Lessons Learned and Mantras Used After 1,000,000 Arrows — Olympic Archery Medalist Jake Kaminski

Jake Kaminsky joins Tim Ferriss for a deep dive into Olympic recurve archery and the broader principles of high performance. Jake traces his path from a $5-raffle bow at age six in small-town New York to the U.S. training center under legendary Korean coach Kim Hyung-tak (KSL), who rebuilt his entire form two weeks before Junior Worlds. He explains how positive present-tense affirmations and team intimacy carried the 2012 U.S. men's team to a silver medal against dominant Korea. The back half covers Jake coaching Tim for the Lancaster Classic in the Barebow division, including blank-bale practice, working around Tim's shoulder injuries, equipment trade-offs, and obsessive competition-condition rehearsal and logistics.

• Jake has hit the 10 ring (CD-sized, 12.2 cm) from 70 meters while standing on an Indo balance board, calling it an 'extra planetary accomplishment.'
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• Two weeks before Junior World Championships, Coach Lee changed nearly everything about Jake's form and equipment, dropping his scores to the worst of his life because he was 'embarrassed' to bring that technique to worlds.
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• It took Jake three to four years to rebuild back to his previous score level, while his teammate Dan Schuler did it in roughly three months.
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• When asked 'how does it feel to be shooting for bronze tomorrow,' the U.S. men were actually ranked number one in the world as a team and had beaten Korea on the World Cup circuit.
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• Coach Lee dismissed backup bows as pointless, so the 2012 team shot each other's primary bows as backups, learning exactly how high or low to aim with a teammate's setup.
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• At London, Coach Lee wore shorts so he could feel the wind on his leg hair and tell the team where to aim, since the wind sock was relocated for not being 'anointed by the queen' at Lord's Cricket Ground.
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• After Tim's instinctive 'Jesus take the wheel' aiming collapsed under variable lighting at mock tournaments, they started actual aiming only two weeks before Lancaster, and it finally worked.
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• Switching to the maximum-diameter RX7 arrows broke Tim's drop-away rest (it stopped falling on roughly one in four shots), throwing impact off by six inches at 20 yards.
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• The 10 ring is 12.2 cm (about the size of a CD), and the arrow-tip margin of error to hit it repeatedly is smaller than the rolling ball point of an extra-fine ballpoint pen.
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• The Olympic distance is 70 meters (about 237 feet), shot with zero magnification and no rear sight, the arrow arcing 12 to 13 feet into the air.
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• Jake's father won a hunting bow in a fire-department gun raffle; Jake shot an 'inside-out X' (dead center, untouched line) with his very first arrow at age six.
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• Coach Lee (KSL / Kim Hyung-tak) was Korea's national head coach and built their archery program; a limo would automatically appear whenever the team flew to Korea due to his celebrity status.
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• With the exception of the Korean men, the Korean women have not lost an Olympic gold medal, individual or team, in roughly 28 years.
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• The 2012 U.S.-vs-Korea semifinal had the highest viewership of any sport at the London Olympics and was widely called the real gold medal match.
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• A statistical study found that at the 270-280 score range, switching to maximum-diameter arrows adds roughly 8-plus points every 30 shots, though it makes no difference at elite near-perfect levels.
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• In Barebow, archers 'string walk,' moving fingers down the string with sub-millimeter precision using laser-etched marks on the finger tab to adjust arrow trajectory without a sight.
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• Tim and Jake arrived at Lancaster 10 to 12 days early to dial in sleep, food, lighting, and even scout the least-crowded bathrooms, versus pros who may land the night before.
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• Jake's early mentor Harry Stabel threw metal ashtrays during his full draw and taped thumbtacks to the bow grip to break bad habits, Mr. Miyagi style.
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