It seems that our recent series of articles on lead has created quite a stir in a very positive way. We were trying to approach something that most really don’t understand – that is really a perception, as opposed to a finite measured picture.
First, we would like to say thanks for all the emails, phone calls, and personal comments from all our readers about the series. You will see another series coming soon. This installment, however is about a comment we heard while talking to some shooters while visiting a gun club this past off-season. We do still love to go out and just shoot for fun, and each time we do that we remember why there are so many people who love to shoot sporting clays.
How many times have you heard this phrase? “Hell, I can hit all the targets. My problem is mental.” This is a common misconception, and our research shows that nothing could be farther from the truth.
One of the reasons people make this comment is that they refuse to take responsibility for their own results and continue to blame anyone and everything (other than themselves) for their perceived subpar performance. Well, shooters, you will continue to hope for and expect miracles until you take responsibility for your own actions.
Our observation of people in this rut is that they are not willing to be prepared to win. As Vicki says, “it’s not how many times you have done it that proves you can do it. It’s how many times you’ve predicted the hit and then hit it that proves you can do it.”
Think about it. Anyone can shoot a target until they “find it” and then shoot it 10 times in a row. But that same person could go and shoot the rest of the course and come back to that very target and still not hit it on the first try.
Ask yourself this question: “Can I walk up to a challenging target and with confidence break it on the first six tries consistently in the same break point?” We are not talking about the easy shots here; we are talking about the separator stations that are separators for whatever reason. It could be distance, direction, speed, sequence or anything that might make a shot difficult. What do you find your inner voice saying when you approach the more difficult stations?
Countless times we have coached shooters through this difficult time in their shooting career, and without exception they all have gotten to a place in their shooting that they say to us, “I am to a point now where no target intimidates me. I no longer walk up to a target and say, ‘Uh-oh, what am I gonna do with this?’ Even if I have not seen a target like this before, I still have the confidence that I can break it in the breakpoint the first time, because I have trained and prepared myself for just this occasion.”
We cannot tell you what a pivotal moment in their shooting that is. This usually happens at the end of AA class or in the beginning of master class.
Where did this thought process come from, you ask? Well, it didn’t come from just telling yourself that you could do it, nor did it come from someone telling you the leads on all the targets. It comes as a result of good old-fashioned hard work. It’s the kind of hard work that keeps most shooters from ever being able to feel this way, much less achieve anything that resembles consistently high performance. The real heroism in talent building comes when you make a commitment to go out and practice when everyone else is playing skins or just joking around shooting the course and calling it practice.
You will never be truly in control of your game until you can call your shot. You might only think that this goes for shooting, but it goes for coaching as well.
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