Making ‘beautiful archery’: Alicia Baumert & David Jackson

“I like shooting because I like to challenge myself. I like to have challenges and succeed in meeting them. I think I like archery for the sensations and also for the beautiful, positive encounters. I really like discovering new personalities. It allows me to question myself, often.”

So said Alicia Baumert, one half of the best known couple in barebow, arriving in South Dakota with her partner in life (and mixed team) David Jackson.

Both are shooting to the Yankton 2026 World Archery Field Championships with a certain amount of expectations; internal or external.

Baumert is the reigning champion of the ‘other’ major, the Chengdu 2025 World Games, winning the title a year ago in China on a finals day partly held in apocalyptic conditions, eventually taking the title from the Italian 'Queen Of Barebow' Cinzia Noziglia in the final.

It changed her life, but only a little. “For a lot of my family, the title in China is a very big thing. But, for me, it's not, it's just a medal because I just shot the bow the way I liked to do it.”

She was also keen to put the opportunities in Yankton into perspective. “I came to this championship a little, I would say not unprepared, but this year has been so complicated for me that I put things into perspective a lot, and I don't want to set goals that are not realistic.”

“I’m not asking myself the question of what I need to do tomorrow, but rather today: what do I need to do to do beautiful archery, to have fun? And I will try to put in place, to really stay in the present moment to succeed in moving forward, little by little.”

“But I think that these championships will do me good and that I just need to compete in a competition, which takes me out of my daily life a little.”

Jackson returns to Yankton where he won the 2022 World Field Championships title, hot on the heels of winning the World 3D title in Terni, Italy.

“I have a lot of fond memories from Yankton four years ago. Obviously I could not forget about this competition because I won gold, right after winning gold in 3D two weeks before so it was an incredible year. I really enjoyed the qualifying course, it was very technical, like I'm used to doing in the south of France.”

“I do hope that it’ll be less slippery this time, but it’s not looking good with all the rain that's coming.”

The buildup for Jackson has been about working on shot control. Like many barebow and unsighted archers, he has had to deal with target panic issues, and recently switched to using a ‘sear’, one of a family of techniques used to ‘trigger’ the shot and give the archer full control of their release.

“It’s a way of triggering the shot that takes me by surprise, using a small groove in my tab where I put it in and press onto it very slowly until it pops out. It's been working very well. I’m back here.”

Field archery, of course is not just you versus an opponent; it's also you against the course. Course laying is an art in itself; balancing technical difficulty with interesting and picturesque shots.

Both Jackson and Baumert are looking forward to the technical course laid at the Lewis & Clark recreation area.

“I’m used to shooting fairly technical courses where I live, with slopes, turns, where you have to adapt to the shooting position, because the terrain is not flat, and also adapt your shot, remove or add to your shooting position depending on the slope. I don't like shooting on the flat too much.” said Baumert. 

The weather in Yankton, however, is looking ominously damp. “I adapt to the weather conditions. I'm not afraid of shooting in the rain. I will have to adapt my heights a little, I think, and that's it, I will just have to have the lucidity to do it quickly enough if I see that I am too low because of the rain, I must not hesitate to increase my distances,” she added.

“The kind of course I love is very technical with a lot of slopes, a lot of tilted targets, a lot of angles. So I’m looking forward to seeing what they cooked up for us for this qualifying course.” said Jackson.

“I have basically only one objective and it’s to make a controlled shot. I have the desire to go back on the podium of course but when I shoot I have only one job and I hope to do that as many times as possible.”

With barebow’s visibility on the world stage still increasing, events like Yankton are crucial for the discipline. 

What needs to change to make it global? “Showing barebow as much as possible is the way to go forward. It will attract a bigger audience, sponsors, so it’s great to see barebow being included in more and more big tournaments. Shooting side by side with Olympic recurve and compound. This year I will shoot for the first time at Lancaster.” said Jackson.

“It's awesome to see barebow in all these big tournaments and I’m looking forward to doing more of that.”

“It’s true that we talk a lot about recurve and compound, but because there are more disciplines, there are more possible disciplines than these two weapons.” added Baumert. 

“I think that the barebow has a place in there too and it's really cool to see that. Maybe there would also be specialised competitions just for barebows. You can look and say “that looks interesting” and maybe one day you can participate.”