What Good Shooters See and Why

Talk to a good shooter and they might say they see “the front” or “the rings.” Or they see “the target slow down” or “the target get really big or clear.” But that is a result of the thousands of successful shots they have taken with a prediction and the execution based on the prediction.

Over time, this process becomes automatized. It requires little cognitive effort, and usually occurs because the brain is able to process circuits with higher and higher efficiency.

Here is where the deliberate repetitions give the brain a better understanding of the way you want the circuit to fire. And it begins to neurologically suspend or cognitively mask anything that’s not essential to success, or anything that’s confusing to the completion of the circuit.

So, when the good shooters are telling you what they see, they are telling you the truth. But you cannot implement what they are telling you without going through the experience of predicting and executing your prediction. When you’re successful, replicate it. And when you’re unsuccessful, correct it.

When you approach practice and competition in this way, regardless of what happens when you pull the trigger, you are building long-term memory – whether you hit the target or miss and correct the shot and hit the target.

The prediction and execution keep 85 percent of shooters out there from getting better. They are closing the gun with a general idea of what they want to do to hit the target, calling “pull,” chasing the target down with the barrels and trying to fix the shot at the end.

This will not lead to improvement or consistency.