Before 1983, if you shot clay targets it was on a skeet or trap field. People who chose to shoot and compete at skeet didn’t necessarily like people who shot trap, and vice versa. It was like there were two tribes. And while they were never really at war with each other like owls and scissor-tailed flycatchers, they were constantly picking at each other.
Then came sporting clays.
Skeet and trap shooters both hated the publicity sporting clays got and the positive interest it got from the industry almost immediately – not to mention the overnight success of the new game with recreational shooters.
In the first organizational meeting of the NSCA, there was great optimism about the growth potential, both in industry and in competitive shooting. They highlighted a survey done by the National Shooting Sports Foundation showing that 2.6 million shooters shot at least one round of trap or skeet in the previous year. But they also added a new question which showed that over 3 million shooters had shot a round of sporting clays in the previous year. So, in a very short amount of time, sporting overtook both skeet and trap combined. And the rest, they say, is history. While there was some resentment towards sporting, it eventually subsided.
Today, a lot can be learned from all three games. So, let’s take a look at skeet and sporting and what can be learned from both games.
Skeet
Skeet is a game of prediction that is the same wherever it is shot, and it is a game of perfection. All targets are the same speed, and all targets, if broken over the stake (except station 8 targets) take the same amount of lead. But the angle change from station to station changes the perceived lead. There is almost an equal number of targets from the left and right. You must play the game perfectly and then go to the shoot-off to win.
The average distance the target is broken is 15 yards, and it takes just less than a second to travel from the trap to the stake. That means you will be acquiring syncing and shooting the target in about 2/3- ¾ of a second. So, you will be shooting the target in the first third of their flight paths, except for incomers on 1 and 2, and 6 and 7.
Backgrounds on a skeet field are typically clear sky, and the fields are usually pointed 10 degrees east of north to keep the sun out of the shooter’s eyes on all stations. The different lead pictures can be learned and repeated in a fairly short time. Then the shooter must learn to focus on the target and let the lead happen. That is where most shooters get trapped. They plateau in the mid-90s, and some never leave that plateau.
Sporting Clays
Sporting is a game of unknown distances, directions, and speeds with very few straight lines and constantly changing and confusing backgrounds. This, coupled with six different-sized targets that have distinctly different flight trajectories, makes for an infinite number of variables that must be experienced to be learned. That experience is typically learned from failure.
Many optical illusions come from curling lines or different backgrounds. For instance, the closer the target is to the background, the faster it appears due to the way the brain perceives movement! The curling target gives the illusion that it is falling. While it is falling, for every foot it falls, it moves as much as 10 to 15 feet left or right, depending on the direction it is thrown from.
We learned early on in our sporting career that the greatest variable in sporting is the different speeds that targets are thrown and how angle controls visual speed and apparent lead.
As we mentioned, the average skeet target is shot at 15 yards and is broken in less than ¾ of a second. Sporting targets are shot at varying unknown distances, angles, and speeds, and are seldom broken as fast as skeet targets. The average sporting target is broken easily 1.5-2 seconds after leaving the trap – and sometimes even longer. And many targets are thrown to be shot on a downward trajectory.
Eventually lead begins as the great common denominator in all moving target games. However, when you get into the games, target speed matching gun speed begins to be the most important factor in consistency.
Lead Variables
Distance and speed control the amount of lead necessary to hit the target. And of these two, speed creates more lead than distance. For example, a 45-yard high incoming crow target (belly on) can be hit at the peak shooting right at it. But high four on a skeet field 21 yards away, if broken over the stake, will require about four feet of lead due to its speed and angle.
That brings up yet another variable in lead: the angle of the target determines the perception of lead. As we said earlier, high 2, if broken over the center stake, takes the same amount of lead as high 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 on a skeet field. Because at the end of the day, the necessary lead to break the target is determined by time to target of the shot cloud, and the stake is 21 yards from each station.
All the targets just listed appear to have different leads, but the different perceptions are caused by the angle that the target is shot from. You might think skeet shooters have different perceptions of lead, but sporting shooters are all over the map with what they see when pulling the trigger on sporting targets. Remember, they are perceptions due to the angle they are shot. And they are also perceptions because it all occurs in the periphery.
That’s right. Everything we do when shooting a shotgun at a moving target occurs in our periphery. And what you perceive in your periphery is as much as 0.3 seconds behind real-time. That accounts for the wide variety of perceptions of lead among all shooters in both sporting and skeet.
Creating Consistency in Lead
If you want to begin to have consistency in your results, then we must discuss what creates consistency in lead – gun speed equaling target speed, which makes all the targets slow down. When the speed is matched long enough for you to see it, then what you saw becomes real. Why? Well, if the retinal data stream is 0.3 seconds behind real-time and it takes you longer than 0.3 seconds to recognize the speed match, then the 0.3-second delay no longer exists. Because when the speed is matched, the lead stays the same for longer than 0.3 seconds and the picture becomes real. When the picture is real, it can be replicated and corrected, as long as a detailed prediction of where and how you want the shot to come together is made before you close the gun and call “pull.”
In the skeet section of our Knowledge Vault, every shot on a skeet field (including doubles) is shot with the ShotKam. You can see the actual lead, but yours will not look like ours if the speed match is not achieved.
In our section on clay target kill shots, there are a variety of sporting shots on every angle and distance you can imagine, and the speed is matched on all of them. When shooters study them and then go practice, they shoot better. But it’s not because they know the lead – it’s because it becomes easier for them to preload the movie of how and where they want the shot to come together. This makes it easier for the right brain to produce the shot over and over consistently without the left brain getting involved with trying to fix the shot at the end.
In the clay target kill shots, we shot the same target from a measured 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 yards to show shooters the difference in the actual lead. They are amazed at how little difference there is in lead on 20, 30, 40-yard shots and how similar the leads are on the 50 to 60-yard shots.
This brings up something that almost all shooters in sporting and skeet get trapped into, which creates inconsistencies and erratic misses on different targets on different days. In skeet, troublesome targets are somewhat easy to find simply by looking at your scorecard. When your misses begin to be on the same targets round after round, then you know what you need help on. In sporting, not so much, due to the infinite number of variables in the presentations. Many weaknesses are hidden from the shooter’s view. But to an experienced coach, those weaknesses are in plain sight.
One problem that all shooters fall into in both games is chasing the target down and trying to fix the shot at the end. This creates barrel draggers, muzzle slashers, bead checkers, and swing stoppers. Pay attention: we are about to explain what happens neurologically when you chase the target down and try to fix the shot at the end.
The Neurology of Routine and Skill
You have two hemispheres in your brain. For the sake of discussion, we will refer to them as the left brain and the right brain as we go through some characteristics of each.
Your left brain is the analytical or engineering part of your brain where deep thought occurs. It’s directly associated with your short-term memory and is referred to as your “conscious brain.” This is where skill begins. The left brain can consciously figure out a problem in many different ways and then perform the task while thinking it through. It can be aware of and orchestrate 40 bits of data per second. The other thing that the left brain is very good at is forgetting what it just did when tasked with another problem. It takes the short-term memory, left-brain between 0.2 and 0.3 seconds to function and reason its way through the thought process and get it right. It’s impossible to focus on one thing if your thinking brain is in charge.
The right brain is where all your skill is stored. It is referred to as the “athletic brain” or the “subconscious brain.” It operates below conscious awareness and takes only 5 milliseconds to act. One of the reasons the right brain is so effective is it can be aware of and orchestrate 11 million bits of data per second with only a 5-millisecond delay.
According to neuroscientist David Eagleman, our brain can alter human behavior as it is happening when it is in familiar surroundings since it can anticipate a minimum of 80 milliseconds ahead of where you are and what you are doing. The way to access this part of the brain is through prediction and execution based on your predictions in practice. The repetition allows for the brain to anticipate farther and farther ahead of where you are.
This is why routines are so important! When your routine begins, you want your brain to be able to know what is coming next without you having to tell it. If your predictions are detailed enough and your executions are precisely like your predictions, eventually your brain knows what you are asking it to do without having to think about it. Then you begin to shoot without thinking.
Practice without prediction and execution based on the prediction keeps you in your conscious brain. Then everything you do is done in your short-term memory and you find yourself chasing the bird down and trying to fix the shot at the end. If you find yourself in this situation, you must change the way you practice. The practice field is where the brain learns how to better anticipate ahead of where you are through strict repetition.
No one is born with skill, especially what it looks like to hit a moving target with a shotgun. Skill must be developed through repetition in deliberate practice. Both skeet and sporting require subconscious actions when shot at the higher levels. What you see when you shoot at higher and higher levels evolves into seeing less and performing better and better. The better you get, the less you see.
None of us started this game with the focus we have when we are mature in it. You can’t see what someone with five years more experience than you can see, because what you see must evolve. And you can’t skip ahead and gain skill – you must earn it one shot at a time.
