You will never rise to the level of your goals. You will always fall to the level of your systems in preparation. Now, when you can internalize that, then that means if you don’t do well, you need to improve your system of preparation. At the beginning of the 100-yard dash, everybody has the same […]
When you shoot well and you get a compliment you should always attach your gratitude to that person. First, you have to look them in the eye and say, “Thank you for noticing.” And it needs to be sincere. We’ve always tried to help people to attach their good score to several specific things that […]
Tiger Woods in his early career tied with several guys going into the last day and they just left him in a cloud of dust. And they asked him, “Well, Tiger what happened today?” He said, “While I did not score as well today as I had hoped, I feel that my performance forced my […]
There’s a direct correlation between the way you practice and the way you perform. Most shooters’ evaluation of their ability is a little or (in some instances) a lot higher than reality, and their commitment to improve their ability is in the work they’re continuing to avoid. You must begin to accept nothing less than […]
Mental toughness is not about how you think, it’s about what you think. But more importantly, it’s about how many times you thought it in the same way such that you are, when you’re in the zone, you are operating on your habits. When something is a habit, it happens at a high level without […]
Do you have any affirmations that you tell yourself and others that you’re going to do at the next tournament you go to? For instance: “I’ve been working on my process, and I want you to know that when we get to the tournament, all I’m going to do is read the targets, get in the […]
Here’s another simple thing that shooters don’t do, and it’s a real game changer from the consistency standpoint. After breaking a target, they don’t stop to replay what they just saw happen so they can use that movie to preload the next shot. As we mentioned earlier, this is called the post-shot routine and it […]
In the beginning, it will be difficult for you to commit to the shot as predicted because of your desire to break the target instead of executing the prediction to see if the prediction was correct. When you begin to train this way – by committing to the shot the way you want it to […]
You can’t be mediocre and then show up at the tournament on Sunday and be excellent. Excellence is a way of life. You gotta strive to be excellent at everything. This doesn’t mean you’re going to be perfect at it. You can give it all to God and say, “I trust you, I’m going to […]
Peak performance, regardless of level, is still peak performance. And in the beginning, performance in front of others with an unknown outcome brings about all sorts of fears of the unknown. This situation feeds your brain with phrases and feelings that make little sense away from the situation, but when you’re facing the situation for […]
There are six basic target trajectories: left-to-right and right-to-left crossing and quartering, and targets going up and falling. And until you master at least two, you will not experience much consistency or confidence in your practice or tournaments. So, what do we mean when we say master a trajectory? Here is where the work begins. […]
There have been hundreds of times in the last 35 years when I’ve had a really good shooter who’s trying to learn a new move. He’ll be struggling and hit it three or four times. And here’s the problem: he thinks he has it. He’s gone to evaluating. He jumps into the evaluation quagmire, and all […]
The ability to visualize in detail and execute the preloaded visual process in practice to see if it was correct is where most shooters fail to really get better and develop the mental side of their games. How well you’re able to visualize how and where you want your brain to take the next shot […]
Nobody comes out of the womb predisposed to be able to shoot a shotgun at moving targets without experiencing confusion. We’re talking about the confusion of looking at a target and getting the gun muzzle in front of it while matching speed and taking the shot. Everything about hitting a moving target with a shotgun […]
For most, training your mind to be stronger than your feelings is such a far reach that they can’t even imagine themselves always reacting in a positive way in a difficult negative situation, because it is easier to just give in and enjoy the negativity. Thinking in a situation like this is difficult and must […]
How well you understand that the gun must be to the right or left of the target has little to do with your ability to consistently do it. The number of times you have done it has everything to do with how consistently and successful you will be when actually at the range or in […]
We ran across an interesting thought not long ago. If you do something to improve your shooting game for 15 minutes a day every day for a year, you will be better than 95 percent of the people out there. This brings us back to the reality that there is a direct correlation between how […]
So, you think you have a mental problem or your mental game needs to be improved? You might think this is the only way you can explain the missing targets you know how to break in clutch situations. While you might have a mental problem, let’s look at your overall entire game before we use […]
We have discovered the most frequent mistake shooters make when practicing their mount at home in the garage or gun room. When they mount the gun, they are looking at something – a light switch or a duck’s head or a lampshade – and when they mount the gun to their face and shoulder, they […]
The magic shooters are looking for is in the work they are not willing to do! There is a difference between comment and commitment, and nothing could illustrate it better than the example we just shared above. When your brain understands through repetition what it really looks like to hit a moving target, the more you […]
In the beginning, it will be difficult for you to commit to a shot as predicted because of your desire to break the target instead of executing the prediction to see if the prediction was correct. When you begin to train this way – by committing to the shot the way you want it to […]
For most shooters, there is no rhyme or rhythm in their results when shooting a shotgun at a moving target – painted or feathered. If you shoot a shotgun enough, when you’re surprised by a target at the range or bird in the field, you look at the target, mount the gun, and pull the […]
New shooters don’t have the shot inventory to properly visualize how and where they want the shot to come together, or they have been chasing all the targets down and trying to fix the shot at the end. Either way, if the shooter is successful, it will be short-lived. We find that the target presentation […]
Shooters often do not practice with intensity, which can confuse them. They go through the motions and fun, and then when they go to a tournament they try, and their brain doesn’t recognize them. They’re not relaxed or happy-go-lucky – they’re not having fun. They’re trying. What you have to do in practice is build […]
Shooters can get so obsessed with breaking the target instead of the process. You can’t do anything unless you have a plan. This game is all about ego. And ego is all about breaking the bird. So, that evaluation part when you’re trying to learn makes it hard for everybody. They evaluate the day on […]
You can see people walk up to a stand, and they are scared to death to get ready to shoot that target. They don’t have a plan of what they’re going to do with the targets. And you can just see them when they’re gripping their gun, with sweat coming down their face, because they […]
After you break the first pair, the typical emotional reaction is relief. Wrong. When you break the first pair, and you break that second bird of the first pair, as you open the gun, the first thing you ought to do is replay visually what you just saw. That becomes a preload for the next […]
Less is important. The mistake that most people make in the beginning is they put way too many things in their pre-shot routine, which means they haven’t done enough of what they do in their routine to make it a habit. It’s eight things instead of only three things. Less is more. Less is important. […]
How detailed should your routine be once you’re in the station? There are several levels of detail that we can discuss, depending on whether you’re in a tournament or whether you’re in a practice session, or whether you’re just watching clay target kill shot reviews and visualizing. I know that when we are practicing, which […]
The ideal way for the brain to move the body is small muscle, big muscle. And when I’m moving, as I call or I’m moving before I call, it’s so much easier for me to get everything synced up. Because my hands are moving, if the small muscles are moving before you see the bird, […]
Leading up to a big event, we’re all excited to go to the Open or Nationals. But if I expect to do well, I need to have to time to practice, and for maybe months or weeks and days leading up to the event, I begin to repeat to myself and to others affirmations. They’ve […]
Remembering the past is intimately linked with imagining the future. You had a bad day at the shooting range and your buddy calls and says, “Let’s go shoot at that range.” You’ll probably say no, because you think back to the day that you didn’t shoot well. As we’ve said thousands of times: it is […]
In a study on baseball that Dan Levy and Dave Kirscher did, they looked at simple reactions and complex reactions. They compared trained athletes to everyday people. When the decision was a simple decision, like “red light, green light, stop or go,” there was no difference in the speed or accuracy between the trained athletes, […]
You need to be absolutely lethal within 25 yards. If you’re going to shoot tournaments, it’s not the long stuff that kills you. It’s the stuff that’s within the 20-to-25-yard mark. If you want to gain ground on a scorecard, that’s where it has to be done. It’s not the hard stuff; it’s the little […]
Positive or negative, or even verbal encouragement on the course while you’re shooting… none of it is good or will improve your performance. This is why the frustration occurs. What you’re doing or how you’re doing it, albeit well-intended, will not work, which means you have proven it with your approach so far. You must […]
In the beginning, we know when a shooter is shooting with a gun doesn’t fit. We know it shoots high. I’ll typically give the shooter my gun and then he hits five targets in a row at 50 yards that he couldn’t touch with his gun. And then he says, “Oh, but I couldn’t shoot […]
“I’ve been shooting for two years and should be shooting better than C class. I have too many unforced errors. Thoughts on my dilemma?” This shooter has been shooting for two years. He practices three times a week, but he’s got too many unforced errors, and he’s stuck between 68 and 75 in C […]
A habit is nothing more than cue, response, and reward. And you have to do that “cue, response, reward” enough times, so that it becomes a habit. When I look at the target, I always use a skeet choke on anything inside of 25 yards. I always use skeet on anything inside 25 yards. I’m […]
No one ends up with the same visual confusion they begin with. And don’t make too much over eye dominance. Learning the sight picture and the three-bullet drill will make most dominance issues fade away. Practice the sight pictures over and over and always predict how you want the shot to come together. Trigger time […]
In working with a lot of the high school athletes and the high school coaches, we’ve learned that gun fit is a huge thing for them. There are no guns out there that are going to fit somebody that’s 5’6 and weighs 115 pounds. That’s just not out there. You need to do what I […]
If the targets are hard to see due to lighting or background conditions, find a spot that’s either on the target line or close to it. And after killing the first bird, get your eyes there and keep them still, so that they will go to the motion created by the moving target and the […]
When you’re looking between the birds of the pair, you’ll understand just how much time you really have to shoot the pair, which will eliminate the hurry on the first bird or the first pair. And eventually will get you more X’s. Never miss a target because you think you have to hurry. Whenever you […]
A success or a failure without a prediction never makes its way to the long-term memory. It’s absolutely wasted. It’s the prediction and the execution of the prediction that allows you to commit to do a certain thing on that target. If you hit it, it’s filed in long-term memory because of the prediction. If […]
“If we can accept that having some level of expectation is a normal and natural byproduct of training and competition, how do we best manage and deal with it?” Well, you always go into a practice or tournament with some kind of expectation. But you can’t let that really enter into the process. Because then […]
I had a lesson with a 70-year-old guy who had been taking lessons from the young guns – trying to pull away, trying to insert, trying to match speeds then pull away, all manner of things at the end of the shot. When he hit it moving the same speed at the end the first […]
Your working memory is very limited in how many things it can handle at one time. It can’t handle more than three to four things synchronously at one time. When more things enter the workspace, it’s like having an iPhone with 33 apps that are open. It’s just overloaded and it stops working. The fewer […]
If you want to become a good competitive shooter, just like practicing your gun mount, you got to put a number on your back and get in the game. The first year in master class, shoot every event at every tournament you can afford timewise and moneywise to go without worrying about your scores. Just […]
Goals are very personal. How you look at things, how you name them, and the value you draw from them are also very personal things. In some of the emails I’ve gotten from the guys who are going to be on tonight, they’re all saying the same thing. You need to research where you are, […]
Let’s get back to the evolution of perceptions shooters go through as they gain more and more experience in deliberate practice and shooting tournaments. Everyone has a sequence in their brain that has been fired many times to point at something they are looking at. When a new shooter tries to look at the target […]
We think it would be good to talk about one more step in the performance part of sporting clays that not many of you have considered. When you look at a target for the first time, your long-term memory sees it and instantly searches the inventory of similar shots that you have deliberately practiced or […]
When a new shooter says something about the confusion, someone – albeit well-intended – throws their hands up in the air and proclaims that you’re left-eye dominant. You immediately feel like damaged goods, and some well-meaning person puts tape on your non-shooting eye and the confusion goes away. The reason it goes away is that […]
It is not so much what is in your routine that is important, but the rhythm of your routine that allows your brain to know exactly when you will be calling. This in turn allows the brain to begin doing its job before you call “pull” without you even knowing what it is doing. You […]
For most of you, facing a long, crossing target will make you a little uncomfortable on your first attempt because you have no expectation of hitting it. You simply call for the bird and the gun magically goes out in front. Then the trigger is pulled and the target breaks. You were shocked, relieved, and […]
In our research, we have begun to understand that there are different kinds of practice. While there are many different phases of practice, we want to deal with two of them here- “blocked’ and “random.” When a shooter goes out and shoots the same target over and over again in the same breakpoint, that would […]
Consistently pointing ahead or in front of a steadily moving object is a new sequence in our brains. And like everything else we do, it must be repeated enough times so that it happens without us having to think about it. Your ability to consistently create this action is not tied to your desire for […]
Things that happen to you just are. But how you remember them turns them into strong influences on who you will or can become. When you attach to the memory something positive that helped you to achieve this memory, it becomes more like you. We are all products of our past and how we remember […]
When we see the obvious mistake, we know where the mistake began, and we attack the root cause which is rarely where the shooter missed the target! Remember that your skill is what you have trained the brain to fill in when it finds itself in familiar circumstances. So, for you to improve, you need […]
We have discovered many things in our years of shooting and coaching, and one of the most startling ones is the direct link between the quality, frequency, and intensity of a shooter’s practice and how well they shoot when it counts. This discovery comes from our encounters with shooters who are looking for the magic […]
Our research shows several patterns that have emerged over the years we have been professional coaches, and it basically boils down to two things: either shooters begin to try or begin to evaluate while they are performing. There is a sequence we have noticed as shooters begin to work their way through the classes. It […]
When shooters begin to learn to see the target behind where the barrel is pointed, they stop looking at the barrel. The barrel has a place in the picture, but it is always in the periphery. We have been using a gun mount practice to show the brain what it really looks like to see […]
The instant the new shooter says something about the confusing picture, they are immediately misdiagnosed as “cross-dominant!” There is a perception out there that if you are right-handed and right-eye dominant that you can look at the target and look down the barrel and get the correct lead to hit a moving target with no […]
Daniel Coyle, author of “The Talent Code,” has a knack for putting things in words based on his research of “talent hotbeds” – coaching situations that produced high performers consistently. This book is where we first learned about the myelination of circuits in the brain. The process occurs based on deliberate practice and tearing the […]
Consistency and confidence cannot be practiced; they are what is left over from practicing, which is why you must bring your practice game to higher and higher levels. There is a myth out there that you can talk yourself into becoming a better shooter. But sorry, that golden ring or silver bullet doesn’t exist. You […]
Eventually, your game will elevate to another level and your fellow shooters will begin to notice your scores are either becoming more consistent and/or higher. You will begin to be complimented on your game. The normal response to a compliment about your score is to be humble and say things like, “Well a blind hog […]
Let’s use opening your over-and-under shotgun as an example. You don’t have to consciously tell your hands where to hold the gun and you don’t have to look at your thumb to make sure it hits the top lever and exerts the correct amount of pressure sideways to enable the gun to open. Both of […]
One big thing we have been emphasizing is that skill resides in a person’s memory. A person cannot visualize something they have never seen, so there is no shortcut to becoming proficient with a shotgun – especially in hunting situations. In addition, our brain has no ability to do what we want it to do […]
Something that must be considered is the amount of cheek pressure required to shoot the gun consistently. If the salesman says you will have to cheek the gun a little tighter, don’t buy the gun. Years of shooting and coaching has shown us that the greater amount of cheek pressure required to “make the gun […]
Since you were six months old, you have been pointing at something you were looking at, so your pointing sequence is highly automatized due to the number of times you have pointed at a distant object. In our game, the gun must be pointed ahead of the target because the target is moving, right? Almost […]
In our 31 years now as professional coaches, we have seen thousands of performers who have had differing degrees of skill with a shotgun, fishing rod, golf club, tennis racket, public speaking and many more activities. The ones who eventually end up being really good are the ones that attack skill building as “desirable difficulty!” […]
When shooting flushing birds, you can’t use shooting sticks and you can’t take a little extra time and aim. The target is always moving at an unknown speed and most of the time an unknown distance. In the instance of a flushing bird, after you are startled by the flushing of the bird, the bird […]
The journey to mastery involves controlling and dealing with the many challenges and adversity put in your pathway to teach and test you. Skill resides in the filler in the brain and as you go through the classes you are (or should be) building filler through repetitions and positive reactions to the good shots and […]
Gun fit is a fairly broad topic that encompasses many different facets, starting with how consistent the shooter can mount the gun. Of course, this comes from repetition, repetition, repetition. We are sure you have been told or have read that gun fit is important and is a key to being successful on the range […]
Skill building is a process that few really understand. And even fewer are willing to put in the time and repetitions necessary to really build skill in their shotgun game. There are so many shooters out there who, for various reasons, just will not make the time to really build a game. As a result, […]
We recommend fitting a gun with light cheek pressure and that the gun be stocked so that with light cheek pressure, the Point of Impact (POI) be 50/50. While some shooters like floating a target, we are not among them. We have two reasons for this. First, let’s say your pattern is 60/40. That means […]
The ability to take disappointment out of a situation is a full-time job for a coach. It also needs to be a full-time job for a competitor if they really want to be good. Our brains will take the negative road in a heartbeat. You must train yours to say things in a way that […]
You are going to miss. Accept it and move on. But knowing what missing does to your physiology can be very helpful. While we’ve observed that different shooters react in different ways, they all speed up. You lose control between the pairs and stations and you must get it back by first slowing down and […]
Young shooters are easily excited with the rapid learning and skill-building they experience, but they will soon hit the proverbial wall where it takes more effort to move to higher and higher score plateaus. This is described in detail in several different sports in Daniel Coyle’s book “The Talent Code,” where he talks about the […]
The one trait that seems to be common among all successful competitors is the ability to stay calm under pressure, which leads to the ability to think clearly and act according to a plan – to stay process-oriented instead of outcome-oriented. We use the phrase “process-oriented” when referring to this mental state of mind. It […]
If you are competitive in skeet or sporting clays, eventually you’re going to have one of those days where you could not put a three-word sentence together and your game is as mixed up as a soccer game with six-year-olds with three balls on the field! The negative thoughts and comments will flow through your […]
It’s easy for shooters to dwell on the failure on the last station. But the winners learn from it and move on, and leave the misses behind them in the cage, maintaining a calm quiet mind. Most shooters would let that last stand affect the rest of their day by overreacting to the failure. It […]
Have you ever heard this phrase? “That gun fits you but to shoot it well, you will have to either use a little more cheek pressure or just float the bird a little” Our 30 years of research has shown us that if you must use more cheek pressure to make a gun shoot for […]
Game shooting offers its own unique challenges when compared to clay shooting, not the least of which is that the game bird has a brain and can change its line, speed, and angle with a mere flick of a feather on a wing or tail. The clay target decelerates when it leaves the trap and […]
Some people think shooting is about breaking targets. But in our experience, it should be about so much more, especially when it comes to learning to perform. We have the privilege of shooting with young shooters as they enter college and go through it. In talking to their volunteer coaches, we see many of them […]
“I wonder where in the learning process the unlearning of bad habits comes in. Maybe you don’t unlearn at all. Maybe the process of learning anew writes over the old habits in the brain!” Look at skill as a set of railroad tracks that are all rusted from lack of use and the elements. When […]
In sporting, the ability to visualize in detail the movie of the shots you are about to ask your brain to create is critical. But it’s increasingly more difficult due to presentation being different from shoot to shoot, day to day, and even morning to afternoon. We have walked the same course in the afternoon […]
The thing that confuses shooters is that they don’t practice with the required intensity. They’re out there going through the motions, having fun. And then when they go to a tournament they try, and their brain doesn’t recognize them. They’re not relaxed, or happy-go-lucky, they’re not having fun. They’re trying. What you have to do […]
I had a lesson with a fellow, and we worked on a station had trouble with at a tournament. I had him shoot them as a true pair, which was a pretty tough one. The wind was at our back and it was blowing the second target about 60 yards out there, and the first […]
Push yourself to the limit and make a commitment that when you get to the gun club, you’re going to go out and practice, and start working on specific issues. And if you can’t do it, you need to turn around and go home. You need to go there with a specific plan when you […]
After you enter the downward spiral and are confused for 25 to 30 minutes, you’re toast for the day. This is due to your brain injecting cortisol into your system, which is a hormone that kills performance at every level. After 25 to 30 minutes of injection, there is so much cortisol in your system, […]
I was working with Craig Hill after he had gone to the world shoot and finished eighth in the world. He came to me again and awked, “Okay, what do I have to do different?” “Describe your practice routine,” I said. Now, Craig is 6’6, a big ol’ boy who can handle recoil. No problem […]
Positive soundalikes: they sound positive, but they’re a way for your brain to say, “Hang on, now, be careful. You’re down three. Be careful. Come on now, be sure now. Be sure you see the target. Be sure you’re in front of it. Be sure…” All of those “be sures” and then up jumps the […]
We’ve all heard the stupid phrases our brain injects that do anything but help us remain positive and stay in the zone: “Is that the right hold point? Be sure you get the lead right. I wish that guy didn’t talk so loud. You only got two stations to go. Can’t miss any more. Down […]
There’s a direct correlation between preparation and performance. We can get by when we’re on the road with less-than-ideal nutrition or exercise. But we have to have sleep. Sleep is a commodity, and once you get behind on a four or five-day trip, you never get caught up. Sometimes we have to be a little […]
I’m sure you’ve all experienced times when your synchronization and flow between your hands and body are gone. And try as you may, your body is all out of sync. Whenever you feel your body all out of sync, that’s a sign that you’ve probably sped up. The brain doesn’t know enough about when you’re […]
There’s a difference in shooting a shotgun and learning how to compete. First of all, you have to be able to shoot a shotgun and break the target the way you want to break it and where you want to break it without thinking about it, and trust your subconscious. Then once you get to […]
“I’ve been shooting for two years and should be shooting better than C class. I have too many unforced errors. Thoughts on my dilemma?” This shooter wants to know: is it focus? Is it routine? Is it commitment to the breakpoint? Is it overthinking? Is it confidence? What exactly is it? We’ve answered these […]
If you hear it, you must instantly turn the phrase around and make it a positive affirmation for you. This will take some real work on your behalf. But after a week or so, it will turn into a fun game and after 25 to 30 days it will become a powerful habit that you […]
When we go into the negative spiral, we begin neutral, but we become hesitant and doubtful due to hoping to shoot great today. The wrong brain is already in control. From hesitant, you slip into the confused state because your brain is confused – this is not how you practiced. Your working memory is playing […]
When people shoot year-round and compete in winter tournaments in Florida and Arizona, somewhere between June 15th and July 15th, they hit a wall and plateau out and go down. It takes them until the end of August or middle of September to work their way out of it. We were not aware of it […]
You must become totally committed to how and where the shot you’re about to take will come together – both in practice, and on game day. But you’ve got to be committed to doing it like you planned, as opposed to committed to saying you’re going to do it one way, and then throwing the […]
