I recently caught up with two young lady friends, that are doing it all. Both are Hollywood starlets, and both have had a chance to be on the big and small screen, and love it. Brittney Bomann however, doesn't let any grass grow under her feet. She's busy with archery now, yes, of all things archery. While Yamileth Palacios finds herself trying to break her way into the movies! After a chance to spread her creative wings earlier this year, she's ready for her close up!
Archery back in the limelight:
Q-Archery is now a remembered sport because of recent movies like Hunger Games, Brave, War of the Titans, etc,; How does this affect Woodly Park Archery Range?
"Woodly Park has been swamped with people. It's great to see little girls get interested in the sport because of the Hunger Games and Brave. My role as a female archer is to get as many girls into the spot as possible. I've shown girls and women that it's ok to still be girly and wear make up, but still be a bad ass. This has inspired a lot more girls to be interested in shooting!
"We use to get a fair amount of people at the range, but recently it has been so packed we have to turn people away because we run out of equipment for them to use. (Woodly Park provides bows, arrows, arm guards, and finger tabs for the public to use under the supervision of the coaches at the range, for free.")
Q-Have more celebrities been involved?
"Since Hunger Games, more celebrities have been involved in Archery. I have become one of the top celebrity Archery coaches in California. Coaching from Maddison De La Garza "Desperate house Wives" and Demi Lovato's little sister; to Aly and A.J. Michalka "Hell Cats", "Easy A", "Disney Channel". Recently coaching Aly and A.J. Michalka "We feel so lucky to be able to be associated with a high end facility such as Easton. The students and coaches have encouraged us to pursue this unique sport. As actresses we can use our skills in future productions."
IQ-Is there a difference between movie shooting and competition shooting? Do you have a goal to making movie archery more accurate?
"Yes there is. I work for Easton Foundations teaching JOAD (Junior Olympic Archery Development) classes, where we teach the Olympic style of shooting, the "BEST" method. We coach under Don Rabska who is a leading Archery coach for Olympic shooters and provides new facilities around California.
"The form we learn is much more intensive than what you see in films. It takes months to years to get it right and its very technical. A lot of people get the wrong conception of how to shoot, just by seeing people shooting wrong in movies, and about 98% of the time they are shooting wrong. My goal is to train celebrities how to shoot correctly. Therefore, when they go to do a movie where they need to shoot, they will shoot properly and not hurt themselves, but also teach the public how proper shooting is suppose to look. This way, they will also gain respect from the Archery world."
Q-Is Archery fun? Is it hard? Where can I try it?
"Archery is a TON of fun! It is very gratifying. And it really isn't that hard. Woodly Park provides a public Archery range for beginners on Wednesday nights 5:30pm-8:00pm and Saturday 8:30am-11:00am. Anyone can come and try for FREE on those days. We coach for free and allow you to use our equipment for free on those days. Who knows, you will probably even be coached by me!"
And budding starlet Yamileth Palacios is doing her best to break into the BIZ! Not only is Yamileth a former Navy member, discharged honorably from our nation's military service, but she also appeared on my friend "True Blood" star Alexander Skarsgard's "Battleship" film earlier in the spring. She so enjoyed the work, she's now enrolling in additional studies on the east coast to break into acting, and she's been bitten by the bug.
Yamileth asks our readers to vote for her, so that she has a chance to impress Tyler Perry for his next Madea movie. So check the video out and vote!
Written By: Tommy Lightfoot Garrett
Photographs are Courtesy: Brittney Bomann
Follow us on Twitter @HighlightHwd or @LightfootinHwd
