Last month we talked about controlling expectation on the second day of a two-day shoot and how thinking about winning takes you out of the right thought process. One of the first places this thought train comes off the track is at the scoreboard at the end of the first day of a two-day shoot.
Now, let’s take two scenarios – a two-day shoot with two courses, and a two-day shoot with only one course, just to cover all the bases from all directions. Of what importance is it to know all the other first-day scores and compare them to yours? If it is a two-day shoot with two courses, the only way you could be ahead or tied or behind anyone is to be shooting the same course at the same time on the same squad.
There are no two courses that will ever be the same for everyone. And for that reason, any comparison in the score is irrelevant. But if you shoot one course and the person whose score you are comparing shot the other course, what have you learned?
What if there was only one course and everyone shoots the same course each day, and at the end of the first day you are three birds behind or ahead. What are you going to do? Try harder the next day? What does “try harder” really mean when it comes to shotgunning? If we are not mistaken, it is trying too hard that got you in the flinching predicament to begin with!
One other thing: in our almost 30 years of shooting and teaching sporting clays, we have yet to walk a course that we shot in the morning, look at the targets, and invariably see a station that we agree we were glad we shot in the morning, then see another station and wish we could have shot it in the afternoon. Such is the way of sporting clays, and will always be. It’s been said that a person cannot step in the same river twice. We can say the same about shooting the same sporting course. Try as we might, there will always be something different from one hour to the next.
Something that all shooters should do more of is to have a goal for the competition. The hard part of this is choosing the right goal for the competition and sticking with it. Having the correct goal in great measure determines what if anything is learned and how much success you will have.
This is where the shooting log comes in big time. Constant updating of the log will make the correct goal for you more obvious. But you still have to stick to the goal for the whole shoot.
What do we mean stick to the goal? Well, we see shooters make goals for the competition and at the first sign of any kind of adversity, the chosen goal goes out the window and is replaced with the default goal of not looking bad. This happens to 80 to 90 percent of all shooters. Only a small percentage of shooters have the courage to, regardless of what happens, stick with their chosen goals.
What kind of goals should you have that will ensure learning and enjoyment? Well, not score goals. That is for sure. Process goals, such as “eyes still when I call pull, commit to the first breakpoint, eyes first to the second bird, stay in my routine, be the most positive person on the course while there, make the plan shoot the plan,” are all goals that you can control, whether or not you succeed.
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