It is our observation from a coaching/performance perspective that one of the biggest differences in the top sporting clays and skeet performers and everyone else is that top shooters are really committed to the shot they’re about to take before they close the gun and call “pull”! Unfortunately, the rest of the shooters are doomed to repeat the same errors over and over again. And they really don’t understand the root cause of their random misses.
In skeet, due to targets being the same everywhere they’re shot, it’s a little easier to diagnose a problem target by simply looking at a shooter’s scorecard, looking for patterns in the misses. If you shot a 97 and two of the three misses were high 3, then that’s where you go to begin to understand why.
If the misses were random – not on the same station – then there might be a deeper problem. It could be eye movement on the call, muzzle movement on the call, hold point too high, not matching speed, or something as simple as speeding up in your routine.
Going to an experienced coach for some observation could help you diagnose the problem. But we see shooters in all the games creating inconsistencies in their performances by not really committing to the shot they’re about to take.
The eyes don’t see; the brain sees. And the brain cannot do anything unless it first has a picture of what it’s about to do. And the more vivid and detailed the movie of how and where you want the next shot to take place, the easier and more consistently you will be able to make it happen.
We began our shooting journey 45 years ago in skeet. We had a lot of fun learning and practicing the individual shots over and over until we developed a consistency we were pleased with. Now as professional coaches for 28 years, we have both come to realize the importance of the visual process and what a vital role it plays in consistency and confidence, in either skeet or sporting.
As new skeet shooters, we were consumed with lead and looked at it as a snapshot, not a movie. As a result, we had intermittent problems with stopping the swing or looking at the gap, among other things. But the real problem was we were not committed to the shot we were about to take.
Eventually, we began to develop the ability to anticipate how the shot would come together after we finally put breakpoints in our game and really committed to them. Until that point, we, like everyone else we knew, were calling “pull” and chasing the target down and trying desperately to fix the shot at the end. Eventually, we developed hold points and breakpoints and began to put some consistency in our approach. Then we began to be able to predict how and where the shots would come together, which developed confidence and the ability to visualize what was about to happen.
Enter the game called sporting clays, with five different sizes of targets thrown at unknown distances and speeds on every profile imaginable. The journey began all over for us in April of 1983, when we shot our first rounds of the new game. Well, as they say, history has a way of repeating itself. We went through the same learning curve in sporting clays as we traveled around the country seeing the same targets delivered in different backgrounds.
What we learned about hold points and breakpoints in skeet helped us in sporting. But because the traps were hidden from view and the targets were coming from different places depending on which course we shot, we had to develop focal points to consistently see the targets in the same place on each station! What a journey we had going to different courses across the country, making friends and discovering our weaknesses, and coming back to our local clubs to set the shots up and help each other figure them out.
While the game of skeet has stayed pretty much the same, sporting clays has evolved into something that we could not have even imagined back then. In fact, the game has changed four to five times since we have been shooting it for 37 years. The evolution paralleled the evolution of the traps that throw the targets. As the traps got better and could be tilted, the lines were no longer flat.
And today, they’re anything but flat and fast and farther. Setters have learned how to be even more deceptive with their presentations. The most recent evolution is the amount of time shooters are given to hit the targets after they’re launched. We’re also seeing less and less time in transitions from the first target of a pair to the second.
Another way the targets have evolved is they are becoming more and more technical in their delivery. The setter wants you to see the target as a simple crosser or quartering shot, but about the time you want to shoot it, the target turns, slips or slides, changing its lead or line in an oh-so-subtle way. It makes you miss and not know why. We call these targets deceptive or dishonest due to their unique way of deceiving the shooter.
Besides the setter’s ability to deceive you with the changing target line and speed, there’s a background that makes the target look faster or slower than it really is due to the way the target is set. And when you add wind to the equation, things can get really nasty really fast.
Over the past few years, what and how we teach has evolved for the fifth or sixth time. We are seeing shooters who, for different reasons, are not really giving the targets the respect they deserve. And they’re being fooled time and again by setters who pick their pocket 1-2 targets per station. We’ve found that most shooters don’t look at the targets and figure out what they are really doing; they continue to look at a target as a crosser or quartering shot and while they are just that, they are more than that – a lot more!
The first mistake shooters make is they don’t watch the targets all the way to the ground. They just see the targets when others are shooting them, and typically watch them to their intended breakpoint. They don’t see the target slowing down dramatically as it goes behind the tree. And because of distance, they give it lead, when it really doesn’t need much due to its speed.
Even their descriptions of what the target is doing and their plan to break the targets aren’t nearly detailed or visual enough. That leads to thinking while the target is in the air. Here are two descriptions of the same target:
Shooter #1: “It’s a left-to-right crosser that has a little curl to it and I need to break it about right there.”
Shooter #2: “It’s a fast, left-to-right curling crosser belly on, that enters the field just below that leaf on the third branch up from the fork of that tree moving to 2 o’clock and peaking there and curling down to 4 o’clock. I need to see the target to the left of the barrel and as it approaches my gun that will be soft mounted right there, I am going to move slowly away from the target matching speed at 4 o’clock with lead due to the target’s speed and distance right there, where I am going to break it. This target has both distance and speed and is going to take more lead than I am comfortable with. So, I’m gonna have to be uncomfortable in front, ‘cause if I’m comfortable, I will miss behind. Same speed at the end”
Shooter #1 will miss behind on the first attempt. And because he does not have the habit of replaying the movie of the last shot to make a definite correction on the next shot, he’ll probably miss the same target the same way again before figuring out he needs to double the lead. Shooter #1 will hit the third target, but because he does not have the habit of replaying the movie of what just happened, will get trapped into looking at the lead and check the barrel and miss the fourth target. He’ll hit the last target because he’s not thinking about the lead during the shot.
Shooter #2 will, as she predicted, center the first target in her pattern and instantly replay the shot in her mind exactly as it came together. In her pre-shot routine, she’ll run the same visual movie in her head of what just happened and remind herself: left of the barrel at 4 o’clock, uncomfortable lead, same speed at the end. Shooter #2 will hit the same target five times in a row and will not have to think while she was shooting because of her detailed plan and the movie she played in her post-shot routine and again in her pre-shot routine. Every shot will be centered in her pattern and blown up in the same break point!
This is what we call committing to the shot you’re about to take. It’s learned when you’re practicing by doing a much more detailed plan and movie of how and where you want the shot to come together. What we see is shooters don’t practice their visual process or their routine. And they certainly don’t train their brain to see the subtleties of the technical targets being thrown in larger tournaments.
The approach of looking hard at a target with no thought of specific lines or lead or the barrel will no longer work on the technical targets being set by setters today. They’re using illusions to fool the brain into reacting to what it perceives instead of what it’s really doing.
As we see it, the only way to really up your game is to shoot more targets at as many different facilities as you possibly can. The trap many fall into is to practice at the same club all the time. Their practice scores are really good, but they become complacent in their predictions and routines.
They’re not practicing recalling the movie of the shot coming together how and where they want it from their long-term memory. As a result, when they see a new course in a tournament, they’re not prepared to analyze and predict where and how they want the shot to come together. They’re trying to focus hard on the targets and trigger the shot as they finish the mount. And they will continue to be caught up in the target setter’s illusion, instead of seeing through the technical part of the presentation and understanding what the target is really doing, making a detailed plan to not be fooled.
If you have your own practice facility or live in an area where there is only one course to practice, then spend more time shooting targets where they are not so honest. But add to your practice regimen making a detailed description of each target and then a detailed plan – make it a habit.
In doing so, you will be able to be much more detailed in making a plan on an unfamiliar setup at an unfamiliar club. And you’ll become much better at predicting and executing based on your detailed prediction.
The most wasted part of practicing is not doing a post-shot visual movie of the successful shot you just made. We call this the post-shot routine. And you need to do this enough so it becomes a habit, and, when successful, it allows for your post-shot visual to become your pre-shot routine visual! If you miss a target, being able to replay exactly what you saw in the shot will improve your ability to correct from a miss the first time, not the second or third!
