Update for Scores & "Where am I"

      No practice yesterday 8/22/2011.

      I finally got into the range at 19:15 hours 7:15PM. Between work, my car not starting and having to get things ready for today's presentation and my clients; it was a "No go."

     Normally, not training and having all those little things going on yesterday would have frustrated me. However, when training at this level, any level for that matter, you need to keep in perspective the extrinsic circumstances that are out of your control.

     No matter how hard you train or how good you really are in what ever sport, activity in life you are doing, sometimes it doesn't go the way you planned.

     ‎"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson 


      Well said Ralph.


Speaking today at 
"Industries"
Cambridge, MN


Meeting with Clients


Training tonight
1 score to be shot and tuning in my backup bow

Part IV Becoming a Champion — Why we do the things we do

Part IV Becoming a Champion — Why we do the things we do

 “Aaron, it’s time you stop dicking around. Start shooting scores, see where you’re at and hammer it down. You were shooting your best when you were in here everyday shooting 2, 3, 4 scores a day. I know you have other things going on right now — work, clients tons of other things, but if you want this it’s time to own up,” Mike said.

Personally, I liked Todd’s approach better; but on the other hand, a massive spiritual kick in the head and ass does the same thing. Ironically, that is one of the reasons I like Mike’s training tactics; he is a no bull kind of a guy — a pain in the @#%; but Mike is fantastic when it comes to training. 

Many of you know, and for those of you just starting to read these blogs  –– by the way welcome — many of you know, that I have decided to come out of retirement in the sport of archery and give the 2012 Summer Paralympics a run for the money.

To say the least, nearly half the people I told that I am getting back in the game, nearly fell off their chairs; some had to sit down and looked at me in total disbelief.

In fact, I was talking with a dear friend and they, looked at me with that, “Are you insane, and are you using your brain at all?” look after I told her about my choice to go back into the Paralympic arena. I laughed uncontrollably as she calmly and methodically looked at me and said, “Because you don’t have enough problems and issues right now in your life, you thought you would add a tremendous amount more stress! Seriously, what are you thinking?” 

Theses blogs were a multiple series about “Becoming a champion, why we do the things we do.” I can tell you what I was and am thinking. In fact, I can even tell you when I made the decision to come back, I can even tell you where I was when the spark ignited again, but really the only thing that matters is “I am a champion!” I do, we do, the things we do because it is in us to strive for greatness. It is in us to find the oxygen debt and go further, faster, harder, and when we get to the finish, we look at what we just did and say to ourselves, “Lets’ do that again; but with weights on, in the rain while running up a sand hill. “I am a champion,” and I want my individual medal. Writer’s note: There is a danger that needs to be discussed with this type of thought process/mentality, and it will be discussed in an upcoming blog very soon –– stay tuned for it.

Each and every one of us has a champion in side of us; it’s part of the joy of life, searching for your incredible strengths that are in you. Taking ownership of your choices, your shot, your run, your work, your family, your dreams and going after them is being a champion.

Choosing to get up everyday and beat back the stresses in life, answering the phone when you know it’s another creditor on the other end asking where is our money, then choosing to get yourself out of that situation and following through with that choice; or looking at the things you want and making the choice to put your kids first, that is being a champion.

I love the SEALs for many reasons, but the two biggest reasons, it is never about you as an individual, not fully. It is about the men standing next to you choosing to be better, stronger, faster, harder than anyone else and those choices brings me to the second reason, the inner desire to be there through the end, crossing that finish line and knowing you get to pick up your kit at the finish line and start all over again. Being a champion is a choice, not a sacrifice; there are no sacrifices in being a champion, absolutely none what so ever. We choose to live this life — you choose to make your choices. My dad, wrote me a note on my third anniversary of my accident, the note simply said, “Champions are not born, they are made.”

Being able to have that choice, a choice, is one of the greatest gifts we have. It excites us, drives us and makes us want to go for more.

Choose to be the champion, choose to go that extra step. You don’t need an award, or a medal to prove you’re the best; you need to just make the decision to better yourself and follow through.

We do the things we do because something inside us says, “I need more, I can do more. It is like me to make my life better than what it is.”

From here on out I am owning-up to my shooting and training. From here on out every week I will post my scores I shoot, indoors and out doors, great scores, and “Ahhhhhhh, what just happened?” scores.

As of today, August 21, 2011, there are eight months, roughly 230 days till the US Paralympic Trials. Follow me, push me, cheer me on, work together as a team and be part of a Paralympic dream. Champions become champions because of their inner strength, but also because of the people that surround them, and push them to continue on.

Vets, shooting again it's not always about hunting

Going out to Del-Tone Luth Gun Range today to assist, if I can, wounded Vets in getting a chance to try shooting again along with give pointers on how to do it with a bit more ease. Very excited


3322 12th St SE
St Cloud, MN 56304(320) 251-9873

Part III Becoming a Champion and why we do the things we do

Part III Becoming a Champion and why we do the things we do

Since 2004, I was reintroduced to the great sport of trap, doubles, skeet, sporting clays and many types of shotgun sports. I know, I laughed as well when my stepdad, who at that time was a friend of my mom’s, asked me if I would be interested in trying it. I laughed, and said, “Mike McIntosh, I can barely swing left and right without falling, and you want to put a loaded shotgun in my hands?”

Mike, as he started to do his hearty chuckle which I found very comforting and miss very dearly, said, “Oh Laddie, ha, ha, ha –– Yes!” To which my response was shock, with a long pause, then, “OH!”

Next thing I new, I was sitting out on the trap line, with my first shotgun, a Browning B-80, 20 gage (Baby Boom as I called her) a perfect gun to start off with; oh yeah, and a box of 100 shells.

Mike, standing over my shoulder slightly off to the side, started to explain to me this game I would immediately love, dream about, think about incessantly, and want to do all day long everyday. Mike, with his orange tinted lenses in his shooting glasses, wearing his shooting vest, his favorite pipe in hand gently wafting little puffs of smoke, all of which have seen and experienced a life in themselves, explained what to look for when I called for this clay target, this four-inch Frisbee-like orange object known in the shooting community as “The Rock,” “the Bird,” sometimes even  “Why that dirty son of a ”#%!@#;” or the infamous, “Are you kidding me — I was so on that damn thing.”

With his very watchful trained eye looking on, I called for my first bird. I could hear the machine working against the cool fall air. Out of the trap house this brilliant orange clay flew like the Chinese Bullet Train, screaming through the air at 150 MPH. I swung as fast as I could to keep up before it reached Super Sonic speeds, hammering the trigger the best I could, waiting for the ignoramus recoil of this howitzer I was barely able to hold on to, the gun went — bang. The clay screamed off over the horizon never to be seen again.

I looked at Mike and asked, “What the hell was that?” He looked at me and said, “What the hell was what?” I said to him it just went “Bang, not BANG, not BOOM, not even KA-BOOM or KA–BANG; it just went bang.” Mike laughed his memorable laugh, and said to “AH, Laddie, I am going to enjoy shooting with you. Laddie, it’s not a 50 caliber sniper rifle, it is a 20 gage semi-automatic shotgun; but it is going to treat you right.”

Then he also said several other important things:

“You’re moving too fast. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.”

“You’re aiming. You need to understand, you are not shooting archery; trap is about pointing and swinging, not aiming; if you aim you are stopping the swing and that will make you loose the bird.”

“Your shot is leaving the gun at 1200 feet per second, the bird can not out run the shot; it might feel like it from time to time, but it can’t; if you miss the bird, it is because of your own mistake.”

“If you miss the bird, it’s because of your own mistake.” I have learned since that day that ownership of your actions, whether they are on the shooting field of any kind, in the work place or your personal life, you need to take ownership of what you are doing and what you are going to do.

Moreover, I heard those very same words recently, almost verbatim by one of my dearest friends Todd Youngdahl, and then again that very same day by my dear friend, mentor and archery coach Mike Allen. When I heard Todd say those words to me I froze in my tracks and realized it was time, time to change the way I was training, time to loose the “this is going to be easier this time around attitude.”

The amazing thing is, what Todd actually said was, “It’s time to man up and own up.” What I hear was, “It’s time to own up.”

Later that day I went to the archery shop and was talking to Mike and he said…


Part IV in three days everyone,

Becoming a Champion – Why we do the things we do Part II

WOW! I was going to wait for a week but due to many e-mails stating "Are you kidding me? Get on with it!" Lots of Laughs; here is Part II.

Training all winter long, and getting out in the cold mornings of Spring I have to admit, I was in pretty damn good shape for being 15. For those of you that are not 100% familiar with my story or dreams, I wanted nothing more in life to do two things; one, make the Olympic Cycling Team by the time I graduated from high school. Second, if my first dream did not happen or after I made dream one come true, I wanted nothing more then to enlist in the Navy and be apart of the US Navy SEALs – Endurance was my love.

 As I had stated above, I was in "pretty damn good shape." My dad and I had gone to a race down in the Twin Cities area, a criterium race, which is a mile lap, repeated 40-50 times. Two riders had gotten away; so now it was a battle for third overall. In the final sprint for third, it was between some guy, and me. My heart pounding in my throat, my hand’s turning ghost white from squeezing the bars so tight and the blood being pulled back into the lungs to supply what was needed. I can ever so clearly remember the immense burning sensation in my lungs, legs and arms begging me to stop — being at the point of oxygen debt and then it happened, all in a spilt second, even though it felt like 5 minutes, my mind started screaming “Go, GO, GO!”

My sight went to tunnel vision; I could hear the breath I was taking in as if I was in a soundproof room all by myself. What sounded and felt like a smooth steady breath was this monstrous intake of air, a power had started to flow right through my mind saying “Go, you stupid son of bitch, GO!” Dancing on the pedals, accelerating like an antelope does chasing its heard down in the open fields of South Dakota — once you think they are at full speed, nope, wrong, they have got two more gears to go. Jamming those pedals, rocking my bike back and forth leaning just above the bars looking forward and seeing the finish line approaching. Cresting the small incline and then it happened; I heard a sound, a most perfect sound, as clear as if he were sitting right next to me in that sound proof room, I heard the exhale of defeat from the other guy, the exhale that says — I have nothing left. Just then, I heard the whoosh of my wheels float over the finish line — I got him.

The oddest feeling of all occurred as I went down the backside of the hill, it felt like I was not breathing anymore, I mean not at all; it felt like my body and mind were on two different plains. Coming to the bottom of the hill, I gasped this insurmountable gasp of air, just like someone who has been under water too long and you break the water’s surface and inhale that breath of life and you know at that point — yeah baby, I am alive! Just then I realized I had over come oxygen debt, and it was quite possible, I never actually took in that deep breath in the final sprint, my body had remembered or figured out someway to pull every spare nanogram of air from my body. 

Just after that realization, this cool super hero power I had just found in myself had another side to it; yes, the other side to oxygen debt, this new sensation I was now feeling was vomit coming up and out of me like a freight train at full speed through a small town shaking every house within five blocks. Writer’s note: when on bike, racing chair, whenever in motion and you need to vomit, make sure you are leaning to one side and not looking forward. It can get messy.

Although there are days that you are in the zone and you know you can not be defeated, there are also days that the gods of whatever sport you are doing say in their own little way something to the effect, “Today, we are going to show you how to stay humble.”

Some of you may know that after 13 years of being on the U.S.Paralympic and U.S. Disabled World Archery Team, I decided to step down and retire from the sport of archery. I did it for a multitude of reasons some of my very close friends know all the reasons; but for the most part I had lost the love of the game. In fact, it took almost two years before I could even be in the same room with my archery equipment — unless we were talking hunting.

After the U.S. Team came home from the 2004 Paralympic Summer Games with the Bronze Medal in the Team Round, I knew I needed to do something different, a new sport something that took my mind completely away from archery and I found it –Trap Shooting.

Stay tuned for Part III

Becoming a champion - why we do the things we do PART I

Over the years I have had the ability to train with many people, with many different types of skills and with many different types of teaching methods. Thinking about it, even as a young boy, I remember coaches putting in better players and thinking to myself and asking myself, I want to be in playing; why am I not playing?

As I got older I started to understand about skill levels and how, for some kids, certain things came easier. For example school, I struggled in school even through college, but as I got older I used what I learned in my athletics and found my own little way of focusing on my schoolwork and getting it done. Now, I was in no way, shape or form an “A” student, I mean I got some “As;” but I can tell you that some of my “Cs” felt like Congressional Medals of Honor. Sports weren’t easy for me either; they were easier but not easy. What did come easy for me was the ability to be able to focus on my sport, find ways to make myself stronger, faster, and most importantly being able to endure.

I will never forget my first SEAL Training Adventure back in 2005. There were 32 assigned, 32 present, 32 accounted for at muster (call to order/formation.) SEAL Instructor Mann made an announcement and made it very clear that there was no way I was going to get any special treatment of any kind. In fact, (as his voice became more clear, as if he was a proud lion standing on a rock over looking his pride) what I would be getting is a wonderful induction along with everyone else here —  to the world of pain! It occurred to me at that very second that I wanted SEALs and I got SEALs; not to mention we were all in for one hell of a night.

Instructor Mann continued on by saying, “Your pain, is our pleasure.” To this day, that voice, along with the voices of six other highly decorated men of honor will forever drop me to the deck and make me push out 20 just when I hear the sound of their ever so charming voices.

After two hours of our so-called “Warm–up” and my best friend Shawn looking at me saying, “This is your fault QUAD, you got me into this,” we headed into the pool.  There were now 32 assigned, 30 present and 30 accounted for — two people had rang out.

When we got to the base for the “PT” portion, there were 32 assigned 28 present and 28 accounted for — two more had dropped from the program. A sense of pride flowed throw me just like a parent feels when they see their child born, or watch them grow up and graduate and do the things they wished they could have done. Moreover, a memory rushed through me at the very second, as I realized I have just outlasted not two but four able-bodied people.

Memories of a bike race filled my mind; I was 15, one of my first races of the season.


Stay tuned for the second half of this story.

Making your day fantastic

A new day a new dawn and life is great - challenges are going to arise and set backs are in the future; however, knowing that, and accepting that makes it so much easier to move on.

Become the success you want to be.

Today, see all the positives in your day and life. Taste your morning coffee, hug your family, call your kids, laugh with your parents and friends; surround your self with positive emotions and thoughts.

"Thoughts create emotion and emotions create your attitude."