Whether you are a new shooter or a seasoned veteran, skeet or sporting clays, old or young, there is an inevitable place you will eventually find yourself: a plateau.
In skeet it is getting into C, then A, then AA, and finally being able to compete in AAA. In sporting, there is one score plateau that almost all shooters find themselves in, shooting around 75-79 in C or B class. The next one would be punching into Master, and then being able to compete in Master class.
In our 25 years of professional coaching, our prior 9 years as competitors in sporting, and 7 years in skeet, we have both won tournaments and coached hundreds of shooters to become tournament winners, as well as All-Americans. And we continue to be mystified with what shooters really think separates the great shooters from the rest.
The majority of shooters still think that getting the lead right will lead to more consistency. Then there are those who say “it is the six inches between their ears” that keeps them from progressing. Others say, “I’m really not that competitive of a person.” Some justify the inconsistency in their scores and the plateau they find themselves on by saying, “I really don’t have the time or money to practice enough to get really good – but if I did, I could.”
While some of these statements are partially correct, they all have a common thread – they are all based on finding a quick fix.
Like the mother told little Johnnie after losing in the 8-ball tournament, “Don’t worry, son. He just got lucky. All his shots were straight in!” As our friend Bill Smith from Birmingham once told us, “Success comes before work only in the dictionary!”
Vicki said this in a clinic last year: “You don’t think your way to the right action; you must act your way to the right way of thinking!” In our research, one phrase keeps being proven to us and our customers over and over again: “technical expertise is always preceded by experience.“
Most shooters are trying to shoot higher and higher scores, thinking that if they shoot higher scores they will become more consistent. But we find it is really the other way around. The high scores don’t pull the low scores up; it is the low scores that continually get better that eventually push the high scores higher and higher.
In our lectures, this is where we usually talk about what we call a Score Differential, (SC) or the difference between your high and low scores. What we see in the beginning shooter is an SC of 10-16 targets. As they shoot more, and become more comfortable with their surroundings when shooting, it shrinks to 8-12 targets. It eventually gets down to 8-10 and that is where they get stuck.
Why do they get stuck there? The amount of effort to get better exceeds their commitment in time to get better. We find it is not the money, but the time. Because you can’t buy more time! It is here that the credit card comes out and thousands are spent on videos, books, guns, chokes, faster ammo, glasses of different color, gun fitting, custom stocks with adjustments, and a litany of other attempted quick fixes, all to no avail.
While there is any number of different reasons why scores plateau and what you can do to improve, we find that there are two things that really separate the really good shooters from the rest of the pack! First, the ability to visualize every time what the shot is really going to look like when they pull the trigger. And second, how comfortable they are when they find themselves in a competitive situation!
Now, we are not talking about the C or A-class shooter in skeet or sporting. We are talking about the shooters who are at the top of the game. They are the ones who have put in the time to get their physical game to a level that everything they do on game day is a habit that requires little or no thought, which frees up more and more precious focus and attention for the target. They never have to “check the beads” to see if they are lined up. Their mount is perfect every time, whether shooting gun up or down. Keeping their eyes on the target is a given. The muzzle is always in the periphery and they know where it is pointed without looking at it at all times. Their hold points are almost automatic, and their hands are always soft and ready to move.
But it is the ability to visualize in detail and commit to the shot they are about to do that really separates the top from the rest. The brain can’t do anything unless it has a picture of the action you are asking it to create. And when that picture is an automatic reaction to just looking at the target’s flight path, it becomes easier and easier for you to let things happen.
In the beginning shooter, we see that they must pay attention to so many things from their toes to the end of the muzzle. Then they must shift their focus to the target and what they are trying to do to hit the target. This clutter concentrates their brain function on all the stuff, leaving precious little focus for the target itself.
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