11/1/2008 7:36:00 PM
No ID required for senior archers
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Les Stukenberg/
The Daily Courier
“The good archer can stand at one end of a football field and shoot an arrow 100 yards into a grapefruit at the other end,” says Bob Park of Prescott, 80, left. He and John Nay of Prescott Valley, 65, practice at the Granite Mountain Archery Range in Prescott. |
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In 1953, at the sensitive age of 10, Prescott Valley resident John Nay was asthmatic and sickly - and not very athletic.
Searching for a way to boost her son's self-esteem, Nay's mother bought him a bow and arrow at Sears, Roebuck and Co., and encouraged him to become an archer.
It was probably the best gift Nay, now a 65-year-old retired Air Force instructor and Bible college teacher, could have received.
After all these years, Nay continues to enjoy shooting, and he's talented to boot.
At the 22nd Annual Huntsman World Senior Games in October in St. George, Utah, Nay garnered gold medals in target and field archery for his age group. The Games follow an Olympic-style format for those ages 50 and up and play host to more than 9,500 athletes each fall.
Nay competes in the Huntsman to maintain ties to the sport.
When his three sons were young, Nay took them to tournaments on the weekends, exposing them to the thrills of the zooming arrow.
"My little kids were in diapers when they had a bow," Nay said. "It's a great family sport."
Nay, a volunteer archery instructor with the Arizona Game and Fish Department who once attended numerous competitions in the 1970s, said he still has a deep-rooted passion.
"You have to stick with it," said Nay, who also plays ping-pong three days a week with the local Tri-City Table Tennis Club of Arizona. "Don't quit."
Nay's close friend, Bob Park, 80, who got a gold medal in target shooting at this year's Huntsman Games, started as an archer back in Michigan in 1957 while rifle hunting for deer.
"But I decided I didn't want to be in that war," said Park, who grew up in southern Ontario, Canada. "I thought, 'Maybe there's an easier way. I'll take up a bow and arrow.' I shot four deer before I gave up hunting."
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Ever since, Park, a Prescott resident and retired research chemist with Dow Chemical Co. in Midland, Mich., has kept his interest in target archery, fishing, and playing duplicate bridge, a sophisticated playing-card game.
Both Nay and Park are target shooters who use high-end compound bows with scopes. Bows like these shoot at 325 feet-per-second and are very precise at finding their mark.
And they shoot with arrows made only of aluminum tubing with metal tips and plastic feathers.
"These arrows will break, but they won't bend," Park said. "They stay straight."
Nay is also a bow hunter, and enjoys many different types of archery.
Each week at the Granite Mountain Archery Club Range on city-owned property off Willow Creek Road across from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the men practice shooting stationary paper targets from 40, 50 and 60 yards.
The range has played host to a handful of target shoots for each of the past 20 summers, including the popular Silver Arrow competition every April.
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While they enjoy traditional target shooting the most, 3-D target archery has become more popular with the younger crowd, particularly hunters.
In fact, the range is largely devoted to 3-D, which features foam targets of various wild animals that archers take one shot at from unmarked distances for practice.
"Nowadays, with 3-D, you can shoot non-competitively with the entire family, which I think is awesome," Nay said. "It's great preparation for hunting."
David Stepp, five-time world champion professional archer and owner of Mile High Archery at 12901 Main Street in Humboldt, said 90 percent of his sales are to hunters.
He operates a 20-yard indoor shooting range and a pro shop. Stepp also runs a league two to three times per year, which typically meets on Friday nights.
"This is a sport that doesn't necessarily require you to be young to excel at," Stepp said. "But it takes focus, determination and intensity, just like any other sport."
Tom Turner, owner of Prescott Valley Archery, a hunting shop at 6330 E. Highway 69, said many seniors are becoming interested in recreational shooting with a common bow. But he offers some words of wisdom.
"You have to be able to judge yardage, have your bow properly tuned and set where you can adjust to the yardage to make the shot, and that comes with practice," Turner said. "Strength is not really a big part of it. It's more about accuracy."
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In recent years, Park has been in charge of the Prescott Senior Olympics' archery contest, which continues to grow in popularity.
A typical target competition such as this involves shooting 30 arrows at each distance offered. A paper target's center is worth 10 points with values descending from nine to one point in each circle extending outward.
Good archers, Park said, find a way to develop the proper shooting motion and fire an arrow the same way every time.
Oh, and by the way, plenty of practice on the range doesn't hurt.
Nay said he does not score as well as he once did, but he shoots well enough to compete.
"Precision is required in both your mental and physical attitude," Park said. "The good archer can stand at one end of a football field and shoot an arrow 100 yards into a grapefruit at the other end."
Nay concurred. He said that the archer who is in decent shape with the right equipment and mental focus will do just fine.
"I love archery because it's a personal thing," he said. "You're not really competing against someone else. You're competing against yourself."
But what really keeps these guys interested in archery after so many years on the range?
"Sometimes you'll shoot a perfect arrow and you know exactly where it's going to go, and it does end up in the center of the target," Park said. "And that's a kick."
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