What Are You Trying to Change?

The performance mindset is to break the target at all costs. But in order to get into the learning mindset, you need to stop trying to break the target. If we can get you to focus on the change, focus on what we want you to focus on, and not try to break the target, your brain understands the firing of the neurons so much more quickly. Once it understands it and gets them at least in the right order, we can adjust the timing of the firing so much more efficiently from the outside in if we can just get you to quit trying to break the target.

How do you use that?

Well, if you’re shooting the same target and making the same mistake, take the bullet out of the gun and put an empty in there and call for the target and go through what you’re trying to do. Take breaking the target out of the shot, which allows you to focus on the chucking of the move and the change in your move.

It especially helps when you’re making transitions to a second bird. I remember a particularly tough pair that I was throwing, where the second bird was really fast. You had trouble getting the gun to the second bird. I literally made you only load the bottom barrel and kill the first bird and not move the barrel, but move your eyes and watch that bird go all the way to the ground.

I took the breaking the target out of the second shot so that you could concentrate on explaining to the brain what the movement was that you wanted to implement in that shot.

So, just be aware that if you’re working on something new or if you’re having a little difficulty, try it without a bullet in the gun and concentrate on what it is you’re trying to change as opposed to breaking that target. Breaking that target keeps you from being able to really concentrate on the change.

Like, if I was trying to get you to look at the bird across the barrel, focus on the bird behind the gun, if you’re wanting to break the target, that gun is going to keep getting in the way. But if I can just get you to mount the gun ahead of the bird, even if it’s 50 feet ahead of the bird, and look at the bird across the gun and actually see what that looks like without trying to break the bird, if I can get you to do that three or four times where you really see what I’m getting you to see, then we can begin to adjust the picture.

But damned if I can get everybody to do that the way I want them to do it if they’ve got a bullet in the gun and they try to break the bird. They’re trying to break the bird instead of changing the sequence of the firing of neurons. It just keeps getting in the way.

Trying to break that damn target can get in the way of learning.

At the beginning of the day during our clinics, when we’re going through the animations we say, “Look, if you’ll just quit trying to break the target and focus on the changes that we want to make in your games, you will get this so much faster and you will begin to shoot so much better so much more quickly.”

Everybody says they want to break the target. We have several ways of tricking you to do that; but if you’re having trouble with something, that’s a great way to be able to really focus on the change you’re trying to make, make the change exaggerated, make it obvious.

When you take the bullet out of the gun, it keeps you from wanting to break the target and it keeps the gun out of the equation.

 

This is an excerpt from the February 2013 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.