you have a favorite, and I’mma do air quotes here, whatever.
[17:30] We are in so much trouble story about him and you.
[17:34] One comes to mind, but it wasn’t more of trouble. It was more like you’re going to get us killed time story. Okay.
[17:42] Oh my gosh. So, uncle and I, I call him uncle. Sure. Um, uncle and I decided, you know what?
[17:50] We’re going to go line dancing. Let’s just get out on the town and let’s go line dancing.
[17:56] I was going to be his wing girl. You know, he’s down in the dumps. I’m I’m just his niece and we wanted to go
[18:04] have fun. And so, I get in his car and we’re we’re listening to Neon Lights by Blake Sheldon.
[18:10] Okay. and his favorite song at the time.
[18:14] And he’s driving down the freeway and I remember sitting in the passenger seat and he’s just driving, right? I’m
[18:22] sitting in the passenger seat and he’s he’s going mock Jesus and I just I don’t understand why he’s going so
[18:30] fast and I I’m my butt cheeks are clenching the seat and I’m I’m a little nervous, but I’m with my badass uncle. I
[18:36] can’t show him how how nervous I am. And I remember grabbing the handle of the door and just squeezing because he would
[18:45] get as close as he could to the back of these semi trucks and
[18:52] then all of a sudden change lanes with with no blinker, no, hey, I’m going to change lane, nothing.
[18:59] He would get as close as he could and then the change the lanes. And I’m just like sitting there like, oh my god, is is he is he drunk already? I’m going to
[19:08] die tonight. like this is this is the end of Jess and uncle. We had a good run.
[19:14] Oh man, I specifically remember kind of like not moving my head but turning my eyes and
[19:22] looking at him and he looks over at me and just starts cracking up just
[19:29] laughing hysterically and smiling. And I look at him I was like what are you doing? Are you okay? And he goes, “I am
[19:38] trying to get as close as possible to these semi-truckss just to see when you’re going to yell at me or just to see what you’re going to do or how long
[19:46] it’s going to take you to realize that I’m just doing this to [ __ ] with you.” Oh my gosh.
[19:52] And he literally was just trying to make me [ __ ] my pants. Yeah. On the way there.
[19:59] Trying to kill us as a as a prank.
[20:02] Oh my gosh. Now, whenever I’m behind a semi-truck, I think of him. I don’t get as close as he did because he got very
[20:12] close, but it was just one giant prank he was trying to do on me and it worked.
[20:17] But it was Yeah, he almost he was trying to kill me. Well, thanks, Uncle.
[20:24] Well, I I guess speaking of right-minded, I guess uh the the last safety option or
[20:32] the last safety thing to discuss would be making sure you’re right-minded, I’m sure.
[20:38] Yes. In I guess all of everything you do, you should probably be right-minded. BMX, archery, heck, even work.
[20:48] Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes you don’t want to, but Yeah. Oh, and thought of a thought. What’s that?
[20:55] The night that we went to the line dancing bar, I got my uncle payback, I
[21:02] did some payback on him. We I told everybody it was his birthday. Okay.
[21:07] And I got him in the middle of the line dancing floor and got him a bunch of girls lined up to take [ __ ] shots off of his lap.
[21:15] I love it. I’ll bet you that was the time of his life in Oh, man. We had so much fun. And I have a picture of him and I that night.
[21:22] You’re going to have to share that with me at some point. I will. It’s It’s a very good picture.
[21:27] It was It was a lot of fun. We That night brought us even closer. And then when I ran over a turtle on a dirt bike, that was another funny adventure we had.
[21:38] A turtle on a dirt bike. Now I got to hear this one real quick.
[21:42] Oh. Oh man. We just We went to Lern Valley and we decided to go on a really long dirt bike ride, him and I. And we
[21:51] were just rid riding up this crazy wash and wanted to take me on some stupid route that he wanted to test my skills on. I think I did great.
[22:01] I I’m better than he but there’s this desert tortoise out of nowhere and he about ran it over and I I
[22:11] do a thing on TikTok called Jess’s Critter Catching. Ah, okay.
[22:15] And I love catching critters. Critters are so much fun. All right.
[22:18] Obviously, I see a desert turtle. I threw my dirt bike down and I ran over to this turtle and I played with this turtle for like
[22:26] and he’s just sitting there looking at me thinking I’m absolutely insane. But it’s like, “Uncle, there’s a freaking turtle. I’m even more excited
[22:35] about this.” So, I also have pictures of that, too.
[22:39] Oh, yeah. That’s another one. I uh I’m not so familiar with the Tik Tok. I never really caught on with that craze, but I do understand that many people did. But the critter aspect that I love.
[22:51] That’s just fun. And I’m glad you got to see it out there. Yeah, I got to experience it with him. It was that was a very memorable ride.
[23:00] We used to do dirt bike rides a lot. Every Thanksgiving we would go out and do it.
[23:05] Yeah, that’s that’s awesome. But I Sorry, I got us off track again. I do that.
[23:12] But, okay, so we have some equipment here. I guess I’m just gonna warn you. I actually know way less than I actually let on.
[23:22] Most people do.
[23:23] Okay, cool, cool, good, good, good, good. Okay.
[23:27] Um, but I do own a cheap little bow and arrow. I like picked it up at the hardware store and I haven’t really messed with it too much, so I kind of feel like an idiot right now. I think I
[23:34] shot it in my basement once. So, that’s that’s about where I’m at outside of the one that sticks to the windows.
[23:41] That one’s a good one. You You got to lick the tip and then it sticks to the window. All starts. That’s Yeah, that’s where it all started for me. And I got to tell you, I got quite a bit of practice with that.
[23:51] But it’s been a while. So, it’s a little different than those. Okay. A little bit though. Well, how so? What do you got here?
[23:57] Well, instead of using your fingers, you have a release. Okay. So, that’s a little different.
[24:03] Okay. Can you explain that to me a little bit?
[24:06] Yeah. So, there’s different types of releases when it comes to compound bows. So, recurve bows, you use your fingers.
[24:12] Compound bows, you’re going to have a release. So, there’s thumb triggers, which is what I use. It’s a handheld
[24:20] trigger. You put it around the dloop, which is a loop on your string that it’s what pulls the bow back. Okay?
[24:28] Obviously, your muscles pull it back, but that’s the utensil you use to pull it back. So, you have a thumb trigger, which your thumb is the one that releases the arrow.
[24:37] Then you have a finger trigger, which goes around your wrist, and you’ll pull the bow back, and it’s your pointer
[24:44] finger that releases the trigger. Then you get even more into it, and you have
[24:50] a back tension release or a hinge release. And that’s all going to be based off the hinge is kind of the
[24:59] motion. It’s not a trigger. It’s just motion of your hand as to when you release that arrow. And a lot of people
[25:06] won’t use a hinge release in a hunting scenario. Okay?
[25:09] Because it’s kind of like a it’s an open release. So, it’s just a turn of your hand basically to kind of release that arrow
[25:16] and it can misfire a lot of bows if you don’t know how to use it. Oh, okay. And then back tension that releases.
[25:25] It’s again not a trigger, but that release is when you add more tension when you’re in full draw. So with those
[25:32] releases, why a lot of people like to use them is with archery, you don’t ever want to anticipate your shot. You always
[25:40] want your shot to be a surprise, and that’s when you get the best shots.
[25:44] So the hinge and the back tension will help with that surprise shot, but also help with the follow through.
[25:51] And that’s the big thing is the follow through of the shot. So, there’s no anticipation or anything like that.
[25:57] Huh. Interesting. Okay. Well, all right. Well, I guess I’m going to learn.
[26:04] Heads up. I did tear my AC joint a few years back, so it never really healed properly. I’m a little bit curious to see how this goes today, but let’s just see how it goes.
[26:14] Yeah, you got a professional here to help.
[26:17] Exactly. And if, like I said, if you can’t get the bow back, we can always turn down the weight to where you’re comfortable with it. Perfect.
[26:25] And you’ll find your weight. And once you do that, it’s it’s just reps. And you just keep shooting. And the more you
[26:31] shoot, the stronger you get. It’s all about the reps.
[26:36] I love it. And I’ve been looking for a good strength training. And I guess I’ve been intimidated by, you know, archery.
[26:41] So just turn into my new hobby here. So we basically we have safety gear. We have equipment. So, you know, it comes
[26:49] with baggage. And I got to throw in a joke here. Speaking of baggage, your uncle,
[26:58] you’ve talked a lot about things you fondly remember about him and him
[27:04] teaching you a few things, but what do you think is the favorite skill you have taken away from him? Is
[27:12] Okay. favorite skill that I’ve taken from him.
[27:18] I I honestly I I don’t know if it’s a skill or less more of a personality trait.
[27:27] Okay.
[27:28] But I’d have to say stubbornness or Okay, I love it. How so? If you don’t
[27:36] mind. No matter what, no matter how hard things can get or even if he knew he was
[27:42] going to lose a race or didn’t feel good or he was in pain, he still went out and did it. And that I don’t quit. I’m too
[27:51] stubborn to quit. And that’s something that that’s something that he kind of pushed into me. Just don’t quit. No matter how hard a hunt can be.
[28:00] Mhm. No matter how dumb the elk and mu deer are making you look, just just keep going. It’s all about the mental
[28:09] strength and you’re not going to win unless you lose a little bit. You know, failure leads to success. So, you got to fail in order to win. And
[28:18] yeah, keep going. I’m not going to get a trophy bull every single year. And I’m not going to get a trophy bull if I
[28:26] don’t try either. So, I just live by failure leads to success.
[28:30] And that’s a big thing in the archery world. And I know that that was a big thing for Uncle and the BMX world, too. You know, he didn’t win every race.
[28:39] Nope. It’s okay cuz he’s still in the Hall of Fame and we are still sitting here having a conversation about him.
[28:45] So, I guess that’s just one way of saying take a stance, right? And be stubborn about it. But be stubborn and just keep We all know my uncle had a temper.
[28:55] Yep. And the apple doesn’t fall apart.
[28:59] Yep. Especially in the passions that we love. Yeah.
[29:06] And I get angry, but I use that anger as fuel to just keep going. And I will never quit ever.
[29:15] That is not in my genetics. And maybe that’s something he pushed into me, but I not happening. I won’t ever quit ever.
[29:24] Speaking of stance, how should I stand and hold myself like when I want to take this shot or get ready to take the shot here? What can you kind of walk me through that?
[29:35] Yeah. So, you’re right-handed, right?
[29:39] Yeah. Correct. And I and my I’m right-handed and my right shoulder is my AC joint tear.
[29:45] Yes. Okay. So, what I want is I want you to kind of stand with your left foot.
[29:52] You’re going to stand sideways. So, your left foot’s going to be in front. All right.
[29:55] And your right foot’s going to be in the back.
[29:57] And your left hand is the one holding the bow. Yep.
[30:00] But when you do pull the bow back, people have a tendency to want to push their hips forward. Huh. Don’t do that.
[30:09] Okay. And I’ll move your hips.
[30:12] Yeah, I’ll move your hips. So, it’s once you get in full draw, it’s pretty easy to want to move your hips. So, I’ll just straighten them out. But your stance is
[30:21] you’re just going to be kind of not facing the target. Sideways of the target. The bow is going to be obviously facing the target.
[30:29] Y.
[30:30] And you’ll pull back. I like to pull back kind of with the bow up. That way it’s easier. To aim down.
[30:38] Oh. and have gravity help you than to pull back with your bow
[30:45] down and having to move up against gravity to find your name.
[30:50] That makes sense. But I feel like in the movies it’s always the other way around. Yeah, recurves are different. Yeah.
[30:58] And usually in movies it’s recurves, but with compounds Yeah. I And you always want to do a push and pull movement.
[31:04] Okay. So, you’re going to push with your left hand and you’ll pull with your right hand and let them work together.
[31:11] And with that, you’ll notice it’s a lot easier to pull a bow back than you just focusing on pulling a bow back. You want to do a push and pull movement. And
[31:20] don’t arch your back either, cuz Oh, boy. that causes back issues. Yeah.
[31:24] But, okay. So, push push left, pull right. Yes. Perfect. Okay.
[31:30] And your feet are parallel apart from each other. All right. Yeah.
[31:34] And yeah, just kind of keep the bow at your body at first and then when you’re ready to pull back, you push with the
[31:41] left at the same time pulling. And you’ll be surprised when you hit the wall, which I don’t know if I explained that either yet.
[31:48] No, not yet. We haven’t gotten there. We But you know, I don’t even have a bow yet, so let’s start with that, I guess. But I I
[31:56] you know, something just jumped into my head and you kind of talked about it, but your uncle taught you about a motorcycle, right? you. Yep, he did.
[32:05] And she wouldn’t tell me any details, but she did mention you had a funny story about and you would tell me.
[32:12] Oh, yeah. So, we decided that I guess Jess decided that she wanted to be a dirt bike racer like her uncle.
[32:21] Yeah.
[32:22] Yeah. So, we went to Chaparel and we went and got a a 230 and a 150. And obviously the 150 was going to be my bike. I was little Jess.
[32:30] Yeah. I love it. And I was on the on the bike and I I’m trying to learn throttle control. I’m trying to learn all of the
[32:39] things about these stupid death traps that bikes. Yeah.
[32:45] And I’m kind of balls to the wall. So I just I take off. I get it out of first gear and I’m like, “All right, I did the
[32:52] hard part, which is getting going.” Yeah. And so now I’m just cruising.
[32:58] And anyone who knows dirt bikes and how they first started dirt bikes, it’s very intimidating trying to stop a dirt bike.
[33:07] Oh, yeah.
[33:08] And so I was going mock Jesus down the road and here comes a a fence in front of me and I have to turn right
[33:18] and I got wobbly. I got the death wobbles for sure. But I saved myself and I slowed down but not enough to turn and I
[33:27] rammed straight into that fence. But somehow I was I was able to go underneath. It was a
[33:34] big chain link fence and I went underneath the fence but the dirt bike kept going. Oh jeez.
[33:40] Just kept Yeah. The dirt bike rode itself. It just kept going. Yeah.
[33:44] And I was stuck underneath the fence just laying there.
[33:47] Oh my gosh. So half of my body was on one side of this property and my dirt bike was on their property and then my
[33:54] other half was on the road and I’m just stuck under the fence and it was quite comical honestly.
[34:01] Okay. Well, you know what? At least you can say that. I’ll take Yeah, it was funny cuz I again just went and grabbed the bike, got back on again cuz you don’t quit.
[34:11] Hurrah. So in this regards about Harry the mentor, Harry the teacher, Harry the guide, Harry the uncle who cared enough
[34:19] as he taught you new things, what was it like to learn from him?
[34:24] Well, honestly sometimes it was hard to take him seriously. Okay. Sure.
[34:30] But being who he was and growing up I didn’t really realize
[34:37] who he was to me. He was just he was my uncle. He was Mount Baldi. He was Mr.
[34:44] King. Um and those were the nicknames I gave him.
[34:49] And yeah, I just to me he was just my uncle and I looked up to him and not really knowing who he truly was.
[34:58] And so at times it was hard to take him serious. But you know, now looking back into the things that he taught me and the life
[35:06] lessons that I learned from him and with him not being here anymore, I take those to
[35:14] heart and I hold them close to me cuz they’re pretty big life lessons that I use every day. Yeah.
[35:19] And in my world, not the BMX world, but far as even being a mom, too. So, I don’t know if that answered your question.
[35:28] I think it does. It’s actually Okay. It was that was a great response. Thank you.
[35:33] And any teacher wants their lessons to be taken with them in their passing, right? And so it’s a wonderful thing. So I guess the next step is this knocking.
[35:45] I’ve heard about knocking the arrow.
[35:48] What is a knock? Can you kind of explain that to me real quick?
[35:53] Yeah. So the knock is the little piece at the end of an arrow, the back side of an arrow. That is the part that goes on
[36:01] the string in between your dloop. So the dloop is what you use to pull back the bow.
[36:06] And the knock is what pinches not pinches, but it’s what puts the arrow on the string.
[36:13] So um I’m going to I guess clip it in onto the string and then just kind of like this. How does that look?
[36:22] That looks great. Just like that. So, you want to hear that little click. Okay.
[36:26] So, there’s a little click. I don’t know if you heard it, but when you knock an arrow, that’s when someone’s talking about knocking an arrow. You put the arrow on the string and you hear a click
[36:34] and you know that the arrow is knocked and ready to be fired.
[36:38] Okay. All right. Well, uh, does this look about right then? That looks perfect. Absolutely perfect.
[36:44] And there’s there’s different types of knocks, too. So you have knocks that just like the one you have. It doesn’t light up or anything. There’s nothing
[36:53] nothing special to it. But then you also have knocks that after you shoot when it releases it lights up. So it’s like a
[37:00] tracer, a bullet tracer. So you can see the arrow flight. It’s like a big light.
[37:05] And in a hunting scenario, those are beneficial because you can see your shot placement on a deer or an elk. They make really cool videos, too.
[37:14] W That would be cool. I love it. So I guess what’s I just draw back, right? Yep.
[37:22] I with my left I push. With my right I pull. Yes. Perfect. And All right. Here we go.
[37:30] All right. How’s everything look? Does my hand look a little tight? It feels Am I holding it too tight? I feel like I’m holding it too tight.
[37:36] Yeah. So when you’re in full draw like this, you feel the wall. So when I talk about that wall, it’s like when you pull back, you feel the tension, you feel
[37:44] that poundage, and then all of a sudden everything relaxes. And so that is the let off of a bow.
[37:51] That way you can hold full draw as long as you can. So you actually there’s bows that have 80% let off up to 95% let off.
[38:00] Um that way you’re not holding 80 lbs of tension in full draw. So that’s a benefit of compound bows. Yeah.
[38:08] Okay, cool. minute. Uh, as far as I don’t know how do I anchor this? Where do I So, am I where how do I anchor this?
[38:14] Okay. So, my mentor taught me you have a kisser nose peep. Okay.
[38:20] So, you have your kisser on the string and that goes on the corner of your mouth. Okay.
[38:24] And then once you get the kisser on your mouth, you put your nose on the string.
[38:28] And don’t be afraid to put your nose on the string. It’s not going to hurt you.
[38:33] Yeah. So, you want the string to line up on your face.
[38:38] So have it be touching your face and then that way you can see straight through the peep when you’re shooting.
[38:46] You want the same anchor point every single time so your shots are exactly the same every single time because if you have a different anchor point that
[38:54] means every shot’s going to be different. So that’s why you have a kisser.
[38:59] Put your nose on the string and you look through the peep and it’ll be the same every time.
[39:03] Okay. And this is getting a little tight. If I want to kind of just put it down for a second, like if I want to not shoot the arrow, but give my arm a rest
[39:11] for a second. Is that possible or do I have to shoot? Shoot. I would recommend shooting. Okay.
[39:18] Because letting in on a bow with heavy poundage. Yeah.
[39:22] If you’re not I don’t want to say skilled, but if you’re not, what’s the word I’m looking for?
[39:29] Um, experienced. Thank you. There you go. It’s an e word. Yeah.
[39:35] If you’re not experienced enough, you letting in. You can risk what I said
[39:42] earlier, knocking the string off the can if you don’t let in cuz you need to let in completely straight like you did when you pulled back.
[39:50] And a lot of people can accidentally dry fire that way as well. So, it’s best just if you want to relax, just shoot it.
[39:58] Okay. All right. Well, I guess I need to learn how to aim it. So, any recommendations there? Look through the peep. Okay.
[40:05] And make sure your bow is completely level. So the level A lot of people don’t focus on the the bubble on your site. Uhhuh.
[40:14] But you got to make sure that bubble is level cuz if it’s not level, you’re going to be shooting left and right and your shots are going to be all over the place. So you want to make sure that bubble is level.
[40:22] Okay. Got it. And and then get that pin exactly where you want to hit. And like I said, don’t
[40:30] anticipate the shot. Keep the tension on the bow. So don’t relax. So act like you are drawing back your bow and your muscles are still contracted.
[40:41] And then when you have your finger on the trigger, pull through it. Don’t press the trigger. You want to pull through the trigger because all your back muscles are still contracted.
[40:51] Pull through the trigger. Okay. Pull through the trigger. Okay.
[40:54] Okay. I’m going to give this a shot. me kind of and make sure your hand your left hand that’s holding the bow Mhm.
[41:01] don’t grip that bow cuz you can torque it.
[41:04] Oh, and that Yeah, I feel like it’s a little It’s still It feels a little tight. So, all right. I’ll get I guess I’ll learn.
[41:12] Yeah, this is a sketchy one for people to learn. I’ll actually tap your hand if it’s too tight.
[41:19] But essentially, you want the bow to just be on your thumb bone, okay? and just relax every single
[41:26] finger. You’re not gripping that bow. I don’t grip the bow at all at all. I My fingers are wide open when I’m holding
[41:33] my bow in full draw. But make sure you don’t shoot your finger cuz that would suck.
[41:37] Oh boy. All right. Uh All right. Here we go. Here we go. All right. Let me take a deep
[41:44] take a breath. It’s not as scary as you think. Hey, look at that. There it is. Right.
[41:55] Holy crap. That was fun. No, it was that was cool. You see why I’m obsessed with it?
[42:02] Yeah. Oh my go All right. I’m We’re going to have to make a shopping trip soon.
[42:06] Yep. And then you’ll start shooting more and more and more and then you get obsessed with it. And then you start hunting and you get obsessed even more.
[42:14] Well, I was telling my buddy I think my downstairs is big enough for me to have kind of a an archery range down there.
[42:20] So, I don’t know if we might just make an indoor one. So, we’ll see.
[42:25] Honestly, that’s nice because going outside in the winter of Utah is absolutely freezing, but you got to do it.
[42:32] Yeah, I can imagine. Bill, we’re 18° here right now, I think. So, okay, you win.
[42:37] Yeah, but still. I I I have an aunt in Utah and I understand. Yeah, you definitely win that one.
[42:44] Well, that was awesome. Thank you. And you were an amazing teacher. I do have I guess as I move forward with my archery
[42:53] practice, are there any tips that I should walk away with regarding practicing and getting better
[43:02] and enhancing my skills other than just practicing and challenging myself?
[43:06] Yeah, when it comes to archery, it’s it’s a very repetitive sport. So the more you shoot, a lot of people will
[43:14] just grab a bow, shoot, and once a year and that’s it. Archery is something I
[43:21] know you said other than practicing, but my motto is shoot straight or shoot a lot. I mean, if you want to shoot straight, you’re going to have to shoot a lot.
[43:30] Yeah.
[43:30] And so you want to create that muscle memory when it comes to archery. And just it’s it’s all about the reps you
[43:40] put in and the time you put in. And the more you shoot, the safer it becomes. So your muscles will start to get muscle
[43:48] memory. You’ll start to get where your anchor point is. And a big thing is knowledge of your bow.
[43:54] Make sure you know the ins and outs of your bow, your release, your arrows. And if you have knowledge of your setup,
[44:03] there’s less room for air or dry firing or anything like that. And remember, do not pull a bow back without an arrow.
[44:12] I’m glad you told me that. That all makes total sense. That was awesome. I just a couple more questions if you don’t mind, cuz I got a little game I
[44:20] like to play. Uh, and I’m hoping you’d be down. And I I call it one word because really it’s just one word.
[44:26] Except I’m actually going to ask you a couple from different perspectives. But are you down? I’m always down to play a game.
[44:33] Heck yeah. Let’s do it. All right. So, one word for however you want to describe your uncle as your uncle,
[44:41] right? Not Harry Liry, the BMX guy or the cycling guy or whatever, right? Just your uncle. Uncle.
[44:52] Okay. It’s really funny, but one word when you asked that did come to mind. Oh boy. Yeah.
[45:00] And all I can think of is bald.
[45:06] And he’s probably just looking down right now just calling me a dumbass or a blonde or something. But I literally I
[45:15] just all I can think of is bald. And it’s not just cuz he’s bald. I mean, obviously that helps, but
[45:22] our relationship, first thing we’d ever say to each other every time we’d see each other was, “I just make fun of how he had no
[45:30] hair.” And that was our relationship was just him and I going back and forth on how bald he was. So, I I love it.
[45:37] I just think of bald.
[45:39] All right. No, I’ll take it all day long. Yeah. And you do have insight into his career.
[45:45] And I kind of want to ask from your perspective, one word for your uncle, Harry Liry, the BMX legend that Yeah, the BMX legend.
[45:58] One word for him as a BMX legend.
[46:03] Oh man, I would I would say attitude. Okay, I love it. How so?
[46:11] Yeah. people who knew him, they and the people who know him and are listening to this, they’ll probably agree with me,
[46:20] but he Oh, man. Or attitude slash I guess this is two words cuz I’m putting a slash in, but I’d say anger.
[46:29] Oh, okay. Yeah. Is there a specific incident about anger that comes to mind
[46:36] or is it just kind of in general? I mean, just this recent one, it was a recent race where he didn’t win and he
[46:44] got cut off that he got so mad. He threw his bike at the finish line and just started screaming at this guy and
[46:52] the guy who won and he had anger and he had an attitude when it came to his sport. But I think that is what fueled him to be so good at
[47:01] what he did is he used his attitude and anger to to win to to be the best. He
[47:09] did not like losing. So no no he he did not he did not um and I think that’s pretty kind of well known
[47:17] and he did get himself into some trouble from time to time because of his anger.
[47:22] Unfortunately, that set a mindset in many people that has affected his legacy.
[47:29] Yeah. And those people know him as Harry Liry, Turbo, the BMX legend, but they
[47:37] don’t know him as family or my uncle where he had a soft side. He loved his
[47:44] family, loved me, loved his sister, loved messing around and kidding around and smiling. him. Boy, did he love his dogs.
[47:53] Yeah, I’ve heard. I love it.
[47:54] He had a big heart. But in the BMX world, if he’s using that anger and attitude as fuel, that’s what most
[48:02] people are going to see. But that wasn’t everything of who he was. He was so much more than than that.
[48:11] Yeah. I’ve learned because I’ve taken the time to learn. And it’s you can learn a lot from Harry Larry.
[48:18] I’ll say that. You absolutely can. I know I have.
[48:23] Yeah. And I actually came up with a new game just for you. I’m excited.
[48:29] Yeah. I’ve never played with anybody. I I don’t know who else I would play it with, but most uncles and nieces or nephews have a secret. And I know you guys have a connection.
[48:41] Would you be willing to share one secret that you shared with your uncle? H I mean that is a deep question.
[48:51] No. Is it perfectly okay response by the way?
[48:56] It’s a response that requires a thought process.
[49:01] To answer your question, there is one thing that does come to mind.
[49:07] It was actually one of the the last times my uncle and I talked. We talked for 4 hours on the phone.
[49:15] Oh wow. and we really opened up to each other about our lives and what we went through and what we were going through.
[49:26] And he was going through some issues with drug addiction and going through issues with his love life.
[49:38] And I was in the middle of a divorce and mistakes that I’ve made in my in my life. And
[49:47] I guess it wasn’t one specific secret, but the conversation, that conversation
[49:54] of being so vulnerable with each other on our lives of mistakes and him just
[50:02] openly telling me about his mistakes and the use of drugs and how it affected him
[50:09] and how he was working on being better and how he was doing so Well, yeah.
[50:16] And me opening up about my divorce and how low and close I was to rock bottom.
[50:24] Yeah.
[50:25] It was between him and I, not necessarily a secret, but a vulnerability that him and I shared together. I’d have to say that was one
[50:34] of the the biggest ones that I hold dear to my heart. It was one of our last
[50:41] conversations and yet one of the most important conversations.
[50:47] So yeah, I I appreciate you sharing that.
[50:50] And I mean to be honest, I am a big fan of redemption and that is a big drive of mine. I mean, I have seven years of sobriety and quitting drinking was easy for me.
[51:01] It wasn’t easy, but it was easy overall because I was self-medicating to cover bipolar and nobody knew I was
[51:10] bipolar, right? It until it was kind of too late. It was a welcome to a new world for Kyle. I did a lot of things
[51:19] that I am ashamed of due to mental health and alcohol. And I’m really
[51:26] coming out of barely coming out of kind of seven years of selfisolation
[51:34] to learn how to be a human being again.
[51:38] Okay. Congrats on seven years cuz I know from experience, not experience personally.
[51:45] Sure. But from watching my family, my uncle going through what he went through
[51:53] and fighting what he thought, beating addiction is one of the hardest things you can do in my book. So yeah, I was Yeah. [ __ ] yeah. God is good.
[52:03] I’m happy for you. Proud of you. I’m proud of you.
[52:06] But Ann, what did you think of the lesson? Yeah.
[52:12] I I I need more practice. Okay. Yes. I I’ll probably I think you did pretty good. Yeah, I appreciate.
[52:20] And pretty soon we’ll get her a bow, too, cuz they make little bows for little people. What year? Like at what age or so?
[52:27] So, my daughter’s seven and she shoots her bow. And I just taught a lesson to a four-year-old. So, what’s cool about bows, too, is it’s
[52:36] family oriented. So, there’s 3D archery events that you can go out to with your family.
[52:41] Uhhuh. and go out walking and hiking in the mountains shooting 3D targets, having fun, hanging out with good
[52:49] people, cuz all the people at these 3D events, they’re there to shoot bows, and you all have it in common, and they’re great people. The archery industry, it’s
[52:57] a fun industry. It’s it’s a small industry, but it is it’s a family for sure.
[53:02] I love it. Well, I think you’ve added a new fan. The big hesitation before is I didn’t know enough, I think, and now I
[53:10] feel I know enough to at least be a little more educated and I appreciate that.
[53:14] Yeah. Have a little bit less fear of the bow.
[53:18] But anyways, we’re going to we got to get going and I appreciate the lesson.
[53:22] What you mentioned before potentially hooking up at some point in the future to buy one or do kind of an equipment
[53:29] purchase. I would feel way more comfortable with your professional expertise.
[53:35] I can definitely handle that. My suggestion is to go and we will shoot a
[53:43] bunch of different bows because each bow is going to feel different to you. The way the grip is, the way the weight is,
[53:50] the size of the riser, they’re all different. So, you got to shoot every bow and then you choose your favorite.
[53:56] Okay. That’s okay. All right. See, I got to learn. I always just I I know I got to get that out of my head, right? I just can’t go pick one off yourself at Walmart, right? So,
[54:04] they’re expensive. You want to be sure what you’re purchasing.
[54:07] Sure, that makes sense. Well, hey, that’s awesome. And I look forward to going shopping with you. You enjoy the rest of your day. I’m not sure if you
[54:15] have any more lessons lined up or not, but this was awesome. Thank you.
[54:20] Yeah, no problem. Hey, thank you so much for coming out and letting me share my passion and letting me talk about my
[54:26] uncle cuz he was he was awesome but also a dumbass. So, I don’t know if I said that yet.
[54:32] You have. And did you know that that was the word? I think I might have said that. That that was the word your mom used for him twice. So, when I asked her for one word, she the first time I
[54:40] recorded with her, she used the word dumbass and the second time she confirmed that.
[54:46] So, it’s it’s nice to hear that it’s not just her opinion on that. that Harry L was a dumbass and his family. He was a dumbass.
[54:54] There you go. Yes. But we love him.
[54:56] You do love him and I I love that you guys love him. It It’s amazing to see kind of behind the curtain and the the love that the family does share.
[55:06] We’re very close. Awesome.
[55:08] All right. Well, hey, you get out of here and you all take care. You take care and uh we’ll we’ll get together soon to go shopping.
[55:16] All right. Sounds like a plan, Stan. And bye bye.