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The Tim Ferriss Show

#811: 2x Olympic Archery Medalist Jake Kaminski — Lessons Learned and Mantras Used After 1,000,000 Arrows

The Tim Ferriss Show

Tim Ferriss: Bestselling Author, Human Guinea Pig

Lifestyle Design, Business, The 4-hour Workweek, Productivity, Timothy Ferriss Show, Startups, Tim Ferris, Entrepreneurship, Longform Interviews, Tools Of Titans, Timothy Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show, Tim Ferriss

4.617.4K Ratings

🗓️ 14 May 2025

⏱️ 170 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hello, boys and girls, ladies and germs. This is Tim Ferriss. Welcome to another episode of the

0:04.2

Tim Ferriss show, where it is my job to deconstruct world-class performers, to tease out how they do

0:09.4

what they do, the routines, the belief structures, the training programs that you can apply to your

0:14.8

own life. And I say training programs because my guest today is one of the best teachers

0:18.7

and trainers I have found in the last several years

0:23.3

in any discipline whatsoever. His name is Jake Kaminsky. Jake Kaminsky is a two-time

0:28.9

Olympic silver medalist in archery and a longtime member of the U.S. archery team with more

0:33.9

than a decade of international competition experience. He is very well known for his

0:38.8

technical precision. He is meticulous with gear and tuning, also with biomechanics, his deep

0:46.5

knowledge of the sport. And with all of that, Jake helped lead the U.S. to Team Silver medals at

0:51.0

both the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Olympic Games. Since retiring from Olympic

0:57.3

competition, Jake has become a leading voice in the archery world through content creation,

1:01.9

product innovation, and educational events. He runs a successful YouTube channel, which is kind of

1:06.8

the de facto archery technical channel. People from all over the world, I've seen this over and over

1:12.6

again. He is like the Taylor Swift meets, you name it, Brad Pitt of the archery world when I've gone

1:20.2

to events with him because he was my coach and is my coach in archery. I had my first competition

1:26.4

end of January. We'll talk about that.

1:29.1

So he, in addition to that, writes training guides and develops high performance gear,

1:33.9

which he manufactures in Austria. It is as precise as you expect Jake Kaminsky to be under the

1:41.8

Kaminsky Archery brand. You can find him on YouTube, Jake Kaminsky, at Jake Kaminsky to be under the Kaminsky Archery brand. You can find him on YouTube,

1:45.8

Jake Kaminsky, at Jake Kaminsky Archery. Kaminsky is K-A-M-I-N-S-K-K-K-I. Website, Jakecom

1:53.2

and on Instagram and Facebook, Jake underscore Kaminsky on Instagram, Facebook, Kaminsky, Jake.

...

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