Five-Time World Champion Archer Joella Bates Talks Hunting at This Weekend’s Sportsman’s Expo [INTERVIEW]

Our Louisiana Powersports Sportsman's Expo kicks off tomorrow at the Shreveport Convention Center. One of the special guests is five-time World Champion Archer Joella Bates.

Bates stopped by the KEEL studio this morning and explained how these contests work, shared beginner tips and promised to show us how to be better archers.

"It's like a hunting competition, really, except you don't have to stalk up on the animals," Bates says. "You move from stake to stake, and you're shooting at the animals at unknown distance. So you have to judge the distance to the target, and then shoot them in the scoring areas that would be like hunting a real animal."

Is it tough for women to become archers?

We wanted to know if it's tough for a woman to get involved in a sport like this. She says there's a whole women's division devoted to it.

"The funny thing about it, with the National Archery in the Schools program really gaining in popularity, 42-percent of the competitors at the National Archery in the Schools Championship this year were girls. That's pretty good. Now, on the national level in 3D archery, it's a much smaller percentage than that."

Learning from the expert

Bates says she may be doing some demonstrations at the Sportsman's Expo all weekend, but won't be competing with anyone. She tells KEEL News she has done expos where visitors could sign up for a Beat the Pro contest, where qualifiers could go head-to-head with her. She says no one has been able to out-shoot her.

Joella's advice for novice archers

Bates' advice for beginning archers is to start with the basics. She'll be on-hand tomorrow through Sunday if you want to get some brief instruction.

Listen to our full interview with champion archer Joella Bates below