The Journey Begins: Archery and Its Meditative Qualities

Jake Kaminski is a two-time Olympic silver medalist in archery and a longtime member of the US Archery Team. He runs a successful YouTube channel, writes training guides, and develops high-performance gear under the Kaminski Archery brand. Sign up for the Kaminski Archery Backyard Championship here.

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Timestamps:

[00:00:00] Start.

[00:06:50] A glimpse into the high-precision world of Olympic archery.

[00:11:04] How Jake and I connected.

[00:18:27] Jake’s auspicious introduction to archery.

[00:21:15] Why you (Yes! You!) should try archery.

[00:22:01] The differences between bows.

[00:25:19] The admirable proficiency of Shot IQ’s Bodie and Joel Turner.

[00:26:24] Ethical bow hunting, performing under pressure, and transitioning from rifle to bow.

[00:29:22] Why I wouldn’t have cut it as a competitive archer in Korea.

[00:30:14] Mindful archery and training hard to make competition easy.

[00:37:00] What Jake did when compound bow archery started to get boring.

[00:40:00] Meeting legendary Coach Kisik Lee (KSL).

[00:43:06] The upsides of having no social life as a kid.

[00:45:20] The welcoming weirdness of archery communities.

[00:46:33] For the sake of form, Coach Lee shakes things up.

[00:51:21] “I am.” — an affirmation for apathy adjustment.

[00:58:11] London, 2012 Olypmics: when it all starts coming together.

[01:08:28] How does teamwork play out in archery?

[01:15:40] My own experience with Coach Lee.

[01:19:23] The trials of training and traveling.

[01:27:33] Blank bale practice.

[01:31:14] Layering, biomechanics, and other early points of focus.

[01:33:03] The underrated importance of follow through.

[01:36:40] Coach Lee’s take on follow through vs. release.

[01:37:29] Gauging tension and intention as an instructor.

[01:38:52] Attention to grouping over hitting the bullseye.

[01:40:57] Making adaptations for physical limitations.

[01:43:30] The ups and downs of our patented “Jesus take the wheel” instinctive approach.

[01:46:24] Warm-up tournaments, barebowing, black bales, and string walking.

[01:50:54] Recovering from the disaster that made me rethink Lancaster.

[01:55:15] Rebalancing gear: arrows and arrow rests.

[02:00:50] The importance of practicing in tournament-like conditions.

[02:04:03] Securing convenient fuel.

[02:08:17] Lancaster preparation logistics (with special thanks to Heather Kaminski and Rick Simpson Oil).

[02:13:17] The glue that holds us together: note-taking and training logs.

[02:16:47] Even counterintuitive consistency is key.

[02:18:45] Our experience at Lancaster.

[02:28:00] “The goal is to do the least necessary, not the most possible.” — Henk Kraaijenhof

[02:31:44] Learning by observation and conversation on the practice range.

[02:35:35] What’s the Kaminski Archery Backyard Championship, and why should you get involved?

[02:40:30] How can you (and why should you) get started with archery today?

[02:42:48] Parting thoughts.

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Past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show include Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh Jackman, Dr. Jane Goodall, LeBron James, Kevin Hart, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jamie Foxx, Matthew McConaughey, Esther Perel, Elizabeth Gilbert, Terry Crews, Sia, Yuval Noah Harari, Malcolm Gladwell, Madeleine Albright, Cheryl Strayed, Jim Collins, Mary Karr, Maria Popova, Sam Harris, Michael Phelps, Bob Iger, Edward Norton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Neil Strauss, Ken Burns, Maria Sharapova, Marc Andreessen, Neil Gaiman, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Jocko Willink, Daniel Ek, Kelly Slater, Dr. Peter Attia, Seth Godin, Howard Marks, Dr. Brené Brown, Eric Schmidt, Michael Lewis, Joe Gebbia, Michael Pollan, Dr. Jordan Peterson, Vince Vaughn, Brian Koppelman, Ramit Sethi, Dax Shepard, Tony Robbins, Jim Dethmer, Dan Harris, Ray Dalio, Naval Ravikant, Vitalik Buterin, Elizabeth Lesser, Amanda Palmer, Katie Haun, Sir Richard Branson, Chuck Palahniuk, Arianna Huffington, Reid Hoffman, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Rick Rubin, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Darren Aronofsky, Margaret Atwood, Mark Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel, Dr. Gabor Maté, Anne Lamott, Sarah Silverman, Dr. Andrew Huberman, and many more.

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