Last month we talked about the importance of breakpoints and how you couldn’t shoot the targets in specific breakpoints if you were chasing leads. This month, we’re going to talk about the transitions in shooting pairs.
Shooting single targets is relatively simple. You know where it’s coming from and where it’s going, and it becomes easy to set up to break them consistently. Another way to say that is that there are very few if any variables in single targets unless you are one of the shooters who insist on mounting the gun and chasing lead.
If you are, hopefully one day you’ll get out of your own way and realize that the targets will slow down if you will learn how to merge the muzzles in front of the target and trust your hand-eye coordination to put the lead in the shot.
You barrel swingers and bird chasers get so hung up on “what style is it” or “what method is it” or “whatever I do, I don’t want to spot shoot it.” We find that way too much attention is given to styles and methods, and not enough emphasis is given to application.
Our research indicates that, while some “styles” or “methods” do increase or decrease risk for some shooters and not for others, it’s not the “style” or “method” that creates consistency. The last time we checked, there were no points for “style” or “method” on the scorecard – just hits and misses. And turning the misses into hits has little to do with changes in “style” or “method.” It does, however, have a lot to do with how many times you’ve done whatever you do successfully and consistently.
In teaching performance in this game and others, we find that attrition plays a big role in consistently great performances.
How consistently you apply the fundamentals you believe in and how many times they have been applied successfully will be the determining factor in your consistency and results in your performance. The thing that puzzles us is the amount of time and effort that’s given to what the barrel is doing and how little emphasis is given to what the eyes are doing.
We see shooters give great attention to what the muzzle is doing and where it is, but very little attention to what the eyes are focused on. We figure that’s why 99 percent of the words used to talk about “method” and “style” talk about what the barrel is doing, not what the eyes are focused on or what the target is doing.
Until you realize that success in this game has more to do with what the eyes see and how the brain interprets that information, you’ll be destined to chasing targets that seem faster than they really are. Inconsistency will become your best friend.
We said earlier that this is a game of pairs. There are several principles that we think are essential in being consistent in shooting pairs, regardless of difficulty.
The first is “eyes first, then the gun.” Any movement given the gun prior to focus on the target is wasted and increases risk by the cube. When you move the gun without focusing first on the target, you’re giving output without input. Put another way, you are anticipating the target. How consistent do you think your best fundamental move on your best target would be if you began your move before you saw the target?
A good example of this is a football receiver about to catch a pass. Half-a-split second before the ball arrives, he takes his eyes off the ball to look where he’s going to run after he catches it. Not only did he not catch the ball, he got hammered by the defender because he stopped reacting to what he saw and began to think.
If you are thinking, you are behind what is happening. As our friend Sam Brown says, “If you’re gonna be stupid, you gotta be tough.”
When shooting pairs, after you have broken the first bird, you must see and focus on the second bird before you move the gun. What we see is shooters looking for and chasing the second target with their eyes over the gun. Well, when your eyes are over the gun and there’s nothing to focus on, guess what you’ll be looking at? “Pretty gun, isn’t it?” The muzzle is not your friend.
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