Introduction
Gil: Welcome to the Coaching Hour April 2019. In our original Coaching Hour, we had a lot of interference from somebody listening on a computer. I thought we were gonna be able to talk over it, but we couldn’t. And after 10 minutes or so of listening to all the background noise, I just said “To heck with it. We’ll get a new number and will try to do this the next night.” Well, when I signed off, four or five of the guys were so excited about the topic we were talking about that they called and we ended up doing a 45 or 50 minute interaction while we were recording the second time.
Thoughts on Coaching and the Anticipation Circuit
Gil: …They’re in front of it every time the first 15 times they do it. And you got to back them off and say “Look. You and I both know that bird takes lead. But when you do it this way, the perception of lead is half to two-thirds less than you would normally see. So just go at the front of it.” Brian says “don’t get involved with the distance. Just see separation to the left or separation to the right between the bird and the gun and get the speed right and send it.” Don’t get involved with how much separation there is. I mean, we’re all coming to the same euphoria, but to me the common thread is that the bird is coming to us as opposed to us trying to outrun the bird. Would you agree with that, Danno?
Dan: I would. And I’ll tell you what I tell my students: the only conscious awareness that you should have is that you’re going the same speed. I don’t care about how big “big” is or how small “small” is. You’re going to shoot right at the bird. And as long as you understand consciously that the muzzle’s going the same speed, it’s all gonna work out for you.
Gil: It’s
absolutely amazing. But when you are reacting to the bird, (i.e. you’re inside
the lead and you have to push out to it) it’s a completely different picture.
The lead gets really big then.
Dan: You’re right. It does
Gil: I think that’s the bottom line to the paradox. The brain does two things in our situation. Number one, it’s constantly anticipating ahead of where we are. It is really good at anticipating further and further ahead of where we are when it’s in a familiar surrounding.
And number two, it automatically creates converging lines. The problem that most people have in shooting a shotgun at a moving target is their brain is creating converging lines, but the gun and the bird converge together, rather than the converging line being projected ahead of the target and at the muzzle. Did I make myself clear on that? You see what I’m saying.
Most people are trying to meet the bird somewhere. Well, if you meet the bird, you’re behind. But if you can see it coming, the brain will automatically create the convergence. But the convergence is a projected line ahead of the target through the muzzle, which puts the bird behind the muzzle, which puts the muzzle ahead of the bird. And it’s inconsequential how much ahead it is, as long as the anticipation circuit is guiding the convergence. Bob Shannon, did what I say make sense?
Bob Shannon: Yeah, and let me add a couple of pieces I think that confuse people. They talk about having their shotgun fitted to where they look. That’s completely wrong. It has to be fitted to their eye lined up with the rib when they finish the mount. But as you and I have agreed all along, you’re always operating in the future, in the same way you drive a car. You drive 300 feet out in front.
Gil: If you’re driving 120 miles an hour, it’s more than 300 feet.
Bob: Yes sir it is. [Laughing] But typically it’s 300 feet.
The dilemma is that in conversation about visualization, we emphasize too much the visual information to make the lead right. The truth of the matter is a completely different part of visual motor system does the geometry. And it does it really, really well. All we have to use in the visuals is match the speed, match the line, take the shot. But it can only hold on to that exact perfect geometry for a very short period of time. It’s somewhat related to how far the target is away, but typically about a second.
I’ve done the math on this. On your kill shot, match speed. And when you match line, the shot is taken within 3/10ths to 7/10ths of a second of matching the line of flight.
Gil: I’m with you. Now I understand what you’re saying. You’re exactly right.
Bob: The brain can only hold on to the geometry perfectly for interception of the two lines: the line of flight and the line of positioning of the gun consequential to the speed of the target for about a second.
Gil: Which would be the point of convergence that I’m talking about.
Bob: Yes. But it’s a different part of…
Gil: Oh really? So, let me let me put a couple of figures in here now. The most current ShotKam shots are at one-third speed, not one-quarter speed. So, to me, when I see it on line and stable, I pull the trigger instantly. Now, there’s a fine line. And from what you’re talking about, it can only hold onto it for a given short amount of time, which is less than a second.
Bob: About a second.
Gil: So, here’s what I’m experiencing: People come on to a bird that they deem to be difficult, and it’s almost like they want to get it over with, so they pull the trigger before they know it’s stable. It’s close to being stable, but they pulled the trigger before they do that. And I have them hold on to the shot for another third to half a second to know that it’s stable, which does two things. It allows them to replicate what they saw (as long as they’re not measuring the lead). And number two, it allows for a precise correction, because they know the speed was right.
Gun speed is the commonality in the correction. Because without the commonality of gun speed, any corruption you make just one or two shots behind the curve. Or you’re guessing, and you may luck out and guess right. Am I on track, Bob?
Bob: If you take into account, that, as you have correctly identified, to be able to pull the trigger, when your brain says “pull the trigger,” it takes three-tenths of a second to actually have that. And you have whatever delay it is of getting the shot there. Most of the time, people are relying early on the visual picture and I’m saying that’s behind the curve already. But then you have them hang on to the visual for a brief period of time. The brain can readjust, okay? And slowly but surely (and I think you would agree with me on this) with more of the shots you take, you pull the trigger on the feel that everything synced, rather than the visual.
Gil: You know, to me, sometimes it’s one and sometimes it’s the other. But regardless of which one it is, I never get hooked up in how far apart they are.
Bob: Correct.
Gil: I just know that I’m going the right speed. And we all can agree that the right speed is the critical mass. Because of what we’re reading on the brain’s anticipation circuit, I’m coming to believe more and more that it’s the act of the bird coming to the lead that allows the brain to anticipate the point of convergence to be correct. And when the line’s correct, and the speed’s correct, I feel like that I see it.
Let me go one step further, Bob. I feel like when I shoot with the gun off of my shoulder, there’s 100 percent feel. Because I can’t see it at that point in time. So if I’m actually shooting, when it’s coming, I see it coming and I start moving slowly away. And me and that target are in the same place, and that gun is somewhere out there. But in some instances I think I feel it, and in some instances I think I see it, especially on a curling target, when I see the line straighten out, that’s when I pull the trigger. Because I know I’m at those two points in the converging lines that create the arc. I can’t explain it other than the fact that I see it coming and there’s no argument in my brain. When it comes, I go slowly away.
I know that when I’m coaching it, I need to get people to actually see that stable picture and they’ll hit it. But the more they do it, the less consciously aware they are of the space between the two. And that allows them to move into that feel and that trust. And Danno, that’s when the leads start shrinking. They shrink because of the familiarity of the separation without a concern for how much separation there is. So that perception of the amount of separation is in a constantly diminishing mode, as long as we’re not trying to look for it. When we start trying to look for it, it gets real big. Understand that?
Bob: Then you go conscious. That’s the big problem.
Gil: Yeah. It’s the wrong brain.
Bob: When you do a demo with the gun off your face with the student looking over your shoulder, that’s totally by feel.
Gil: Yeah, there’s no doubt about it. But what I’m saying is, when I shoot from the hip…
Bob: That’s totally by feel.
Gil: When I feel like the gun is pointing directly at the target and I’m going the same speed, I pull the trigger and the target blows up. I don’t know how many people I’ve taught how to shoot from the hip. We both know the gun’s somewhere in front, but in that point of convergence where the bird is behind the barrel.
What Dan is saying about his kids and what we’re talking about that has helped so many people discover is, as Brian says, as long you don’t get involved with it. Just create separation. See it come. When it’s right, send it. And that’s at the end of conversation. And it will hit it every single time.
Bob: My contention is that the more you do of that, with the ability of the anticipation circuit you’re talking about, it becomes more feel than it does visual. That’s why when the conscious brain tries to put the visual back in afterwards it gets confusing information about “Well, that was less than it was last week.”
Gil: Well, it’ll be different. The more consciously you are aware of it. I think that’s what Jack Flesher was referring to in the beginning. Before, we just threw up our hands and it drove us crazy. I was being water tortured.
Dan Paxton from Carolina is on the OSP train, okay? And he’s training his kids to see it come and get the speed right. His kids have been winning the state championship for I don’t know how many years. But they’re understanding this and the conversation gets started. His kids get a little nervous; they know the target takes lead. And Dan keeps telling them “Just shoot at it. We both know the gun’s in front. Don’t worry about how far out front. Get the speed right and just shoot at the bird.” And the bird starts blowing up.
That led to the conversation which kind of dovetails into what you were saying, Jack. It really doesn’t matter how far in front, because it’s a perception; it’s not real. What matters is “Are you on line and is the speed right?”
Jack: Right. That’s exactly my point. The point I was trying to make back then is that if the minute you try to relate it through what you remember it as, your memory isn’t accurate. Because when you’re doing it, it is very definitely a feel thing. When to send the shot because that sync feels right. There are multiple things going on. You say the sight picture stabilizes, and I think that’s as good a verbal explanation as you can give it. That sight picture stabilizes, and it stabilizes because you’re on line at the right lead and you’re going the same speed as the target.
Gil: Now, Bob Shannon, explain to Jack the difference in feel and look.
Bob: Okay. You got two parts of your visual motor cortex. One goes to your visual cortex, (which is what we see) which is actually timing-wise behind the ability of the other half, called the dorsal part (which does all the geometry). And it’s really fast and really good at doing the geometry. But it operates more at a feel level way ahead of the visual. And when I say way ahead, we’re talking about a second or a fraction of a second.
Jack: Several hundred milliseconds. Yeah, I get that. And I was telling Gil a week or so ago, I shoot this game called ZZs. I don’t know if you’ve ever shot Helice or ZZs, but you don’t have time to sync up. You have to go to the right spot and pull the trigger to kill that ZZ, and it is 100 percent feel. The minute you think, you’re going to miss. And so it’s got to be using this faster circuit you’re talking about to accomplish that.
Bob: Yep. I would agree.
Gil: It’s just an amazing thing. Watching and nursing people through anticipating the bird as opposed to reacting and chasing. It’s an interesting process. If we can get them to understand through feeling and seeing that connection, what we mean when we say stable, then their brain can do miraculous things. And once it seizes and latches on to it about 15 to 18 times, all you gotta do is get out of its way. Because it’s got it. And then what you have to do is stop giving them data information, and you have to start giving them encouragement. And that’s the right shot. “I know you didn’t hit it. Fire the circuit again. Let the brain figure out what the lead is. Don’t you get involved in it. Fire the circuit again.” And all of a sudden “smack, smack, smack.”
But the part of the learning curve that perplexes me is they want to send the shot just before everything is hooked up. And I don’t know whether they’re having to overcome a new picture of the bird coming to them rather than pushing out to the bird. I haven’t put my finger on that yet. But that seems to be a common thread in teaching people this method. They want to send it before they’re really synced up. It may be that they haven’t ever been synced up like that before in their life. And they’re having to learn what synched up means.
In the beginning, I feel like it’s a picture, and they may hit eight out of 10 with that picture. In the end, the more they learn to trust not getting involved with the lead, and they begin to see that the leads shrink, to the point that they know there’s separation. But they’re really just looking at the bird and getting the sync right. Once they see that, their brain really feeds on that and they pick it up dramatically fast.
Questions on the Eye Syncing with the Bird
Jack: Let me ask you a question, Gil, if I may. How is it that we sync up with any of the targets that our muzzle must occlude in order to kill it? In other words, say a driven anything directly overhead, or a high rising straight in front of a trap target. Our gun necessarily has to occlude the target. Yet we still sync up with it and kill it.
Gil: I never see the bird covered up. When I go do it, it’s converging lines and when they converge, I pull the trigger without seeing any kind of a bird-barrel relationship. If I have to see a bird-barrel relationship, I’m going to be under the bird.
Jack: I agree. I don’t know how to verbalize this any better. I still see the target and I’m synced up, but I know that I pulled the trigger at a moment when the barrel has to be physics occluding the target.
Gil: Well, one thing that I still believe in is that a two-eyed shooter has a great advantage in that more data is coming from the retina of the non-shooting eye than the retina of the shooting eye. Because the gun has occluded the bottom half of the vision in the shooting eye. Okay?
I’ve experienced this in Argentina. We’ve been down there 34, 35 times. I have experienced certain shoots where the birds are stupid high. And I start that gun in from the left, and as I bring it onto the line, my right eye sees where the barrel is and my left eye sees the bird under the barrel. And when they’re synced up, I pull the trigger and the birds die. It doesn’t matter how high they are. But I’m actually seeing that bird under the barrel with my left eye.
Jack: Okay. Yeah.
Gil: And I’ve seen that on some long teals. I was shooting teal with Stuart Clarke years ago when he was over here for the Browning Briley. We shot together for an afternoon and he was showing me different ways to shoot a teal. It all has to do with the perception of seeing around the barrel. He’ll put the gun on his nose right in the middle of his field of view and he’ll see the bird through the barrel. And as the bird comes up, he pushes the barrel up and as he mounts over the bird, it’s all occluded. But he continues to mount and he pulls the trigger and blows the bird up. It’s the strangest thing I’ve ever seen. I could do it but I didn’t have the comfort in that I have coming in from the left and inserting over the bird.
Sometimes when I’m really deep in the zone, Jack, if it’s a teal and it’s going up and it’s got some lead, as I move into that bird, I pull my left elbow down and I see the gun over the bird. And I see the bird under the barrel with my left eye. I don’t see that all the time. But I can see around that barrel with my left eye. I’m convinced that some people can do that, some people can’t. I’m not convinced that everybody in the world can do that. But I do see it.
Jack: I see through the gun, so I can shoot a rising teal on the way up pretty reliably. And obviously I have to be looking through the barrel with my off eye to do that.
Gil: Yeah. And I’m convinced as I go on this journey that when you have trained the brain properly and you’re in sequence, the brain can do a whole lot more with a whole lot less visual input than we give it credit for being able to do. I mean, just the simple fact that as you train and you get better and better and better, you’re able to have performances that are better and better seeing less and less. Because the sequences have all been passed off to the automaticity circuit in your brain and you don’t have to look hard at the bird. To me, looking hard at a bird has to do with a lack of muzzle awareness. I mean, it’s like a slinky.
You hear these guys say,just got to learn how to look at a bird. Well, my ability to see the bird has everything to do with my ability to not worry about where the barrel is, and to have my periphery suspend all confusion of the barrel. And once that’s suspended, I don’t have to fight to look at a bird.
Jack: It’s an excellent point. And it kind of dovetails with what I was just saying. There are some birds that, if you try to look at well, meaning you zero in on them with your dominant eye, you’re not gonna be able to shoot, right? If you zero in on it with the eye that’s over the barrel.
Gil: That’s the 60/40, 50/50 fight. And the guy that wants 70/30 or 80/20, he wants to never cover the bird up, but he’s got compound leads that are false on curling birds. You know, it’s a ying and yang thing. On the second bird of a pair, I want to be able to put the gun right on the line where it needs to be and pull the trigger. And I’ll give up not being able to see the bird when I shoot a teal or a trap shot. Because those are not difficult shots. If I’m setting myself up so that I have a converging line, all I have to do is look at that bird off the machine, and when it goes out, I begin a convergence. I’m trusting my brain to put that gun where it needs to be anyway. I just don’t need to see that shot come together. It’s just there.
“Just shoot right at the target”
Thoughts on Teaching Younger Shooters
Gil: So, Danno,
tell us a little bit more about your kids. I want you to review what you were
telling us about your kids. The kid who you told “Just go ahead and shoot
at it and see what happens.” I don’t think we got that on tape. Would you
mind repeating that with us?
Dan: Not at all. I
had a kid who was shooting some really big league targets and practicing FITASC,
so he kind of got lead in his mind. For a couple of weeks he kind of went off
the rails and was really looking at the lead, looking at the gap, and trying to
measure. I think I kind of got him into it by accident. There was a chandelle
target and a deep quartering bird going out. Both of them took several feet of
lead and I said “Adam, just shoot right at the target.” And he
argued. He said “Coach, I can’t shoot right at that target. I know it
takes lead.” I said “Just trust me on this one and look at the bird
really hard. See detail on the target, and shoot right at it like it was a trap
bird.” He said “Okay, I’m going to do it” and they both blew up.
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