2x Olympic Archery Medalist Jake Kaminski — Coaching Tim and Excellence Under Pressure

Here are the top 10 insights from Olympic archer Jake Kaminski's conversation with Tim Ferriss about mastering archery and performing under pressure.

1. Archery as meditation

Archery serves as a powerful form of meditation for both Jake Kaminski and Tim Ferriss. When shooting, you can only focus on archery because thinking about anything else causes scores to drop and groups to open up. This creates an immediate feedback loop that keeps your mind present and engaged in the moment.

For Jake, archery became a place to escape to mentally. It naturally worked as a meditative practice because it forced him to focus solely on himself, the bow, and the arrow. Tim similarly found archery to be a godsend, providing a constant mental refuge during challenging periods, including family medical issues. The practice gave him a regular opportunity to quiet his "monkey mind" for an hour or two.

2. Making training deliberately difficult

Jake intentionally made his training conditions more challenging than competition to better prepare himself mentally. He would choose the lane nearest to a wall to have the least amount of space, similar to the limited 24-inch space competitors get during tournaments. This approach created resilience and adaptability.

His early mentor even used unconventional methods like throwing metal ashtrays when Jake was at full draw to test his composure. For targeting issues like dropping his bow arm, his coach would place a pocket knife under his arm as incentive to maintain proper form. The philosophy was clear: "Train hard to make competition easy" – a variation of "the more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in combat."

Training in challenging environments like rain, wind, heat, and crowded conditions prepared Jake for any tournament scenario. This deliberate discomfort in practice created comfort during high-pressure competitive moments.

3. The power of present-tense affirmations

Jake attributed much of his success to using powerful present-tense affirmations that changed both his mindset and habits. During a difficult period rebuilding his technique, he used the mantra "I am an Olympic champion" rather than "I want to be an Olympic champion." This subtle shift transformed his approach to training.

The affirmation "I am" is tattooed on Jake's bow hand where he checks it with every shot. This forced him to approach training from the stance that he had already arrived at his goal, driving him to train like the champion he wanted to become. It led to honest self-assessment: "Am I getting enough sleep? Am I strength training enough? Am I putting in enough effort?" Jake noted that future-tense affirmations simply reinforce wanting something, while present-tense affirmations embody already being what you aspire to be.

Tim also found success with this approach, experiencing his best shooting day after adopting the affirmation "I am a top Lancaster competitor." Jake emphasized that shooting from the position of "I have arrived" allows everything else to click into place.

4. Meticulous note-taking and training logs

Detailed documentation proved crucial for consistent performance improvement. Tim kept extensive training logs that tracked not just what happened during practice but also time of day, last meal, equipment adjustments, and physical responses. This allowed him to identify patterns that would otherwise remain invisible.

For example, Tim discovered that physical issues often stemmed from training sessions five days earlier, not just the previous session. Without detailed logs, these connections would be impossible to make. Jake emphasized that this level of detailed record-keeping is rare, even among serious archers, yet it's essential for replicating successful performances.

During each training session, Tim would review previous notes and then document key takeaways in the bottom right corner of each page for the next session. This created a continuous improvement cycle and eliminated wasted time figuring out where to pick up in the next practice.

5. Standardizing variables for competition success

Success in high-level competition requires standardizing as many variables as possible. Tim and Jake paid careful attention to nutrition, sleep, equipment, and practice routines to eliminate unnecessary decision fatigue and logistical challenges during competition.

Tim developed a competition nutrition strategy using easily accessible foods that could be found at any convenience store or gas station. He determined exact timing for supplements like glutamine for muscle recovery and electrolyte drinks for mental performance. This standardization extended to sleeping arrangements (ordering a mattress topper for an uncomfortable hotel bed) and venue familiarity (arriving 10-12 days early to learn bathroom locations and timing).

Jake emphasized the importance of maintaining your normal routines during competition rather than making sudden changes. He advised against cleaning up your diet or changing habits just before a tournament, noting "if you're eating Cheetos at home, as much as you shouldn't be, you should probably just do it at the tournament" to avoid withdrawal effects or disrupting established patterns.

6. Blank bail practice for technical foundations

Blank bail practice emerged as a foundational training method for developing proper archery technique. This involves shooting at a target with no aiming point from very close range (about 8 feet), removing the distraction of aiming and allowing complete focus on form and biomechanics.

Starting and ending training sessions with blank bail practice served multiple purposes. It worked as a palate cleanser, allowing archers to ingrain proper technique through repetition without the mental pressure of scoring. For Tim, it provided an opportunity to work on specific technical elements like back tension or bow hand position while settling his mind after intense scoring practice.

This approach also increased training efficiency by eliminating walking time to distant targets. Jake emphasized that more blank bail practice is generally better because it allows archers to focus entirely on process and technique, creating automatic movements that become second nature during high-pressure situations.

7. Simulating competition conditions

A critical element of Tim's preparation strategy involved participating in mock tournaments and league nights to experience competition conditions before the main event. These test events revealed crucial issues that would have been catastrophic if discovered during the actual competition.

During one mock tournament, Tim discovered his arrows were landing erratically due to lighting conditions and a black background that made it difficult to see his arrow tip. The test event also uncovered equipment issues with his arrow rest not dropping consistently with his heavier competition arrows. These discoveries allowed for technical adjustments before Lancaster.

Tim also deliberately practiced in crowded conditions, sometimes standing directly in front of left-handed archers to simulate the tight spacing of competition lines. He used a timer to practice under the same time constraints (two minutes for three arrows) that would be enforced during the tournament. With each mock tournament, his scores improved as he adapted to the conditions.

8. The principle of follow-through in archery

Follow-through emerged as a critical technical concept in archery performance. Jake explained that what happens after releasing the string reveals everything about the tension built in the system at full draw. A proper follow-through maintains the same tension and direction after release as before it.

Jake compared this to other sports like baseball, soccer, or golf, where no athlete stops their motion at the moment of contact. In archery, the follow-through involves maintaining tension in the back while the string hand continues its backwards motion along the neck. This continuous motion helps ensure consistency and accuracy.

Coach Lee even told Jake that "release is not a step anymore" because if you execute a proper follow-through, the release takes care of itself. Follow-through becomes a reaction rather than an action, revealing whether the archer had proper tension at full draw. This principle became central to Tim's training, focusing on maintaining consistent tension throughout the entire shot cycle.

9. The welcoming nature of archery communities

Both Tim and Jake emphasized how surprisingly welcoming archery communities are to newcomers. Despite different personalities across disciplines (Olympic recurve, compound, barebow, horsebow), the overall community is incredibly supportive and accepting of diversity.

Tim described archery ranges as "weirdo Palooza" in the best possible way, noting that you might see "some dude in a kilt" next to "some emo chick with a mohawk" next to a "died in the wool hunter from Montana," all shooting together without judgment. This inclusive environment makes it easier for beginners to get started and feel comfortable asking questions.

Jake attributed part of his early success to finding acceptance in the archery community that he hadn't experienced elsewhere. As a socially awkward kid who didn't mesh well with others in school, he found that at the archery range, "everybody's as interesting and different and awkward and normal and talented and just human." This welcoming atmosphere supercharged his desire to pursue archery.

10. Sustained effort over time

The podcast highlighted that excellence in archery requires sustained effort over an extended period. When investigating top performers at Lancaster, Tim discovered that many had been shooting hundreds of arrows daily for years, illustrating the massive volume of practice required for mastery.

Jake revealed he had shot well over a million arrows with the same technique and thought process. When Tim asked young Korean-American archers at the tournament about their training, he learned they practiced six days a week, shooting 200-300 arrows daily for five years. This explains their exceptional performance despite being only 13-14 years old.

Jake emphasized that you don't just "get" expertise – you have to create deep neural pathways through thousands of repetitions. Tim noted that although he'd trained intensively for six months, this couldn't compare to years of consistent practice. The key wasn't just volume but consistency, with Jake suggesting that shooting more frequently (daily) is more important than shooting more arrows in a single session.