Anticipation and Focus Ratios

Fear is only in the present or in the past. It cannot exist in the future. It takes you there, but it’s not there. It’s your choice. Fear is a conscious reaction to a perceived set of circumstances.

Trying not to check is trying to change the result. Think about this. The result is a consequence of the approach. You’re either going to be reacting or anticipating. It’s your ability to have been there enough times that allows you to anticipate what could happen in the future that keeps fear from being able to get in.

We’ve talked about peripheral acceptance and focus ratios, and we all know what they are. But what about what they do to the anticipation circuit? Well, we’ve come to understand that they’re one and the same. The shooter has to anticipate where the target is going to be and at the same time look at it where it is.

Being able to put the gun way out there in front of the bird and let the bird come to you is tied directly to your focus ratio – and it’s a sliding ratio. Once that gun goes past the fear point, the focus ratio comes off the bird and starts going toward the gun. But when you have an anticipation circuit that allows you to anticipate well out into the future without fear, then you don’t care about where the gun is going. You’re already playing so far in front of the bird that fear can’t get in.

You’ve got to be able to play far enough in front of the bird so that the bird can come to its lead.

This is an excerpt from the November 2012 Coaching Hour podcast. You can listen to it and read a written transcript, along with more than 20 years of archived episodes with your Knowledge Vault membership.