Mastering Archery: From Beginner to Competitor with Olympic Coach Jake Kaminsky

Archery is a sport of precision and mental focus that can benefit practitioners in many ways beyond just hitting targets. In this in-depth conversation, Olympic archery coach Jake Kaminsky shares his journey in the sport and provides valuable insights for archers of all levels.

Jake's Archery Background

Jake started archery at age 6 when his father won a bow at a raffle. He quickly fell in love with the sport:

"I vividly remember my very first arrow I ever shot because I literally shot an inside out X on my very first arrow. You should explain what that is. So inside out X meaning if you have your your 10 ring like the maximum scoring ring inside the 10 ring is a X ring. It's about the size it's like a between a dime and a nickel about that size. And inside out meaning I put the arrow in the dead center of the target where it did not touch the ring of the X. So it was inside of a dime roughly. My very first arrow."

This early success hooked Jake on archery. He joined a local Junior Olympic Archery Development (JOAD) club and began competing. Jake shot compound bows for about 6 years before switching to Olympic recurve at age 12.

Training with Coach Kik Soo Lee

In 2006, Jake moved to the Olympic Training Center to work with renowned coach Kik Soo Lee:

"KSL is Kik Lee, my coach, and he is the godfather of archery in Korea. Essentially, he essentially left Korea and went to Australia for a few years. What did he do in Korea? Oh, he was the national head coach of the Korean archery team and formulated the entire program that is the current Korean archery training regiment to develop archers."

Coach Lee completely overhauled Jake's technique just weeks before a major competition:

"To not exaggerate in the least, the only thing that was the same on my entire setup and in my entire shot process was my riser, the center part of the the bow that's made of aluminum that the limbs, the piece that bends snap into. The riser and my sight bar, which is the thing that moves the sight. So, my sight pin, my finger tab, my arrows, my fletchings, my string, my stabilizers, my entire shot process, how I stood, how I thought, what I told myself, everything had changed."

This drastic change initially tanked Jake's scores, but he trusted the process and it paid off years later.

Mental Preparation and Positive Affirmations

Jake credits positive affirmations as a key part of his mental preparation:

"I am an Olympian period. Okay. I'm not yet. I'm not using this the standard thing when I ask people so what do you want to be? I want to be an Olympian. Okay great. you're going to always want to be one. Let's change that thought to be I am an Olympian because then your habits change. And so my habits change to be more of an approach of looking at myself from an honest perspective of am I doing the right thing? Am I getting enough sleep? Am I strength training enough? Am I putting in enough effort? Am I being honest with myself?"

He recommends using present tense affirmations rather than future tense to shift your mindset and habits.

Competing at the 2012 Olympics

Jake and the US men's archery team faced high expectations at the 2012 London Olympics:

"The first question that we got asked as a team and the coach included coach Lee was, 'So how does it feel to be shooting for bronze tomorrow?' Because that's that's just the assumption. That is the assumption."

Despite the doubters, the US team's preparation and teamwork paid off:

"We genuinely trained every day once we selected the team leading up to that event as a team. Encouraging each other, learning each other's shot, not just learning each other's shot, but during this head-to-head match play, there's no time for equipment failures. So if your equipment breaks, you can't go fix it."

They ended up winning silver, narrowly losing the gold medal match.

Advice for Archers

Jake emphasizes several key points for archers looking to improve:

• Focus on proper follow-through: "Release is not a step anymore. We do not release the string. If you maintain and execute a good proper follow through, your release is good."

• Take detailed training notes: "I can't tell you how few do. And you're the only one that I've ever seen take a sufficient level of detail of notes on how the training session went, what you did, and how you ultimately felt."

• Shoot frequently rather than high volume: "It's not about how many arrows you do in one session. It's how many sessions in a week can you do?"

• Set a maximum arrow count, not a minimum: "If you're struggling, you've got to push towards that upper end of that limit. Because of you need to put in where I got into trouble was, let's just say I wanted to shoot 100 arrows as a minimum."

The Backyard Championship

Jake is launching a new virtual archery competition called the Backyard Championship:

"We're forming this thing that we're calling the Backyard Championships, which is essentially a digital tournament. We're going to have two events this year, an indoor event and an outdoor event. And essentially, you will with a honor code and a buddy system, hopefully submit your scores after you sign up for the actual event."

This allows archers to compete and compare scores globally without traveling to a major tournament. It's open to all bow types and skill levels.

Closing Thoughts

Jake encourages everyone to give archery a try:

"Archery is difficult. It's single-sided, rotational, and static. So, it's not exactly good for you. Yeah. I mean, it's great because it clears your mind. It's activity. You're you got something to focus on. Yeah. But, it can be a bit much for the body. So, taking care of yourself super important."

He recommends learning proper technique to avoid injury. Overall, archery can be a meditative and rewarding practice for people of all ages and backgrounds. As Jake says, "It's archery. Try it."

Article created from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frOb3N0Y8Yg&pp=ygULdGltIGZlcnJpc3M%3D