What’s holding you back?
If you do this game long enough, you will eventually find yourself on the plateau where you are shooting a lot and your gun mount is becoming consistent. But there is just something that seems to be holding you back from really having a consistent game that holds up under pressure!
Why does it break down when you want most for it to kick in? Does it seem like the harder you try, the worse you shoot, and then suddenly the stars line up and for some unknown reason you shoot like you have never shot before and virtually cannot miss?
We have coached thousands of shooters that have found themselves on this plateau. Do you want to know the most difficult thing about being in this situation? Summoning the courage to ask someone for help. Most shooters are afraid to ask for help because that means that they would have to change something in their approach to shooting. No one likes “change” because of the failure it creates to implement the change.
In short, all wing and clay shooters are looking for a quick fix, so the first place they go is to someone better than them. They ask, “How do you shoot a particular target?” The inevitable answer is, “Well, I shoot it this way,” thinking that the person with the question can see, perceive, and reproduce the shots just like he can, without any failure or re-learning (quick fix). It’s not anywhere close to the reality of skill-building.
As soon as you stop looking for the quick fix and go to someone you can work with regularly to help you build a sound, well-rounded game based on a shooting system that allows for you to self-correct, you will get better. Clay target shooters, however, seem to get caught up in continuing to look for the quick fix that they can implement in 100 shots with very little failure, and without having to change their game much.
They don’t seem to understand that for something to become a skill, it first begins as a visualization. Then the brain must stumble through the learning phase until it gets the sequence right and the targets begin to break. It is at that point that the real learning and imprinting in your long-term memory (LTM) really begins. When something is a skill, you must be able to do it without thinking and you must be able to predict where and how things will happen when you are performing the skill.
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