Well, we’ve come to the last installment of this series on lead. The OSP system emphasizes three things that we find creates consistency; focus on the front of the target, being in tempo with the target, and having a flawless, smooth gun mount. When your move and mount are subconscious and always in sync with the target, all you have to do is make the right plan and shoot the plan.
Our research shows that the thing that’s so hard to master, which is the greatest variable in our game, is tempo. Yet it’s the one at the root of all peak performances.
Sound strange? Read on.
Here is why tempo and being smooth are so important. The gun and the target must merge together as the target gets closer to the breakpoint at the same speed. If the gun merges into the breakpoint ahead of the bird and it happens to be a little too far, the brain can adjust the timing circuit in a few milliseconds and not pull the trigger until the target is in the right place.
The other scenario is that the gun is not quite far enough in front and you’re under the line, and at the last instant, the gun just moves to the line, and the target breaks. You’ve all experienced this on a shot when the gun just seems to move to a spot, you take the shot, the target breaks and you look around and say, “What the $#@% was that??”
If you think back, we think you’ll remember that move came from underneath the path of the target. It wasn’t a big move. It was more subtle. And it just happened without you having anything to do with it. That part was strange to you. The thought process you go through when you shoot is conscious, and you’re trying to figure the lead on every shot you take.
On the shot in question, you were in front and under the line and weren’t thinking. Your 11-million bit processor just made a timing adjustment and broke the target. It can’t do that if the muzzles are in the way of the eyes seeing the target and where it’s going to be because the gun has interrupted the target input to the processor.
It also can’t make the last millisecond adjustment if the muzzles are swinging faster than the target, because then it’s no longer a minor adjustment due to overcoming the momentum in the muzzle.
If you can accept the fact that the gun must be in the breakpoint before the target in order to break the target in the breakpoint, and the more the movement of the muzzle and the target are the same, then to us, it just makes sense that the timing of the shot is easier and the result will be more consistent. This is why the OSP system is based on tempo or gun speed mirroring bird speed.
Several things happen when you get control of your gun speed. The targets slow down and seem to float, which gives you the appearance that you have so much more time to shoot the birds in a pair. With the bird coming to you, there is a feeling of control. You don’t feel rushed as the gun and bird merge together in the breakpoint. Focus is not interrupted as often, and the finish of the shot is smooth.
Why is smooth so important? Well if you’re chasing lead, experience tells us the muzzle is not going to be moving smoothly. For you to get the lead right, the gun is constantly adjusting the picture until it looks right, which means the gun and the bird aren’t going the same speed.
What do you think chasing and adjusting the lead will do to your timing? (Remember: it’s all timing.) When we see people chasing the lead, we often see a violent shoving of the muzzles at the last instant before the trigger is pulled, which is typically caused because when they checked the lead for the last time, excessive muzzle awareness caused the gun to slow and the target jammed the gun. The shooter then had no choice but to shove the muzzle out in a poke and hope style to try to hit the target.
When this occurs on the first shot of a pair, there’s too much momentum in the muzzle to create a smooth consistent visual and physical transition to the second bird of the pair. Excessive muzzle speed creates random misses on all target presentations, especially on slower targets that give the shooter time to think and check the lead.
Remember, it’s all timing. Everything we do is timing. But when was the last time you went out to practice your timing? This just might be something you want to try in your next three or four practice sessions. See if you can grow a little insulation on your circuit.
Systems that are based on lead or sight picture create many visual anomalies that hinder peak performances. The biggest of these anomalies (and the one that keeps you from improving and having a zone experience) is the argument that goes on in your head when you’re adjusting the lead. If the only tool you have is a hammer, sooner or later all your problems become nails. Remember, it’s all timing. We didn’t make this up.
If you were to shoot a game like skeet, where all the targets are the same speed, and they all have a common crossing point, then you can shoot a conscious sight picture, because the targets are all the same. And the game you practice is the same game you will be shooting in the competition.
The top shooters in skeet, however, have specific breakpoints. They’re not chasing the lead or the picture. They are incredibly smooth and have no excess gun movement, and are always in sync with the target. The reason they shoot such great scores is that they’ve discovered being smooth and having committed breakpoints keeps the thinking out of their game, which allows them to let their timing be more forgiving and precise. This, in turn, allows for them to let it go in the competition – just shoot and not think.
Hmm, where have we heard that before?
In a recent issue of Clay Shooting Magazine, we saw a White Flyer ad that had shooting tips from Anthony Matarese. One of them was “Don’t look for an exact lead or sight picture.” We feel that one goes most with what we’ve been talking about in this series, and it parallels what our research concludes: looking for an exact sight picture is both confusing and detrimental to unconscious zone performances.
We agree that some shooters can shoot conscious sight pictures, but in our experience, there are a whole lot more shooters out there who’d enjoy the game a lot more and be better shots if they would work on improving their focus on the front of the target and their move, mount, and timing, let the lead be the output of the computer and learn to trust the 11-million bit processor with the lead.
After all, when you’re in sync with the target, the subconscious timing circuit is in perfect sync. And the exact lead is a result of the timing circuit. When lead becomes the output of the timing circuit and you have perfected your move and mount to the breakpoint, you’ll find that lead becomes the most forgiving part of the shot.
When you learn to shoot unconsciously from the beginning, moving into unconscious performance mode becomes very easy and a very natural evolution. When, however, you begin shooting with conscious sight pictures, then for you to get into the unconscious zone becomes a conscious programmed transformation. In our experience, this is very difficult to accomplish.
So, in summary, let’s just set the record straight. There is lead on every moving target you shoot. But the more you know about it, the more you have to know about where the gun is, which takes away from your percentage of focus on the target.
In turn, this brings many conscious mechanical thoughts into your shot, which our research shows is detrimental to consistent high-level performance, regardless of what you’re doing. They lead to the shooter constantly trying to fix something, which keeps the conscious doubting mind in the next shot.
In life, there are choices and chances. We guess your choice is whether to learn to shoot subconsciously from the beginning by letting lead be the output of the timing circuit or learn to shoot conscious lead and then hope you are able to one day make the crossover to subconscious performance and experience the zone. We know which way is the easiest and quickest, which is the basis of our system. But, like ice cream, different people like different flavors.
We’ll close with a comment that we hear from our customers on a frequent basis:
“Even though I haven’t gotten to practice as I should, my scores are higher than they have ever been. It’s amazing how many people I see shooting tournaments who start with the gun mounted and the muzzles on the trap when they call ‘pull.’ It makes them have to chase the target. And they wonder why they’re so inconsistent!”
Well, as Vicki has been heard to say to Gil when she is less than enamored with him, “Whatever!”
