Now, when viewing a pair, whether it’s a report or a true pair, if you’re trying to get sharp focus on each bird, you’re not going to be as aware of the trajectory of the bird. When you’re viewing a pair, you aren’t looking for laser focus. What you’re looking for is the relationship between the target with respect to speed and line. If it’s a true pair, you want to know which bird is the bottom bird, which bird is the fast bird, and which bird is going away from you so you know which bird to take first. And the most important part of this picture is not where they’re coming from.

The most important part of the picture is where they’re landing. You know where they’re coming from before you call “pull” because you can ask the puller that. But if you know where they’re landing, if you watch it all the way to the ground, you will all of a sudden begin to see where the speed drops off, you will see where they slow down, where it’s easier to hit them. Also, it tells you when a bird is transitioning from, say, a crossing bird to quartering away from you. It helps you read those targets, and it helps you make your plan much better. Where they land is a crucial thing.

The specific entry point into your field of vision is very important, especially with targets that emerge from trees. Like the U.S. Open this year. I would say probably 80 percent of the targets we shot came off a trap that was back behind trees. Before you shoot, it’s important to position yourself behind the shooter in the cage in front of you, so your eyes are on the same plane that his are on when he’s looking for the target. You want to know exactly what branch that target comes out from behind. Especially when the trap is back in the woods, if you can hear the trap before you see the bird and you don’t know exactly where that target’s coming out, your eyes will begin to wander when you hear the trap and don’t see the bird. More often than not, you’re going to be behind the target. When shooting targets that are emerging from trees, the entry point is very, very critical.

Commitment to the Breakpoint

Gil: Now, if you’re the first up, and you’re going to view the pair, it’s important to ask the trapper politely, “Are these normal size targets?” If they are, ask if it’s a true pair or a report pair. Ask him, he’ll tell you.

If you have not seen the pair thrown, ask him where the trap is throwing from and where the birds are landing. He’s not going to give you perfect advice, but at least you’ll have some feel for what to look for when the target is launched. He won’t tell you everything, and he won’t volunteer information; you’ve got to ask him.

Look for speed relationship and line relationship when viewing the look pair. If you know where they came from and where they landed, I gotta believe you should be able to play back that scene in your head and be able to make a plan. Now, when you make your plan, it is basically a breakpoint, and it’s a commitment to the breakpoint.

Don — the commitment to the breakpoint — what did that do for you?

Don: It was good for about 7 or 8 targets.

Gil: On your average?

Don: On the average.

Gil: Why do you think that was so good for you?

Don: Well, I mentioned to Gil, I’ve been shooting for 10 years and certainly have always understood the concept of a breakpoint, and it’s part of my setup. But I really finally realized after a lesson this spring with you, I was making a positive commitment to pull the trigger when the target gets to the breakpoint or the break zone, as opposed to just making that last-second measurement to make sure the lead is right when it’s in the break zone.

Gil had a group of us do an exercise shooting rabbits between two stone pylons. You had asked us to break it between the two. Consistently, people were shooting it at the last minute, but never quite as soon as you had asked. It just dawned on me that the only way to do that was to just plan on pulling the trigger, period, when it was time to pull it in that zone. And the targets were breaking, and I began to apply that to everything. Once I had determined where I wanted the breakpoint, come hell or high water, I’d pull the trigger when the target was moving in that direction and I felt the lead was correct. Felt, as opposed to saw.

Gil: And more often than not, the targets broke.

Don: Most definitely.

Gil: And would it be fair to say that because of that commitment you stopped checking the barrel so much?

Don: Most definitely. And it was frightening to realize how many times I thought I was not measuring when in fact there was just that fractional second when I made double sure.

Gil: (laughs) Separating the perception from the reality. Okay. Good. And like Don said, it’s not just picking the right breakpoint, it’s committing to that breakpoint. I will tell you, I don’t care how good or bad you are, if there is any indecision at this point in your plan, it will cost you four out of ten birds on every ten-bird stand you shoot. Right or  wrong, Don?

Don: Most definitely right.

Gil: It will cost you four birds. If you make the commitment, it will get you three of those four birds on average. Would you not agree with that?

Don: In my case, even more. I was so thrilled.

Gil: Boy, it really makes the voice get quiet, doesn’t it?

Don: That’s a perfect way to put it. It quiets the  voice.

Gil: The voice is tied up in the breakpoint. For those of you out there who haven’t done a lot of work with the voice: the voice of conscious doubt is what we’re talking about. It doesn’t matter what level you are, the voice of conscious doubt comes in many faces. You’re going to hear that voice in every level you get to. It doesn’t matter whether you’re shooting 92s and 93s and 95s, or whether you’re shooting 65s. He’s gonna be there. The progression to the next level is about controlling that voice.

So it’s important to be decisive, and being decisive with the breakpoint is really more important than being correct with the breakpoint. Because if you’re decisive with it, and you’re wrong, it’s very obvious that it is the wrong place. If not, it’s not as obvious. It’s the commitment to go ahead, and when the target gets there, pull the bloody trigger. If the plan’s right, duplicate it; if not, change it.    But again, if you’re committed to the breakpoint, the change is very, very obvious.

One other tip on viewing birds. If you’re viewing a report pair, I have found it very helpful to me, to tell the trapper: “When you pull the first bird, don’t pull the second bird until I say ‘bang.’” That enables me to watch the first bird from where I see it all the way to the ground. I can see any subtle transition in line on that first bird. I don’t call “bang” until that first bird hits the ground. Once it hits the ground, I’ll say “bang” and I’ll watch the second bird the whole way. That gives me a better feeling for the line, and more importantly, where the first bird is more vulnerable and where that spot is in relation to where I have to go to see the next bird.

Visualization

Gil: This year, because Nationals were unfortunately postponed, one of our students here in Houston, Craig Hill, who has really been doing well this year, came to me and said, “Coach, I’ve got a problem.”

I said, “What’s that?”

He said, “I’ve already paid for this deer hunt; I was planning to go the week after Nationals. But it’s already paid for, and I’ve got to go. What can I do on this six-, seven-day deer hunt in Canada to keep my edge?”

I said, “Well, the first thing we’ve got to look at is when you lay off of shooting for a while, the first thing to go is your timing. We can get your timing back in 500 to 750 shots; that’s not a big deal. But it will come back faster if you will simply take 15 minutes or more, typically at night after supper when you’re lying down, and think about breaking targets.

“Don’t think about winning. Don’t think about your score. All I want you to do is vividly imagine certain pairs of targets that you’ve been practicing on. Look at how they flew. See the edges on them. Feel how the wind blew them a certain direction. Hear the gun close in your routine. Feel your swing, really feel your swing. It’s okay to walk out to the edge of your camp, close your eyes and see the targets come into the sky and feel your hands moving the gun to the target and seeing the ridges on the target as it blows up. The more vividly you can imagine breaking targets, the more it will help you.”

And I’ll tell you, guys, he did this. And when he came back, after the first flat of ammo he looked at me and said, “You know, coach, this stuff really does work. I would do it for thirty minutes twice a day. I’d just sit down on a rock, listen to the river, and I’d just visualize powdering targets.” He said, “I could feel my swing move, and I could feel my swing in my hands. Now when I walk up to a pair, it doesn’t take me but a fraction of a second to be able to replay that complete pair back, and it reconfirms my plan because of my ability to do that.” 

You have to learn to feel your swing, guys. It’s more about feel than anything else. And the quickest way to feel your swing is to close your eyes at home, get in the room, get your gun, and visualize breaking targets. You’ll feel silly doing it the first time, but if you just do it for 15 minutes each day, when it comes your time to shoot first, it’ll be much easier on your heart, shall we say, for you to be able to look at the targets and recall the vivid pictures much better.

I was reading an article on golf the other day, written by Bob Rotella. And he said that if you can visualize for 15 minutes a day, vividly visualize yourself putting, the nap of the green, the sound of the ball coming off the surface of the putter and the sound of the ball going into the cup. If you can actually vividly visualize that act for fifteen minutes, it’s more valuable to you than actually going out and practicing for 15 minutes.

Now we’re going into the off-season, and you’re going to be doing things other than sporting clays. You’re going to be hunting, you’re going to be doing a lot of other things. Probably if you’re Don Yost, you’re going to be eating too much at Thanksgiving. (laughter) And he probably doesn’t have a corner on that market, you understand. But if you can just take 15 minutes a day and visualize yourself breaking targets, it will help you tenfold in the end.

Letting the Bird Come to You

Gil: Vicki and I just finished our new video entitled “Understanding the Move and Learning to Practice.” I’m not going to bore you with a lot of things about practice tonight, but I will tell you one thing. It is becoming more and more obvious to us how important it is to keep the gun in front of the bird, letting the bird come to you. Anybody like to give a testimonial about that?

John Martin: Yeah, Gil, this is John. I’ve been practicing a lot of that, and it just takes so much risk out of the move to the target.

Gil: Yeah. I was talking to Phil Bartash this morning. He called me up and said, “Hey, I’ve had another big ‘ah-hah’ over and over again.”

I said, “What’s that, Phil?”

And he said, “There’s a very fine line between being aware of the gun and looking at the  gun.”

John: Oh, definitely.

Gil: I said, “It’s a fine line, but there is a line, right,  Phil?”

Phil: Yeah.

Gil: And what I talked to Phil about this morning was the fact that when the bird is coming to the gun, okay, the bird is the fastest moving thing in the picture. And you feel this peace and this calm and utter control over the target because you’re actually merging with that bird as it’s coming to you, and the whole picture just slows down dramatically. Anybody else want to talk about that?

Don: I’ve got a question, Gil, on visualization, if we haven’t slipped off it.

Gil: No, go ahead.

Don: In competition, when you’re on a stand and you’ve had an opportunity to see a show pair, how much visualization do you go through before you shoot the first pair?

Gil: Am I the first shooter, and have I seen the pair?

Don: Doesn’t make any difference.

Gil: Actually, it’s two different scenarios, Don, because if I’ve been able to see the squad up ahead of me shoot those pairs, I don’t have to visualize quite as much, because once I’ve seen two or three pairs, when I see it, I automatically visualize it. It’s like second nature to me. 

Now, if I’m going up and I’m the first shooter and I haven’t seen the pair, I want to get as much information as I can about where the birds are coming from, what size they are, and where they’re landing before I call for that pair. So I have some kind of a feel for what that picture’s going to look like before I call “pull.” Now when I call “pull,” I’m going to watch both birds, I’m going to see what they do with respect to speed and line, and I’m going to watch them hit the ground. 

At that point in time, I’m going to close my eyes if I have to, but typically I don’t because I’ve visualized so much. Once my gut says “Take that one there and that one there,” there’s no more thought.

Don: Now you shoot the pair. You break the pair. You load your gun. Do you close your eyes and visualize it again?

Gil: No, sir. I shoot the pair and open the gun. I killed the pair. I load the gun because that’s the thing I always do, so I don’t have to look down out of the scene. At that point in time, what I do is go back to each breakpoint. I say, “I’m going to kill that one there, and that one there.” When I say, “I’m going to kill that one there, I see it happen.

Don: But you visualize between each pair?

Gil: Yes, sir. But I visit the breakpoint prior to starting my pre-shot routine. I visualize my breakpoint prior to starting my pre-shot routine, prior to every pair. The reason I do that: If I don’t do it, then I’m going to check the gun eventually on the third pair. I’m going to take the third pair for granted. Do you understand what I  mean?

John: Yeah, that’s happened to me numerous times.

Gil: Really? Yeah, it’s just real simple. The whole thing about controlling the voice is picking the breakpoint.

John: Is there such a thing as being overconfident?

Gil: Yes.

John: You break the first two pairs, now you’ve got the last pair. I just shot a tournament three weeks ago, and I looked at my scorecard after I was done, and on four stations I dropped my last target.

Gil: I’m so glad you’re not taking a lesson with Vicki tomorrow, because she would beat you severely about the head and shoulders.

Vicki: I have a special whip for that. (laughter)

Gil: My wife is the best person on the planet for staying in routine and staying in the present. And John, you’re not alone.

John: Oh, I know that.

Gil: That’s why we will tell everybody every time we shoot: Before I go into my routine, I’m going to visit the breakpoint very specifically, and even more so on the easy ones, Because the easy ones are the ones where you fall into complacency.

Vicki: I’d like to interject something here. I’m great at visualization. Here’s one thing that would help, Don. I used to do visualization and the whole thing in between each and every pair. It gets repetitive, and you get kind of bored with it. But when you go and revisit that breakpoint, if you’ll just see the target breaking, that will add that little part into it. 

You don’t have to go through the whole visualization, but when your eyes go to that breakpoint, just kind of see that target breaking, because that’s what you’ve just seen when you broke it. As far as John, you need to stay with the plan, darlin’. Don’t go for two pairs and then drop the last one. Stay with your program. It’s working.

John: Again, it’s just that I’ve never really done that, so I’ve developed  a bad habit of not doing it, and I really have to force myself to do it until it becomes automatic.

Gil: This is just like practicing your gun mount, guys and gals. The more you do it at home, the easier it is to do it on the course. I’ll just give you a quick aside here, okay? Years ago when I shot skeet, I went to work at 4:30 in the morning, ‘cause that was the only time I could do my paperwork. I had a ritual. I’d come in, I’d open the office, I’d turn on the processors, turn the air conditioner on, I’d go eat breakfast, and I’d come back. I would shoot three rounds of skeet in my office. I had a skeet pad in masking tape masked off on the carpet in my office. 

I would take my gun, and I would visualize myself on station 1. I’d shoot the singles. I’d open the gun. I’d shoot the pair: boom, boom. I would walk off the station and come back and visualize myself on station two. I’d shoot the singles, shoot the pair, and all the way around to station eight. I would shoot three rounds every single morning.

Shooting skeet is a walk in the park for me now. In fact, I went to a shoot-off in 2000 with Vicki’s team, and I didn’t miss a bird out of 100. Didn’t practice; picked the gun up, went out there, and loaded the gun up. It’s to the point now that it’s so ingrained in my subconscious, I’ve visualized it so many times, that there’s no fear. You just walk out there and let your subconscious take over. The more you can visualize when you’re off the range, the easier, the more vividly you will visualize when you’re on the range. Does that make sense?

 
John: Yes, it does.

Gil: The first time you do it, you know, you feel silly. You think, “I hope nobody’s watching.” Screw ‘em.

John: Hey, Gil, I have two questions. One, I have a sporting clays video game. Does that help?

Gil: It can’t hurt. Any time you have fun doing something related to sporting clays, it can’t hurt. It’s kind of like, years ago back when I was really learning to feel the gun, I was shooting a lot of skeet from the hip down at Greater Houston Gun Club.

A lot of the old members down there were having trouble breaking 25, and I was breaking 25 from the hip. They started to pooh-pooh what I was doing, saying I was hotdogging and showing off. And I went up to Grant Ilsing who was perhaps the greatest shooter who ever lived. He was the only shooter to ever be All-American in trap, skeet, and live pigeons in the same year. And he will be the only person to ever be able to do that.

I asked him, “Grant, am I hurting myself or doing myself a favor, going out there and shooting those birds from the hip?”

And he said, “Son, if you can break them without mounting the gun, it seems to me you can break them mounting the gun a heck of a lot easier.”

So it can’t hurt you, but don’t look for that to replace your visualization and practicing your gun mount with a flashlight at home.

John: Okay. Well, the other question is, we talk about the subconscious and visualization. I hear other people use the term muscle memory; is that the same thing?

Gil: No, sir. Visualization is the art of being able to imagine or visualize a happening.

John: But does that create muscle memory?

Gil: No, sir. It doesn’t create muscle memory. It will enhance feel, but not create muscle memory. Now, if you will do this, John, if you will visualize with your gun in your hand, it will create muscle memory.

John: Okay.

Gil: Now this is really important, guys. You create muscle memory through slow, repetitive movements that you can feel, not see. You don’t create muscle memory visually. You create it through feel. I will be very blunt and honest with you. If you will spend fifteen to twenty minutes a day, by yourself, in a room, with a gun, (not loaded of course) with your eyes closed and shoot five stations, six pairs in a row, with the gun, with a routine, with your eyes closed, you will begin to feel your swing.

 
Trust and the Plan

Gil: In fact, let me just jump right ahead here for a second. I was privileged to work with a high school golf team in Somerset, Kentucky about visualization and controlling the voice. I wrote something to the coach, and it has something to do with feel. I think you’ll appreciate it. It goes like this:

If the opponent is in the plan, the opponent has already won. For he or she controls you. To win, one must conquer the course. When in this state of mind, the voice is focused and quiet. There is no opponent other than the course. You and your plan control the outcome, not the opponent. If your opponent or what he does in any way enters your mind in the plan, however, you give control to him. 

You must stay focused on your task. The only adversity in your task is created by you, and therefore controlled by you only. You must trust yourself to rise to the occasion. Swing only as fast as you can feel. Accuracy comes from the swing, distance from the club. The game is not between you and them; it is between you and the course. If the opponent is in the plan, you have given him the opportunity to control what you do. You must play the course. Then you and you alone will have total control. 

To win, one must conquer the course. When in this state of mind, the voice is more centered and easier to control. Strive to control only that which you have total control over: you.

Make the plan and then execute the plan. The more precise the plan, the easier it is to believe in. The more confidence you have in the plan, the more the voice is tied up in the plan. More confidence equals less doubt, less doubt equals a quiet voice, a quiet voice equals more trust, more trust equals more feel, more feels equals more trust, more trust equals better scores, better scores equal more fun, more fun equals more wins and not before. So really it’s about the plan and trusting the plan, which allows you to feel. It’s more about feel than any other one thing.

Very few people are willing to take this visualization to the nth degree. They just don’t do it, John.

John: I know they don’t.

Gil: They’re afraid to.

John: Well, I don’t know if we’re afraid to, but there’s always a reason why you shouldn’t. You read about the Olympic athletes, and they all talk about visualization. When you do it, though, even at a minimal level, you know it works. And I don’t know why we don’t make it a real priority. I’ve been shooting less than I have in the last five years, but actually I’m shooting better. I think I’m spending more time visualizing and thinking about something instead of just going out  and shooting.

Gil: You will continue to experience that same curve so long as you visualize. But I will tell you again, if you will have a quiet time during  the day and if you will visualize with your gun in your hand, your move will improve, because you will feel your swing. We talk to people about feeling your swing all the time, but very few people will go out and feel their swing.

John: I know when I’m shooting really well I can feel it. It’s all in the feel of the swing.

Gil: Yes, it is. Yes, it is. Wait until you see the video; it’s going to be an incredible thing. I want to share one more little phrase here with you. This phrase was sent to me by Bart Krawitz after a lesson in Idaho Falls I had with him. It goes like  this:

“Watch your thoughts; they become your emotions. Watch your emotions; they become your words. Watch your words; they become your actions. Watch your actions; they become your habits. Watch your habits; they become your character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.”

Think about that.

Awareness of the Barrel or Looking at the Gun

 
Gil: Anybody have anything else they want to talk about before we move on?

Phil: Yeah, we were talking earlier about my realization of the fine line between awareness of the barrel and looking at the gun and focusing on the lead. I’ve been trying to figure out a way to make sure I’m on the right side of that line. We had discussed my discovery that the reason I crossed that line was because doubt entered the picture. Doubt entered the conscious mind, and I actually would start looking at the lead and the barrel instead of the bird.

I noticed sometimes that that is more prevalent when I have more time on a target. On a faster target I seem to be more focused on the bird. I seem to doubt more when I have a lot of time on a target. For example, on a long tower shot or a slow lofty bird, conscious doubt enters the picture, and then I start measuring the lead. 

My first question is: Is it because I need to move the breakpoint back? But wait a minute; if I’m seeing that bird and now I’m starting to futz with the lead, my breakpoint is wrong. Maybe I ought to move it back up to give myself less time, because obviously I’m seeing the bird more clearly than I thought.

Gil: To answer your question quite bluntly, I don’t think the breakpoint is wrong, I think the move is wrong. You’re up and ready to shoot before the bird’s in the breakpoint. Would you not agree with that, Don Yost?

Don: That was exactly my thought as he was explaining that.

Gil: This goes back to timing, which is what we talked about. Phil’s an airline pilot. He goes on six-, eight-, nine-day trips, which means he can’t shoot a gun for six, eight, nine days, which means what’s the first thing he’s going to lose when he gets back into town? His timing. That’s something that we have found without exception. My wife would tell you that’s true in anybody except me, but she doesn’t know. I don’t let on that I still lose my timing.

But I will tell you, in my opinion based on what you’ve described to us, the gun is up and ready to go prior to the bird getting to the breakpoint; therefore, you’re out of sync with the bird. There’s no felt connection, and therefore, the voice is there. And the voice is what makes you look at the lead.

In practicing your gun mount, we’ve come to refer to the front hand as the tempo hand, the hand that moves the gun with the bird. The back hand is the timing hand. That’s the hand that finishes the mount when it’s time to take the shot. Typically what happens is the timing hand works too quickly, and it’s not in sync with that bird. And when you go out to practice, if you will practice feeling in sync with the back hand more than the front hand, then the problem will be solved. Have I told that to any of you other guys?

John: Yep.

Gil: And it works. When you know as soon as that bird’s out of the trap. When it has just left that trap and is in the first ten percent of its flight path, when you know that your timing hand is in sync with it and the timing hand is going to finish the mount when the bird’s in the break zone, the voice is muted.

Phil: Okay.

Gil: It’s kind of like what the mute said at the bar.

Vicki: Oh, God.

Gil: I’m sorry. I won’t do that any more. Okay, any more comments or questions?

John: I’d like to make one more comment to Don. This is what I’ve  found for me, sometimes, in this quiet voice thing. You know, nobody wants to shoot first and I’ve started this tradition when I’ve been shooting with Butch and Lee and Willy.  They go, “Well, Martin’s going   to shoot first,” and I’ve got in the habit now of being first in the five stand and the first on the sporting clays course. When I was in  a  shootoff in Kentucky at the Kruger Cup last year, John said, “I’ll flip a coin.” I won and said I would shoot first. After doing it, now it just takes some of that anxiety away from me.

Gil: I’d agree with that.

Don: So would I. That’s a great habit.

 Gil: Anything you can do to stare that anxiety in the face and tell it,

“You’re not going to control me,” will, in the long run, make you a much stronger shooter. Even if you have to shoot second, it’s no big deal. It doesn’t matter where you shoot. If you have the choice, get up there and run them. Put the pressure on the other guy.

John: It’s just a really good feeling to get in there and know you can do it. It’s just one of those things–the more you do it, the more confidence you have.

Gil: That is correct. And the more you do it, the easier it is because you’re more confident and the voice isn’t there.

John: It’s a self-perpetuating system for sure.
 

Pure Reaction

Gil: It occurred to Vicki and me probably three months ago that every swing you make must be a 100 percent pure felt reaction to the target you are shooting in order for it to be effective. I want you to think about that. If you try to duplicate what you did on the last shot, then that means you don’t think you can. That’s another way to say: Be in the present.

Everything you do must be a 100 percent reaction, not a conscious action, but a 100 percent reaction to the birds that are in the air. That’s very important, and I just wanted to get that into your computers. And it’ll come back and you’ll say, “Man, now I know what he was talking about.” It’ll probably take a couple of weeks for it to hit you, but it will. (laughter)

I also want to share something with you that I read in the newspaper on one of our travels the last couple of months. It was a story about Tiger Woods, big surprise, on his struggles and his Majors slump. There are three little bullets here: one of him on his play that week, one of them on being in a slump and one on not being in contention on the last day of the PGA Championship. 

I thought it was unique the wording that he used to describe his play. On his play this week he said, “It has been disappointing that I wasn’t able to play all week the way I wanted to.” Now, rather than saying, “Yeah, I’m in a slump,” what did he say? “It’s been disappointing that I wasn’t able to play all week the way I wanted to.” He made it a positive.

About being in a slump: I think it’s part of being in sports. You can’t play well all the time. You can’t have everything go your way. Especially in individual sports, especially in this sport.

If you want to be in this game for a long time, you can’t beat yourself up after every single shot, every single round, and every single tournament. I thought those were very good words. I thought he handled his slump in front of the media in a great way. That’s something that I have remarked to several people after Nationals who have called and described their play there. 

And you know, when you go to Nationals, unless you win everything you enter, it’s always a disappointment to some people. But if you can look at what you won and be glad you won it and learn from what you didn’t win and learn from your failures, you become a much better person.

The Six Personalities

Gil: Anything else anybody wants to talk about? 

Don: You started about personalities.

Gil: I don’t know if I’m going to have time to finish this, but I’ll start it. I want to preface this by saying: I want each one of you in the next week to start with defining why you shoot sporting clays. Write it down. I don’t care what the reason is. Define it clearly and be comfortable with it in your heart. If you’re not, you will exaggerate your reactions to your failures. It’s one thing to learn from your failures, it’s another thing to look at your failures and not really have any goal in mind to evaluate the failure.

Now, for the six personalities. We’ve got the guy who’s afraid of fear. He’s always looking for what’s wrong and what’s going on. He has great anxiety before tournaments, and he always looks forward to it. He always has first station jitters and fear during critical moments. I’ve gotta believe that if this guy had totally defined why he is doing this, he wouldn’t be nearly as anxious when he began a tournament. Because to me, a tournament is not something to get nervous over, it’s simply a measure of what you need to practice, and it shows you your weaknesses and your strengths. 

This guy needs to write down why he shoots sporting clays. He should control his anxiety, see tournaments as a measure of what he needs to practice, as a report of his strengths and weaknesses.

Then we’ve got another guy who constantly loses his cool. He’s very intolerant toward frustration. He loses his cool in adversity. He throws shells and ridicules everything but himself. Blames everything but himself for his misses. This guy needs to see obstacles as opportunities, opportunities to get better and opportunities to learn.

We’ve got another guy who gets way too up or way too down. He’s way too easily discouraged and quick to get down on himself. He’s really loving it. He’s drooling when he hits the target, but boy when he misses, utter despair occurs. He looks at his failure as real and absolute, looks at his score as a reflection of his self worth.

I was up in Kentucky working with the golf team when I heard an interview with a college quarterback before a big game. When I heard this boy, I stopped like a bird dog on point at full gate. He said his coach had been working with him on being forgetful. What he was saying was the coach was working with him on forgetting the last play or the past and staying in the present. Being forgetful. That’s what this guy needs to be. He needs to understand that he needs to be in the present, not think about the score, and learn from his failures.

Then we’ve got another guy who worries about what everybody else thinks. He’s sensitive, self-conscious, afraid of embarrassment. He thinks other people are watching and judging him. He needs to find out why he’s doing it. He’s got to understand that they don’t care. He needs to have more fun, and he needs to realize that if he’s not doing it for fun, he shouldn’t be doing it. He needs to realize that the people around him don’t care.

Then you’ve got the guy who needs to be in control, the guy who     is a control freak. He’s overly analytical. He talks to himself. He’s having difficulty with feel. He has no self-trust, freezes up in the clinch. He needs to lower his expectations. He needs to learn to trust himself and have  more fun.

John: That’s where I used to be.

Gil: Helloooo? The reason I’m reading this to you is all of you either have been in one of these spots or you’re going to get there. And when it happens, recognize it and go back to your definition of why you’re doing this. If you’ll really define why you’re doing this, your failures will really become successes, because unless you’re doing this to be world champion, quit expecting to be one. Does that make sense?

John: Absolutely.

Gil: I mean, you really have to define why you’re doing it, otherwise when you fail you’ll ridicule yourself into being something you’re not. When you define why you’re doing this, it’s very easy to keep your expectations in line. It’s easy to keep your expectations and your commitment equal. When they’re not equal, when they’re not balanced, nothing good happens.