Set-Up Position with Jake Kaminski | Recurve Archery Form Series Episode 6 | NTS KSL BEST Method

You're watching the Jay Kaminsky YouTube channel. How's it going? My name is Jay Kaminsky. I'm a two-time Olympic silver medalist in the sport of archery and today I'm continuing this form series that I've been working on, but today we're going to be talking about this set up position. We've already talked about the set position before and now we're going to talk about the set up position. So how to move from set to set up, how to set our bow shoulder correctly, how to coil some more, the proper movements to make, how to set the barrel of the gun, and a few other things as well. Before I get fully into this, I've had a whole lot of questions about a lot of different stuff, both in the tuning side and in the form side. So I want to ask you guys, what do you want me to do with your questions? There are so many of them. Some of them are going to be addressed in a later episode. Some of them I may have not quite answered and you have further questions about the stuff that I've been working on. A lot of those I do type and reply on my own, but what I want to know is would you rather me just do a Q&A video where I have a list of questions and I respond to them on this video or would you prefer it in a live format where I did a YouTube live and did Q&A and have a series of questions ready to go and then you guys can chime in and ask as I'm going. I'm kind of new to the YouTube channel deal so I'm really trying to push it and I want to know what you have to say about that below. I'll have a question below that you can respond to and we can start a dialogue there. A quick little background in case you're new here. I shot archery full-time underneath Coach Kisik Lee when I lived at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California. I lived there for over six years and studied under him full-time and then I still shot another five six years after that. So I have a full decade of experience using Coach Lee's method and not only do I know how to do it I know why I'm doing every step as well and this entire video series which I will definitely link to below as well as I'll put it up top as well in a card to link to the rest of the series. But yeah we're going to get into it today. So back to the form series stuff we're going to talk about the setup position. So setup position is basically here right before you go to actually start pulling back but there's a lot of things that we need to talk about as we're going to go from the set position which is where we set our hook and grip our stance and our posture and then going from set to set up. So how do we make the move set to set up? In the simplest of forms all we're doing is lifting our arms up and getting into a position. At the top of set position right before we go to load we are setting the barrel of the gun. That's probably the most important step within set or the most important principle is to already set your alignment. I mentioned this in a previous episode about alignment or the barrel of the gun. The barrel of the gun is like it's a Coach Lee-ism. That's the thing that I call it the Coach Lee-ism. So his idea was if you have a pistol it's not a long-range weapon. You have a rifle that's a long-range weapon. More accurate at further distances. We shoot further distances. So the barrel of the gun is described as the center of this wrist to the center of this shoulder to the center of this shoulder. All three of those things should be in a perfectly straight line. So if my barrel of the gun or if I'm in alignment at full draw you can see from this wrist this shoulder and this shoulder it's a straight line. So it's bones stacking on top of each other. Remember I already explained the advantage of being in alignment compared to not being in alignment and the amount of strength that it requires to do both. So the whole idea in set position is to set this barrel of the gun these things to be in straight in a straight line. So that is my set position mainly there. There is where does your hand go relative to your face in space. How do you get there with this shoulder. How do you lift your arms and a whole lot of other things. So we're going to cover those individual steps to make sure that you get into the proper position and we're not changing anything that we're going to have to go back and readjust from that we've already set. In set position our shoulders are already down and relaxed. I've shown you how to get into the correct posture and I've already shown you how to breathe with your diaphragm independent of your rib cage to keep your chest down. So we also have to raise our arms independent of our rib cage as well. We can raise our arms independent of our shoulders. You do not have to raise your shoulder to raise your arm unless you're injured or very inflexible. So some people like myself I'm not as flexible as I could be and this is as far as I can raise my arm without raising my shoulder just a little bit. Some people have a bit more mobility in their shoulder joint. I just don't. So anyway to get from set to set up all you're doing is lifting your arms independent of your body. Another way to explain how to lift can be illustrated with a bow. So if I have my knocking point and my grip there are two spots on the bow it's very difficult to move them independent of each other vertically. So if you're raising the grip the knock is also raising as well because they're connected through the limbs and the string. The main driving force to go from set to set up when you're lifting your arms is the bow arm. If I just hold on to the string here and I'm not doing any lifting with this arm at all and I just lift with the bow the bow hand or the string hand follows the bow hand. Now my elbow is a little low it's not optimal so all I really need to do is add just a little bit of effort on the back half to raise my hand up or my arm up into position. So again when I'm lifting I'm lifting with the bow. This is the side that I lift with primarily and then this follows directly connected to the front half through the bow. There's been a couple of ways to explain how to lift. A way that really helps people in the beginning is doing what is referred to as a scooping motion. So it's almost like you're scooping something up when you're picking your bow arm up. So I'm not lifting my bow arm up because a lot of people in the beginning have a tendency to use their shoulder as the primary motion when they're lifting their bow arm. What you want to do is lift with your bow hand and a way that you can accentuate that is by scooping. You don't want to depress your shoulder and go down because then you're shifting everything. Your core has to be centrally located and stable in place and then just lift with your bow hand. At the same time we're lifting with our bow hand we are also rotating around with the back side. The back shoulder, the back draw arm, back elbow etc. So as I'm lifting with my bow arm my draw side is rotating around at the same time that this is lifting up. Another way I can illustrate what I'm doing with this back shoulder is I'm going from set position to set up position. Set position as I'm lifting I'm rotating to set up position. So if you are the target now set position lift and rotate set up position. That's all that I'm doing I'm just simply twisting my upper torso different from my hips. There was a question that surfaced about how to illustrate the coiling motion more. One way to show you is just that. If your hips stay wherever they are and then you just rotate your upper body you just turn back and forth while keeping your hips still. Another way to illustrate that coiling motion is to imagine your core being a towel. As you're lifting and turning you're coiling the towel so the hips will stay still and then your upper body rotates and that's where this coiling motion comes in. A kind of a reason why or a way to illustrate why that's beneficial is if I were to twist this towel up very tight and hold it now if I try to bend the towel either direction it's very stiff compared to when it's not coiled it can move all over the place. So the whole theory behind coiling or part of the reason of the theory behind it is to gain stability in your core and therefore the shot. So again the whole point of going from set to setup is the barrel of the gun. So the bow arm is going to be pointed at the target and then the shoulders have to come into alignment to mimic that line. So again all it is is I'm rotating here so I am engaging and pulling down on this side and I'm pulling back and around on this side so I'm using my back muscles on my draw side to pull my core around like the rhomboids the trap muscles that type of stuff. Now that I have my bow I will go from set to setup and you can see all I'm doing here watch me here I'm going from set to setup. So again without the bow set to setup set setup I add my arms from set to setup set to setup see the motion in here that's all it is. So not only are we just rotating but there is a balance of tension and direction remember equal and opposite we have to whatever we exert on the front we've got to exert on the back. So we're exerting forces by rotating on this back side what are we doing with our bow arm and our bow hand. A lot of people have asked about how to keep their bow shoulder down how to use the correct muscles and the bow shoulder to stabilize it how to make sure they're using lats and triceps and all that other stuff and I'm going to show you a very very very simple way to get into the optimal position to also help accentuate this rotational movement that we're using going from set to setup. Okay so now I'm going to show you the way to use the correct muscles in the bow shoulder. So when I reach the top of the top of the position at set not the actual position of setup but once I reach that topward motion I'm reaching towards the target all I'm doing is taking my hand my bow hand and I'm pushing it as far as I can towards the target. If I had a high bow shoulder look what it does to my hand it shortens it if I had improper alignment it shortens my draw length essentially so all I'm doing is instead of being in the improper position I'm just reaching as far as I can towards the target if I reach as far as I can I can touch this molding if my shoulder's high I can't reach it or out of alignment I can't reach it but if I reach towards the target and I'm not leaning towards the target I'm just reaching with my bow arm I can touch this molding so not only can I reach this but also it fires the correct muscles to stabilize the bow shoulder so if you do this along with me and you reach as far as you can towards the target the imaginary target I feel tension come from my lat wrap up and around my tricep and then go down my arm it's like this tension that builds and wraps around my arm and heads down my forearm towards my hand it's probably the nerves in your arm that you'll feel those that tingling or that little bit of tension and all that is is just reaching towards the target and you're firing your lat and your tricep more than enough there's really no other needed added muscle firing in order to do this and stabilize correctly it's all done automatically remember movements over muscles we've talked about this in the past I'll put a link in the description below as well as up at the top of the video here to show you again to re-illustrate the importance of movements over muscles if we're talking about muscles chances are you're going to over fire them and you're not going to do the movements correctly because if you're flexing the muscles instead of just doing the movements you're not going to be able to get into the correct position one of the questions I do also get asked too is how can we support you better or what can you guys do for me honestly the best thing that you could possibly do for me is just to share this video share it with your friends share it with your competitors share it with your coaches your shop owners etc you know the whole goal of this is I just really want to get more information out there um you know there's also some things on my website that you could purchase to support me I have a couple of books up there there is also seminars that we're hosting me and my wife around the world we're doing tuning seminars so not just bow tuning but form tuning body tuning so she handles a lot of the body stuff as far as like strength training warm-ups plan total encompassing plans to try to make you a better archer there's a couple of them that we've got coming up we have one coming up in London at the end of January and then we have one in Phoenix Arizona no Tucson Arizona that's uh coming up in a couple months right before outdoor season launches so if you guys are interested in those type of things check them out at my website there's a link below in the description and we really would appreciate uh these videos being shared out there to everybody also I have been working on a tuning book I do have a tuning app aptitude I'm I have all that stuff updated as well it's not pushed out yet because I'm still creating the content plus I'm writing uh more information as well as I've got a lot of pictures to take but keep an eye out I will be launching the the book on how to tune your bow and again that's the best way that you guys can support this channel and support me really nothing else better than sharing the information getting it out to more people because ultimately this information is for you guys so now that you know how to reach towards the target at the top we're going to talk about the exact movement to go from set to set up and when that reach happens and then also when the coiling and the rotation happens on this back side so when I go from set to set up you'll see there's a kind of a upward and then a pause in a downward motion so it's set move up set up so I come up to the top and then I relax down into it and it's an actual step I don't actually stop if you actually watch how I shoot as I'm moving through set to set up there's not really an a definitive step there in the beginning it is important to kind of have a what is most important about the setup position is a mental checklist to make sure did I keep my hook and grip correct am I still squeezing my finger spacer do I still have the tension in my bow arm that I did when I was in set position did I reach towards the target at the top did I rotate enough is my barrel of the gun set do I already feel like I'm in alignment those are a position because if you're not in the correct position chances are it's going to be very difficult to get into that position while you're pulling back getting to full draw so the whole point of setup is for me to be up reach rotate set my barrel of the gun okay now I'm ready to pull the bow back that's kind of the whole point of setup position what do we do with the draw side it's pretty much up to each individual person there's a couple of rules of thumb that I can give you specific to that would be the angle of this upper part your upper part of your arm relation to your shoulders so somewhere in the 90 degree range so in this area about 90 degrees from here to the tip of my elbow not too far forward because then it's very impossible very difficult to get into proper alignment with something so far forward plus you're closing off something called the subacromial space in your shoulder and that can lead to impingement issues tingling and numbness in the hands things like that that you really don't want so you want to get at least to 90 degrees if you need to come back a little bit more like I do that's totally acceptable so you'll see that my setup position is a little bit further back than 90 degrees a little further back the whole point that is because I can't handle going any further forward because I have impingement issues in my shoulders and inflammation issues and all sorts of stuff so I've just learned over time that I have to be a little bit further back when I'm in setup position so for me this wrist is right about chin location as far as front to back so if the target's this way if I'm in setup position you'll see that this wrist is right about where my chin is this direction so where do we need to be with our hand this way all that we need to do is make sure that our elbow is still behind the airline so if I'm in too close like this even with the wrist right about my chin you can see my elbows outside of the airline if I have my hand a little bit further out my elbow is behind the airline or in line with it so there's really not a specific spot that your hand has to be somewhere in here it's just your wrist somewhere about your front of your chin a little bit away from your face you are not putting the string in front of you so you're not looking at the string yet the string is still outside of center you're not worried about aiming yet none of those things matter all we're worried about is getting our body into the correct position first before we start pulling the bow back some things which are not correct in regards to the movement from set to setup is the candy cane thing there's I don't know where this came from uh it's one of those misinterpretations of the proper movement you don't see people at a high level bringing their hands up and then as they're pulling back rotating a whole lot into it so they're not doing this big movement with their arm this is something that is somewhat popular or used to be in the uh you know the junior-ish division where they raise the bow up and they do this where they're going way in front of the other person and then coming back to another position at full draw totally incorrect in a way it is correct but the implementation of it is 100 incorrect if you look at my torso rotation and bow arm relationship as I go from set to set up so set to set up that set up you'll see that my bow hand moves perfectly vertically from set to set up and then even through loading anchor transfer release and follow through it's a vertical line for my bow hand but if you look at how my bow arm moves in relation to my torso it does move from set to set up so from set to set up this is happening so yeah as I'm lifting my bow hand is in front of my body and then as this is totally exaggerated by the way and as I reach the top and I start to relax down I rotate my torso so yeah my bow arm does move this way but it does not my bow hand does not move like this in space my bow arm relative to my torso does this motion so set to set up set set up that's all it is hand moves straight up you rotate your upper body I already mentioned to not aim at this point which is correct your sight should be somewhere towards your target aiming doesn't happen until after transfer as we've already discussed but my stabilizer and my arrow are pointed to the left of the target I'm a right handed shooter so I'll demonstrate for you and set up position if you are the target that I'm focused at where is my arrow in relation to you this is my actual position it's pointed to the left of you it probably looks to the right of you on your computer screen but it's for me it's pointing to the left of the camera in set position my arrow is pointed to the left of the target in set up position my arrow is still pointed to the left of the target and that does not change until I go to start loading and pulling back the bow another thing that we need to cover which I'm going to cover in another episode probably the next episode after this I'm going to cover my breathing cycle when do I breathe in and out throughout the shot I'm not just breathing in and holding it unlike a lot of people think that you should be but when I'm moving from set to set up when I reach the apex and I settle down that's settling down I'm actually breathing out so that's I'm helping facilitate this the lowering and dropping of my shoulders I'm not dropping my rib cage anymore because I'm keeping that down already but it's just it helps me settle down just a little bit more when I breathe out once I reach the apex of that movement from set to set up and then I settle down into the setup position and then the next step would be loading where I go right into pulling the bow back so that about covers the movement from set to set up and all the little details in between if there's anything that I missed or any questions that you have don't hesitate to comment below I appreciate you guys sticking it out watching this video again the best thing that you can do is to share this video or head to jakominski.com and check out the stuff that is on there keep an eye out for the tuning book to come out or be pre-released and thank you again and thanks for watching be sure to subscribe and hit that notification bell so you get notified every time a new video is uploaded for seminar and book info head to jakominski.com or click on the link below and yeah I appreciate you guys watching if you would please share this video it really helped get the word back out that I am back out there thanks again take care