Bullseye: How Chapman’s sharpest shooter hits her target

Chapman University student Marjorie Stemmler details what it takes to be an elite marksman, with dreams of being able to compete in the Olympics. Photos courtesy of Marjorie Stemmler

Marjorie Stemmler steps up to the target. She stands 70 meters away, and as she draws back her arrow, she quiets the racing thoughts in her mind and takes a deep breath. 

The arrow leaves the grasp of her bow. Swish! It cuts through the air at lightning speed, curving towards the target. Bullseye! The arrow hits the target dead center, and the crowd applauds.

Stemmler, a junior majoring in English, embarked on her archery career right before the Olympics in 2020. 

An avid watcher of the Olympics, Stemmler built her anticipation for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics by watching past archery highlights from the Rio 2016 Olympics. She watched videos and thought to herself: what if she tried playing the sport?

“I was like, ‘Archery is really cool. I wanna try it,’” Stemmler said. “It’s one of those sports that I was like, ‘Okay I’m a little late for gymnastics and diving. I can’t do (those sports because) I’m 18 already.’ So I just tried archery and I loved it.”

Stemmler took her first class in February 2020, and immediately afterwards, she told her mom that this was the perfect sport for her.

Stemmler took her first class in February 2020, and immediately afterwards, she told her mom that this was the perfect sport for her. She took the next step and went to a private lesson with an archery coach, but soon after, the COVID-19 pandemic changed her plans.

“I didn’t shoot for all of (COVID-19) because I didn’t have (the equipment for archery),” Stemmler said. “Once everything started settling down, I still had the desire to do archery. I had a whole few months of not doing it at all, and then I was like ‘Okay, I still want to try it.’ It was still really fun.”

Before Stemmler picked up archery, she danced for eight years. At first glance, it appears that archery and dance are on opposite sides of the spectrum, but one of the first compliments that Stemmler got as she began archery was with her great posture and rhythm with shooting — two skills that were collected from her dance experiences.

“I think both looking and feeling when you have a good shot, archery feels good, and it looks nice, and everything just flows very nicely,” Stemmler said. “It’s very graceful when you have a good shot, same gracefulness with dance too.”

On a typical practice day without classes, Stemmler wakes up, eats breakfast and goes straight to an archery range at Mile Square Regional Park in Fountain Valley. And even on school days, Stemmler will go to class and then spend her afternoons perfecting her shot.

She spends about 15 to 20 hours each week practicing, squeezing every second out of each day to sharpen her skills.

“I really shoot ‘til the sun tells me to stop,” Stemmler said.

Every shot is an entire sequence. Stemmler says she gets fidgety when she shoots, so as she goes up to the target, she adjusts her chest guard, tightens her finger sling, fixes her hair and then takes a deep breath.

“That’s what my coach and I have decided is when you take a deep breath, that means you’re ready to start,” Stemmler said. “There’s nothing else you should be thinking about, just your shot. If I’m thinking about something else, the shot (is) gone. I have a whole process in my head. I have three words I say while I’m taking the shot: open, in, push.”

Open. She takes a wide stance to activate full body motion. 

In. She adjusts her back and positions her hand. 

Push. She follows through on her shot, the tip of her arrow pointed dead center on the target. 

Once the arrow releases from the bow and reaches its destination, Stemmler relaxes her mind and lets her thoughts flow in. What’s for lunch after the competition? How are her parents doing as they spectate the match? 

Then her turn comes again, and with the next deep breath, Stemmler returns to her zen state. 

Stemmler spends about 15 to 20 hours each week practicing, squeezing every second out of each day to sharpen her skills.

“I’ve realized from shooting a lot that physical and mental capacity are pretty even in how tired you can get,” Stemmler said. “So it’s important to take a break because I’ll try to be in game mode the whole time, and (my mental focus) will just start fading. I’ll just have thoughts creeping in, and it gets really difficult because I shoot 72 arrows, and at the three-hour mark, I’m ready to be done.”

Stemmler said that at competitions, she typically saves celebration for each score at the end of the match, not in-between shots. Otherwise, it breaks the focus needed to keep her shooting on point.

“In most sports, you make a goal, and you’re like, ‘Yes! Let’s go!’” Stemmler said. “I have to tell myself, ‘Okay, great, that looks good. Let’s just do it again,’ because if you’re like ‘Oh, 10 points, let’s go, awesome!’ that next shot, if you’re thinking about how the first one was a 10, it’s probably not gonna be a 10 (the next time around).”

It is a balancing act, both mentally and physically, which Stemmler must play to keep composure throughout the event.

The margin of error allowed on each shot is ridiculously small. That’s why accuracy and precision are fundamental to archery. 

If there’s one word to describe Stemmler’s drive for archery, it’s perfectionism. As she trains, her coach tells her that she has great “groupings” on her shots where arrows score eight or more points. Stemmler aims for a tighter grouping: how can she get all her shots to land nine or above.

“If you’re not shooting 10s, you’re never really satisfied,” Stemmler said. “So it is very much a perfectionist sport. I try not to let nines upset me because I’m still like, ‘It’s a nine, close enough,’ but if I shoot anything under a seven, I’m like, ‘Oh no! Gotta move on.’”

Confidence plays a big role in determining where the arrow lands on the target. This comes with having a great body of work.

“I’ve had times where I’m really upset and I’m not shooting well, and then I’m like, ‘You know what, I’m just happy to be here, happy to have a good day,’ and I’ll start shooting a little bit better,” Stemmler said. “It’s hard to get confidence without something to show for it, but my coach always tells me, ‘Don’t have a bad attitude. Be happy. Tell yourself you’re a good shooter even if you don’t have a gold medal from a national competition.’”

Stemmler started two years ago, which may put her at a disadvantage against other archers that started younger and with close to a decade of experience. 

Through supportive conversations with her coach, family and friends, she has learned to take on a more patient approach to her blossoming archery career.

The cost for Stemmler of devoting a lot of time to archery is time spent around friends and family. She said her dedication to the sport might even grow to the point where she tries to enter a resident athlete program in Chula Vista.

“I’ve decided to stay in college and get my degree first, and then I’m going to go over there, but that’s also still sacrificing getting a job right out of college and things like that, and that’s a really hard conversation I had to have with my parents,” Stemmler said. “There’s a lot of sacrifices to it, but I really love the sport so I think it’s worth it. And it is a big leap of faith, it’s possible I could never make it to the Olympics, but the fact that it’s possible is what my mom keeps saying.”

Ultimately, Stemmler wants to be an olympic archer. An immediate goal Stemmler has with archery is to earn herself a U.S.Archery Team shirt either from an international collegiate tournament or through being a top eight archer in the U.S.. 

This seems trivial, but Stemmler said that the shirt is a mark of accomplishment to represent America on the national stage.

Stemmler said that her boyfriend is also a marksman himself, competing in compound archery. And on top of the goal to compete in the Olympics, Stemmler wants to see someone she cares about competing on the same stage as her.

“I always told him that I want us to go to a World Cup together because we can compete at the same tournament at a World Cup,” Stemmler said. “I just always tell him, ‘We need to be at the World Stage together’ because I think that’d be so cool.”