Newton’s Randy Brooks places at national archery event

Randy Brooks has been bow hunting since his childhood. Only recently did Brooks get bit by the archery competition bug.

In his first national outdoor competition, Brooks claimed second place in the men’s freestyle limited recurve division. Brooks scored 1,244 points at the National Field Archery Association’s Outdoor National Target Championships.

Newton’s Brooks competed in the two-day event in Yankton, S.D., on Sept. 24-25.

“My passion for many years was bow hunting. Now, I’d have to say it is the archery target competition,” Brooks said. “I had shot the 3-D animal targets, but I wanted to go to the Iowa Games and shoot in the field archery event.”

Brooks said he put together a bow to compete in the field target competition. He has competed in target archer for a year.

“I found out I really liked it and enjoyed it. I shot an indoor competition back in March, which I had to shoot in a qualifying event then shot in the indoor state event at Minnesota State,” Brooks said.

Brooks uses a recurve bow and a long bow to hunt. He said he switched over from a compound bow 10 years ago. The long bow is a single limb with a single string. A recurve bow has one string and the limb recurves out at the point it mounts to the riser.

At the third annual NFAA Outdoor National Target Championships, Brooks said there were 282 archers competing in event, which has different classes such as adult male, adult female, seniors, youth and others.

“There were four in my adult male class for freestyle recurve bow,” he said. “I was nervous and a bit star-struck. There is a man from New Jersey who has instructional videos on his own YouTube channel. I’ve watched a lot to learn about Olympic recurve archery. I get there and find out I’m shooting against him.”

Competitors shoot targets in a wide open field from 60 yards, 50 yards and 40 yards. Brooks said on Saturday, they shot a 900 round, which means each archer shoots 30 arrows from each distance at a 122-centimeter target face. On Sunday, it was a 600 round, shooting 20 arrows from each distance at a 92-centimeter target face.

“Taking second was really neat. I really like the challenge of the sport. If I had gone in there, shot well and improved my own skill and came in last, I still would have been happy,” Brooks said. “Yes, you are competing against other archers, but it’s about you against yourself, too.”

He said prior to the national tournament he practiced every day for seven to 10 days. When preparing for a competition, he shoots the same type of target face he will shoot at during the event.

On an average, Brooks practices three days a week. When the weather turns bad, he practices indoors and shoots every night.

“Yes, I’m continuing to compete. When we were coming back from Yankton last weekend, I started making a list of shoots I wanted to compete in for 2017,” Brooks said. “After the first of the year, I’m going to Las Vegas to compete in the world’s largest indoor archery shoot.”

Brooks said he began bow hunting when he was 8 or 9 growing up in Knoxville. He said over the years he has hunted bear, elk, deer and wild pigs with a bow. He has never hunted with a gun, he said.

Brooks and his family moved to Newton six years ago, and he works for Pella Corporation.

Brooks is a Level 1 USA archery instructor and an archery instructor for the Newton YMCA. Brooks said he held an archery clinic at the Y this summer and teaches private lessons through the YMCA.

“Archery is about having good technique and building your form from the ground up. You don’t have to do it my way, but do it the same way every time,” Brooks said. “I love the sport of archery.”

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535 or jsheets@newtondailynews.com