Making “beautiful archery”: Alicia Baumert and 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 one of the best-known couples in barebow, arriving in South Dakota with her life and mixed team partner David Jackson.

Both are shooting at the Yankton 2026 World Archery Field Championships with a certain amount of expectation – 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. After a complicated year, Baumert said she did not want to set herself unrealistic goals or look too far ahead.

“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?”

Baumert wants to stay in the present moment and move forward little by little, while seeing the championships as a chance to step away from her daily life and simply compete.

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

He has a lot of fond memories from Yankton four years ago, having won the field title shortly after winning gold in 3D. He also particularly enjoyed the technical qualifying course, which reminded him of the terrain he is used to shooting 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.

Baumert is used to shooting fairly technical courses where she lives, with slopes and turns forcing her to adapt to the shooting position and adjust her shot depending on the terrain.

“I don’t like shooting on the flat too much,” she said.

The weather in Yankton, however, is looking ominously damp. Baumert is not afraid of shooting in the rain, but knows she may have to adapt her distances quickly if the conditions affect her shooting.

“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?

Jackson believes showing barebow as much as possible is the way forward, helping attract a bigger audience and sponsors. He is pleased to see barebow being included in more and more major tournaments, shooting alongside Olympic recurve and compound, and will compete at Lancaster Archery Classic for the first time this year.

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

Baumert also believes barebow has a place alongside recurve and compound, pointing out that archery has more disciplines than those two weapons.

“I think that 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.”