Order of Man - Archery 101

00:00:00.000 Over the past several months, it is likely that you have seen more and more archery and bow hunting

00:00:04.780 pictures and topics and conversations from me. And that's because for the last year or so,

00:00:10.280 I've really begun to immerse myself in becoming a better bow hunter. That said, I've gotten so

00:00:15.580 many questions and requests about archery that I thought it only made sense to bring on the best

00:00:20.440 person that I could think of to talk about it. His name is John Dudley, and he is the founder

00:00:24.620 of Knock on Archery. Today, we talk about what makes a natural archer, understanding the importance

00:00:30.560 of eye dominance, why coaching is so critical, and the pros and cons of new bow technology.

00:00:37.780 You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest, embrace your fears, and boldly chart

00:00:42.480 your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time, every time. You are not

00:00:48.360 easily deterred or defeated, rugged, resilient, strong. This is your life. This is who you are.

00:00:55.460 This is who you will become. At the end of the day, and after all is said and done, you can call

00:01:00.840 yourself a man. Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is Ryan Michler, and I am the host and the

00:01:06.440 founder of this podcast, The Order of Man. If you're new, and probably a lot of you are, I was looking

00:01:11.580 at our download numbers over the past several months or so, and I have just seen exponential growth.

00:01:16.400 So, if you're new, we're glad you're here. If you're not new, we're also glad that you're here,

00:01:20.960 but this is a show, guys, about becoming a better man. So, whatever facet of life you're trying to

00:01:24.980 improve as, whether that's a father, a husband, a business owner, a community leader, a coach,

00:01:30.040 just a better man in general, this is the podcast for you, and it's my goal to bring on some incredible

00:01:35.280 men who are doing incredible things. This one is obviously no different to extract some of their

00:01:39.960 knowledge and wisdom and impart that upon us so that we can improve in our own lives. I've got a

00:01:46.120 great one lined up for you today. I'm going to get into that in just a minute, but I want to mention

00:01:50.280 our show sponsors, but I want to do this a little bit differently because my show sponsors, they're

00:01:55.220 not just sponsors. They're not just Hawken products that I have no idea what they are. I've never used.

00:02:00.940 These are guys that I know. I like these guys. I trust these guys. I work with them closely. We have

00:02:05.320 conversations outside of just the business aspects of the podcast and business in general.

00:02:10.220 The two companies I work very closely with are Origin, Maine. A lot of you guys are familiar with

00:02:15.120 them because I've been talking about them for months and also Sorenex equipment, Sorenex workout

00:02:20.300 equipment. Now, I'm not going to share a whole lot about what these guys are doing, but I do want to

00:02:24.980 let you know that these two companies are partnering with me in a project that we're going to be

00:02:29.820 releasing January 1st. And that project is called wage war on weakness. And there's an opportunity for

00:02:36.380 you to win some prizes from order of man, of course, and Origin, the supplements they offer and some of

00:02:43.020 their lifestyle apparel and then Sorenex equipment, workout equipment. So if you go to

00:02:47.980 wage war on weakness.com, you'll be able to enter your email in and sign up and get the details on

00:02:55.180 this little project initiative we're running. But at the end of the day, what we're doing is we are

00:02:59.200 asking you as men to participate in certain events every single day and also your children. So your

00:03:07.020 sons, your daughters, I want you to participate with them. So does Origin, so does Sorenex. So

00:03:12.660 guys, again, go to wage war on weakness.com, get signed up. You're going to get an email with the

00:03:18.600 instructions and everything else that we're going to be running over there. Proud to have these guys

00:03:22.020 as sponsors and you guys are going to have an opportunity to win some stuff from them and me

00:03:27.100 and everything else. So again, wage war on weakness.com. You're going to get the details.

00:03:32.980 I think you guys are going to be excited about what we're doing. And I actually see this maybe

00:03:37.260 even being a semi-annual thing. So we'll give you all the details again, wage war on weakness.com.

00:03:42.920 All right, guys, go do that after the show though. Okay. Cause I got a good one for you today. It's a

00:03:47.340 repeat guest. Somebody I've had on in the past and somebody I know a lot of you guys are familiar

00:03:51.280 with. His name is John Dudley. He's the founder of knock on archery and he coaches archers and make

00:03:57.560 some of the best products on the market. He's coached guys like Joe Rogan, Andy Stumpf,

00:04:03.340 Jocko Willink, so many more, including yours truly. Yes, this is a conversation centered around

00:04:08.800 archery, but I really want you to listen closely because John and I go so much deeper than what

00:04:14.780 type of bow you should buy or what your stance should look like. This is truly a podcast about

00:04:20.000 not only becoming a better archer or a bow hunter, but a better man in general. So I hope you enjoy this

00:04:26.080 one guys. Please bear with me on the audio a little bit. We're working on doing some video. We're going to

00:04:31.240 be doing some more video on the podcast. So as I was working through some of the technology with

00:04:35.880 that, uh, we messed up on the mics a little bit. So the audio is a little off, but still high enough

00:04:40.800 quality that you'll get a lot from this conversation. All right, guys, here's John Dudley.

00:04:46.240 Dudley, what's up, man? Thanks for joining me for round two.

00:04:48.980 Yeah, no problem. Looking forward to it.

00:04:51.340 Yeah, me too. It's been good, man. I've been going through the school of knock and my shoulders are,

00:04:55.160 are worn down a little bit, but, uh, but it's good. It's all good, right?

00:04:59.400 Oh yeah. I've been wanting to do this series for quite a while, if I'm honest, but, um,

00:05:04.940 I've never done anything like this. Well, I mean, obviously coaching and things, but

00:05:09.760 yeah, online, I haven't, obviously I do it in bigger groups or I've done it with teams.

00:05:16.140 Normally when I go in and do archery schools, you know, I've normally going into a group that

00:05:23.220 has some similarities, but when you're talking about doing a school that is hitting 150,000 people

00:05:30.840 at one time, there's so many different skill levels or so many different equipment setup levels and

00:05:37.200 what people really are looking for or looking to get out of instruction. It's so different. It's,

00:05:44.080 it's vast and endless. So I'm trying to do something that focuses on a lot of the points

00:05:51.640 that I normally talk about in my classes, but also bring new information to the table.

00:05:59.460 And more importantly, I'm really trying to find a format to where I can interact with several people

00:06:06.940 each day that are being active in posting what they're doing and just being able to make comments

00:06:13.680 on that. Even if it's just giving them quick little shots of, you know, for example, this week,

00:06:18.980 we're working on our foundation and our stance, because this is going to be the basis to what I

00:06:23.540 build into proper archery posture over these next few weeks. So I've been going through and looking at

00:06:30.620 some hashtags and kind of making some just quick comments to people like, Hey, it looks good,

00:06:35.240 but it's a little narrow, bring it out to your shoulders. Or likewise, I've been able to say

00:06:39.440 width is good. The position is good, but bring your toes a little closer towards each other. So

00:06:45.820 you're not falling back on your heels and just little things like that are going to, I know for

00:06:51.100 sure they're going to help people. What I see a lot. And I know you've got a big following on social

00:06:56.040 media. It gets infinitely harder to be able to connect with people individually as you grow and

00:07:01.320 expand. But I mean, it's social, right? It's social media for a reason. So the more that people can use it

00:07:07.300 and actually be social, because I see too many guys who will put stuff out there. And then they

00:07:11.520 never engage with their audience. I'm like, what are you doing? Like, you're missing a great

00:07:15.980 opportunity to connect with somebody that you actually invited to connect with you. So I really

00:07:20.540 appreciate the initiative to be able to engage to the degree you can. I mean, you can't hit up

00:07:24.820 everybody individually, unless you're doing individual coaching with these guys.

00:07:28.360 Yeah, this past weekend, I had one of our, you know, I call them our knock on nation,

00:07:33.780 we have a pretty vast group of people that have become very close. And this individual that came,

00:07:39.900 his name was Matt. He said, you know, I've become really good and daily contact friends with a lot

00:07:47.520 of the people that follow knock on because we'll call each other or text each other and talk about

00:07:53.760 things that you posted. So in a way I'm creating a community, which is nice. It gets harder, the bigger

00:08:01.280 it goes to engage. And I think social media, it's endless in what it can be used for. And for a lot

00:08:10.900 of people, they're using it to just for a pat on the back or to in their mind, make something of

00:08:17.220 themselves and become something just based on, unfortunately, just based on how many people

00:08:23.980 decide to follow you. And your fabricated environment that you put through all sorts of

00:08:28.540 filters and everything else. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And I just feel like for me, it's a platform of

00:08:36.780 me being able to do what I've always loved to do. And that's introduce people to archery and see people

00:08:43.160 improve. I think I'm happy that I'm older now, just because, you know, in my late teens or early

00:08:50.200 20s, you know, I was a different person then. Now I'm to the point where, you know, I'm very content.

00:08:56.440 Obviously, I'm focused on teaching. I'm not focusing on building my name and fighting for

00:09:02.400 sponsorships and trying to compete with other pros that are out on the circuits and guarding

00:09:08.860 maybe little things that I'm figuring out this week that I think will help me win next week.

00:09:14.360 Because you already have that? Or do you think that's just a level of maturity? Because I think

00:09:18.540 it's easy from the outside to say, well, well, that's easy to say because you already have the

00:09:22.480 following and you have the sponsorships. You see what I'm saying? So which one is it that I already

00:09:26.600 have it or that I'm just mature? Because I definitely feel myself maturing and not being so

00:09:31.920 consumed with what other people think of me. I think it's both. And I think there's some other

00:09:36.640 things that are added in there too, because your humility will automatically determine how into social

00:09:45.360 media you're going to be or not. You know, for example, my wife, we had some friends over here,

00:09:50.580 you know, they're really into social media. And, you know, they were talking about some of the things

00:09:56.420 that they were doing to grow their social media, whereas Sharon was saying, I have no interest,

00:10:01.240 the people that know me and that I communicate with, I like them to be there so that they see what

00:10:07.300 we're doing as a family and as friends day to day. But she feels uncomfortable with people that she

00:10:13.840 doesn't know having insight to what we're doing all the time. And in a way, I'm the same. I

00:10:22.080 personally don't follow many people. I follow hashtags. I follow hashtags that are relevant to

00:10:28.980 what I'm teaching, what I'm coaching, or, and sometimes what I like. I don't follow that many

00:10:34.260 people just because, at least with Facebook, especially when you're talking with someone that

00:10:39.000 has a lot of followers, you just like, you know, I wouldn't even be able to see something my wife

00:10:44.000 posted because in a matter of a minute, it could just be gone in a vapor trail of other people's

00:10:50.200 posts. And I'm not doing that because I don't want to engage. I engage by the people that are

00:10:56.420 tagging me. I'll search my tags. And honestly, it allows me as a person, which I think would fit

00:11:03.520 your whole format with Order of Man really well is, you know, I dedicate specific amounts of time

00:11:11.360 during the day to where I'm active in responding. And, you know, fortunately and unfortunately for

00:11:19.700 some people, they either get responses and get replies and get feedback, or if they're not there

00:11:27.700 during that particular time, they might be hundreds down in the queue. But I feel like I'm

00:11:33.660 dedicating a certain amount of time, but I also am able to have an off switch. You know, I post at

00:11:38.740 times where I feel like I'm not going to necessarily get lost in people's feeds that are following

00:11:44.380 tens of thousands of people or thousands of people, but I don't really live there. And I think I would

00:11:50.840 have been that way even in my younger career. I was always helpful and I always wanted people to grow.

00:11:57.120 Certainly there was a time when I was first shooting where sponsorship would have been

00:12:03.160 important to me and I was trying to fight for that packing order. Things are different now. I think

00:12:10.240 humility as a person, your natural ego and your personality type are going to affect how you would

00:12:17.960 want to utilize yourself. Like for example, I rarely post any type of workout photos or anything on my

00:12:25.940 personal social media stuff, because even though that's a huge part of my lifestyle, I probably do

00:12:33.120 my training as much or more than I shoot, you know, than I actually shoot my bow. But I just feel like

00:12:40.620 that's a part of my life that isn't completely relative to my expertise, which is teaching archery or,

00:12:48.620 you know, giving archery entertainment, so to speak. I occasionally do it, but, you know,

00:12:54.660 I'm not going to go out and try to compete to build an image for that or compete in that realm just

00:12:59.180 because that's not my personality type. But if I was a teenager trying to figure out who I was or

00:13:05.460 whether I was into lifting weights or whether I was into playing football or whether I was in to

00:13:10.020 shoot my bow or whether I wanted to have some bragging rights on how big of a buck I shot, you know,

00:13:16.040 I probably would have had a totally different page, whereas I'm almost going the other way to where

00:13:22.480 people are telling me like, you need to post this because, and I intentionally am thinking, well,

00:13:28.700 I don't want to boast or I don't want to have, you know, kind of some of the stuff I just still

00:13:33.760 really love doing for myself. And I love doing it with my friends. And I like being able to disconnect,

00:13:40.980 you know, this past hunting season was for sure my, probably one of my best. I was way lower,

00:13:49.160 like on my stories and things like that. I would share things after the fact, but, you know, I just

00:13:55.620 got to the point where about a year, a year and a half ago, I realized that when it started to almost

00:14:01.720 become an obligation to take time away from what I'm trying to get away from everything to do.

00:14:09.680 And then I'm having to put that on the back burner to like, be able to bring everyone else

00:14:16.620 into this, you know, I had to just draw a line and say, for me, I really want to enjoy my friends and

00:14:24.200 those guys in camp. And when I reflect back on it, I'm thinking about it. And maybe a night where I'm

00:14:30.720 eating an elk backstrap and thinking, you know, how hard me and Andy were laughing when John Barklow

00:14:37.800 came up that hill right after I shot my bull and how lathered up he was in sweat, trying to make

00:14:43.000 it there for the shot. And then we realized we had to break the bad news to him that I had shot it.

00:14:47.620 That is already done.

00:14:50.460 You know, then I'll probably make a post and say, you know, Hey, here's a picture that's relative in

00:14:56.640 some way, but it's hard to be present. If you're so engaged in like putting, putting the persona out,

00:15:02.500 it's just hard to be present and engaged in the moment, which I think not only archery, but just

00:15:07.720 every facet of life requires an element of focus and presence. And if you're focused on what's the

00:15:13.020 best camera angle and what's going to present the best image, then that's detracting from the

00:15:18.820 experience you're trying to create in the hunt. You're not present. I mean, at least for me right

00:15:24.040 now, I mean, I knew I was doing this podcast with you. So I had to come here and I had to put my

00:15:30.940 phone on do not disturb. I had to sit in this chair and face you. So I'm present. Otherwise

00:15:37.140 bouncing around doing a hundred things. Yeah. I was doing laundry. I got inserts to put in some

00:15:43.220 arrows. This one TV has been crooked in the other room. It's been driving me nuts. And I'm in there

00:15:48.280 trying to figure out how to level it and the screw fell off. And now it's bugging me like where the

00:15:53.400 screw went. And, you know, it's the same thing on a hunt. If you're trying to think about, you know,

00:15:59.200 getting a cool shot for your Insta story and, you know, trying to send this picture to this

00:16:05.080 sponsor and that sponsor, it starts to take away from it. And I realized on a few hunts where I had

00:16:10.800 complete disconnect, which British Columbia last spring was one of these, there was no service.

00:16:17.780 So I had a satellite phone. I called my wife. And other than that, to check in, I kind of took

00:16:24.620 pictures and documented. And then when I got home one morning, instead of spending a couple hours

00:16:30.200 interacting with people from my social media, I built a cool story of a recap. I just felt like,

00:16:37.760 you know, for me, I like that better. It just gets to the point now where you can go overboard with it.

00:16:43.880 And I know it's hard for me. I see my boy, the major way of communication for kids now is Snapchat.

00:16:50.160 And it's just, it's really strange to be in a restaurant and he's, he's actually being polite

00:16:55.800 because he's still engaging with us. But to just like take a miscellaneous picture of nothing,

00:17:02.020 just to say two words.

00:17:04.020 Or his food or whatever. It's like, why are you taking a picture of that?

00:17:06.920 Yeah. It's just a picture so that he can reply. And I'm like, why don't you just write a text out?

00:17:13.020 You know, you're not going to talk to the person, just write a text. But obviously.

00:17:15.920 I remember when I was younger, I remember text coming on board and I was like, texting stupid.

00:17:20.560 Why wouldn't you just call somebody? You know, now it's like, why are you texting somebody? Why

00:17:25.360 aren't you just like responding on their Instagram story or Facebook or whatever else? It's so funny

00:17:30.060 how this progresses.

00:17:31.220 It's changing a lot. Then again, you know, I wouldn't be where I am right now as a brand,

00:17:39.320 if people weren't able to easily take a screenshot and share something that I'm doing with other

00:17:48.640 people. Because one of the things that's in a way humorous to me is there's like new people coming

00:17:55.460 into archery or coming in as, you know, staff shooters or whatever. And because I'm not competing,

00:18:01.060 they're like, I don't understand why Dudley has this big following. He's, you know, he doesn't even

00:18:05.680 shoot. What's the guy ever done? And I'm thinking it's a timeless saying, but it's, you know, you

00:18:11.660 were, didn't even have pubes yet when I was, you know what I mean? Some of these people, I'm thinking

00:18:18.260 you were barely, you weren't a baby, but you were, you know, you weren't even a teenager. You were,

00:18:23.880 you were just a kid watching Disney movies at home or something, needing a babysitter. And,

00:18:29.120 and I was doing these things that you're doing now. And right. You know, I was telling someone the

00:18:34.960 other day, the first time I won an international event shooting for the U S team, when they gave

00:18:42.540 me my check, I actually thought it was just per diem for food. Yeah. I won a gold medal at an

00:18:50.280 international tournament and I got $150. That was my first time shooting on like a world cup type

00:18:58.840 level, right? It's called FIDA is the organization. So I was always a professional 3d shooter.

00:19:06.680 So I shot 3d targets here in the U S and there was at that time, there was three different tours.

00:19:12.480 I shot on all three. That was like when archery started to become a place where you could make

00:19:17.960 money. If you're winning, you know, the archery tournaments, then if you want a major 3d event,

00:19:22.640 you might be able to make, you know, five, $10,000 in a weekend. And then it got to the point where

00:19:28.660 a shooter of the year paid 50,000, one year world championships are paying 30,000. Even now,

00:19:34.740 like the Vegas tournaments pay 40,000 to win, but to go and shoot there and win a medal. And then I get

00:19:42.840 $150. I thought they were reimbursing me for my food because I had won. And they're like, no,

00:19:49.000 that that's what you want. You're competing to win. And I remember kind of paving the way and saying,

00:19:57.140 well, this is, this sucks. You know, honestly, I would rather stay on U S soil and shoot 3ds where

00:20:04.580 you can make some money, or I would rather just go bass fishing on the weekend or go whitetail hunting

00:20:10.540 or go turkey hunting. I really fought diligently for incorporating contingency money into the world

00:20:18.980 cup level tournaments. At the time I was working for Matthews and Matthews asked me to write a

00:20:25.100 proposal on what needed to happen so that they could grow international archery with contingency

00:20:31.740 funding. And so I wrote that whole proposal and put it out there. And it wasn't until then

00:20:36.740 that you were really able to make money on the international scene. And then once that happened,

00:20:42.720 the U S archers just kind of flooded into that. And honestly, even the international archers for

00:20:48.840 the first time they could go to a tournament and they can make money from the manufacturers if they

00:20:53.920 won. So good for the sport too. I mean, because then you have more competition, you have new

00:20:59.720 techniques. People are constantly trying to compete. Now do each other that healthy dose of competition

00:21:04.940 fosters innovation and progress and mastery and all these other things that come with any sport or

00:21:10.560 endeavor that people want to pursue. Yeah. And once that happened, that's when my eyes got opened.

00:21:16.480 The U S was always very, very dominant in compound archery and hunting itself or where does that

00:21:23.680 come from? There was internet, but it was very early and there certainly wasn't social media. So

00:21:29.600 the hundreds of thousands of miles that I've traveled coaching teams and underdeveloped countries and

00:21:38.640 things like that, that was the only way. And they needed to know someone that knew me. It's not like they

00:21:44.940 had a phone book, right? Or Instagram to look you up, right? Yeah. And a lot of the U S competitors

00:21:50.840 loved the fact that we were dominant. So there was several times where I had people on my team that

00:21:57.460 were genuinely upset that I was showing people how to tune arrows and not just move your arrow rest

00:22:04.380 around. So they thought you were giving away some competitive edge. Well, and I was. So what was your

00:22:09.380 thought process then? I mean, obviously you have the heart of a teacher because that's what you're doing.

00:22:13.500 You're coaching, you're teaching, you're educating. Has it always been like that? Was that your motive

00:22:17.200 or like, how did you justify that? Especially when your team was like, what are you doing?

00:22:21.560 There were two factors involved. One is what you're saying. You know, I always struggled to find people

00:22:27.800 to really help me. And because of that, I did a lot of things wrong. And I utilize a lot of my

00:22:35.060 most active years as a competitive archer doing things wrong because I didn't have access to

00:22:42.440 information. And honestly, my natural talent only went to a certain level. I mean, I've always said

00:22:49.300 I'm a above average archer, but I have an excellent work ethic. What makes somebody a good,

00:22:55.700 like a natural archer? Is it frame or is it vision? I mean, what would actually make somebody

00:23:00.520 a natural archer? Cause I'm trying to envision what that would look like. You know, honestly,

00:23:04.600 I've always felt like my height has been a disadvantage depending on the conditions.

00:23:10.640 When I'm out in the open, the further my bow is out in front of me, the more it's very

00:23:15.320 overall on your, on your stance. Sure. I have more speed because the power stroke of my,

00:23:21.320 of my bow is longer, but you know, some of these guys that are shorter in stature,

00:23:26.160 it seems like they're more stable and wind and their projectiles are shorter. And if they build

00:23:33.200 them right, they have less wind drip. So vision for sure. My strength, I've always said that archery,

00:23:40.920 I think is one of the few sports that you can actually be stronger than the sport and things

00:23:47.780 change now because CrossFit, you know, CrossFit's very popular. Not, you know, not because of archery,

00:23:52.660 but a lot of people are in just much better shape. Yeah. But back when I competed, there was

00:23:59.000 one other person out of 50 countries at an event that I would see out on a morning run and see in a

00:24:06.300 weight room. And he was one of the guys that I was commonly in metal matches with. And his name was

00:24:11.640 Morgan London from Sweden. Still to this day, he's into fitness, he's into working out. And I always feel

00:24:17.760 like the courses that were the most physically demanding were always the ones that I excelled at,

00:24:26.380 even above archers that were more accurate than me behind the bow, because, you know, being able to

00:24:33.300 control your heart rate is a very, very important asset to finesse sports like archery, you know, being

00:24:41.560 able to get control of that heart rate and get control of your mind. And normally if your heart rate's

00:24:47.740 beating out of your chest, it's very hard to get control of your mind, but eyesight is the other.

00:24:54.480 And my eyesight still to this day is better than anyone I know. And I feel like some of the best

00:25:01.860 archers in the world, when they start to falter, normally their eyesight goes. At one time, I think it

00:25:09.660 was 2010. It may not be that good now. As good as I've ever, you know, as anyone I've ever been around.

00:25:16.500 So I can see targets very clear, and they're always crystal clear. And the way that I teach

00:25:23.120 people, I really teach people to focus on the target, not necessarily your aiming pin. So I let

00:25:28.900 my subconscious see the pin, and I really just try to stare a hole through what I want to see.

00:25:34.980 I've got a question on the vision component of this, and this is personal, but I think a lot of

00:25:39.120 guys will probably deal with this as well. So I'm left-eye dominant, right? I'm right-handed,

00:25:43.200 I shoot right-handed. The only thing I don't do right-handed is play pool. So I've contemplated,

00:25:48.280 do I start shooting my bow left-handed? That's a tough question. My wife's left-eye

00:25:54.260 dominant, and she has to shoot with her left eye closed. If you don't, then what happens for those

00:26:00.480 of you listening is the further and further you go distance-wise, your left eye or your dominant eye

00:26:06.840 is essentially seeing across what you're aiming at. And what happens is, a good way to think of this

00:26:13.720 is if you stick your thumb out in front of yourself and close one eye, you're probably going to close

00:26:19.920 the non-dominant eye. For me, my right eye is dominant. So if I close my left eye, and then I put

00:26:26.120 my thumb right on a target, looking at it with my right eye, and then I open my left eye, my thumb's still

00:26:32.380 there. If you close your dominant eye, and put your thumb on the target, and then open your other eye,

00:26:39.060 it moves, right? So when that happens, ultimately, you're aiming off the target without really knowing

00:26:47.740 that you are. Right, because you look like you're right on, but you're actually seeing

00:26:52.520 across it. Yeah. And the further and further you go, the more that magnifies. So you almost have to have

00:27:01.200 your pins lined up to where, you know, maybe even if you sight them in at 20, and it's dead center,

00:27:06.940 at 30, it's going to be a little bit further off. Then the next one has to be even further off. So you

00:27:12.320 end up having to have these aiming reticles that are on a slope, rather than vertical. Up and down.

00:27:18.820 So if you close your left eye, or if you block your eye, from seeing it all together, which some people

00:27:25.760 close their eye, for some reason, I developed a stigmatism when I first started shooting

00:27:30.760 magnification in my aiming sights, I think my mind was trying to see around the magnification,

00:27:38.320 because I personally think my eyes were seeing clearer than at this time, they were lower quality

00:27:45.820 lenses. Now, I was on a budget. So I wanted a magnified aiming scope. But, you know, I didn't

00:27:53.180 have a lot of money to spend. So I just, you know, bought lenses that now I find out are just, you know,

00:27:58.080 like cheap plastic lenses with poor coating. So I personally think I developed that because

00:28:04.280 my mind was trying to see around that magnification, because it's like, wait a minute,

00:28:10.420 this isn't clear. Yeah, it's like looking through a crappy pair of binoculars and ends up giving you a

00:28:16.060 headache. Eventually, all of the lenses in my aiming scopes, it's a Swarovski eyepiece, it's a Swarovski

00:28:24.220 glass. So it's pure crystal. And once that started happening, I wasn't having to block my left eye

00:28:32.640 from trying to see around. Yeah, you weren't fighting. What were you doing? Were you wearing a patch? Is that

00:28:36.100 what you were doing? I made a what's called a blinder. It was just an old credit card that I put

00:28:41.140 black duct tape on. And, you know, I bent it and I would clip it on my hat and I would just slide it to

00:28:48.380 my hat to where it would avoid my string, but it would just block my left eye, but it would allow

00:28:54.520 me to keep my left eye open. Okay, yeah. There's a lot of studies on, you know, your ability to gather

00:29:00.300 light when both eyes are fully dilated versus when you're clamping one down. So depending on the

00:29:07.700 lighting situations, you know, if you're having to be in a dark hunting blind, and it starts to get low

00:29:14.980 light outside and, you know, your pin is starting to lose, you know, UV on the fiber, then when you

00:29:22.500 are having to shoot with your left eye fully closed, it's going to be harder for you to see.

00:29:27.480 For example, when I hunt with my wife, because she has to do that, we've had shot opportunities.

00:29:33.180 And when she draws back, she's like, I can't see it. And I'm saying, man, I'm sure I still could.

00:29:38.500 But it's mainly because of that. But the problem is, if she opens her left eye, then all of a sudden

00:29:46.640 she hits left. So that's what I do too. Right now I close my left eye. And I'm just thinking about

00:29:52.640 especially where I'm fairly new to archery and hunting is like, man, if I'm going to make a

00:29:57.040 change, like the sooner I can make the change, the better off I'm going to be, you know, some archers

00:30:01.620 that shoot with sunglasses or shooting glasses, they've kind of figured out where on their lens they

00:30:08.040 need it, but they'll just take a piece of scotch tape and they'll just tape a piece of scotch tape

00:30:13.480 on a certain part of their lens so that when their heads to the side, I don't know, they're etching

00:30:18.300 out their ability of their dominant eye to see that scope, but they're still able to shoot with both

00:30:24.500 eyes open. So, but, you know, to go back to what you're saying, you know, in regards to like coaching

00:30:31.620 and things and why I was giving information at a world championship one time, an archer came up that

00:30:40.200 just had so much heart and passion. And, you know, I've traveled to these countries and I have a soft

00:30:47.320 heart for the fact that there is a tremendous amount of places in this world that people struggle

00:30:55.300 to just get out of a lifestyle that doesn't have opportunity. And, you know, I don't want to come

00:31:02.000 down on it at all, but I can just tell you that when I go to countries where people want nothing more

00:31:10.080 than to make something of themselves and be able to see the world and eat three meals a day and actually

00:31:16.760 have a bed to sleep in at a training facility, like these people are fighting for three spots on a team

00:31:24.800 and when you see those people and they're wanting to hold these positions and they're,

00:31:30.160 they're shooting 10 times more than I shoot in a week and they're just passionate about it, but they

00:31:36.880 have no internet. They don't have a phone. If they're their number three archer, it's the third

00:31:42.180 bow that that coach has handed all the way down to them. When I've been there and people come up and

00:31:47.160 say, Mr. Dudley, can you help me? I, you know, I'm not shooting that good. And I look, and I remember

00:31:52.740 one archer that I looked at to where I said, what happened to your arrows? And he said, well,

00:31:59.780 I have arrows that the other archers don't want. And he said, and they were all too short for me.

00:32:05.820 He glued a piece of another arrow onto the front of his point and then glued that in. And that's what

00:32:14.280 the guy's out shooting and competing with. And, and I just started to realize like these people around

00:32:20.500 the world need the ability to truly enjoy this because if, if they're putting everything they

00:32:28.360 have heart and soul into it, they're never going to be above a certain level when the equipment is

00:32:34.160 holding them back. I remember going to a country where every single archer, all their peep sites for

00:32:41.240 what their coach made out of a stick. He whittled them all and carved them all. You know, the peep

00:32:48.240 wasn't even perfectly round, you know, he kind of like, I don't even know. Yeah.

00:32:53.260 Just whittled it out.

00:32:54.780 Yeah. I've got pictures of things like this and I've just been committed at that point to just

00:33:01.400 pour out everything that I have. And I remember I was coaching a person from the UK one time and I

00:33:10.440 had coached him since he was just a junior. About three years later, we ended up in a,

00:33:16.040 like a quarterfinal match against each other and he beat me. And I remember he turned to me and he's

00:33:24.780 like, Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. And I'm like, why for what? And he, and he goes, well, I know you do

00:33:32.020 this for your living. And I said, dude, there's no person in here. I'd rather be beat by than someone

00:33:38.240 that I've coached. One, you're telling me that I'm not good enough anymore. So now I've got to make a

00:33:43.900 decision to either roll over or learn a better way, or, you know, I've got to move aside for

00:33:51.520 someone that's taken in the information and applying it. And I said, but the thing is you're

00:33:56.100 applying it. It's rewarding for me to see what I put in front of you get put to use. Now, if I'm just

00:34:03.280 given every single thing that I have to someone and pouring it onto them and then they're wasting it,

00:34:09.560 that's a way worse feeling. I mean, that's, you know, then you just feel like you're just

00:34:15.220 wasting oxygen and, or somebody stealing something from you is kind of how I feel. It's like, man,

00:34:20.840 you came to me and you asked for advice and I gave you advice and you're like spitting in the face of

00:34:25.720 the guy who is trying to be charitable with that, with that. That's why, that's why every time,

00:34:30.820 cause I've messaged you a couple of times and shot you some pictures and you're like, Hey, do this,

00:34:34.200 tweet this changes. Like I try to be really, really coachable because you don't have to take your

00:34:38.220 time to do that. And you don't have to share that expertise with me, but you do. So I think

00:34:42.620 it's like my obligation to follow through with that. A person's time, especially if it's a

00:34:47.820 professional or if it's, you know, excels at their craft, their time is way more valuable than if

00:34:55.560 someone says, Hey, I want to shoot better. And I just said, okay, well here, I'm not using these

00:34:59.840 arrows anymore. Take this. Honestly, that's a cop-out. I mean, you know, I know people would love for me to

00:35:05.800 just give them a dozen arrows, but in the same sense, me teaching you how to build your arrows

00:35:12.460 is going to allow you to build something that's probably better than what I know how to do right

00:35:18.840 now at a certain point. You know, I feel like that's where I want to take people and I'm learning

00:35:25.340 and I'm adapting because there were certain things that kind of crawled under my skin when social media

00:35:33.460 first started going because for the longest time I did these things and no one really knew about it

00:35:39.360 unless you were in those areas where I would go do tours or I would go do shops and things like that.

00:35:47.020 I mean, millions of miles I traveled, no one ever really knew about, but I've been so many places,

00:35:52.960 whereas now people see it and they'll just take it and essentially, you know, plagiarize it,

00:36:00.500 which I know now when I'm putting it out there, I'm setting myself up for that. And there was a

00:36:05.840 time where I did some live feeds and things and I would do things on a Saturday and then on Sunday

00:36:12.280 people were doing their live feeds and it was just complete regurgitation without any credit given

00:36:18.580 to me. And a few times I sent a message out and just said, Hey man, I don't mind if you use this,

00:36:24.800 but some of your terminology, it's not archery terminology. It's my terminology. It's based off

00:36:31.380 my presentations that I've worked my whole life to build. I would at least like you to let people

00:36:38.220 know where they could come get more. I'm not saying I want all the credit. I'm just saying,

00:36:43.840 you know, let me give some people some good information. And another thing too, is a lot of

00:36:48.400 people aren't good at repeating it. They were getting some things wrong that lead people,

00:36:53.980 people down poor avenues. So for a while I just said, you know what? Screw it. I'm not doing this

00:37:00.580 anymore. I'll just, I'll just go back to doing what I was. And, you know, if people are in the area

00:37:06.480 where I'm doing some seminars for a friend or, you know, a lot of times it's favors, I just don't

00:37:11.380 have a lot of time. So, you know, if the right person asks me, I'm open to it. And again, it's

00:37:17.600 probably age. I've just finally got to the position now where I'm like, you know what? I'm just going

00:37:22.220 to do this school knock. I'm going to put things out there and I'm just going to have to trust my

00:37:26.940 followers to police this stuff when it gets used, because there's a few people on social media that

00:37:32.880 have blocked me. And the reason they blocked me is because I asked them, I said, yeah, because I said,

00:37:38.060 hey man, I just made a post about that. If you're going to copy and paste it word for word,

00:37:44.860 at least say, at least tag me in it, you know, something. And that's one of the things that's

00:37:49.940 so challenging though about social media is now of the, we'll just call it the consumer. The

00:37:54.300 consumer of social media is left to try to decipher and figure out where is this coming from? So what's

00:38:00.280 the source? And then where is it being taught from? So this is, is this a credible voice or is this

00:38:05.200 somebody who like you're saying is regurgitating what would otherwise be great information? It's

00:38:10.660 becoming increasingly difficult. Yeah, it is. I would say it's impossible. It's impossible to know,

00:38:18.140 you know, for the longest time I wouldn't read and I still don't, I don't read any archery magazines,

00:38:24.060 every, the only magazines I keep are, I keep magazines that I know have an article of mine in

00:38:29.260 there and I'll just like put a post-it note on them. And I, I've just got boxes of them just in

00:38:34.280 case my kids or grandkids ever want to see them. But I intentionally don't do that stuff because

00:38:42.860 I don't want to mistakenly say something that somehow I've like read of someone else's because

00:38:50.360 something from 20 years ago that you don't remember where you got it from and you just

00:38:53.840 adopted it as yours, right? Yeah. I mean, listen, I, I didn't invent archery. I made a lot of mistakes.

00:39:00.420 I've had a lot of coaches. I try to bring people onto my podcast that I've learned from so that

00:39:07.600 people will know, you know, Hey, Oh, I didn't know John Dudley knows Randy Omer. Well, yeah,

00:39:13.280 we know each other because I struggled as a young archer, still a teenager and looked up to Randy and he

00:39:21.580 was able to throw me a few bones and, you know, he gave me just enough for me to improve. But in

00:39:28.060 the same sense, I do know that Randy loved to win. So I've tried a lot of information out of them as

00:39:35.920 well as, you know, he, he helped me with a few things and he actually, he gave me one of his releases,

00:39:42.740 but he didn't tell me how to use it. He just said, he said, if you learn how to use this,

00:39:49.720 you will be a great archer one day. And that was it. And then like, so it was a hinge release.

00:39:56.600 I still have it. Yeah, I still have it. I had an idea of how to draw it back and stuff, but I had to

00:40:01.840 learn for myself, which he could probably argue right now. Listen, if I would have told you everything

00:40:07.420 about how to use it, you would be where you are now. You know, you, you struggled to learn how to

00:40:12.520 use it. And then once you did, you know, eventually I would say I've, I've probably mastered the

00:40:17.900 understanding of it. So, you know, maybe that was part of his, uh, his coaching, right? His sensei

00:40:24.160 skills was, was knowing that it's the whole, uh, teach a man to fish mentality, right? As opposed

00:40:30.360 to give them a fish, teach them how to do it. Yeah. Yeah. That's a pretty good out through these

00:40:34.440 videos and course that I, that I've started to go through here. Yeah. You've made huge improvements

00:40:39.240 improvements and you're a good example because sometimes I knew that I was going to see you

00:40:44.820 in, was it July? I think. Yeah. Maybe a little later, but it was up, up to the total. So you

00:40:52.460 had asked me a few times, you know, can you help me with this? Can you help me with this? And I said,

00:40:56.820 listen, it's worth the two months for me to show you and not necessarily just like write this out

00:41:03.440 in an email. And then once I was able to show you, it probably clicked so much faster.

00:41:09.240 Yeah. Even though it was subtle, just me looking at you shooting right now, I'm like, okay, at least

00:41:16.600 now he is the keys, you know, he's in the driver's seat. He is the keys. He controls exactly where he

00:41:24.120 goes from here. Whereas before, you know, your form was off just enough to where just natural parts of

00:41:31.820 the anatomy would interfere with accuracy. And that was my beard, right? Yeah. Well,

00:41:38.880 your beard and your jaw, you know? Yeah. Cause I was so set back in my, in my draw length.

00:41:44.720 Yep. Yep. Exactly. So there's certain things I feel like I can teach. There's certain things,

00:41:50.720 especially if I know I'm going to see someone, I'll just say, Hey, just wait. I know you're eager,

00:41:54.580 but just wait. But I think with this series that I'm doing and you know, I I'm calling it the school

00:42:00.700 of knock, I'm just going to walk people through. It's not necessarily one of my presentations. It's a

00:42:07.740 whole stack of some of the most common things I see people doing that prevent them from being their

00:42:16.520 best or from making progress. I've laid it all out. So it's progressive. And as long as you do the

00:42:24.200 first one, move on to the second one, but keep doing the first one in the end, people, I don't

00:42:29.720 even think it'll take to the end. I think by next week, three weeks in, I think people are going to

00:42:35.800 say, I'm already shooting better scores than I've ever shot. And some people wouldn't have even gotten

00:42:42.420 into, or they'll only be halfway through the steps that I'm using to build proper shooting structure,

00:42:50.040 understanding stamina, understanding practice, how to practice to be a little bit better than your

00:42:57.720 demand. You know, it's in a way it would be like, I don't know if we were going to go and do

00:43:02.800 a hundred yard dashes for track. And all we ever did was go and run 100 yard dash and then stop. And

00:43:13.620 yeah, we might, we might get to the point where, you know what, a year ago we were running 11 second,

00:43:19.100 hundred yard dashes right now. I'm running a 10 second, a hundred yard dash. So yeah, you might

00:43:24.280 do that. But then you go to this meet and you realize, okay, the coach tells you to warm up and

00:43:32.800 you go and you warm up with your team and you jog around and you stretch. And then you run your

00:43:37.840 hundred yard dash. You're like, I was way tighter. And it was the simple thing of, well, now you're

00:43:43.660 warming up with the team, even though you're only doing a hundred yard dash. Now you went and ran three

00:43:48.500 laps with the other guys to warm up and everyone's stretched. And, you know, you just expended that

00:43:54.060 little bit more than what you were disciplining yourself with in practice. Well, a lot of people

00:44:00.380 do the same thing with archery. They go out and say, well, you know, a Vegas round is 30 arrows.

00:44:06.920 So they go and they shoot their 30 and they walk away, or they shoot their three arrows per end.

00:44:12.320 They might practice for an hour, but all they ever do is shoot one, two, three,

00:44:15.500 one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three. Well, then you get to a tournament and

00:44:20.540 you know, you pull back and you're into your second arrow and maybe there's wind blowing or maybe

00:44:27.100 someone, you know, around you on the lane bumps into you and you need to let down. And then you draw

00:44:31.680 back again. And, you know, maybe you're feeling a little unsteady. So you let down your, for the

00:44:36.120 first time, your body's had to pull the bow back five times in a row and it makes a huge difference.

00:44:41.580 So it's funny how many people have messaged me. All I did for the first week was I just asked people

00:44:50.400 to shoot four arrows per end. So one arrow more each round than what you would shoot in a competition

00:44:58.580 Vegas round. I added 10 arrows to practice, but the amount of people that were like, holy cow,

00:45:06.720 that fourth arrow, the fourth arrow wasn't hard until the fourth end. And then by the sixth, then

00:45:12.840 my third arrow was killing me. Yep. And it's like, okay, awesome. You know, and CrossFit's like this

00:45:20.320 too. If all you did was the same CrossFit routine, if all you did was deadlift, right? Same three

00:45:26.340 movements. Yeah. If you did those three movements every day, every day, every day, well, okay.

00:45:31.620 What would happen if for one time we decide to put our heavy deadlifts at the end instead of the

00:45:39.160 beginning? All of a sudden you realize, holy crap, I can't, I can't do get 10. Yeah. And all it was,

00:45:46.200 was a variation. So week one for me was teaching people variation, but also building them for stamina.

00:45:56.520 Because what I've found is the more you start to change people, it gets harder for people to keep

00:46:04.060 up. You know, they start to fatigue, they start to wear down. So I'm going to try to build the stamina

00:46:09.220 off the get go. And then obviously the first week was just shooting that one extra arrow. Well, this

00:46:16.420 week we're talking about paying attention to our feet for the first time, which for archery is a major,

00:46:21.860 major thing. Imagine if a golfer, if you told any golfer that they needed to go up to the tee box

00:46:29.880 and Hey, you're just hitting the ball. You don't know where the green is. They'd be like, well,

00:46:34.960 I don't know where to line up. Right. They would argue with you about it. Right. They a hundred percent,

00:46:40.660 they would argue with you about it. Or imagine if, imagine if in baseball, we decided to, uh, put a

00:46:47.500 15 degree angle on the batter box, a batter would walk in and say, Whoa, dude, what is going on here?

00:46:54.980 I need to hit the ball that way. You know what I mean? And no one thinks of that in archery, not,

00:47:01.020 you know, the average person I should say doesn't think of that. They don't real. Yeah. They don't

00:47:05.440 realize that every single time I shoot, I have a conscious awareness of where my feet are at. So

00:47:12.820 people are still going to be able to work on their stamina. They're still going to be shooting

00:47:17.340 that extra arrow. Like we worked on the week one, but the only difference is now all I want them to

00:47:22.620 do, it's not going to require extra physical effort. It's going to require mental effort of just

00:47:28.580 looking down and paying attention to where your feet are. Once people ingrain this, they're going

00:47:34.200 to start to realize, Oh, wait a minute. They might hit their arm and be like, what the hell? And then

00:47:38.680 they look down and realize, Oh my God, I have a closed stance. Yeah. Dudley said, that's why that

00:47:43.540 happens. Um, or all of a sudden they start to realize, you know, my shoulders is completely

00:47:49.460 collapsing. Once again, you look down and realize, Oh yeah, my front foot's forward again. So when it

00:47:55.180 comes forward, the humerus is forward in the socket and the scapula, and it's easy to creep up.

00:48:00.360 I'm trying to build these little things. And if I go to the total archery challenge and everybody there

00:48:08.220 just absolutely waylays me, I'm going to be, I'm going to be pumped at least if they save a few

00:48:14.600 bucks on some arrows, right? Yeah. Yeah. If someone steps up and I see them step up to the total archery

00:48:21.060 challenge and this guy's or gal is kicking my ass and I look at them and I see them look right down

00:48:27.800 at their feet and then proceed through to, you know, some of these upcoming weeks, I'm going to be

00:48:33.060 like, you know what? That's like me beat myself. I'm totally cool with that. I mean, that's kind of the

00:48:37.740 point, right? I mean, the point of leadership or coaching is to groom people to a place that,

00:48:43.140 that, that excels, that exceeds you. I think there's so many guys out there who are afraid

00:48:47.700 of that. You know, Oh, I'm just training up my competition or training up my replacement.

00:48:51.760 Yeah. As a man, I think that is actually at the root of what our responsibility is when it comes to

00:48:58.000 kids or it comes to the people we have an obligation for to raise those people and lift them up in a way

00:49:03.260 that, that, yeah, they'll go on to surpass you. Hopefully that's the idea. Well, one of the things

00:49:08.240 that we talked about in the beginning of this podcast was how a lot of social media is people,

00:49:14.540 they're creating a character. They want to be a legacy. Right. And well, I tell people all the time

00:49:21.620 when people say, well, you know, what'd you ever win? And I said, okay, if you have to ask me that,

00:49:26.300 what I have won, does that have relative, is it important? Is it something that's, that's timeless?

00:49:32.480 No, it's, it's a flash. It's a light bulb. It's a flash. And then the next year you're at the same

00:49:38.020 tournament and you don't even know who won it last year. That stuff doesn't carry meaning. If you

00:49:43.600 really want to build a legacy, then you have to, in a way, put something out there that allows people

00:49:53.480 to duplicate what you've always done and let it go on forever. So a lot of these people that are,

00:50:00.360 you know, struggling, trying to do something to help their ego. The reality is, especially the ones

00:50:07.280 that are just naturally awesome and they don't help people. It's like, you know what, if you really

00:50:13.080 wanted to be the most memorable, all you would have to do is help people. And if you taught people how

00:50:20.040 to be like you as an athlete, you would never die. You would just keep, you know, it would keep going

00:50:26.420 on. I've had teammates that at one time were definitely the best I've ever seen. Certainly

00:50:32.960 better than me. They refused to help people. And then all they've ever really, well, now most of them

00:50:42.020 are just talking about like the past, you know, glory days. Yeah. The glory days, man. It's like,

00:50:48.340 you know what, during those same times when you were pissed at me for, you know, teaching a guy how

00:50:53.880 to do something in the right way or how to look at his stance or, you know, if you would have been

00:50:59.560 the one doing that, parts of you would still be on the competition line right now. People would look

00:51:05.760 out there and be like, you know what, that, that looks just like John Dudley when he used to shoot.

00:51:10.400 Yeah. I mean, if you can do that, you know, if you're worried about your, you know, what you've

00:51:15.680 learned and what you've invested in some type of a craft, then pass the torch, you know, pass it on

00:51:22.960 and, you know, give someone the tools and the ability to even be better than you. In a way,

00:51:31.320 you know, every, all the hard work that you have, it's going somewhere, you know, it's a lot like,

00:51:37.600 you know, if you win the lotto and you just freaking go and blow it, you know, you look at,

00:51:42.540 you look at, you know, I've seen some of these documentaries on some of these guys that,

00:51:47.460 you know, were, had some of these fighters that had, you know, massive, massive million dollar

00:51:54.240 contracts. And then all of a sudden now they're just, they're struggling. It's like, you know what,

00:51:58.920 if you would have invested that to where it, or it earns interest and it grows, then it would be

00:52:06.260 bigger. Like everything, all the commitments, all the sacrifice, everything that you put in

00:52:11.660 would be bigger than what it was. And for me, I still remember teachers that were by far the best

00:52:20.180 and they weren't just there for trying to bang out eight to five. They were, they wanted students to

00:52:28.220 learn. They wanted them to be the best. And, you know, funny enough, one of the best that I've,

00:52:33.880 that I've ever had in school was my shop teacher. He just recognized my hand eye coordination and

00:52:41.640 welding class. He taught me every single thing he knew about welding. And he actually, my senior year,

00:52:49.980 he came to me and he said, you could be in my class and you could get an A. And he said, but honestly,

00:52:55.380 you're better than me. And he said, I want to make sure that you know what you're capable of.

00:53:02.320 And he said, I'm going to go talk to the school and fight for you to, to go to a junior college

00:53:07.600 during the middle of the day, because he said, this guy over here is a friend of mine and he's got

00:53:14.460 so much more knowledge and he's going to be able to take you to a whole new level. That's what I did.

00:53:20.700 But I'll never forget to this day, the fact that he came to me and he was my favorite teacher.

00:53:26.100 And I said, like, you know, senior year, I can't wait. We're gonna have fun in class. And he just

00:53:30.400 told me, he's like, you're not going to learn anything in my class. He said, I've shown you as

00:53:37.100 much as I can. You need to go to the next level. And I think people like that impact people's lives

00:53:44.320 forever. And that's the type of person I want to be. I mean, I want to be that person that

00:53:49.900 when I don't have the knowledge, man, I sure hope that, well, one, that you're willing to teach me

00:53:56.120 what I don't know, or I want to be able to point you in the right direction to where you can just

00:54:01.940 keep growing as a person. Cause I love to see it. You know, I love to see it.

00:54:08.560 Gents, let me hit pause real quick. It's that time of year where most men, including you and me,

00:54:13.360 are probably thinking about what we're going to create in 2019. And if you're like most guys,

00:54:18.700 you're probably going to create and do the same things that you did in 2018. And if you're real

00:54:23.800 with yourself, I think you'll probably agree, but I don't want you to be that guy who has said

00:54:29.200 2000, whatever is my year and have said that for the last 10 years. I think what is really going to

00:54:35.440 help you make these goals and these objectives and the things that you want to do a reality

00:54:39.540 this year and moving into next year is a level of accountability that maybe you haven't had in

00:54:44.740 the past. And that's exactly what our exclusive brotherhood, the iron council is all about.

00:54:50.280 This is a band of brothers. It's a band of 450 men working together to identify our objectives,

00:54:56.500 to really focus and get crystal clear. I mean, crystal clear on what it is that we want to

00:55:01.760 accomplish moving into the new year and then actively working towards that while holding each

00:55:07.460 other accountable and holding each other's feet to the fire, which I have noticed has played a huge

00:55:12.600 difference in the way that I approach my work and my goals and my objectives. So if you want to

00:55:17.140 learn more about how we do that, head to orderofman.com slash iron council. Again, that's

00:55:23.000 orderofman.com slash iron council. I hope to see you guys inside. And also it makes a great Christmas

00:55:28.680 gift. So if somebody, a loved one is trying to figure out what to get you, then a membership to

00:55:34.880 the exclusive brotherhood, the iron council might be, might be the thing again, orderofman.com

00:55:39.400 slash iron council. Do that after the show as well. But for now we'll get back to you and finish

00:55:44.640 up the conversation with Dudley. One of the things I had written down or thought about to ask you was

00:55:50.880 with all of the advancements in technology, do you ever see the sport of archery or bow hunting

00:55:57.060 losing some of its, I don't know if it's meaning it's underlying meaning or significance when you start

00:56:04.380 to get so technologically driven on some of these bows and these systems and arrows and everything else.

00:56:09.220 I'm really curious if there's a line that we begin to snug up against that takes away a lot of

00:56:14.460 the sport itself. Certainly. And I'm in a certain aspect of that myself, you know, there's people,

00:56:22.080 well, today I was having, um, I had a meal with two guys that were older and I'm actually going to be

00:56:29.520 having a bow built for me by Byron Ferguson, who is probably one of the top handful of instinctive

00:56:38.040 archers of our lifetime, you know, and he builds bows himself and everything, but he's an instinctive

00:56:43.680 shooter. He shoots recurves, no sights, fingers. Whereas if he were to look at something like what

00:56:50.780 I shoot, he would say that's very advanced, you know? And, and so, yeah, certainly I think at a

00:56:56.880 certain level it does. I fall victim to that myself because I can tell you, I feel like I've lost an

00:57:03.900 edge as an overall archer, just because of things like a range finder. Back when I first started,

00:57:12.700 there was no range finder. I would set targets out using a tape measure on the ground, you know,

00:57:19.040 one similar to like what we had on a football field or, you know, for like long jumping,

00:57:23.180 you attract or whatever. And I would shoot at certain distances. And then I would really just

00:57:30.220 learn based on depth perception. Some of the very first range finders came out, which were,

00:57:36.180 it was more or less just a simple monocular that you would roll the dial. So it would become in focus

00:57:42.560 and the dial had yardage on it. Yeah. So the very first one, I think that I remember that I could

00:57:49.660 afford was called a ranging range finder. And it was just this square box with a monocle on it

00:57:55.340 that you rolled the dial. And when the target was in focus, you would look back at the dial and it

00:58:01.340 would tell you the yardage. Well, you could be, you could be two yards forward or back and it would

00:58:06.780 still kind of be in focus. Everybody's site is so different. So yeah. Yeah. The same reading.

00:58:13.180 I think I have it downstairs in a box, but the very first range finder I had was,

00:58:18.100 it was about this big, the first electronic one. It took a nine volt battery,

00:58:23.000 like softball size. It looks like, well, it was square. Yeah. Yeah. It was, it was the,

00:58:29.360 probably the size of a cigar box. Okay. Wow. Okay. You know, and it had one hole on it and you'd

00:58:35.220 look through it and it had two, like, it looked like a big pair of binoculars on the end. But man,

00:58:41.640 when I bought that thing at that time, my game went to a whole new level because for the first time I

00:58:47.520 could practice and as soon as I shot, I could confirm, yeah, my distance estimation was right.

00:58:53.500 Or I became more accurate because I could actually print a scale where I knew I was exactly 20 for the

00:59:00.560 top of my scale. And my, my bottom of my scale was exactly a hundred. I use it as a tool to become

00:59:06.240 better. Well, now I look at myself now versus 20 years ago when I was competing in 3d, which 3d was

00:59:15.440 unmarked. So the best archers were the best range estimators. And I use it as a tool of confirmation.

00:59:23.800 I didn't use it as a crutch. Whereas now I don't ever go out and just judge targets. Like if I go

00:59:31.660 out and practice, I just pull my range finder up and do that. Well, if I was out on a hunt somewhere

00:59:36.960 and someone said, how far do you think that is? I'm drawing off a database that's 30 years old.

00:59:42.680 Yeah. It's like wearing an air cast on your ankle every single day. What happens is you start to lose

00:59:50.040 the muscle that's actually in your leg to stabilize it. So I think, you know, Byron Ferguson or a lot

00:59:57.520 of old timers that didn't have compound bows could say, yeah, compound bows, you know, it doesn't teach

01:00:02.900 you true Zen archery of just being able to know where that arrow is going based off having enough

01:00:08.480 practice. However, I think compound archery has done a very good job of educating the whole sport

01:00:15.740 on what technique does. You know, I think the same could be true for a lot of sports. For example,

01:00:22.400 like crossbows. Now people get into archery and it's probably a bad example. But for me, I look at

01:00:31.200 someone that says, I want to shoot arch, you know, Hey, I'm into bow hunting. And then I meet them and

01:00:35.840 they're, they're just out there at the crossbow. It's like, well, you're like, that's not, yeah,

01:00:40.500 you're, yeah, you're not into yes and no. Right. It's yes and no. So is that it opens up a world that

01:00:49.280 maybe wouldn't have been opened up. Otherwise, like I'll give you a prime example. My son,

01:00:53.140 I just took him on a hunt three, four weeks ago or so. He was able to use the crossbow,

01:00:58.400 which was perfect because it gave him the opportunity to hunt. It gave him the experience of

01:01:02.580 sitting in the blind. It gave him all of these things that without that technology probably

01:01:07.380 wouldn't have happened otherwise. So it's like, it's kind of this catch 22 of like,

01:01:11.220 it's not traditional necessarily, but it also opens it up to people who would never have access

01:01:16.300 to it before. Yeah. It's a total catch 22 because what you said is a perfect example. Or I met a guy

01:01:24.200 just yesterday, right here, right here at the, at my kitchen table, a guy that loves bow hunting,

01:01:30.340 owns a bow hunting company or a hunting company loves bow hunting, but he's at an age now where

01:01:36.680 his shoulders coming apart. And, you know, a lot of times when you get to a certain age,

01:01:41.460 the surgeons just say, listen, you're not going to be able to heal. If we go in there and cut it,

01:01:45.820 like it's going to be worse than what you're dealing with. And there becomes a diminishing

01:01:51.240 point of return on certain types of surgeries and shoulders are one of them. So for him,

01:01:56.760 a crossbow is a perfect way for him to still be able to go out and enjoy what he's always loved

01:02:03.600 about bow hunting. Now the fine line there is, you know, what happens when your son grows up to the

01:02:11.680 point where you would like him to shoot a bow, but he realized that shooting a bow isn't easy,

01:02:16.240 right? It's harder. Sure. Is he going to just say, I don't like this. I just want to take the crossbow,

01:02:22.180 which it's highly likely. And that, you know, I think overall the people that are getting into

01:02:29.600 crossbows right now, those sales are falling away from people that used to just take up bow hunting

01:02:37.760 and sales and archery shops on compound bows is declining. Whereas, you know, crossbow. Yeah.

01:02:46.360 Whereas crossbow sales are inclining certain States where they've legalized crossbows during all parts

01:02:53.640 of the bow hunting season, they've become more popular in some areas than shooting a compound bow.

01:03:00.680 But in my opinion, the real reason is, cause I personally don't like shooting them as much,

01:03:06.360 you know, you can't shoot them as fast. You have to reload it. You know, they're louder for me.

01:03:11.140 It's harder to carry them around and things like that. It seems a lot. Yeah, they are. But in the

01:03:17.400 same sense, the average person can go and buy one of those. And in some of them, they're dang near

01:03:24.200 sighted in, you know, an archery shop. Yeah. An archery shop can sight that thing in off the shelf

01:03:30.320 and a few arrows and tell the guy, listen, you know, with this arrow, it's going to be good to go from

01:03:36.640 20 to 60 yards. And they can just buy a bow one night at nine o'clock at night, you know,

01:03:43.740 right at closing time and then go hunting the next day. Honestly, probably be more ethical than if

01:03:49.660 they would have, you know, went and bought a bow the day before and wanted to get into it. So

01:03:56.480 it's one of these things where, you know, you can argue it up and down. Well, hopefully if it gets too

01:04:03.080 crazy, it'll get cool again to shoot a compound bow and have to learn, you know, it'll be nostalgic,

01:04:08.720 right? Yeah. Cause that's happening now with, you know, you look at people that were, yeah,

01:04:13.660 that are going back to trad bows. I don't know. It's almost like if they get decent at it, it gets

01:04:19.860 a little boring because you're just sitting there, you know, shooting the same thing all the time,

01:04:24.280 which I can also understand. And that's a big reason why I feel like it's an obligation of mine to put

01:04:31.720 this homework out there for people to where it's like miniature challenges, you know, do this all

01:04:38.720 week. Oh, okay. Yeah. A buddy of mine is Josh Bridges. He's a CrossFit guy. Sure. Josh is getting

01:04:45.560 into putting out workouts for people to where, even if you're into CrossFit and you just don't like,

01:04:52.860 you know, the monotonous rhythm of going to your same club and doing what they tell you to do all the

01:04:58.780 time, you can go and find this and say, okay, I'd like to take the challenge from this person.

01:05:04.520 And then it becomes different and it becomes interesting again. I think that's the case with,

01:05:09.360 with archery, or at least it's the case that I'm going to try to do is give people slightly different

01:05:14.440 things that they can work on that I'm certain are going to show them improvement.

01:05:19.380 I think it appeals to human nature. I mean, it's the same reason the Boy Scouts do merit badges and rank

01:05:24.740 advancements. It's the same reason that jujitsu practitioners have the belt system. It's human

01:05:30.400 nature to want to have some sort of visual representation or manifestation of progress

01:05:36.100 essentially is what it is. It's, it's a reminder that I am getting better. I am improving and I am

01:05:40.680 accomplishing something which leads you to continue. That's the goal is that you stay in it long enough

01:05:46.160 that you continue and you continue to become a master at that thing. Yeah. Yeah. It's recognition

01:05:51.160 at the beginning of the conversation, you talked about, you know, sponsorships and stuff like that.

01:05:56.660 So it's funny how it comes full circle. And I don't know if it's this way in like martial arts or,

01:06:02.660 or anything, but I remember when I wanted to become a pro, I would look at people that would have like

01:06:10.280 a pro staff Jersey, you know, that would come from Hoyt and it would say, you know, or whoever,

01:06:15.400 and it would say pro staff on there. And then I would see people that would have, you know,

01:06:19.660 sponsors on their shirts. Right. And it'd be like, Oh my gosh, I want to get to that. And then,

01:06:24.460 you know, and you kind of work through your ranks of, you know, you get a shirt and your local shop

01:06:29.280 puts your name on it. And then all of a sudden you get your first like regional staff position. And,

01:06:34.560 you know, maybe a boat company sends you a shirt that says, you know, um, I don't know,

01:06:39.660 maybe it says like factory staff or, or, or some, or something like that. And then all of a sudden

01:06:45.560 you get to the point where you sign your first pro deal and you get this shirt that says pro staff,

01:06:51.280 then once you really start to do it, or at least me, like now every year when Hoyt says, Hey,

01:06:59.800 we're going to send you your shirts. I'm like, do not send me anything that has my name on it or

01:07:05.140 pro staff on it. Just send me a regular shirt. Right. Something that I can actually wear around.

01:07:11.480 Right. Yeah. It just, it becomes this full circle to where you want to work up in the ranks and you

01:07:17.520 want to earn the titles, earn the titles, earn the titles. And then it gets to the point where

01:07:21.440 when you really, well, at least for me, when I really feel like I've got to the point where

01:07:26.340 I'm content with my placement within that realm. Now it's almost like, I don't want to expose

01:07:35.060 that level. You know, it's like a full circle. Expose it to other people. Do you think,

01:07:39.280 is that what you're saying? I don't know. I wonder if like in martial arts, for example,

01:07:43.820 people would, you know, they'd wear their belts all the time or they, you know, say they go and

01:07:49.060 they're a Sada champion or something. They would wear like, you know, Sada champion jacket, you know,

01:07:54.700 and then, but by the time you're the third or fourth time champion, you get to the point where

01:07:59.020 you're like, I don't wear that jacket. I've always thought like the true masters are the ones that you

01:08:04.540 don't really know that are, you know, they're almost in secret. And I think that's a natural

01:08:10.200 thing too. And I think when you really start to master something is when you start to understand

01:08:16.480 the humility in that, and you start to all of a sudden back down and not put yourself above the

01:08:23.720 sport, but all of a sudden put the sport above everything that you're doing and your ego and

01:08:29.200 everything falls underneath that. And you're like, I don't need to flaunt these things. I want to do

01:08:34.700 what I love good enough to where it shows itself, but I'm not the one having to put it on the outside.

01:08:41.300 Yeah. I think that's a natural progress. Yeah. No, I think that's a completely natural progression

01:08:46.440 is like, I want to be served by the sport, for example, when you're young and getting started and

01:08:51.760 learning. And then, okay, now I feel like we do have this obligation when we're up here to turn

01:08:56.260 around and serve the sport that served us for so long. Right. I just think that's it. I think it's

01:09:02.180 a mature level of thinking, frankly. Yeah. Yeah. And the sport overall will do better when more people

01:09:10.220 are that way, you know, but I also understand the fact that some of that ego drives people to do

01:09:16.760 really awesome things and achieve things to where people were like, how in the heck did that guy shoot

01:09:23.320 that score? And those types of mentalities, a lot of times push those boundaries, those envelopes to

01:09:31.660 a level to where then all of a sudden someone that, you know, maybe it doesn't matter as much to like

01:09:36.600 myself just says, well, dang, I mean, that's the bar. So yeah, I mean, that's the bar. Now I got to get

01:09:43.760 to that. When I was competing, there were less than a handful of people in the world that had ever shot

01:09:50.340 1400 scores. And I mean, it was something to have a 1400 badge. Now it's kind of to the point where

01:09:58.040 people don't even show them anymore because if you're shooting at a certain level, it should just

01:10:03.300 be assumed that that's a level that you could do. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's, you know, it's almost like

01:10:09.860 that's an expectation, which is, is good. It's good for any sport. And, and honestly, equipment is what

01:10:17.560 helps push that too. I was walking down the street in Salt Lake. I think it was when I was

01:10:22.820 there for, um, the Traeger school that I did. Yeah. And I was, by the way, thank you. So I went

01:10:31.220 into a Whole Foods to buy some drinks and then I was walking down the road. I saw the back of a guy's

01:10:38.580 head across the road and he was carrying just the handle to his bow and it was yellow.

01:10:45.240 And I just yelled across the road. I'm like, Jay, because I thought if this is him, I can't believe

01:10:51.600 it. And he turns around and he's just like Dudley. And this is a multiple, uh, gold medalist for USA.

01:10:59.840 Jay bars and yellow was his color, but he was my pro staff at the time. He, well, I wasn't even pro

01:11:07.620 staff when I first met him, but he was running the entire field staff for Easton archery. He worked

01:11:14.080 for Easton and it had been years. So, you know, he kind of came over and said, you know, what the hell

01:11:19.060 are you doing here, man? And I told him I was up at Traeger and I can't remember if we had a drink or

01:11:23.640 if we just talked, but you know, we were talking, I told him, I said, you know, I was in Switzerland

01:11:29.260 and I went on a private tour of the, some of the archives of the Olympics, like dating all the way

01:11:37.340 back to the very, very first Olympics. And they had memorabilia throughout. Okay. And one of the

01:11:44.140 things they had was one of Jay's yellow bows. And I said, dude, I saw one of your gold medalists

01:11:52.080 and he's like, what, where? And I said, in Switzerland and in the Olympic archives. And he's

01:11:57.000 like, what? And I'm like, I said, how in the hell did you shoot that thing? He goes, heck if I know.

01:12:04.100 Yeah. He's like, dude, he goes, I sit there telling people all the time. If I had the type of arrows

01:12:09.000 and stabilizers and sites that you guys have now, he goes, you know, who knows what I would have been.

01:12:15.020 He's like, maybe I wouldn't even have been good. He's like, you know, you just, and I told him,

01:12:19.500 I said, man, it's not just that. Like I looked at like one of the tens, like it wasn't even a 10

01:12:25.440 speed, but one of the bikes that like from one of the first Olympics where they're riding bikes.

01:12:31.340 And it's like, oh my God, imagine doing a full race. Yeah. You know, it's like such a long ways.

01:12:39.760 Yeah. And so the equipment has to progress. Otherwise the sport doesn't progress. So like you said,

01:12:47.220 it's a catch 22. You have to embrace it all and make the most of all of it.

01:12:53.240 And decide where you're going to fit in on that scale too. Right?

01:12:55.880 Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

01:12:57.500 Hey man, I kept you longer than I said I would. I know you've got a busy day, a busy afternoon. So

01:13:02.400 we'll let you get going. I didn't tell you this, but I asked you last time and I got to ask you,

01:13:06.580 cause I've asked every single one of my guests, what does it mean to be a man?

01:13:09.400 Yeah. Well, if you asked me every 10 years of my life, I'd give you 10 different answers right now.

01:13:15.420 What it means to be a man is at least for me is being an example for my son. That's,

01:13:21.480 you know, in his upper teen years right now, he turns, he turns 20 in a few weeks and there's

01:13:28.960 nothing better for me than when my wife tells me that something that Harry seen me done is made

01:13:36.680 a critical life choice for him. And I feel like, you know, as men, we have to be peers and we have

01:13:43.940 to set examples. And I think a lot of that comes with maturity. You know, one of the tattoos that

01:13:51.420 I have on my arm, I've never even told anyone what it says. My wife knows, but the one tattoo that I

01:13:56.840 have on my bicep, it says my strength is in my restraint. And that's one of the things that I've

01:14:04.680 learned every time I've made a poor choice is when I make it irrationally, when I can restrain

01:14:11.800 and take time. One of the quotes I remember from the Bible, and it's been a long time since I've read

01:14:18.720 it, but be quick to listen and slow to speak. And the same is true with what I have on my arm.

01:14:25.040 I feel like people's best strengths are when they show humility and when they restrain and when they

01:14:31.540 give themselves time to think situations through. And if you can do that, you're going to be a really

01:14:38.040 good husband. You're going to be a good father and you're going to lead by example.

01:14:43.700 I love it, man. It's powerful. Well, Dudley, I appreciate you. I appreciate our friendship. I

01:14:48.540 appreciate your instruction. I'm excited to put it to use. I get to go back on another hunt in about a

01:14:53.960 month now. So I'm going to be putting this last 30 days into use. I didn't ask you where somebody

01:14:59.840 should get started in archery because it's just kind of inherent that you should just do the school

01:15:06.620 of knock. That's the point, right? So go check it out. Even if you're listening to this, and it could

01:15:11.740 be a year from now, if you're listening to this, it's going to be available on YouTube. You can go back,

01:15:15.840 go through the course, go through the program. And it's helped me over the past week and a half.

01:15:20.100 I haven't watched a week two's video yet, but I'll watch that this afternoon and get started

01:15:24.360 with my homework. So I'll be on top of that as well. Yeah. Knock on archery is the YouTube channel

01:15:30.120 and knock on TV is our kind of our social media pages. But yes, if you're brand new into it,

01:15:38.020 obviously a good archery shop, a reputable archery shop is a great place to start. But if nothing else,

01:15:44.760 there's hundreds of videos on my YouTube channel, but if you just do John Dudley archery one Oh one,

01:15:52.620 you're going to get to see a video of a person that I started with that had never even shot a bow.

01:16:00.440 I walk him through some steps, which you could do yourself. And then archery one Oh two is obviously

01:16:08.200 the next like 45 or 50 minute video. It was the second steps that I gave him. And from start to

01:16:14.660 finish, this guy that I was with went from never shooting a bow to having a successful shot on a

01:16:21.960 wild hog. Three days later, three days start to finish. And I was more than confident putting him

01:16:29.080 in front of that animal. So that's a great place to start to just get a baseline.

01:16:34.280 Gentlemen, there it is my conversation with Mr. John Dudley. I hope you enjoyed this one. Like I said

01:16:41.700 before, it's, it was, it was about more than archery. In fact, I think we probably talked about other

01:16:46.680 stuff more than maybe even archery. So the point is go check out Dudley's school of knock. I think

01:16:52.540 you guys will be pleasantly surprised, maybe not surprised, but I think you'll enjoy the information

01:16:57.960 and the training. I know I certainly have, as I've gone through that over the past two and a half

01:17:02.760 weeks or so now. So make sure you get tapped in there. I know the audio may have cut out towards

01:17:08.080 the end. Again, I told you we were working on some, uh, some new technology to make sure we're

01:17:11.660 getting videos for you. So what Dudley was saying is if you go to knock on archery, that's his YouTube

01:17:17.900 channels, knock on archery is the YouTube channel. Also the website and knock on TV is the website.

01:17:23.380 So if you just type in knock on wherever you are, whether it's Instagram, Twitter, Facebook,

01:17:27.640 YouTube, the website, Google, wherever, wherever you are, just type in knock on, you'll find what

01:17:33.800 it is you're looking for. Again, head to the YouTube channel though. That's where you're going

01:17:37.440 to get the school of knock information. And I believe as of the release of this, we're on week

01:17:41.860 three. So you got some catching up to do if you haven't started yet. Anyways, guys, again,

01:17:46.240 hope you enjoyed the conversation. I hope all's going well for you. I really, really enjoy being in

01:17:50.920 this fight with you. And it is a fight. It's a fight to reclaim and restore what society seems to

01:17:55.760 have this, this crazy desire to strip away from, from men in general. And so it's my job to bring

01:18:02.660 you the tools and the conversations and the resources that each and every one of us need to

01:18:06.920 step up more fully in, in our lives and in our homes and our businesses and communities. So guys,

01:18:12.520 I'll leave you there. We'll catch you tomorrow for Kip and I are ask me anything, but until then go

01:18:17.940 out there, take action and become the man you are meant to be. Thank you for listening to the

01:18:23.820 Order of Man podcast. You're ready to take charge of your life and be more of the man you were meant

01:18:28.840 to be. We invite you to join the order at orderofman.com.

Order of Man - December 18, 2018

Archery 101 ｜ JOHN DUDLEY

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