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Athlete Feature: Amy Sowash


On Edge With Amy Sowash


Like all the good ones,


rifl e athlete Amy Sowash has it. It’s called edge. With it, the expectation is Rio and the 2016 Olympic Games. Without it, well, she’s no dif- ferent than anyone else. “I think it’s important


to work super hard and be super intense,” she admits when asked about the fi ery disposition she shows on the range. “These are skills I value. Sometimes when you look at competitors, they lose sight of the fact that there is that intensity or edge, but that you’re not like that away from it all. I think that there’s that mispercep- tion about me in that way. I’m on a mission when I’m on the range, but off it, I’m normal.” The Olympics have been


a lifelong pursuit for Amy. For a lot of athletes in shoot- ing, they got into the sport only to learn there was an Olympic path. For Amy, she chose shooting specifi cally because she knew it was a way to get to the Olympics. One thing though, you still


have to know how to shoot. With that, she’s come a long way since plinking cans off her family’s back porch growing up in Richmond, Kentucky. But an Olympic dream surely would have died had it not been for University of Kentucky Rifl e head coach Harry Mullins taking a fl yer on a junior club


she over-complicates all too often.


That piece of advice has


been to perfect the process better than anyone else in the world. “I’ve worked re- ally hard recently on set-up and squeeze,” says Sowash. “Doing that has taken me to another level, a level I’d been searching for.” Combining improved shot


shooter occupying his Wild- cat range. Mullins and his Kentucky Wildcat program, then ranked No. 2 in the country, risked a lot when they decided to let Sowash walk-on in 2003. That was the break she


needed. After that, the rest was in Sowash’s hands and she has relished every op- portunity since. She made the National Team during Fall Selection in 2006 and has been a consistent pres- ence thereafter. She just missed making the Olympic Team each of the last two quads but she’s got a feel- ing this time could be differ- ent. Time away from her gun in 2012 helped convince her that she’s comfortable with whatever happens going for- ward.


“I’m going to work my butt


off and try super hard to make that team but I can’t control anyone else,” she acknowledges. “Other peo-


ple have the ability to shoot better than you on any given day. I needed to be comfort- able with that. I really came back because I really hadn’t peaked out. I’m pretty good a lot of the time. I also felt like there was a whole other level inside me that I hadn’t even come close to fi nding and if that puts me on the team, that would be awe- some. If I peak and give ev- erything there is to give and push myself as far as I can and that doesn’t put me on the team, then that’s okay too. It can’t be do or die.” Aside from greater ma-


turity and perspective, So- wash is holding on to one big trump card she hopes will push her closer to her Olympic dream. It’s some- thing she stole from her greatest confi dant, 2004 Olympian Brian Beaman, a pistol shooter by trade who now hopes to simplify a pro- cess Sowash readily admits


process with an already high work ethic, motivation and desire could be just the mix she’s be looking for as Olympic qualifi cation begins. Few athletes within the USA Shooting ranks can break down her sport and teach better than Sowash. When asked what the biggest key to executing better shots was, she replies with the familiar adage of squeezing the trigger. “I think you have to


squeeze the trigger,” she says matter-of-factly.


“It


sounds really simple. But what that really means, is that if you can’t really squeeze the trigger and squeeze through that hold, then you’ve set something up wrong. If you can tru- ly just let it sit there and squeeze the trigger, you’ve done enough things right that it’s going to make a lot happen for you. In my mind, it’s at the very top of the pyramid of skills necessary to be good.”


September 2014 | USA Shooting News 29


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