Archery Lab - Journal (CUPID'S GATE ARCHERY)

Archery Lab - Journal

Archery Lab

Cupid's Gate Archery Shooting Staff Journal

An Interview with Olympic Hopeful Jake Kaminski

by

Doug Stephens

01/27/2010

CG: - What prompted you to get into archery?

JAKE: - I grew up in a small town that had volunteer fire departments where the people would volunteer their time to help keep everyone safe. My dad was chief of the fire department. He ran the gun Raffles where you would buy raffle tickets for guns. I saw they had a bow and had my dad buy some tickets; we ended up winning the 70 lb compound hunting bow, which was much too big for me to use as I was only 6 years old. We went to Wal-Mart and picked up a bear compound and a couple of hay bales for me to shoot into. I remember my bigger brother pacing off 20 yards for me to shoot. I specifically remember my first shot being a perfect shot, inside our X on the target. I will never forget that. I later learned there was a JOAD program at a local range less then 5 minutes from my house.

CG: - What made you stay in archery?

JAKE: - Actually my mom didn’t let me quit archery to just play baseball when I was 12. Soon after, I injured my shoulder playing baseball while stealing home, hyper-extending my bow shoulder. I was out from shooting for a few months not being able to lift the bow. I ended up winning nationals soon after for archery and just starting to try out for the state team for baseball; at that point it was an easy decision.

CG: - Have you always shot Olympic style?

JAKE: - I started with a compound and shot with that for 9 years until switching around 2003.

CG: - Why did you switch from compound to Olympic style?

JAKE: - I tried out recurve to try out for the 2003 Empire State Games. I ended up making the team with a 1970's sky medalist from my JOAD club. I ended up taking a silver for individual and a gold for team. I didn't admit I switched to recurve until almost a year later.

CG: - What is your muscle conditioning routine?

JAKE: - I workout 3 days a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I do a specific program, lots of core and upper body.

CG: - Specifically, what exercises do you work on to keep your body in top form?

JAKE: - For strength and conditioning I work on dead lifts, squats for legs. Bench press, dumbbell rows, reverse flys for upper body. Crunches, Russian twists, back extensions, alternating superman, and planks for core. I do cardio after weights to flush out my muscles with fresh blood so I am not sore the next day. If you need to know what exactly those exercises are you can type those in google and get some animated demos to see how it's done.

CG: - How many days per week do you shoot?

JAKE: - 6 days a week, Sunday off.

CG: - How many arrows do you shoot at one practice session?

JAKE: - When I am healthy around 230+ . I have a few shoulder problems that I am recovering from, I hope to be over 300 soon.

CG: - Do you compete in FITA competitions?

JAKE: - Of course. My current Personal Best is a 1320 shot at this year's world team trials.

CG: - What is your favorite distance?

JAKE: - I really don’t have a favorite distance, I have favorite parts about a distance but I think I am a well rounded shooter.

CG: - How many competitions will you attend this year?

JAKE: - I plan on at least 17 national and international shoots. I am sure I will attend some other shoots as they come up.

CG: - Will you be going to any Northern California competitions this year?

JAKE: - I do not know at this point in time. It depends what comes up.

CG: - If you had to teach some young folks about archery what would you tell them?

JAKE: - I would tell them to keep the fun in it. Never forget why you first started shooting and try to keep that as motivation to keep pressing on. Always look around at the best shooters and see what they are doing. There is a reason they are good and have done lots of trial and error to get there; I’m talking about the Olympic caliber athletes, not your local champions. They are good and I mean no disrespect, but there is a difference between the best in your state and the best in the world. Learn from everyone you can.

For more news on Jake and his archery career be sure to visit Jake Kaminski's Offical Web Site .
For more shooting form videos on Jake, please visit Jake Kaminski's YouTube Channel .
If you would like to help Jake making his well deserved Olympic dream comes true, please contact Jake.Kaminski@gmail.com .

Update (02/23/2010): Jake Kaminski is the new champion of the 2010 World Archery Festival & Vegas Shoot - Male Recurve Limited Championship.

Article on Jake Kaminski's first major championship victory

Classic Limited Male Championship - 2010
Place Name Location Day 1 Score Day 1 X's Day 2 Score Day 2 X's Day 3 Score Day 3 X's Total Score Total X's Money Won
1 Kaminski, Jake CA, USA 298 19 295 12 292 13 885 44 $ 1800
2 Duenas, Crispin ON, Canada 294 16 295 15 294 15 883 46 $ 900
3 WUNDERLE, VIC NC, USA 290 13 296 12 294 11 880 36 $ 650
4 ELLISON, BRADY AZ, USA 290 12 291 14 298 22 879 48 $ 450
5 Frangilli, Michele VA, ITALY 291 15 295 13 293 13 879 41 $ 360
6 McGlyn, Joseph NY, USA 294 14 292 12 289 9 875 35 $ 310
7 Johnson, Richard CT, USA 295 14 289 10 291 9 875 33 $ 260
8 Lyon, Jay MB, Canada 287 16 293 8 293 9 873 33 $ 225
9 ZUMBO, MATTHEW CA, USA 289 8 291 11 292 11 872 30 $ 0
10 Aubert, Thomas FR, France 289 8 287 9 290 10 866 27 $ 0
11 VALLADONT, JEAN CHARLES FR, FRANCE 292 8 288 11 285 11 865 30 $ 0
12 Anderson, Jeff WA, USA 288 10 289 7 288 12 865 29 $ 0
13 STANWOOD, THOMAS MA, USA 290 10 284 7 286 9 860 26 $ 0
14 Kale, Nick CA, USA 287 4 288 6 283 10 858 20 $ 0
15 Needham, Simon an, Scotland 279 8 288 4 287 5 854 17 $ 0
16 DE GRANDIS, JOCELYN FR, FRANCE 285 11 282 6 286 1 853 18 $ 0
17 Meinig, Robin Sa, Germany 279 6 292 9 275 6 846 21 $ 0
18 Barrs, Jay UT, USA 281 11 286 8 276 5 843 24 $ 0
19 Rabska, Don CA, USA 279 4 278 6 284 8 841 18 $ 0
20 Schardt, Tyler CA, USA 283 9 287 10 270 5 840 24 $ 0
21 SMITH, JOSH CA, USA 279 9 278 6 281 10 838 25 $ 0
22 Peart, Michael Su, UK 280 8 273 6 284 8 837 22 $ 0
23 smith, neil es, England 273 4 280 5 269 3 822 12 $ 0
24 HOLGADO, JUAN CARLOS SWITZERLAND 271 7 260 2 274 4 805 13 $ 0
25 Denton, Douglas UT, USA 270 2 270 7 264 7 804 16 $ 0
26 Lizzio, Al NY, USA 267 5 270 6 263 6 800 17 $ 0
27 Eliason, Ed UT, USA 267 3 264 2 267 6 798 11 $ 0
28 Webster, Chris AZ, USA 267 9 272 3 248 4 787 16 $ 0
29 Heilandt, Matt FL, USA 241 0 262 1 265 2 768 3 $ 0
30 PERRY, BRYAN NC, USA 237 4 259 4 251 1 747 9 $ 0
31 DIELEN, Tom SWITZERLAND 249 3 246 2 248 4 743 9 $ 0
32 Kronengold, David AZ, USA 245 0 241 1 249 1 735 2 $ 0

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How Painful Should Archery Be?

by

Doug Stephens

12/19/2009

We know how painful wrist-slap can be, and we understand that many shooters - particularly new shooters - struggle to find a way to cope with being popped on the arm by a string that's moving over 200 mph. For anyone who has ever "felt the burn", this section may help.

Watch the slow-motion video above and pay special attention to the behavior of the string.  When the bow is fired, the string carries forward but doesn't stop upon reaching the center (resting position).  The string actually carries well forward of center.  In fact, on some bows the string can carry forward enough to actually hit the arrow rest.  If the string carries forward enough, it can make contact with your lower wrist.  Some shooters refer to this as being "kissed" on the wrist.  Short brace height bows and bows with metal release loops (Tru-Nocks, Ultra-Nocks, etc.) are particularly prone to wrist-kissing.

But that's not the end of it.  If your wrist is spared the initial forward string thrust, your forearm may not avoid the string's oscillation after the shot.  Upon reaching it's forward apogee, the string begins a cycle of oscillation -  first just moving back and forth.  But as the oscillation continues, the back and forth motion morphs into a round-and-round motion (like a jump-rope).  This causes the string to effectively "get wider", allowing it to reach out and bite.  Notice that this shooter dodges contact until the string oscillation morphs.  Ouch!

So what do you do about it?  Basic common sense applies here.  If you don't want to be popped by the string, you must do one of three things:  (1) get your arm out of the way, (2) protect your arm with an armguard, (3) or stop the string oscillation.  So let's consider the options.

Get Out of the Way:  If your bow fits you properly AND you shoot with proper form (stance, posture, arm & grip position, etc.) you'll be in a position where your forearm is naturally out of the path of the string.  Notice that the shooter in the video has a relatively hyper-extended elbow and a flat grip position that puts his arm within a hair of the string path.  So he earns his bruise honestly via poor form, as many new shooters do.  Fortunately, pain often accelerates the learning curve.  This is why most experienced archers rarely get "popped" by their bows.  Of course, that's no consolation to a beginner with a purple arm.  So......enter the dreaded armguard.

Protect with an Armguard:  There is certainly no shame in taking the band-aid approach to eliminating painful string slap.  An armguard is a simple yet effective device that puts a rugged piece of material between your skin and the string.  So the string can "pop" the armguard all it wants and you'll never feel a thing.  Sound good?  Well, not so fast.  Armguards aren't a cure.  In fact, they have some serious drawbacks.  First, the impact between your armguard and your string will certainly chew-up your string over time.  You can always tell the armguard shooters by the fuzzy fibers on their bow strings just below the nocking point.  Some rough-texture armguards will actually damage a string to the point of total failure.  So based just on that alone, an armguard should be considered a short-term solution at best.  In addition, allowing your string to pop into an armguard may also cause arrow flight disruptions and add noise to your shot.

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Shot Sequence

by

Doug Stephens

11/12/2009

Of the many things that must be remembered when shooting is the shot sequence. What steps do we go through to make a successful shot? Some people have five steps or less:

(1) Nock arrow to string;
(2) Draw;
(3) Anchor;
(4) Aim;
(5) Release.

Others have many more, myself included:

(1) Set stance;
(2) Nock arrow to string;
(3) Hook up (I shoot with a compound mechanical release so finger shooters might call this step something else);
(4) Set my bow hand grip;
(5) Pre-draw;
(6) Draw to anchor;
(7) Is everything alright so far (if not, don't take the shot and let down)?;
(8) Pre aim;
(9) Start back tension (I shoot a compound bow so recurve shooter might start back tension from the very beginning of the drawing process);
(10) Focus on the center of the target (not the center of the sight) for about 3 - 4 seconds;
(11) Subconsciously release via back tension;
(12) Follow through.

If you make yourself a sequence and follow it you will be amazed that focusing on the “X” and subconsciously releasing with the back muscles will put that arrow in
the 10 ring most every time.

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Cupid's Gate Archery Junior Olympic Archery Development (JOAD) - San Francisco & Marin County

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