Step by step
John Dudley
IT’S THE
SMALL
THINGS
John Dudley has some advice on
how to improve your game
– take it step by step
I
have been fortunate to have archery
as a career since my late teens. It has
been a great journey so far and I have
been blessed to meet many good people along the way. I have not forgotten the
day I shot my first competition and had to
leave the course early because I had lost
all my arrows. But my whole professional
career started there, and I had to figure
out the steps to take my archery to the
next level bit by bit. Making progress and
moving from a beginner all the way up to a
professional is a step by step process. What
I would like to do is give you the steps to
go a little further, regardless of what stage
you are at in the game.
Follow these
steps and you’ll
find yourself on
the podium!
Start local
Before you jump right in to being a top-shelf
archer you need to start local. I shot tournaments close to my house and took advice
from the people at those local tournaments
when I first started. It was a great place to
start because local people are those who are
happiest to give information to the budding
beginner. It seems that back then everyone
had something to say, and when you know
nothing, it all seems like good advice. Most
of what you find to be truly good advice will
come from trial and error. Sometimes you
will go down one path only to find it doesn’t
lead anywhere, but eventually you will find
the way that works best for you and it will
form the building block needed to one day
stand on a podium.
18 BOW INTERNATIONAL
See www.
dudleyarchery.
info for more
on how to be
the best archer
you can
The GNAS magazine Archery UK lists
all the tournaments coming up in your
area. Get involved in local competitions. The cost is usually minimal for local tournaments and club tournaments.
It is important to shoot with people at
your level or better, and it will all start
with you learning to compete with club
members or local shooters that are better than you.
Also, if you are fortunate enough
to have an archery shop that is close to
you, I would recommend spending some
time there. Look around at the different
equipment options and look to see what
people who come into the store are using. I learnt a lot from watching, and if
you are just getting started then take
advantage of a business that specialises
in your hobby – go there and be observant. I still love to hang out at archery
shops and see what the trends are and
see what levels different people are at.
It was a good place to learn early.
Expand your horizons
After starting local you then need to start
moving to the next level. This will mean
finding some shoots that are a little bigger, with better shooters. My first larger
tournament was a national tournament
about eight hours away from home. To me
it seemed as big as a World Championship
would do now. The whole thing, including
staying away from home, brought with it
a whole new set of emotions. There were
more shooters, better equipment and vendors with displays of products.
During that tournament I shot terribly.
I was overwhelmed with nerves and most
likely you will be too. Don’t worry too much
about your performance at your first large
tournaments, because that will come with
time. More importantly you should make
sure that you socialise and get to meet
some of the faces at the new level. The archery world is a small one and bridges that
you build early will help you cross waters
later in your career. Likewise, bridges that
Step by step
John Dudley
Building relations with your
local dealers will help pave
the way for your future
you burn early will still be burning later
when you come to find out that person
could have helped you advance at some
point. The better you know people there
the more comfortable you will be around
them and the easier it will be to perform
the next time.
National tournaments are where I met
my first sales reps from different archery
companies who were there with displays.
Here in the UK it might be a representative
from some of the large shops or distributors
in the country. These are important people
to get to know. Once you start to step
up your shooting and need to seek
sponsorship these are going to be
the people you will most likely start
with. After you get to know them it
might be a good idea to help these
vendors when they are taking down
the booths or setting them up before
the tournament. Sponsorship is a two
way street – you learn to do your part
early on!
Get taught the technical
If you have reached a point where you are
shooting on a steady basis and competing
at local and national level then I would
strongly encourage you to increase your
knowledge of the technical part of the
game. Many people are afraid of working on their own equipment, and without
any training they have good reason to be
afraid. If you want to take the next step you
need to fully understand your gear and be
self sufficient in working on it.
The best thing I ever did was leave my
Me and my
personal
trainer Frank
Zane 1.5 stone
ago!
‘I had a coach who
would say to us
“it’s always the
small things.” As I
look back I realise
he’d say it when
we were trying
to get the cart
ahead of the
horse’
university scholarship to go and work for
my local archery shop. At that time I was
making about £2 per hour. It may sound
like a foolish decision, but it is one of the
choices I had to make to get to where I am
now. I learned so much from the owner of
that shop. It all started with building arrows
and then went on to repairing and setting
up new bows. I had no doubt that my bow
set-up was as good as anyone’s that I competed against and that really helped my
confidence.
My job was to repair and set up about
30 bows per day. This shop happened to
be the largest Beman dealer in the world
and also the largest PSE dealer. It was a
lot of work and a lot of bows. But by the
time I left that shop to eventually open my
own I could take five different bows apart,
put them all in a bag, shake it up, dump
it out on the ground and then build each
bow again. There are a lot of good shops in
this country – if you really want to become
better then talk with the shop owner about
helping out so that you can pick up some
valuable technical skills.
My choice to leave uni was quite extreme. However, you can pick up a lot of
basic knowledge by watching these shops
work on bows during the tournaments. Like
I said, the better you get to know the people working there and the more you help
out, the more open they will be with you
and the more willing to teach you. All the
little things will stack up within a short period of time.
Partners in crime
Once you have worked up a few levels in
competition and start learning more about
the technical aspects you will need to step
it up a level in practice. When I practise
with the best shooters I get my game at the
best level possible. Early on it was a matter
Learning the technical is best done
from experts or retail shops
Sponsorship
dreams?
Controversial
tennis
star Andy
Murray was
sponsored
£1m to have
a four-inch
Highland
Water logo
on his left
(non-playing
arm) – how’s
that for a
deal?
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Step by step
of practising at the club when I knew the
best club shooter trained. I got to see first
hand how they shot and I got to see that
the scores they posted were actually possible. I still have the first dollar bill I won
from a local pro when I bet him on closest
to centre. I keep that dollar because it was
the first time I realised I could win.
In March 2006 I decided to start working with Liam Grimwood. I would practise
with him on his field whenever I came over
to the UK and give him advice bit by bit
to work on. It was a good trade-off since I
needed a place to keep my training going
and he wanted some coaching. I remember Liam watching me practise and saying
“Oh my god, how do you shoot groups
like that?” I told him that he could shoot
groups like that too, he just didn’t know it
yet. Like in the movie The Matrix when Neo
finally starts to believe that he is ‘the one’
he starts to do unbelievable things. The
same is true for all of us.
Liam’s shooting got better over the
next year and as he practised with me his
confidence grew. At times he would shoot
better than me. (Any good parent or coach
lets the kid win one once in a while right?)
Eventually the day came when Liam found
himself up against me at the Face to Face
tournament in Holland. Liam had recently
lost his father and had it set in his mind
that he was going to shoot a good tournament in his respect. Liam beat me in the
head-to-heads, and I think it was at that
point he realised what I tell many students: only you can decide how good you
are or how good you are not. That is when
Liam finally started to believe. I told him I
wouldn’t have wanted to be beaten by anyone else.
Whenever I have a major event that I
need to be at my best for, I call on my friends
that are the best in the game. I called on
Chris White before the World Field in 2006
so that we could shoot together and train.
I know that if I am shooting well enough to
practise right with Chris then I am shooting
well enough to beat anyone. I remember
Chris and I shooting at 50m for several
hours, both of us rarely missing an X. It was
amazing, and I went back to that day
in my mind several times when Chris
and I were paired up in Sweden at
the Worlds. That day is what I think
helped me win another medal. If you
want to get better, practise with the
best you can find.
Sponsorship is a process
Whenever people start to win some
events and start doing well the first
thing that pops into their minds is
20 BOW INTERNATIONAL
John Dudley
sored is continuing to help out and be a
valuable marketing tool for your companies and their distributors. It will get you
nowhere fast if you sign a direct deal and
then leave everyone that helped you in the
dust. If you get to a high level and people
look up to you it says a lot if you still return to your roots at times. One last thing is
give reports to your sponsors on what you
are doing. It’s important to them that they
know you are doing your job.
In conclusion
I remember
Chris and I
shooting at
50 meters for
hours, rarely
missing an X
You can
bend the
metaphorical
archery spoon
– you just have
to believe that
you can
getting sponsored. I know because I have
coordinated staff positions for some of the
largest archery companies for the past 10
years. Getting sponsored is something that
does happen in time, but it is a step by step
process.
Shooters who are among the best in
the world and are winning events that are
advertising tools for major companies do
naturally get sponsorship deals. But for the
most part manufacturers rely on the local
dealers and distributors to select the key
shooters in their areas for sponsoring. If
you are shooting really well then you are
best to get your foot in the door with one of
the local reps as I mentioned earlier. If you
are out on the scene and shooting well and
have built a good relationship with them
then you will most likely have no problems
shooting first for local shops or distributors.
It will be much easier for you to get
your foot in the door with a direct archery
company if you are coming as a high recommendation from the shop owner.
For example, I am at my desk looking
through hundreds of archery CVs trying to
decide who gets the one or two new slots
I have open when my phone rings. It’s one
of my biggest accounts who buy my products saying: “Hey John, I have this shooter
that shoots for our shop and we need to
get them on staff.” Well my mind is usually
made up. I am going to take their recommendation because I value it.
Start by letting local reps get to know
you and hopefully like you. Then when you
want to start shooting for a shop you will
have a good person as a reference. Then
ask your shop to seek out some sponsoring for you and do your best to help your
local shop in promoting them in the field.
If you are doing well for them they will
naturally want to do well for you. As you
move up in performance you will have a
very valuable ally on your side to help you
get one of the coveted Pro Staff roles.
An important part of being spon-
I had a coach once that didn’t really say
much to us. What he would say was: “It’s
always the small things.” He would say
that many times, for what seemed like no
reason. But as I look back I realise that
he would say it when we were trying to
get the cart ahead of the horse. If you
want to take your archery to the next
step regardless of what level you are on,
just remember that saying. It’s the small
things, like starting local, expanding your
horizons, getting technically educated,
picking your practice partners and following the sponsorship ladder that will get
you where you want to go. I am grateful
for everything that I have in archery and
all the people that have helped me one
step at a time. Hopefully this helps pave
the next steps you need to get to your
goal in archery. I wish you the very best
and remember the little things. Shoot
well, Dudley.
Getting a manufacturer to back you is
a step by step process – start local and
work your way up