Some serious shoulder issues sidelined me back in September of '17. I was diagnosed with severe osteoarthritis in my bow shoulder and the days of shooting 4,5,6 tournaments a month and 30-40 arrows a day to stay competitive came to a screeching halt. My Doc was talking about shoulder replacement. At 65 I've never been cut on intentionally and I've been looking for treatments that might keep that from happening. In October last year she suggested trying some injections and I've had two rounds of them now with pretty good results. I also found some OTC meds that have been awesome in reducing the inflammation, in fact so well that I actually picked up a few of my longbows and flung a few last week. .
Experimenting with new ways to come to draw I found a method that eliminated that spot in raising the bow where I'd felt like I'd been shot with an 8D ringshank. With positive results during the week I decided to shoot my second tournament in 18 months yesterday. Jay Sea and the guys at BOCO laid out an awesome new course and I had a blast seeing my old archery buddies again!
It wasn't pretty, had some 5's on the longer targets, but I did manage to get the W with a 175 on 20 targets, even managed a few 12's in there. The great thing is that I'm not hurting today! Traditional archery had become such an important part of my life that not shooting is just not an option if there's a way. So as long as the meds and shots keep working I'm gonna keep flingin'!
Experimenting with new ways to come to draw I found a method that eliminated that spot in raising the bow where I'd felt like I'd been shot with an 8D ringshank. With positive results during the week I decided to shoot my second tournament in 18 months yesterday. Jay Sea and the guys at BOCO laid out an awesome new course and I had a blast seeing my old archery buddies again!
It wasn't pretty, had some 5's on the longer targets, but I did manage to get the W with a 175 on 20 targets, even managed a few 12's in there. The great thing is that I'm not hurting today! Traditional archery had become such an important part of my life that not shooting is just not an option if there's a way. So as long as the meds and shots keep working I'm gonna keep flingin'!