The main topic this time is a phrase that we’ve been playing with a lot lately: focus ratio. It simply means how much focus you normally have on the target versus how much focus you have on the gun (or the lead). For us, focus ratio is a key component to evaluating your own game and we’ve come to identify very reliable patterns of performance based on the focus ratios that shooters report to us.
Gil: Welcome to the coaching hour. Last time I spent almost the whole hour talking. I know that surprised some of you, and I’ve got enough to talk the whole hour this time, but I wanted to have a little bit more of an open discussion about focus ratios.
Focus ratios is what we call the amount of focus a shooter puts on the target versus the amount of focus on the gun as a term of percentage. For many people these things change, for example, 98 percent on the bird, 2 percent on the gun, 95/5, 75/25. We have some graphics illustrating that when you are equally aware of the target and the gun you have a 50/50 ratio, meaning that your focal point is between the target and the gun. When you have a 75/25 ratio, that focal point shifts back from the midpoint back toward the target halfway. When you have a 90/10, its off the front of the target a little ways, and when you have a 95/5, it is almost on the front of the target, indicating that as the focus ratio changes, the actual sharp vision that we have in our eye moves away from the target and there’s only one way for it to move and that’s toward the gun.
What we see in many shooters, even shooters that are in the A and AA classes, some of them even master class, is that these focus ratios change from shot to shot as well as from pair to pair and station to station and day to day. What we’ve found in reviewing a lot of our notes from our past advanced shooters and from talking to other shooters, current shooters, is that they have found a focus ratio that they are not only comfortable with but that they can produce over and over again so it doesn’t change at all.
Advanced shooters do well because they have a very comfortable and thick focus ratio. In our opinion, a focus ratio of 95 percent or more on the target is optimum for top performances. Shooting well is about finding your focus ratio and learning to stick with it and trust it.
Craig, this is something that you and I are going to spend quite a bit time on when you come into Houston. You had a clinic with us and then you wanted a private lesson with Vicki. Tell me what you feel like your focus ratio was at that time.
What we find is that people have a really high focus ratio on birds that they’re comfortable with, but when they see a bird that they’re not comfortable with or for whatever reason they get hesitant, their focus ratio changes. I know this is kind of spur of the moment, but tell me what you think about that.
Craig: Well, if I look back at it, I had no idea what you were talking about six or seven years ago when I first started with you. But for me, before I had my first lesson, I probably had a higher focus ratio because when I first started this sport, for six or eight months I didn’t have any idea what I was doing. I was just going out and shooting it, having fun, watching targets, and pulling the trigger.
So I actually feel like in the very beginning stages of this my focus ratio was much higher. What percent it was? I don’t know. Probably close to 80 percent maybe. Because I started learning more, I think it started dropping. And probably when I first took my first lesson with you, it probably even dropped further because I was trying to run the mechanics. I was doing some things wrong like worrying about mechanics. So I think the first year or two my ratio actually continued to drop because I was focused on the wrong things.
Gil: Meaning that because you were trying to learn the move, you had to become more aware of what the gun was doing?
Craig: Right. But, recently over the last two years when I’ve gone back to: forget about chokes, forget about my mount, do all the flashlight drills and really trust my move and mount and everything that you guys have taught me, I’ve gone back to the very simple basics of hard focus on the target.
So I feel like my target focus now is probably higher than it ever has been which I’m guessing probably was in the mid 80s; but, as you stated earlier, Gil, that focus definitely changes between targets and between pairs and between stations, and I don’t know if it’s confidence in the type of target I’m shooting or just getting overconfident because I just ran two or three stations in a row and then going back to looking at lead to make sure I don’t miss.
So the key for me is keeping that target focus very high and still just doing the simple basics of hard focus, good move and mount and tempo.
Gil: Shane, what about you? I never really had thought about it, but Craig brings up a good point in that he was just happy-go-lucky out there looking at things and blowing them up, and then all of a sudden we start talking to him about his move and his mount and it makes his concentration go a little more toward the gun. And at that point in time, he’s got to think about the game; but eventually his focus ratio comes out of that once he begins to learn to focus past the gun and his move gets more subconscious and things begin to flow better for him. I think he said his focus returned back to the target more so than when he was trying to learn his move.
How did you feel about that?
Shane: Well, when I first started, there’s several things that you talk about in learning to shoot, and one of the first was the unconscious incompetence phase. And when you’re doing that, you’re just kind of going out and shooting and having fun. Most people can shoot, 50, 60 or 70 a round, and then they decide that they like it and they want to go do more.
And then, like, you talked about. You’re moving into conscious incompetency. You understand that there’s a method that you don’t know, and I think that’s when the focus ratio drops. I found that when I first started to adopt your method there was a lot of stuff to think about besides the target. Don’t squeeze the gun too hard. Just trust your unconscious, your move, your mount, your hold point, your focal point, your visual transition.
There’s so many things, and they don’t necessarily cost you targets at first. You’re not going to miss a target every time if you have an awkward hold point or if your focal point is not good, but it makes it less risky if all of that stuff is right. You can compensate a certain amount just basically by almost getting beat, but it still pulls your focus ratio the wrong way.
I think the most important thing was when you came out here last year. One of the things that you wrote on that note to me was to dominate something, and I decided that the biggest thing that I was going to have to do was I decided that everything had to be perfect as far as the move and mount. Because to me, that was one of the biggest things that would pull the focus away if the gun didn’t feel right in the pocket, if it didn’t feel right in my hands, things like that. It would instantaneously pull my focus off the target.
One of the things that I focused on was handling my shotgun every day, and I think I went six or seven months and I touched my shotgun every day. I mounted it. I played with it every day. And after a while, even though I was bored with it, I kept on; and I think, as you saw this last weekend, it’s paid dividends for me.
All of it to me comes down to one thing as far as focus ratios go, and that is redirecting the conscious. If my conscious brain is in the equation at all, it won’t work. If I don’t have 90 percent focus on the target, I’ll get lucky and hit them every once in a while just because I was where I needed to be before I started worrying about something else; but for me, if the conscious is involved, it makes me want to check the lead or it makes me want to see the picture so that I can duplicate it, and for me it’s all about just letting it go and trusting it.
I can’t quit trying too hard or wanting to win. All I can do is accept that for what it is. We’re all fairly competitive. I just have to work with what I have, and I found that there’s an extremely fine line, as we’ve discussed, between not caring and trying too hard. I’ve just kind of had this revelation in the last couple of days. I’ve actually been thinking about this since our conversation on Saturday night, and I think the key for me is redirecting the conscious, and that’s to make goals just like we talked about, to make my conscious mind be focused on something else so that the unconscious can do what it needs to do, and that’s what I’m going to focus on moving forward.
I shot a little bit of practice when we got back, and it was almost stupid easy; but I have to keep my conscious brain tied up or my focus ratios shifts. And it doesn’t take much to let something creep in. Apparently it’s a big open space in there. If something can get in there and rattle around, whether it’s the gun going too fast, or wow, that’s a really pretty white bead on the front or something like that.
But if I can tie up my conscious mind, my focus ratio seems to stay extremely crisp on the target; and I’ve tried making a couple of goals: be smooth, leading edge at the breakpoint, visual transitions, the breakpoint itself, making sure I’m relaxed, making sure I have a plan, and running the same plan every time. And for me when I can do all of that and redirect the conscious, my focus ratio stays at 85 or 90 percent, and I think all of the stuff that I’m thinking about is important; but when you think about it in a systemic and methodical way and you do the same thing every time, for me it seems to tie the conscious mind up. As we’ve talked about before, you can’t think about what you’re thinking about right now because right now just went by. You’re always thinking about what’s next.
Gil: I think a better way to say that, which we said in our second book, is you can’t consciously be in the present.
Shane: Correct. You cannot.
Gil: And that’s something that I want everybody to understand, the ones who are on tonight and especially the ones who aren’t on tonight. You can’t consciously be in the present. It is a physiological impossibility. You can’t consciously be in the present. The only time that you could be in the present is when you’re subconscious mind is guiding the operation. That’s something that’s hard for some people to get their fingers around. You understand what I mean, Shane?
Shane: I completely understand; and that’s something that I realized. The thing that drove that home to me the most was the best round of clays I ever had. I shot a 96 or a 97, won the tournament, and the whole tournament I was having problems with my ATV, and it wasn’t running right. And literally every station we were working on my buggy, trying to figure out what was wrong with it; and they would turn around and somebody would come get me and say: There’s two pairs left and it’s your turn.
Oh. And I would end up over there and watch the last pair of the shooter in front of me, pick my gun up, shoot five pairs and then go put it in the buggy and start fiddling with it again. And it finally dawned on me that for me redirection of the conscious is key.
Gil: Not necessarily redirection but occupation.
Shane: Occupation. Yes, occupation. You know, just like when we were shooting those towers on Saturday and I don’t know how many times I heard you say just stabilize the picture and let the brain do it, stabilize the picture and let the brain do it.
Well, you’re so worried about making the gun go the same speed as the target that you’re not checking the lead. You’re not looking at anything else. You have convinced that person that all they have to do is make the gun go the same speed as the target, and whenever you think you need to, just pull the trigger; and 80 percent of the time those, you know, 120 foot up, 40 yards away crossing birds just explode. And we’re all standing there mouth breathing like a bunch of knuckle draggers because it’s working; and that’s what you’re doing, is you’re occupying the conscious mind so that we maintain focus on the front of the target because the only way to tell us the gun is going the same speed is to be looking at the target and accept the gun in the picture because it’s going to be there. And you’ve tied the mind up focusing on how the target is right there and it’s going this fast, and your subconscious will get the gun going the same speed; but you have to keep looking at that target because if you try to check it even a tiny bit, the targets are so high and so far away it’s a miss.
But if you can convince them that all they have to do is stabilize the picture and pull the trigger, things start breaking and it works extremely well for me, and that’s one of the ways I maintain my focus ratio. Like you said, you tie up the conscious mind and it helps your focus ratio stay really high on the target.
Gil: I cannot tell you how many times in our coaching career and even in our shooting career when we had to perform sick. You know, you shoot the first day in a two-day shoot and all of a sudden that night you come down with a cold, and then the next day you go out there and you’ve got the sweats and you’ve got fever and you’re occupied with how bad you feel, and you go on autopilot and you have one of the best rounds you’ve ever shot.
Because the conscious mind was occupied with how really bad you felt and, oh, man, will this ever be over and it never got in the way of the subconscious doing what you’ve trained it do. It’s almost like the subconscious went on autopilot. I never will forget Dean Olson telling me that when he came back. He won the Seminole Cup one year, and he said: Gil, I’ve got to tell you. I got there and I burned them up the first round, and that night I got a cold, and I had to change beds because I sweated so much that night. Because the bed was wet, I had to go to a different bed just to finish my sleep that night, what little I got. And I went back out there the next day and I mean, I ate, but I knew I had to get through this and I was going to get through it.
And he ended up shooting the best score the second day, too, feeling just absolutely horrible. But it’s like you tinkering with your hoopty there. If you could keep that thing in a childlike, playful, amused state with something that is neither positive nor negative but it’s almost like it’s inquisitive. You end up occupying it, and you allow the other brain to come in and do things that the subconscious brain has in the past gotten in the way of.
It’s an amazing feeling, isn’t it?
Shane: It is truly amazing. And for me the journey now is to figure out what it is I can do to keep that goal. And I need to find something that I can do at will, and that way I can turn it on and turn it off. And for me that’s what the journey is now. That’s where I’m heading, is trying to figure it out.
And everyone is different. So it’s going to be different for everybody, you know; but that’s where I’m headed, and I think in a year, if we have this conversation, I’m going to know what it is. I think when I figure it out there’s going to be some people that are really not going to be real happy about the whole deal.
Gil: No. I can tell you that. They don’t know enough to be scared right now. But, yeah, it’s almost like you’ve got to tie it up with minutia and it can’t be anything that you can judge as good or bad. You’re going to try different things, and you’re going to find certain things that you enjoy, certain things that you can turn on and turn off, and it’s something that you’ll just move into. And I will tell you this. It’ll change. It will evolve. It will evolve into something stronger and stronger and stronger. The desire to put yourself in a position to where you can fail
– the courage to be determined to do that and maintain a certain focus ratio, that is huge. That’s where courage and determination turn into confidence, and it’s a strange thing. I have to tell you, we’ve coached so many people who have sliding ratios.
Now, Craig, are you still on?
Craig: Yeah, I’m still on.
Gil: Okay. Based on what Shane said, do you have anything to add or change about what you talked about about your focus ratios? Because I have to tell you, I didn’t really think about focus ratios going down when you started working with us, but they have to because we’re talking to you about your gun mount. We’re talking to you about mechanical things. And when you’re thinking about mechanical things, your focus on the target suffers. And then once you get that into your unconscious, then you go back to a much higher focus ratio.
Any other thoughts after listening to what Shane said?
Craig: No. I think what Shane said is basically the same thing I’ve experienced, as well. So I wouldn’t have anything to add there. But we talked about this focus ratio several times over the last year. And I hadn’t really thought about my mine being higher and then dropping as I got into this until tonight for some reason.
Other than that, it seems like everybody that I know who does what we’re doing kind of falls in the same patterns, right? You take all of us and throughout our journey and we all go through the same things, it seems like. Some of us get through it faster and some go through it slower, but we all tend to get to where we want to go if we keep following what you guys are teaching. So I don’t think I have anything to add on top of it.
Gil: Okay. Hey, Ron, are you still there?
Ron: Yeah.
Gil: What’s your focus ratio now if you were to go out? Understand that I’ve never met Ron. I’ve just had several lengthy phone conversations with him. I sent him an animation for him to go over and over, and I’ve been giving him some drills, and he’s been doing his gun mount drill. He’s coming down next week to spend a couple of days with us and then he’s going to shoot with us for a couple of days and then go through a couple of days of clinics with us.
Tell me what you think your focus ratio is right now. Do you think it’s 80/20? And understanding that in your position of never having had a lesson from us it’s going to be hard for you to be 95/5.
Ron: Yeah. No way.
Gil: You know?
Ron: Yeah. Definitely not. For me, it’s like Craig and Shane were saying earlier, I think it was Craig, actually. I would say mine fluctuates and can fluctuate from maybe target to target or pair to pair. I would say it could be at 75 to 80 and then obviously the opposite numbers, the 80/20 or 75/25, that combination. It’s definitely not in the 90 range at all, I wouldn’t think; but I would think that it can fluctuate based on target, pair, that kind of thing.
Gil: It can probably fluctuate for you as a beginner target on target to target, pair to pair, station to station, day to day.
Ron: Yes. Yep. And practicing what I’ve been doing, gun mounts and practicing on the targets that I have, I do see what the other guys were talking about. I’ve had glimpses of exactly what they’ve said over the past few minutes, that focus ratio is becoming a little bit more consistent, whatever the ratio is at this point in time. I feel that over the past month or two it’s gotten better. I don’t know how much, but it seems better. I feel better about it.
Gil: And it’s going to fluctuate.
Ron: Yeah. For me it does.
Gil: Until you get 50,000 targets under your belt in the system. I mean, that may depress you, but I don’t think I’m lying to you. Am I, Craig or Shane? I mean, you’ve got to get some targets under your belt in the system before you begin to learn to trust the system and begin to establish some sort of focus ratio. Would you not agree with that?
Craig: I agree 100 percent.
Craig: And also, Gil, to that point, it’s not just targets. I would throw in tournaments, too, right? Because your target focus can change if you’re just out practicing, but when you go to a U.S. Open or at Nationals, your target focus can completely change no matter how much you’ve been training.
So I think that’s the other piece to this that I found, especially now that I’ve been coming down to the small State of Texas to shoot, which obviously the shoots are much bigger than where I’m from. That’s why I’ve enjoyed coming down there so much because you get to shoot against those guys that you see in the magazines and the top shooters in the United States. And you see those guys and you’re actually competing against them, and that doesn’t happen back home.
And I think that changes everything, and your consistency is not only with your target focus, but it’s everything, how consistent you are with your breakpoints, how consistent you are with your plan, recovery routine and all of that stuff.
I correlate it to golf. You never shoot better unless you’re hitting your tee shots in the fairway, making your fairway shots onto the green and putting; and if any one of those aspects of your game falls apart, your scores drop in golf.
It’s the same with shooting. If you’re not shooting your breakpoints, if you don’t have the focus, if you’re not shooting a plan, if you’re not confident, if you haven’t trained, that can fluctuate your scores dramatically from day to day and week to week.
Gil: Hum. Interesting.
Shane: I was actually going down the same road that he went down. As far as agreeing a hundred percent with that. For me I think one of the biggest revelations was whenever I realized that there are two major parts to this journey; and the first one was learning how to shoot, and there are no shortcuts for that, and I shoot a lot.
And I’m not saying I have the target inventory of someone that’s a five time all-American or something like that; but I feel like I’ve attempted quite a few targets in three or four years, and I was extremely disappointed because I didn’t feel like anyone had told me that there is a point at which you’re not learning how to shoot anymore and you’re learning how to compete, and I think a lot of people get discouraged because there’s two separate things.
Just like he was just saying. Targets are not the same in practice as they are in competition, and I know what’s different, I just don’t know why it is so different, but that affects your performance, your focus ratios in a tremendous way; and like you’ve told me a thousand times you just have to go do it. You can’t train for going to the U.S. Open. You can’t train for going to a Zone shoot, go down to Nationals; and, you know, you can’t train for that. You just have to go do it.
And I think that a tremendous amount of people, I know I certainly was very disappointed initially in my performances, even at smaller shoots and certainly some of the bigger shoots, and I guess you could almost say that there was an initial unconscious incompetence when it comes to competing, as well.
I punched into masters class, and, man, I thought I was hot stuff and I was it. And I would go and shoot somewhere and I couldn’t hit the ground. I could have thrown my shotgun and probably broken more clays sometimes, and that’s all learning to compete, and I think that’s a huge step that a lot people don’t realize is out there. There’s learning how to shoot and there’s learning how to compete, and some people get one and never the other.
And I certainly know some people that they don’t necessarily shoot real well; but they compete at a very high level because of skills I think they’ve brought from other aspects of their life, and they may have been better prepared than others to compete. I have seen C-class shooters who will struggle in practice, but I have seen them walk all over a AA shooter or a masters class shooter just at a local shoot,or somebody will say: I bet you 50 bucks I’ll run this station and you won’t or whatever.
And it’s amazing to watch some of those guys because they know they can get in those other guys’ heads and they do, and they’re just better competitors. And I wish I knew what their life experiences were that put them in that place because it just seems like to me some people have it and some people don’t, and that’s all I can deduce, is that they are bringing skills from better aspects of their life that they’ve learned that have allowed them mentally to stay focused when other people fall apart.
And like the gentleman mentioned by coming to Texas and shooting with these other guys down here it’s a whole different level of pressure when you’re shooting and you look over and Scotty Robertson is standing over there or Andy Duffy is on your squad or other people that are previous National champions. The first thing you think is, oh, there’s no way. You’re kind of shafting yourself from the start there, but you can get around that because I’ve beat those guys. I’ve outshot them, and if I can do it, anybody can do it; but you can’t do it until you learn how to compete.
Gil: Well, learning how to compete is learning how to control fear, and you’ve got to get to the point, as we’ve said in the slide show, you’ve got to get to the point to where you’ve over-tried enough times to where you’ve failed every time until you finally get to the point to where you realize that little voice that tells you to overtry and become hesitant and shoot not to miss has been lying to you. You finally get to the point to where you’re going to do something entirely different. And when you do that the first time, win or lose, it’ll give you a feeling of calm control. And at that point you have to be willing to put yourself in the game and be willing to lose to succeed, and it sounds like a word game, but it is definitely not a word game. You have to want to put yourself in a position where you’ve got to perform in front of all these people.
You’ve got to want to do that, and the more you want to do that and the more you look forward to doing that the more courage you have to do it, the more determined you become and at that point determination and courage becomes confidence. And at the end of day, you’ve got to look at it and realize that this is not a life or death situation. It’s a game. And regardless of what the outcome is, if you’re not looking at outcome only as feedback, then there’s a lot less pressure there.
Having and sticking to a focus ratio, to me is something that all of you need to become a little bit more aware of. What is it when you’re shooting well? When you’re shooting well, and it doesn’t matter whether you label it a 90/10 or a 95/5 and it’s actually a 93.72, whatever. It really doesn’t matter. It’s just a catch phrase. It’s just a word. It’s just a ratio that this is the way I feel when I shoot my best. And when you can start identifying it and anchoring to that, it will become a little bit easier to control.
I know that whenever I’m shooting in front of people, whether I’m shooting right handed or left handed, head on or off the stock, when I take their gun, if there is any doubt in my mind, I’m going to miss the target, whether I mount the gun or not. Whether it fits or not, I’m going to miss the target. I have to take that gun with an attitude of let me just show you what this really looks like. Now get over here and watch this because I can hit the target. You just need to watch this and do it, and it’s a frame of mind that overcomes me, and there’s no doubt there. I just do it and it happens, and I do it again and it happens and I give them the gun back.
And Shane, I know you feel that you’ve got to come up with something that occupies the conscious mind. Well, yeah, you know, you’ve had some good experiences with the conscious mind occupied. And we all have, but it’s your ability to not think and your ability to go in; and rather than trying to not think and rather than playing mental mumbly-peg, keep your mind on something else other than competition, for sure, between stations but eventually it’s okay. When it’s time to turn it on, I’m walking into the cage now. This is what I’m going to depend on. I’m going to depend on my routines, breakpoints. I’m going to be true to the breakpoints and I’m going to be early in the breakpoints. That’s my game. That’s me. That’s who I am. Watch this.
And sooner or later, after you do that enough times in competition, you’re going to see it succeed; and all you have to do is succeed once or twice turning it on yourself, and then you’re off to the races. It’s doing it once or twice, and that’s where making the right short-term and long-term goals in like we talked last week.
And it’s important, like I said last month, you’re creating a mental model that will benefit you in three ways. It will improve your overall knowledge about the game you play. This ability to recall enables you to learn more quickly and more specifically things that others are not even aware of.
It will help you distinguish relevant information from irrelevant information, and it will enable you to project what will happen next or predict what will happen next because your mental model is really an understanding of how you function when performing. You can visualize how unexpected changes that happen on game day will affect what you do.
I cannot stress that enough. Most of the world is not aware that you can actually control your reaction based on your previous experiences and how much you’re attuned to what goes on out there when you’re competing.
And you’re right, Shane. You’ve learned to shoot. Now you’ve got to learn to compete, and I think that’s something that Craig is going through. Ron is just now learning to shoot. He’s going to have a sliding ratio, and he’s going to discover, oh, in the next year and a half, because he’s not a hardened competitor. He’s a casual shooter, but he wants to do better and he wants to learn our system. He’s going to learn that there is a real sliding ratio that he’s going to have to be aware of because, hell, just the way he shot on the last station is going to affect his focus ratio on the next station.
The first time he starts shooting good his focus ratio is going to go down because he’s going to start shooting not to miss, and that may have already happen to him by now; but it’s going to happen to him several times before he finally realizes that becoming hesitant and shooting not to miss is not ever going to work, and it’s at that point in time when you become determined to do the opposite of what fear does to you, and fear may be gripping the gun. It may make you grip the gun too tight. It may make you walk fast between stations, there’s a lot of things that fear can do to you, and I’ve said this to each one of you, and I’ve said it on the coaching hour. You’ve got to figure out what it is that fear does to you before you can anchor away from that, and the quicker you find out what fear does to you, the quicker you’re going to be able to anchor away from it, and the quicker you’re going to be able to control the outcome of your performance.
Shane, what does fear do to you?
Shane: Oh, he brings all of his bad friends to the party every time. He brings doubt and no trust and just what if. All of that stuff shows up whenever you have fear show up, and he still pokes his head in every once in a while; but I’ve got a lot better at shutting him up, but he definitely is no fun. I can tell you that.
Gil: When does he get in?
Shane: He gets in if I am facing the scorecard. I’m doing better at keeping him out, but I’ve been more consistent within the 88 to 92 range, but about Station 4 or 5 on a ten station course he’ll poke his head in, and he usually says: Hey, you know, you’re only down two targets. Maybe you’re going to get a 98 today.
And if I listen, then I’ll be lucky if it’s an 80 because, like I said, he brings doubt and a lot of other things that come along with him. I guess, like you say, I’ve done it enough times now that I know what the result is of doing that. And I guess my response now, when he says: Hey, maybe you’re going to get a 98 today. I can say, Maybe, but I’m going to keep making the plan and I’m going to keep shooting the plan, and we’re going let it be what it’s going to be.
Gil: My, what a great way to do that. Now, Craig? Craig, how does fear get in for you?
Craig: Well, as Shane said, I think fear gets into me most when
I start checking the lead. That’s what I’ve noticed. And then when I start checking the lead more, I start
missing and then I get frustrated, and then
it’s a downward spiral and I check lead even more. And you just get mad. Then you sit there and tell
yourself you just blew a great score.
And, like Shane said, I’ve gotten to where it really starts coming in later in the round. So, as you know, if you’re in the 90s, you’ve only missed five, six birds the whole shoot so far. You know where you are. And that’s where I’m trying to get past, Gil, is on that seventh or eighth station when you know you’re still in the 90s, just trying to forget about it and keep doing what got you there, which is target focus, thinking about the next target and just doing things right. Keep it simple.
Gil: To me when that thought enters, you left the present.
Craig: Right.
Gil: At that instant you left the present. I like the way Shane
summed it up. What did you say, Shane? It may be what happens, but whatever
it is, it is. What we’re going to do now is go right back to what got us here,
which is make the plan and shoot the plan. And does that do it for you?
Shane: Almost all the time, you know. As was just mentioned, if I start checking the lead, that’s just a vicious circle. It’s a downward spiral at that point, and I’m to the point that I know better now. And if I ever catch myself checking the lead, which I do, I chastise myself for not shooting the plan because I guarantee you checking the lead was not part of the plan; but that does work for me at this point.
Right now I seem to have about a six to eight bird difference between them. A morning, 200-bird shoot I can go and shoot six to eight birds higher usually on the first course than I do on the second course, and right now I’m not sure if that’s fear trying to creep back in or if it’s just a fact of life for me based on how I perform after driving two-and-a-half hours, shooting a hundred targets and eating lunch. I can’t decide if that’s just how it’s going to be or if I can stabilize that.
If I take 200 birds on two different days, my score differential is much smaller. If I shoot a hundred birds this morning and a hundred birds tomorrow morning, they’re going to be one or two, maybe three birds between them; but for some reason when I do a hundred birds back to back with lunch in between, I’m six to eight birds lower consistently on the second course.
And part of me thinks that it’s related to the physiological factors that are in play as well as the mental stress of doing all that and already having seen, you know, 110, 15 birds for the day, attempted a hundred targets, et cetera. But part of me thinks that it’s because I did so well in the morning that I know I could do better in the afternoon because I have noticed a trend in my log that in the morning I’ll do a hundred birds, and I might check myself checking.
I might catch myself checking the lead once or twice, and I usually pick right up on it. In the afternoon, I find that I usually give almost all of those birds up on one or two stations and that usually it’s from checking the lead. So I think that there’s some component there that I’m afraid that I’m not going to do as well on the second course as I did on the first course or perhaps I’m over-trying because I know the potential is there to do better, and I can’t really pin it down yet; but I think that certainly fear has something to do with that.
Doug: Gil, isn’t leaving the present our biggest demon?
Gil: There is no doubt. I mean, absolutely no doubt. It’s kind of a Catch- 22, Doug. You do this for the enjoyment and the thrill of competition and you start shooting well and all of a sudden, you think, well, this is why I’m doing this, and I’m excited about that. Well, it’s okay to end your post-shot routine and say attaboy; but we tend to want to be judgmental, and I think it’s the judgmental thoughts that make us leave the present.
If something is neither good nor bad, it just is. Then it’s something that you deal with and you move on, but the instant you start looking at things as good or bad, nothing good happens and you certainly leave the present. If you look at anything as good or bad, it’s judgmental, and you’re going to be leaving the present.
Somebody asked me that question at a seminar somewhere. I don’t know where it was. We do so many of these. And I said: You know, you realize that you can’t consciously be in the present. That’s an impossibility. You just can’t consciously be there because by the time you think about you are there, you’re not. Because the conscious brain works behind reality, and you can’t doubt it by yourself. You’ve got to have somebody to doubt it with you, and that would be the conscious brain. Do you understand what I mean?
You can’t be scared by yourself. You got to have that conscious brain helping you be scared. You can’t doubt it by yourself. You can’t check the lead by yourself, Shane. You’ve got to have somebody else in there telling you to check the lead. You can’t do that by yourself. If you’re by yourself, then you’re in the present.
And, Craig, I think that’s a good way to summarize it. The biggest deal is leaving the present, and you’re going to leave it, but sooner or later, you’ve got to get to the point to where, yep, okay, that pops in. Maybe we’ll talk about this the next time we’re on, about how you can look at that voice that comes inside your head that says you may be shooting a 98 today, Shane; and you can put a little stupid man on a fence post over there and put that voice coming out of him and say, you know, that’s really stupid. Why don’t you see if you could think of an even more stupid thing to tell me when I get through shooting these targets. I’ll check back with you when I get through. And you go right back in there and you shoot those targets, and when you come back out, he’s going to think of something more stupid; but it’s a way for you to get it out of your mind and put it into something else, even though it’s kind of like make-believe. Okay? That scares some people, but it’s a very, very good tool to use when those thoughts come in.
Craig: If you can identify it, you can fight it, right?
Gil: Yeah. Think about it. Until you admit that it’s there, you can’t overcome it. Maybe just this time I’ll check the lead. Well, I don’t know. I really do want to get these. You know? I mean, I really do want to win. Until you admit that it’s there and until you begin to distinguish between those thoughts and what they are, because they’re always going to be right. Okay? Whatever that voice tells you to get you out of the present is always going to be correct. Okay? The math is always going to be correct. You’re only down two. You could shoot a 98 today. And when he gets in, that’s not the time to say, oh, no, I can’t think about that. You’ve got to kind of turn it around like Shane did and go back to what your mantra is. And the better and more consistently you apply your mantra not only in tournaments, like Craig said, but in practice, and every time before you call pull you use your routine, you honor your breakpoint, you’re always early – the better you do all the process goals that you know to do, the better and more often you do those and the fewer times that you just close the gun and call pull and play, the easier it is for you to depend on those because ultimately it’s not just about how many times you’ve done it. Okay?
Although that has something to do with it, but it’s also about how many times you’ve done it with a routine. But more importantly here’s what it comes down to: How many times have you done it and predicted you were going to do it in the breakpoint before you call pull, how many times have you gone through your pre-shot routine. You’ve picked your breakpoints. And once you’ve picked those breakpoints, then you’ve used your pre-shot routine. You close the gun. You cue begins, boom boom boom, call pull, boom boom, call pull, boom boom. Now, you do that eight times in a row with your routine. But each shot is not only a result of the consistency of your routine, but before you call pull each time, you have predicted exactly where you’re going to break the first target and exactly where you’re going to break the second target.
Now, that’s what separates the people who ascend to higher and higher focus ratios and whose focus ratios become more set. That’s what makes people ascend to greater and greater levels of consistency and more wins at the top. How many times have you predicted you’re going to do it. How many times against all odds have you predicted what you were going to do and you’ve gone out there and done it. It’s not just how many times you’ve hit it because in the beginning it’s how many times have you hit that 50-yard crosser. Then it begins how many times have you hit that 50-yard crosser knowing you had to have them all to win, and the only way you’re going to do that is to be able to predict it, and when I say predict it, I mean commit to the exact breakpoint.
If you go in and you run a station but your breakpoints are not crisp, if they’re sloppy, you’re not satisfied. You’re never satisfied with sloppy breakpoints. You want crisp breakpoints. You want the perfect lateral move every time when you call pull after focus. You are constantly pushing yourself to become better and better and better, but ultimately, you can go out there and you can shoot a thousand rounds and you can hit a 40-yard crosser 60 times; but if you haven’t predicted it with a routine and got out of your car cold and walked up to that 40-yard crosser and I said, okay, I want you to break it right there, look at it twice, put your modified choke in, now, you’ve got to break it ten times and you say, okay, step back out of the way, step aside shallow water, let the deep sea roll, that kind of thing, watch this, and then when you’ve done it like that, cold turkey like that, then there begins to be a confidence that comes over you; but the confidence is not based on past wins. The confidence is based on your ability to predict what you’re going to do and honing the skills that allow you to break that target in that breakpoint every time. I keep coming back to breakpoint.
Shane asked me what should some of his goals should be. And to me it evolves around the breakpoint because the breakpoint is the strategy of the game. Wouldn’t you agree with that, Craig?
Craig: I do.
Gil: Learning how to compete is learning to make plans, and on game day if you hit all your breakpoints and you make the fewest number of mental errors of everybody at the tournament, guess what’s going to happen? You’re going to win.
But if you’re not committed to doing things specifically, break- points, be early, commit to the breakpoints, don’t let lead get in, you’re committed to that breakpoint, you pull the trigger whether it’s right or wrong, you’re going to pull the trigger, that kind of commitment, until you get to that point and you do that every time in practice and every time you go compete, it’s awful hard for you to stay in the present.
You’ve got to do it enough to where it’s like you to do that and you’re not going to think your way to do that. You’re going to have to actually do it, and that’s just one of those things. You’re just going to have to do it. That’s all there is to it.
Well, it looks like I’m almost out of time. Shane, thank you for talking a little bit tonight. Craig, thanks for speaking up. And, Ron, I look forward to seeing you in a week or two.
Ron: Yep.
Gil: So I guess all the guys who weren’t here tonight will just have to listen to it on the disc, and you guys let me know how things are going. Call me back and let me know what happens after your next shoot, you guys. I’ll talk to y’all later. Good night.
