More from Advance School

Coming home from the second Advance School. We had great weather. There was a little mist yesterday, but all in all, it was a great time.

Lethal Moves

What a great format for learning. Man, when shooters finally get the picture of the target coming to the lead after the gun is mounted and stabilizing the picture, it is an incredible thing. The “move, mount, shoot” move is a good one for quick targets but on the longer and more difficult ones the “be early and let it come and stabilize the picture” is lethal. Did I say lethal? Holy cow, Batman, it is lethal. And when the brain sees it, it really latches on to it.

The toughest part is getting shooters to be able to see the target behind the barrel… and I mean really behind the barrel. Not just a few feet, but 30 or 40 feet behind the barrel and see it come to the lead. It is so automatic that when you see the bird close to the lead and stabilize the picture, it just guts the bird. No chips. Just smoke. What a good feeling, and what control over the target. And when you couple that with a preload, you are in the zone.

You have heard people say “clear your mind.” Well, if the preload is vivid and real and believable then you don’t have to clear your mind – you just let it go, and all of a sudden you’re all about the process. The preload is the process and the more you use the preload, the clearer the brain is about what you’re asking it to do.

And when the preload is equal to reality? Look out, here it comes. The zone just happens and you created it. Everything slows down and man, do shooters get smooth…

With “move, mount, shoot” the tendency is to jab as you finish the shot, which on close, fast targets doesn’t create much risk. But on the longer ones, the risk is increased dramatically.

Accessing the Anticipation Circuit

We had several shooters who needed to finish the shot. “Finishing the shot” means staying in the gun and maintaining gun speed equal to bird speed at the end of the shot. Just stay in the gun a half-second more to finish the shot at the speed of the target. It’s magic on longer shots. It’s also the thing that created consistency day in and day out.

All of the shooters got it each in their own time – some deeper than others, depending on where they were in their experience curve. The more experienced shooters get it quicker and can apply it to a wider variety of target presentations sooner, but eventually, they all were smashing targets. The soft mount to the shoulder at the beginning of the shot seems to puzzle some, but when we explained the advantage of being able to look farther behind the gun for the target when addressing from an unmounted position, they all realized what an advantage it was and quickly implemented it.

We are convinced more and more each day that we are on to something special by accessing the anticipation circuit in the right brain and creating a reflexive action based on visual input to the brain.

All shooters in the class joined the 80-yard club. We set a chandelle target off the tower and backed up, and man, did they crush that target… all of them. Just seeing a stable picture. Some of the shooters were shocked, but we weren’t. After all, we see it work over and over and know what is possible when accessing the right brain.

We had a treat on Saturday morning when we asked Bill McGuire to come to share some thoughts with the class on goals, practice, and mindset in practice and tournament play. It was a 46-minute session that I recorded on the iPhone and will get it up on the Coaching Hour page soon.

Knowledge Vault Updates

We will be adding some 600 new kill shots shortly, which will make the shot simulator huge and will benefit wingshooters and hunter ed students worldwide. As you can imagine, we’re very excited. We’re still trudging along with the DNR project and every day it looks more and more favorable from a global perspective.

Keep looking and studying the clay ShotKam review in the shot simulator. It is proving to be a real asset in preload and understanding how to let the target come to the lead and stabilizing the shot. We will be making the same reviews for game birds. The shot simulator will take on a new look and will have its own page instead of a drop-down menu because of some changes that are coming. It’s all good.

I’ll try to shoot new clay shots next week at the ranch as well as get the pheasant shots up soon. We will be adding front shots of shooters doing the ShotKam shots so you can see the mount and how slow the muzzle is moving on the longer shots.

Lots of things in store for all of you, so stay in touch and stay tuned in. It’s gonna get real fun real quick. More later. Coaching Hour this Tuesday.