1. Which is more important . . . understanding the basics, the precision, and fundamentals that generate Xs . . . or equipment, chokes, and loads? 2. The trap machine fires: am I controlling my gun’s movement precisely . . . or trying to force the shot outcome 35 yards away? 3. Seriously . . . can I honestly trust my swing? Is it consistent . . . or is it changing from target to target without my knowledge? XXXXXX . . . or X00X0X? 4. Why am I constantly distracted and not focused in the shooting box? 5. Specifically . . . HOW do I add more Xs to my scorecard? Not just sometimes but ...
TIRED OF X's HERE & THERE? Here’s a simple lesson I’ve learned while teaching. It’s not the new methods that make student improvement harder…it’s letting go of what he/she believes. Especially when that swing is breaking some targets. Why change?That’s a great question, which is answered in depth in my new book, Beyond The Target (Book III). In this TIP, I thought this particular analogy would illuminate why our habits can be so hard to abandon…even when we know it’s those habits that lead to inconsistency and lower scores. It was somewhere around 2010 and I was working with a gentleman from South America. A world traveler and ...
You shot well today. Even your not-quite-there swings managed to catch a piece, XX. Everything just felt right, the sporting clays targets looked bigger and slower than usual. Your hits were hard, center-punching, building a momentum. Planned and rehearsed, sight picture after sight picture appeared right on right time, at the right place, again and again. XXXXXX. A surge of confidence carried you through the final 3 stations to your best tournament score ever. It’s 3:15 in the clubhouse and you’re reminiscing so many good clay target shots today. A friend strolls by and says you’ve tied the club “protester,” there’ll be a shoot-off at 4 ...
A Non-Negotiable Basic for Sporting Clays, Trap and Skeet ShootersLooking down on our sport from a higher viewpoint, we see a lot of components and moving parts. Here are some of the important ones, remembering that we’re all trying to put these not only into a successful working order but a dependable working order: shotgun; ammunition; chokes; shooting lenses; gun fit; set-up and swing fundamentals; swing cadence; a punctual target intercept; bird / barrel alignment; target presentations; breakpoints; shooting methods; scoring strategies on each and every Field; sight pictures; distractions and expectations; not to mention the mental game. So, where do we begin? ...
It is interesting, and completely understandable, that the X or 0 holds so much of our attention. And why not? That’s what counts, right?Well, yes it does. And, if we are serious about the next target breaking, why we got that X also counts.A few years back, Denise and her husband George traveled a fair distance to work with me. After the handshakes, we sat down and I went through the preliminaries with them as I do all my students. Not long after, we began on the River Bend skeet range to instill the set-up and swing basics. George had the slower, more methodical swing, thus achieved more consistency and success. Denise was the newer, less experienced shooter. A take charge lady with ...