Watching The Arrows: Joel Turner On Top Of His Barebow Game

In the pressure cooker of Vegas, many archers, from the bottom flight to the 300 30x compound champs are fighting a war with their nerves.

For Joel Turner, a renowned barebow competitor and the father of 2025 Vegas Champion Bodie Turner, that war isn't won by trying to be "perfect." It’s won by careful and deliberate analysis of how the brain and body shoots an arrow.

While he is shooting a 'conventional' fingers release here in Vegas (he's best known for an unusual thumb-draw setup) Joel's philosophy revolves around consistency. "What I’m seeing is those people at the top usually have these big days and then poor days, where I just have even days," Joel explains. "When you’re shooting a surprise break, it’s easier to keep consistent because you have very specific jobs in your shot. If you command shoot, it’s a mystery how it’s going to go that day."

His performance at The Vegas Shoot proves that his theories aren't just academic – they are battle-tested on the world's most prestigious archery stage. Turner placed ninth last year in Championship Barebow Recurve Open, but in 2026 led the field on the opening Friday and is sitting in second place after Saturday's line, two points behind Kelly Miller of Virginia.

In barebow shooting, getting that 'surprise' break of shot often involves using a sear, one of a family of simple physical 'triggers' that connects your hand to your brain.

"Archery and controlling the shot, especially on that yellow line, is one of the hardest things for the human mind to comprehend," Joel says. "The ultimate skill of a human being is the ability to get loud in our head with the right words at the right moment. That’s how you got out of bed today."

Parenting a Champion

As the father of Bodie Turner – but also competing for a championship himself – Joel’s role during Vegas shifts from competitor to pit crew. He doesn't coach Bodie’s form. Instead, Joel manages the human elements.

"Bodie knows exactly how he does what he does. So I’m just trying to get him out of bed on time, get some liquid in him, and some food," Joel says. "I take care of the human side of him before he goes out there and becomes a machine."

Joel attributes much of Bodie’s "meteoric rise" to a childhood spent shooting barebow and instinctive archery. "I didn't let him put a sight on his bow until he was nine years old. Even now, he can take the sight off his bow and shoot

high 290s. Let your children see the flight of the arrow!" He also worked with resistance activator releases early on to ensure Bodie never learned to "punch" a trigger, separating the aim from the shot activation entirely.

A handful of other compound pros – notably Great Britain's Ella Gibson – also began their elite careers shooting barebow.

The Takeaway for the Vegas Line

As thousands of archers descend on Las Vegas, Joel Turner’s advice is clear: stop treating archery as an "aiming sport" and start treating it as a "pressure increase sport – you have to learn to increase pressure on a trigger slow enough you can stop it. Anywhere within it." "The skill is in what we say, so that we can do. So we're just using archery for that. And when you can go control yourself on that yellow line in there, it's very powerful. It is. Very powerful. Working on the process, not worrying about the result, but trusting that the result will come – that applied to so many other areas of my life and so many areas where discipline is important," said Joel. "Archery has been my life since I was seven years old, and I'm almost 50 now. I'm still watching the flight of the arrows."