For Larry Brown and Roberta Jones, the sport keeps the mind and body strong.
By Renata Sago
Word in Black
Brain Health is a unique series focused on how to help you age well. These stories have been created in cooperation with AARP and Word In Black.
In a sport where Black competitors are rare, Larry Brown and Roberta Jones are making waves as archery coaches in New York City. Their work challenges stereotypes about race and age and demonstrates how taking aim and releasing an arrow can be a powerful tool for mental and physical well-being.
Indeed, Brown, 71, and Jones, 69, have found that archery offers benefits beyond hitting a target. It builds confidence, improves focus and enhances physical strength and cognitive abilities — valuable skills across all age groups and crucial in our distraction-filled digital age.
Jones, who began archery in her 50s, emphasizes the sport’s mental aspects.
“That ability to focus is real important for —to be able to weed out all of the distractions,” she says. You have to be able to center yourself.”
Brown also says concentration is essential.
“The more you pay attention to the process, the more you pay attention to your physical ability to shoot the shot,” he explains.
Brown has plenty of experience encouraging people to ask themselves these questions. He is a level 3 coach for USA Archery and was the first Black coach for the women’s archery team at Columbia University.
There are an estimated 5.4 million competitive archers in the United States, and roughly 80 percent of them are White.
In 2008, Brown founded Brooklyn-based Center Shot Archers, Inc. to bring the sport to diverse, underserved communities. The multiethnic, multiracial, mixed-gender and multicultural archery club boasts the United States’ first Black and Latino competitive archery team.
He picked up his first bow and arrow at age 5 when his father, a bowmaker, introduced him and his brothers to archery in Queens.
Nowadays, he trains all types of learners — from novice third-graders needing to channel their energy to octogenarians looking to stay active. Whatever their lived experiences, Brown believes they have to embrace the mental and the physical.
Brown’s emphasis on mental acuity also aligns with recent findings from AARP’s Global Council on Brain Health, which states repetitive processes through exercise and frequent socialization are essential to a healthy brain.
“Whether a young person, a child, a young adult, middle-aged person, or an older person, every group can benefit from an increase in physical activity and exercise,” Art Kramer, director of the Center for Cognitive & Brain Health at Northeastern University says.
Archery’s ability to build strength and endurance is equally impressive. Depending on skill level, an archer might manage 25 to 35 pounds of draw weight and walk a mile during a tournament.
Jones, who coaches students alongside Brown, acknowledges that learning archery might feel intimidating to newcomers in general and, specifically, players of color. However, she believes having the resolve to learn the sport can be empowering.
“There is that wonder about ‘Can I do this?’ ‘Am I strong enough?’” Jones says. “And then there’s the miracle of actually doing it. There is a kind of power that I, as a woman, felt.”
Jones says she’s also experienced first-hand how archery improves her cognition — prompting alertness and, in tournaments, enhancing her ability to do mathematical computations to keep accurate scores.
She finds coaching youth especially energizing. She sees her students building up their minds and beginning to tap into the depth of their potential. They listen to music while practicing, which helps them establish a rhythm with how and when to take action.
“It’s very confidence-building,” Jones says, and ultimately, archery is a vehicle for learning life lessons.
“A shot is like a thousand little pictures,” Brown says. “If you don’t pay attention to the small pictures, you will miss the big picture.”
To find more information from AARP about brain health, click here.
This article was originally published on WordinBlack com.
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