Focus on Specific Targets in Practice

You have to have a goal for your practice. That comes from an assessment of what happened last year.

Let’s say you went to a tournament, and you realized that of the 18 birds you missed, 11 of them were right-to-lefts. What does that tell you that you need to practice? The right-to-left sight picture.

And of the 11 birds that you missed right to left, only two of them were crossing; the rest of them were quartering. So, in analyzing where you came from, now you should have a clear practice plan, you need to go practice right-to-left quartering birds.

If you can do this at your range, and they’ll let you, take a five-gallon bucket with you and go and set up a right-to-left quartering bird and make adjustments until you feel confident that you can break it four or five times in a row. Then move the bucket five steps one way or another. Do the same thing and begin to work around that right-to-left quartering move, because it’s obviously a problem or a weakness in your game.