Vicki’s Blog
Vicki is considered one of the queens of the sport. She’s been known to outshoot many folks, regardless of gender! You’re assured a great learning experience when you get Vicki as your teacher. Send Vicki a message if there are any areas of information you would like for her to respond to.
In order of date
Responding to a Compliment
When you shoot well and you get a compliment you should always attach your gratitude to that person. First, you have to look them in the eye and say, “Thank you for noticing.” And it needs to ...
Mental Toughness and Habits
Mental toughness is not about how you think, it’s about what you think. But more importantly, it’s about how many times you thought it in the same way such that you are, when you’re ...
Trusting Your Sight Picture Inventory
In the beginning, it will be difficult for you to commit to the shot as predicted because of your desire to break the target instead of executing the prediction to see if the prediction was correct. W...
Mastering at Least Two Trajectories
There are six basic target trajectories: left-to-right and right-to-left crossing and quartering, and targets going up and falling. And until you master at least two, you will not experience much cons...
Training the New Sequence
Nobody comes out of the womb predisposed to be able to shoot a shotgun at moving targets without experiencing confusion. We’re talking about the confusion of looking at a target and getting the gun ...
Consistent Work on Your Fundamentals
We ran across an interesting thought not long ago. If you do something to improve your shooting game for 15 minutes a day every day for a year, you will be better than 95 percent of the people out the...
Commitment to Deliberate Repetition
The magic shooters are looking for is in the work they are not willing to do! There is a difference between comment and commitment, and nothing could illustrate it better than the example we just sha...
Mastering a Trajectory
New shooters don’t have the shot inventory to properly visualize how and where they want the shot to come together, or they have been chasing all the targets down and trying to fix the shot at the e...
Fear from a Lack of Plan
You can see people walk up to a stand, and they are scared to death to get ready to shoot that target. They don’t have a plan of what they’re going to do with the targets. And you can just...
How Much Detail in Your Routine?
How detailed should your routine be once you’re in the station? There are several levels of detail that we can discuss, depending on whether you’re in a tournament or whether you’re in...
Your Memory is a Choice
Remembering the past is intimately linked with imagining the future. You had a bad day at the shooting range and your buddy calls and says, “Let’s go shoot at that range.” You’ll probably ...
Change Your Approach
Positive or negative, or even verbal encouragement on the course while you’re shooting… none of it is good or will improve your performance. This is why the frustration occurs. What you’...
Cue, Response, Reward
A habit is nothing more than cue, response, and reward. And you have to do that “cue, response, reward” enough times, so that it becomes a habit. When I look at the target, I always use a skeet ch...
Blind Spots When Shooting Pairs
If the targets are hard to see due to lighting or background conditions, find a spot that’s either on the target line or close to it. And after killing the first bird, get your eyes there and ke...
Confident – But Not Overconfident
“If we can accept that having some level of expectation is a normal and natural byproduct of training and competition, how do we best manage and deal with it?” Well, you always go into a p...
Learning to Shoot in the Wind and Rain
If you want to become a good competitive shooter, just like practicing your gun mount, you got to put a number on your back and get in the game. The first year in master class, shoot every event at ev...
Shooting Without Thinking
We think it would be good to talk about one more step in the performance part of sporting clays that not many of you have considered. When you look at a target for the first time, your long-term memor...
Failing and Failing Better
For most of you, facing a long, crossing target will make you a little uncomfortable on your first attempt because you have no expectation of hitting it. You simply call for the bird and the gun magic...
The “Win or Learn” Attitude
Things that happen to you just are. But how you remember them turns them into strong influences on who you will or can become. When you attach to the memory something positive that helped you to achie...
The Habits That Are Hidden by Conscious Thought
Our research shows several patterns that have emerged over the years we have been professional coaches, and it basically boils down to two things: either shooters begin to try or begin to evaluate whi...
“Talent Hotbeds”
Daniel Coyle, author of “The Talent Code,” has a knack for putting things in words based on his research of “talent hotbeds” – coaching situations that produced high performers consisten...
Opening Your Over-and-Under Automatically
Let’s use opening your over-and-under shotgun as an example. You don’t have to consciously tell your hands where to hold the gun and you don’t have to look at your thumb to make sure it hits the...
The Pointing Instinct
Since you were six months old, you have been pointing at something you were looking at, so your pointing sequence is highly automatized due to the number of times you have pointed at a distant object....
Your Attitude is Crucial
The journey to mastery involves controlling and dealing with the many challenges and adversity put in your pathway to teach and test you. Skill resides in the filler in the brain and as you go through...
Having a 50/50 Point of Impact
We recommend fitting a gun with light cheek pressure and that the gun be stocked so that with light cheek pressure, the Point of Impact (POI) be 50/50. While some shooters like floating a target, we a...
Myelin Growth in Young Shooters
Young shooters are easily excited with the rapid learning and skill-building they experience, but they will soon hit the proverbial wall where it takes more effort to move to higher and higher score p...
Learning from Your Failures
It’s easy for shooters to dwell on the failure on the last station. But the winners learn from it and move on, and leave the misses behind them in the cage, maintaining a calm quiet mind. Most shoot...
Are You Doing This for Yourself?
Some people think shooting is about breaking targets. But in our experience, it should be about so much more, especially when it comes to learning to perform. We have the privilege of shooting with yo...
A Hundred Percent Effort in Practice
The thing that confuses shooters is that they don’t practice with the required intensity. They’re out there going through the motions, having fun. And then when they go to a tournament they tr...
The Downward Spiral
After you enter the downward spiral and are confused for 25 to 30 minutes, you’re toast for the day. This is due to your brain injecting cortisol into your system, which is a hormone that kills ...
Distracting Phrases
We’ve all heard the stupid phrases our brain injects that do anything but help us remain positive and stay in the zone: “Is that the right hold point? Be sure you get the lead right. I wis...
Learning to Compete
There’s a difference in shooting a shotgun and learning how to compete. First of all, you have to be able to shoot a shotgun and break the target the way you want to break it and where you want ...
From Hesitant to Depressed
When we go into the negative spiral, we begin neutral, but we become hesitant and doubtful due to hoping to shoot great today. The wrong brain is already in control. From hesitant, you slip into the c...
The Upward and Downward Spirals
Pressure, real or perceived, makes our brains say the most stupid things to us at the most inopportune times. We have talked about how to overcome these lapses into doubt. But when you make it a habit...
Neutral or Happy
In Lynn Marriott and Pia Nilsson’s book, “Every Shot Must Have a Purpose,” their mantra is “neutral or happy” from an emotional standpoint. A lot of emotional outbreak, whether p...
Training Your Working Memory
You’re very confident about the things that you’ve shot the most of. And you don’t have to think as much about how you’re going to shoot it because you’ve shot them 10,000 ti...
How Lethal Our System Is
You can never put the gun consistently further in front of the target than you are comfortable with. The reason you were able to do it in the first shot was because there was no expectation. You just ...
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 t...
Finding Your Inconsistencies
Effective practice demands a higher level of engagement. You can’t cram for skill-building in shotgun shooting; it’s a gradual process that requires thoughtful and deliberate effort. A rec...
Turning Negatives into Positives
It’s a common human tendency to remember events more negatively than they actually were. This negativity bias affects our perception in various aspects of life, including clay shooting. Surely y...
How You Respond to Pressure
Every shooter experiences moments of failure and pressure. However, successful shooters differentiate themselves by how they react to these situations. A common response to pressure is to speed up –...
Analyzing a Master Class Scorecard
A thorough examination of a master class shooter’s scorecard can uncover significant insights. Despite a high level of expertise, areas for improvement are often evident, such as unforced errors...
Skill Development and Repetition
In the journey of mastering clay shooting, the mantra is clear: repetition breeds skill. Just like railroad tracks, which become polished and smooth with frequent use, shooting skills are honed throug...
Beyond Targets: Life Lessons from Shotgunning
Shotgunning is about more than just hitting targets; it’s a gateway to invaluable life lessons. For young athletes, especially those in college, shooting can teach honesty, discipline, and how to le...
What Our Experience Has Taught Us
In our travels shooting, coaching, and speaking about our passion, we’re still amazed at the perceptions that each shooter brings to what they do when they shoot a shotgun. We’ve spent most of the...
Creating Concepts
When will you be willing to fully embrace the concept of breakpoint and being early? It is a choice. When will you be willing to fully embrace the concept of subconscious lead and stop looking at the ...
The Edges of Your Ability
Anything contrary to what we believe is easily dismissed as not believable. Your performance is the byproduct of your concepts, and the learning threshold is the summit of your current abilities. Your...
What You Need to Ask Yourself Before a Shoot
You need to determine how far you’re comfortable traveling to a shoot the morning of the shoot. Experiment. Look for patterns. Some people might be comfortable traveling for two-and-a-half hours and...
Talent vs. Skill
Talent is the ability to anticipate into the future without fear. Skill is the ability to do what you do subconsciously. Let’s use a fishing metaphor, shall we? Your subconscious skills are running ...
Competition – Win or Learn
The competition isn’t a win-or-lose thing. The competition is an opportunity for you to lay it all out there on the line and keep giving it a hundred percent. At the end of the competition, go back ...
Cue, Response, Reward
Habits are built this way: cue, response, and reward. The cue is a trigger for the automatic response to start. The response is the behavior itself, and the reward tells our brain whether we should st...
Act Your Way to Right Thinking
You’ve got to put yourself in the game and fail enough times, but keep trying harder and doing the things that we’ve talked about on the Coaching Hour in order to succeed. Remember: you can’t th...
What Are Focus Ratios?
“Focus ratios” are what we call the amount of focus a shooter puts on the target versus the amount of focus on the gun as a term of percentage. For many people, these things change. For example, y...
F.E.A.R: Failure to Effectively Accept Results
Failure to Effectively Accept Results. Fear. The thing that enables us to get past fear is courage. And courage comes to you in different ways. What do you have to trust in your game to overcome fe...
What to Do During Your Winter Layoff
First, you’ve got to take time off. And if you have been keeping a log, refer to what you’ve done in past years. If not, then start keeping a log. You can go to the log page on the Knowled...
Finding Your Idiosyncrasies at the Start of the Year
At the beginning of the year, it’s important to find your idiosyncrasies. They’re going to be certain things that you will have a tendency to do under pressure. You’ll take things for granted: M...
There’s No Such Thing as an “Easy” or “Hard” Target
“If we can accept that having some level of expectation is a normal and natural byproduct of training and competition, how do we best manage and deal with it?” You always go into a prac...
Your Opponent is Your Ally
Your opponent is instrumental in creating this growth. The better the people around you that you are competing with, the better you will have to shoot to compete with them. The better your opponent is...
Tips on a Blindside Bird
A blindside bird is one that comes from your left if you’re a right-handed shooter and from your right if you’re a left-handed shooter. When shooting a blindside bird, it’s important...
Pushing Past Discomfort to Learn
This is a segment inspired by Fred Shoemaker’s book “Extraordinary Golf” that Gil and Vicki used at a coach’s clinic in Nebraska about coaching kids. One of the things you have to ge...
The Timing Drill
The timing drill is done on a skeet field. You go out to station eight and take three or four steps back towards station four and face the center stake. The gun hold point is over toward the high hous...
Weekend Shooters vs. Winners
Seeing a marked improvement in your ability to shoot targets is not a quick evolution. This is why we keep saying to shoot singles with routines. There are no shortcuts, but everyone is looking for on...
Failing and Expectation
The people who are still in mental management and the people who are selling “reprogramming your brain” and mental chewing gum as the know-all and end-all will tell you that all you have to do is ...
The Importance of Balance
Balance is something that we take for granted because we use it every day. Unless you’ve had an inner ear infection or some kind of problem that affected your balance to where you couldn’t overcom...
How Close Together Should Your Feet Be?
“When shooting below your feet, how much closer should your feet actually be? Should foot closeness vary with downward angle? Should my feet touch every time? Is there an optimal distance betwee...
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...
Be Methodical!
You’ve got to be methodical about everything you do and every shot you take. If you’re not methodical and intense every time that you get ready to call for the target and go after it, then your re...
Adjusting Your Expectations
Back in 2021, a shooter we were helping told us that exchanging had really helped him, because it made him look at him game. “It made me look at what was going on outside of sporting clays in my lif...
Our Simple System
The OSP system is not a system of complex leads. It’s not a system of gun speed being faster than bird speed. It’s very simple: 70-yard line, nose on the target, be early, as it comes stabilize th...
Leaving the Present and Self-Judgment
There’s a catch-22 in shooting competitively. You do it for the enjoyment and the thrill of competition and you start shooting well. Then all of a sudden you think, “Well, this is why I’m doing ...
The Evolution of Your Self-Correction
Your correction routine is going to evolve. A few years ago when we changed our approach from getting you to hit the targets to teaching yourself to self-correct, we began to realize that just looking...
Back from Nationals
We are just getting back from the NSCA National Tournament in San Antonio where we spent eight days in an RV. It was a great time seeing all the folks – sponsors and friends that we have been w...
I Can See Again!
It has been a busy year and we are already scheduling for 2023. If you would like us to come to your club, let us know so we can call and get them on the books. It has been a roller coaster ride for m...
Breaking Clays from California to Tennessee
April was a busy month. Our out-of-town clinics are really filling fast and “Gun-Fits-R-Us” is busy when we’re in town. Brian is working almost every day and his weekend clinics are all full. ...
Another Great Advance School Wrapped Up
Another Great Advance School Wrapped Up We are at the end of March, and I have to say it’s been a busy month. Our Advance School took up the first two weeks with a great group each week. There were ...
A Full Schedule of Clinics and Lessons
It’s been a busy start to the year. January flew by and now we are at the end of February. And it’s all gone great! We have completed the schedule for the year, and it appears that it will be anot...
It’s Shaping Up to Be an Eventful 2022
We are almost to the end of January, and what a busy month it has been. We have almost all the clubs and dates for this year posted. It will be a busy year like 2021 was. Brian and Gil went to Flori...
A Busy End of the Year
November and December have been very busy for us, just as it’s been very busy all year. I think people just want to get out and feel normal again. We added nine new clubs this year and they were all...
Lessons from 2021 Nationals
We had a great time at the NSCA Nationals. It’s always fun to see everyone and remember why we love this game so much. Every year we rent an RV and stay on the grounds. And this year we even rented ...
News from Vicki: New Clubs and Starting Over
It’s the end of October, which means the rest of the year is going to fly by and 2022 will be upon us. We’ve had a great year and it’s been fun to get back traveling again and seeing repeat stud...
Continuing Eye Issues
In April, we went to Iowa to teach the Scholastic Clay Target Program athletes and their coaches. I noticed that there was a blurry spot in my left eye, so when we returned to Fulshear, I called and w...
Back to Normal – A Quick Update
It’s been a busy couple of months and it feels like we are getting back to normal and traveling to clinics again. We have been to Iowa, North Carolina, Colorado, South Carolina, Minnesota, Wisconsin...
Reflections from Cosner Reserve
It looks like people are getting back to some sense of normal. On our way to Sporting Clays at Cosner Reserve in Pelham, North Carolina, the airport was really crowded. There wasn’t a seat left on t...
Success in Des Moines
Gil and I just got back from Des Moines, Iowa where we were training the SCTP group and their coaches. What a great group of adults and athletes to be around. A big thank you to Larry Gay who is in c...
Thoughts on the Advance Class: New Moves and Nose on the Target
Just like the wind, March flew by way too fast. We had two Advance Schools this year and due to the COVID restrictions, only 12 people were allowed in the lodge at 74 Ranch. So, we had nine students a...
What A Difference A Week Makes!
Brian and I left on Thursday, February 11th for Ben Avery in Phoenix, to do three full days of teaching. When we left Houston, we were looking at what the weather was going to do. Our weather service ...
Beginning of a New Year
Well, 2020 is finally over. And just when I think 2021 is going to be a great year… things happen. But we are continuing to book clubs all over the U.S. to have a great year for helping people ...
Nationals 2020: Competing With New Eyes
Previously: My reflections on being able to see for the first time in 2 years. Gil, Doss, and I got three days to actually shoot at our field before Nationals. And that was the first time I had sh...
My Cataract Journey (Part 3: The Second Surgery)
Read Part 1 and Part 2 The second surgery is done, and what a difference they’ve made in my life. I really didn’t realize how bad my vision was until I could see. The first one went so well, wi...
My Cataract Journey (Part 2: In Limbo)
In her first post, Vicki talked about the lead-up to her cataract surgery. In this post, she goes through the week following the surgery on the left eye. The afternoon after surgery I went home and d...
My Cataract Journey (Part 1)
In 2018, my eye doctor told me I was developing a cataract on my left eye, but at that point, it was not bad enough to do anything about it. In early 2019, I knew my vision in my left eye was getting ...
Quarantine Update
Here we are on day 3,080 of quarantine – or it feels like it, anyway. We have had the office closed down since March 20 and have been spending our time cleaning out boxes of stuff. We moved int...
Advance School 2020
Well, it has been a busy March. We did the Advance School the first two weeks and had a great time with everyone. There’s been a lot of learning and progress with everyone’s game. Now it’s ...
Ben Avery December 2019
We spent last weekend in Phoenix, Arizona teaching at Ben Avery. Wow, what a facility! We have been going to Ben Avery for about six to seven years, and it has grown so much. They used to have only on...
Nationals 2019
Well, it’s been a while since I told you what we’ve been up to, so here goes. It’s been a busy fall! We went to NSCA Nationals and as usual, we had a blast. This is the only tournament tha...
Looking at the Barrel and Making a Plan
We’re just getting home from teaching at a new club for us – Minute Man Sportsman’s Club just north of Boston. What a perfect time of year to go to a cooler climate. The leaves had not s...
Where Did July Go?
Wow, where did July go? We got to spend some time at the bay house over the 4th of July, but the winds were so high that we didn’t even get the boat out of the stall. We did have the right West wind...
Punching in to Master Class
On our last Coaching Hour podcast, we had some students who have punched into Master Class and they wanted to know about the mindset of competing in Master Class. Each of them has families and jobs an...
Tips for a High-Volume Shoot – Bolivia 2019
I’m home from Bolivia. Gil and I had a great week seeing old friends, making new ones, and instructing in the field on how to best take the dove and pigeon shots. Everyone did their gun mount h...
Kentucky, Colorado, Bolivia and Argentina!
We went to a new (to us) club – Jefferson County Sportsmen’s Club in Louisville, KY. The flight over was interesting. As much as we travel, we haven’t had the pilot come on the speake...
April – Frozen to Blustery!
Gil and Brian got home from teaching the kids of SCTP in Frozen Butt, Iowa. After I taught the novice clinic and Easter coming up, we started a Coaching Hour on Wednesday. But there was so much static...
19 Years at Camanche Hills!
It’s been 19 years that we have been coming to Camanche Hills Sporting Clays in Northern California. My, how time has flown. Next year we will have to have a party when our 20th year rolls around. W...
2019 Spring has Sprung: Back on the Road Again!
Lessons from the Advance School We had two weeks of Advance School at the 74 Ranch, and what a great two weeks they were. The biggest thing we worked on was having a pause before you call “pull,” ...
Why Won’t You Practice the Flashlight Drill?
Brian and I just got back from teaching for four days at Ben Avery in Phoenix. They keep telling us they only get seven days of rain a year, but every time we come it rains. Then a cold front blew in ...
Where Did January Go?
Here it is the end of January, and where did the days go? After we all got back from San Diego, Gil and I went to Safari Club International Convention in Reno, Nevada to do seminars. We had a full hou...
Welcome to 2019!
Wow, 2018 went really fast and we started 2019 in sunny San Diego, CA with the family. Andrea, Tim, Avery, and their exchange student from Colombia came down from Oregon. Gil, Brian, Jackie (fiancé...
Youth Interventions and Year-End Wrap Up
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL! And it’s going to be a great New Year. We have already fully booked the year for clinics, so check it out and come see us somewhere in this country. Or come dove and/or pigeo...
Knowledge Vault Will Improve Your Game!
We are in sunny Florida doing clinics at the Sarasota Trap, Skeet and Clays Club. The weather is beautiful and temperature is 65 degrees, getting warmer by the minute, and everyone here is wrapped up ...
No Heavy Lifting!
Wow, what a busy three weeks. Sorry to be so late in letting you know what the Ashes are doing, so here goes. Gil went to Boise, Idaho with John Wiles of Best Wingshooting to check out a place where y...
Nationals 2018
I’m sitting inside our RV in San Antonio at the 2018 NSCA National Tournament and it is pouring down rain here. We chose not to go and shoot our 28-gauge 100-bird competition or the 28-gauge FITASC ...
Preparing For A Hunt
We have been busy teaching a lot of folks who are going on some kind of hunt, some for the first time. I have had several lessons with folks going to Argentina for the first time and tried to emphasiz...
Phoenix is HOT in September!
Brian and I got away from the rain in Houston and into the heat in Phoenix… and I mean the heat. It was 110 degrees at least each day, and we got through it. Wow, it was so hot! But it was a dry hea...
Bolivia – Pennsylvania – Phoenix!
Sorry to be so late with another blog, but things have been really busy here. We went to Bolivia to a beautiful lodge and shot doves and pigeons for four days. Gil had gone last year when I was kid-si...
Coaching Hour Transcripts Underway, August Travels and More!
We, meaning all of us in the office plus our new editor Nick, are trying to get the rest of the Coaching Hour transcriptions up on the OSP website. 2001 through 2014 are up and readable, but we have m...
Ashe County Wildlife Club
We just finished three days at Ashe County in the mountains of North Carolina where the high was 75 degrees. A lot nicer than the 100 degrees in Houston. This is a new club for us and the reception wa...
Oregon 2018
I’m on my way home from a great ten days with our granddaughter Avery in Oregon while her parents were gone. Our daughter Andrea turned 40 years old, so a little vacation is a reward for her and Tim...
Coaching Hour – Hot Topics!
We have been at the bay house for a week now and fishing hasn’t been great but the crab traps have been busy. In 3 days we got 28 crabs and had a big crab boil with our neighbors and ate them al...
Nashville – Country Music Hall of Fame!
It was a great week in Nashville. Our son-in-law and his team were on morning radio to be inducted into the Country Music Radio Hall of Fame. Even Garth Brooks showed up! So cool. We went by Double Gu...
Argentina 2018
What a great time we had in Argentina! We spent eight days of shooting; first doves where we taught in the field and didn’t shoot, then on to the pigeon lodge where we shot those deceiving big birds...
What’s Going On at OSP
Mother’s Day brought us back to Houston after being at Drake Landing in North Carolina for three days of learning. Great place, great people and good targets in the hills… and for a flatlander, s...
Three for Three at Kiowa Creek
We had a great three days at Kiowa Creek in Denver, Colorado for all three of us. And we were especially happy that it didn’t snow on us. We will be back the same weekend next year, so put it on the...
Vicki’s California Adventure!
I took a long ten-day trip to California, and what I learned is fabulous. I was solo on this trip going to two places I’d never been before. My first stop was in Sonoma at the Wing and Barrel Ranch....
California and Balance
On my way to a new adventure, going to California, alone, to a new club. It’s my time to spread my wings and fly — literally fly to Sacramento, then on to Sonoma to the Wing and Barrel Club for th...
Problem with a Target?
It’s Sunday morning and I’m at NTB with Brian’s truck, since he had a flat tire on his way to do his clinic this morning. So I left him my car and brought his truck to get new tires. It’s been...
Hope is Not a Plan
Wow, what a great weekend clinic I had at our home field! Gil and Brian were in freezing Iowa teaching the SCTP coaches and athletes in the snow while I took the clinic in 80-degree Houston. I got luc...
Advance School Week One: Lots of “A-has” and “Wows!”
We had a great first week of Advance School. There were lots of “a-has” and we gave everyone some things to work on to improve their shooting. We had several “move, mount, shoot” people for th...
Make Your Plan and Shoot Your Plan!
Last weekend in Hurricane, Utah was great and we found out why it’s called “Hurricane”: on Saturday the wind came up and blew 40-50 mph. It was hard to even stay on your feet, especially when a ...
See It, Stabilize It, Send It!
2018 started busy as ever. The first weekend took us to Dallas Safari Club to do our seminars. This year Brian went with us to see what goes on. It is a big show and lots of people come to see all the...
Holiday with the Ashes!
Boy, was the end of 2017 busy! We had our Christmas here on Christmas Day, then on the 26th we gathered the crew and went to Bend, Oregon to meet up with our daughter Andrea and family for fun in the ...
Doing a Little Fishing
We are taking some time off and doing a little fishing. Since it is winter and all the bait fish have gone out of the bays, we have to change what we are doing to catch the fish that are left behind. ...
A Great Year of Learning
Whew, what a great year of learning 2017 has been! We have traveled a lot; we met so many great people this year and added five new clubs, so all is good. We’re still recouping from Harvey, getting ...
Make Your Plan and Shoot Your Plan!
We are leaving to come home after being at Garland Mountain Sporting Clays near Canton, Georgia. Wow, what a beautiful place. Being November, the trees had turned their fall colors, which was lovely. ...
Fun at Nationals
We had a fabulous time at Nationals this year. It was so great to see everyone again. We rented an RV and became trailer-park trash for a week. We had a ball staying on “campus” and not having to ...
Pennsylvania to Houston to Connecticut
We’re on to Lehigh Valley Sporting Clays and had another great three days of learning with a lot of new folks and several of our repeat offenders. Lehigh is in an old limestone quarry and has a lot ...
Bye-Bye, Harvey – Hello, St. Louis!
Harvey is gone and left the Houston area devastated with homes underwater and lives destroyed. But we will return as a better city. The one thing that everyone shared with us from all over the country...
Hurricane Harvey!
Thanks to all of you for your thoughts and prayers as the state of Texas has gone through the worst natural disaster in years. This makes two years in a row that we have had torrential rains and subdi...
Argentina Pigeon Hunt
We made it to the Montaraz Lodge – the pigeon lodge. After a light lunch, we were off to the pigeon fields. Hunting pigeons in Argentina is so much fun since it is like hunting ducks without the...
Argentina – Dove Hunt
It’s Thursday morning and we are in the van again to make the trip to the Pigeon Lodge. This one is only four hours away. We had a great time at Tomas Frontera’s Lodge La Zenaida or what is referr...
Argentina – Duck Hunt
We got home from teaching in Montana on Monday, July 24, and quickly unpacked and washed clothes, as we were headed for Argentina early Wednesday morning. After going to Argentina all these years, we ...
Emmet County Sportsmen’s Club
What a great trip to Emmet County Sportsmen’s Club last weekend… that is, once we got there. Our flight left at 5 AM on Wednesday to Chicago, and we landed at 8 AM. So far, so good. Our flight to ...
Vicki’s Sweet Vacation
I’m just getting back from what our general manager Becky called my vacation in Oregon with granddaughter Avery. I am not sure that vacation is the correct term. Our daughter Andrea and her husband ...
Continue Learning with the Three-Bullet and Flashlight Drills
It’s been a busy eight weeks of traveling from club to club. We have added five new clubs this year, so it’s been very hectic. But there’s been a great deal of learning going on. We have gone fr...
Busy, Busy, Busy!
Whew, what a busy and active three weeks! We went to a new club near Raleigh, North Carolina called Drake Landing. A wonderful club with a great staff and great targets. There were a lot of crossers, ...
“Pretty Gun, Isn’t It?”
“Pretty gun, isn’t it?” I know we come from a society that aims down the barrel of the gun. Most people started with a BB Gun, went to a 22, then on to a rifle and then on to a shotgun. They tho...
Make Your Plan and Shoot Your Plan: Going from 75 to 90
Here are some thoughts that I talked about in the Coaching Hour where we were talking about how to go from 75 to 90 percent. (Part two here) Before you get into the stand you should have a plan –...
Crunch Time!
Crunch time has arrived. Our calendar is full and fishing is out for a while. Oh well. We are on our journey of constant discovery. Each day is a new one. We think we have heard it all and then it hap...
You Must Practice with a Routine and Plan
It’s spring, which makes us want to get outside and shoot. The biggest issue that seems to be coming up is shooters’ frustration at having so much potential in practice. Yet on game day, they fail...
Teaching in the Rain
Brian, Gil and I are here at 74 Ranch south of San Antonio, Texas doing our 2nd Advance School. We are all here and have had a ball introducing new ideas and ways to improve everyone’s game. It&...
2017 Safari International Club Conventions
We’re returning from the Safari International Club Convention where we had two great seminars. We are the only folks that get a two-hour seminar and we always run overtime because there are so many ...
“Damn, this works!”
I’m sitting here at South Florida Shooting Club watching it rain on a cold Sunday. We have had a great few days of teaching and even some time to shoot the ShotKam for the website. We had so many st...
Nuisance Decisions Get in the Way
We’re just getting back from South Carolina and Florida. It struck me how nuisance decisions get in the way of everyone shooting their best. On the September 2016 Coaching Hour, we discussed how mak...
If Only We Had a Magic Pill
I was in the office this week due to all the rain we have been having and spoke to several people about the plateaus they were on, as well as how to get beyond the score they were stuck on. If only we...
Performance Anxiety
As the different state shoots are coming up and then Nationals in October, there seems to be some performance anxiety rearing its ugly head. You can’t let that control what you do. This anxiety is f...
Vicki’s Family Reunion
Well, it’s been an exciting two weeks. Our daughter Andrea and granddaughter Avery came to town last Monday, so we spent the week with them to prepare for our Watson Family Reunion. We were in charg...
Do the Drill!
I know we have talked and talked about everyone doing the flashlight drill and the three-bullet drill and I have a hard time figuring out why no one will do them. They cost nothing other than a ten-do...
“Two Eyes – No Gun!”
It’s been an exciting number of very busy weeks for us. Traveling from hot South Carolina to the bay for a few days over July 4th to cool Montana for a welcome change from the oppressive heat in...
Travelling this Month
Brian and Gil went to Iowa to teach coaches and kids of Larry Gay’s SCTP team and I went to Oregon to babysit our granddaughter, Avery. What a busy week with a 7-year-old. She had every minute plann...
Argentina 2016
After leaving the snow of Colorado and the floods in Houston, we left for Cordoba, Argentina to rid the country of those pesky doves and pigeons. It was fall in the Southern Hemisphere. Usually, it’...
Effort and Attitude
Our Coaching Hour is our monthly hour of solving problems, talking about what we have learned, and hearing about our students’ successes and things they had learned. On last month’s Coaching Hour,...
Four Days at Kiowa Creek
We’re just getting back from a fantastic four days of teaching in Colorado at Kiowa Creek, just outside of Denver. We had so many students that Brian got to go with us and we took 15 students each d...
Fishing, Shooting, and Life
We went on a fishing trip yesterday. I say “fishing” because there was not a lot of catching on this trip due to the weather and a lot of wind. So, it also gave me a chance to think about how frus...
Close Targets Within 30 Yards
It seems there has been a big issue of students who come to clinics or lessons and always want to learn to shoot the farther targets. But I ask, “Can you shoot all the targets that are within 30 yar...
Florida Recap
We have been in Florida for the past 21 days, and while wish I could say we were enjoying the warm sunshine, it was cold until the last day. We were in our down jackets and rain gear and those shorts ...
Reflections and Realizations
We were in Dallas last weekend for the Dallas Safari Club Convention. As I drove the four hours with Gil working on something and all was quiet (hard to believe, I know) I started reflecting on the pa...
Wrapping Up 2015 – Look Out, 2016!
I hope all of you had a great Christmas and are looking forward to the New Year. I know we are since a lot of new exciting things are happening at OSP. Our Christmas was great with our son Brian and h...
Sarasota Gun Club 2015
We have had a great week in Florida, going to Sarasota Gun Club for the first time. What a great club. It’s getting larger and adding new courses in the next few months. We will be back on January 2...
Nationals 2015
Shooting at Nationals It was another great year at the NSCA National Championship – or at least for most of it before the rain set in. We shot our main event on Monday and Tuesday when it was su...
California and Montana September 2015
We went to Quail Point in northern California for our first time and it was so exciting for us as well as our students. They had had the regional shoot two weeks before and had left the course as it w...
Learning New Skills: Fishing and Shooting
We’ve been able to take some time off from our busy schedule and have come to the bay house to chill and fish. Until six years ago I had never really fished at all. Growing up in Houston, my dad...
Dove Hunt #2
We’re back to the dove lodge with a new group of folks from Texas, St. Louis, and Jamaica. What a great experience. Everyone jelled perfectly. The Jamaicans had been there a day, so they had alr...
The Pigeon Lodge
Argentina Pigeon Lodge How much fun we had and how many lessons learned. And of course, the food and service were fabulous. The pigeon lodge was built in 1622 and has so much history. The manager Chri...
Argentina Dove Hunting 2015
We left Houston at 10:30 in a big rainstorm. Houston had so much rain on Monday night that it flooded the town. And we were getting it again. Getting to Argentina Off to Panama to catch our flight to ...
DNR Training in Iowa
We’re on our way home from doing two DNR trainings. One was in Florida which had 186 volunteers that we introduced to the OSP System. The other was in Des Moines, Iowa at the International Hunte...
Learning at Kiowa Creek
Last weekend’s clinic at our field at American Shooting Centers was as always a learning experience for us all. Just when we think we have heard it all, something new comes up. Once again, not l...
Headed to Argentina with Us? Practice Your Gun Mount!
Practice Your Gun Mount! We are going on another great trip to Argentina on May 28th. The topic of practicing your gun mounts before we go has come up. We’ve talked to many who are going with us...
Brian: The New Addition to OSP
Welcome, Brian! We had a few days last weekend when we had time to go shoot with our new employee: our son Brian who has joined us at OSP. We are so excited that he has chosen to come to help us teach...
Grandma Vicki in Oregon
While Mom and Dad went on a well-deserved vacation, Grandma Vicki took the reins over one of our granddaughters – a very active 6-year-old, Avery. Our daughter Andrea and her husband Tim live in...
Finishing Up at Advance Schools
We had a great three weeks of Advance Schools. A whole lot of learning went on in the three-and-a-half days of classes. Being at the 74 Ranch is such a great learning experience. You eat, sleep, and l...
Return to Sunny Florida
Another great week in sunny Florida. I feel like I just left… Oh, wait. We did just leave 10 days ago. The event we did was a little different from just clinics at Gulf Coast Clays. We called it...
Leaving Sunny Florida
We were in sunny Florida last weekend and had a great time with some new students and our repeat offenders, too. The weather was a lot better than in most parts of the country and we had some folks co...
Dallas Safari Club Seminars
We did our seminars at Dallas Safari Club’s convention last weekend. And as always, the animations were a hit. Everyone liked the duck, pheasant, dove, and pigeon kill shots from the Knowledge V...
Thanksgiving 2014
We had a great Thanksgiving week. Andrea, Tim, and Avery came in from Oregon and our son Brian picked them up from the airport. That began the week of fun. They got to the house about the time I finis...
Houston Clinic and More
Lessons Learned in Houston It’s been a strange week here in Houston, Texas. We had a great clinic last weekend. Gil did individual lessons and I took on the clinic for two days. We had so much f...
Relearning to Slow Down
Last weekend we went quail hunting at the 74 Ranch south of San Antonio. This is always a fun hunt and we do it four times a year. The thing that I learned (and probably have to relearn at the beginni...
Vicki’s Accomplishment at 2014 Nationals
What a great time at the 26th NSCA National Tournament. At the Hall of Fame Banquet, we found out that I was the only one that had been to all 26 years of tournaments. Who knew? Fun Times in the RV We...
Headed to Nationals after Clinics
We had a wonderful weekend clinic a week and a half ago and taught all week. Next, we’re going to the NSCA National tournament to visit with good friends and of course meet new ones. Our last c...
Catching up with Vicki
Back from Oregon We are just getting back from three wonderful days with our daughter Andrea, son-in-law, Tim, and one of our granddaughters, Avery. On Wednesday, Gil went salmon fishing with the boys...
Teaching in Oregon
We’re on our way to Oregon for a short family reunion and some teaching at a new (to us) club in Grants Pass. First, we’re flying into Medford, then on to Eugene to visit with our daught...
From Pennsylvania to Iowa
Our trip from Pennsylvania to Des Moines, Iowa was a little less than perfect. We left Allentown, PA after a great four days. Then on to Chicago, then on to Des Moines, Iowa…or at least that was...
Lehigh Valley Shooting Clinic
This is our third or fourth year to come to the limestone quarry known as Lehigh Valley. We once again had four fabulous days with the staff and students. Some were repeaters, but most were new to us...
Being in Flow
On our recent Argentina trip, I found myself on the third day of the pigeon hunt not shooting very well. I guess that’s an understatement of my inability to hit anything. After shooting doves ...
Cardinal Shooting Center – Our First Visit
We visited a new club out of Columbus, Ohio last weekend and found an oasis in the middle of nowhere. This was our first time, and the facility is beautiful and huge. They have a long row of trap ran...
Baffin Bay
As soon as we got off the plane, we had to drive to Baffin Bay. We had a stop off at our bay house to get all our gear and then drive down past Corpus Christi to the way to fish with a student and hi...
Argentina 2014
We arrived in Cordoba, Argentina on Tuesday, August 5th, having left Houston on Monday. We got through customs, and then on to the lodge. That trip was another two hours, but at the lodge, Eduardo m...
Teaching in South Dakota
We finally got to Hunters Pointe Sporting Clays in Humboldt, South Dakota, 16 miles west of Sioux Falls. Tony Bour, the owner, had been trying to get us to come up there for two years but it just neve...
Taking Time Off in Alaska
We’re just returning from a vacation in Alaska. Vacation is not something we get to do, and this one was very special because we spent it with our daughter Andrea, her husband Tim, and most impo...
Advance School #1
The first Advance Class was a true learning experience. We had some new faces and some repeaters, but it was a good mix, and a lot of “aha’s” came about. Day One: Preloading and Fini...
Advance School #2
We began this school with a lot of talk about peripheral acceptance of the gun farther and farther behind the gun. This is such a hard thing to do, as it’s very uncomfortable. But the way to imp...
74 Ranch 2014: Week One
Sitting at 74 Ranch waiting for Gil to finish a lesson and waiting for the next cold front to hit here and drive home in the rain. Oh, joy! When will spring be here? Can’t be too soon for me. Great ...
Georgia DNR
We are waiting at the airport for our 2:55 PM flight to leave. It’s 4:45 and we are still on the ground. Ah, the joys of traveling for a living. Oh well. It gives me time to tell you about ou...
Safari Club International Convention – Las Vegas!
We’re just returning from Las Vegas from the SCI convention – and what a convention it was. Everything you want for a hunting experience is on showcase. You can book a hunt in Africa or a...
Seven Days in Beautiful Florida
Just returning from spending seven days in Florida. We got to Orlando and made our way past Disney World to Lakeland to meet with the Department of Natural Resources from Florida, Iowa, and Georgia. ...
England: Sightseeing and Hunting Grouse on the Moors
Coming home from 12 days in England. Wow, did we have fun. We got into London after a 10-hour overnight flight and were met at the airport by our good friend Chris Potter and went to a hotel in Tunbri...
St. Louis
Two great days in St. Louis with some repeat offenders and a lot of new faces, too. We also had a writer from Safari Club International to cover the school and to learn to shoot, so be looking for a...
South Carolina
Successes in South Carolina We had another great weekend at The Clinton House in South Carolina. This is our third year, and each year has been better than the one before. Mike Johnson, who runs the ...
Wingshooting Argentina
What a great time we had in Argentina in August! We have this figured out when to go. In August when it is hot as you-know-what here in Houston, let’s go to Argentina where it’s winter. Th...
Lessons from Lehigh Valley
We had a great trip to Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania. For those of you who haven’t been there, it’s at an old limestone quarry with target presentations like you haven’t seen. You will have...
Canada
On our way home from another great trip to Wapiti Shooters Club in Grande Prairie Alberta, Canada. The club is great and the people are even better. We always enjoy this trip to visit with everyone. T...
What We Learned at the Advance Schools
We have just finished doing three weeks of Advance Schools and boy, did we all have fun. A great deal of learning went on for all of us. The one thing we wanted everyone to learn to do was to have the...
Focus Ratios and Lower Gun Mount
It’s Monday, which means we must be on an airplane going home to Houston. We had a great weekend at OK Corral in Okeechobee, Florida. Yes, we were back at OK Corral in three weeks, as the demand was...
Four Days at Ben Avery 2013
If you haven’t been to Ben Avery Shooting Center, you should go. It’s a great venue with lots of great target presentations – and of course a great staff. We had four days of teaching...
OK Corral Weekend
Just leaving “sunny” warm Florida — NOT! But we had a great weekend at OK Corral in Okeechobee. So good, in fact, that we’ll return in three weeks. It’s a great club that is growing....
Shot Show 2013
The 2013 shot show was huge as it always is. But it had a special meaning this year. Because of the gun violence in 2012 ending in December with the Sandy Hook shooting, the folks who buy and sell g...