My mom and dad shot archery before I was born, my mom actually worked for a publication. I have a picture of her on the cover of a magazine shooting a bow sometime in the 50's or 60's.
My dad got me into shooting when I was maybe 8 or 9? We travelled all around California and into neighboring states for competitions up until I was about 14. I had a full range of bales on the property for shooting daily so I got very good actually. There was basically two types of shooters back then, bow hunters and freestyle. I see there's a lot more categories now.
Anyhow, I shot freestyle. I used top of the line gear. I shot a scope and release and of course the bow hunters hated us cuz we were cheaters, and we hated the bow hunters cuz they tore up the bales with their broadheads
I was fucking good, I ain't gonna lie. The biggest tournament I shot was in Vegas against 50 other kids my age and I took first. I was the right age and time was falling right that I'm 100% certain I would have been in the Olympics. Somewhere around the age of 14 I discovered pussy and weed and archery went out the window quickly. I sometimes wonder what might have been, but oh well I went a different way and I'm still happy with my life
Sorry I felt like rambling and you hit a good subject for me