Returning from OK Coral in Okeechobee Florida

The importance of the three-bullet drill was emphasized again in an overwhelming way.

There is a thought process out there that if you are right-eyed and right-handed, you can look down the barrel and get the lead and shoot the target. I had two students who looked straight down the barrel at the bead sight every time they mounted the gun. What a long day for them – and me. After they watched the animations, they knew they were in for a long day. But watching the animations and doing the three-bullet drill, they understood where their eyes were supposed to be. The visual helped them to understand why they kept missing the targets and both shooters finally began looking behind the muzzle at the target by about 2:30 or 3 PM.

I had one shooter for two days and the second day was much better, but both shooters were very frustrated with their reflex of looking down the barrel. It doesn’t matter how much they understand what they are supposed to be looking at; the aiming reflex remains the one biggest thing we must deal with. The animations help with the logic of where to be looking, but the overwhelming majority of shooters are still burdened with the reflex of looking down the barrel.

Maybe the next new product should be a combination of animation and real shots about where your eyes are when you look at the bird and mount the gun ahead of the bird!

On another note, there were some exciting victories at the club. Most all of the shooters, once they began to see the target across the barrel, began to consistently hit cross-eyed targets. We started all shooters on the cross-eyed targets to get them to understand the importance of seeing the targets behind the muzzle. 

On the first and third days, the animations were a great success. And when we did the three-bullet drill with the shooters, they were amazed at how much the animations changed their perceptions of what they were supposed to be doing, especially the women. Some got it instantly and some got it later in the day. But they all saw it. And some got it deeply and some sporadically.

At lunch on the third day, a student remarked that everyone says that Vicki and I are crazy or don’t teach what everyone else teaches. I agreed with him but then asked what he thought about what we teach after shooting just half a day with me. Well, he said it is different from what everyone teaches but way more effective.

I mentioned to him that the one common thread that everyone who says that about us is that they have never had a lesson from us! I challenged him to directly ask the next person who said that if they had ever had a lesson from us. Call me and let me know what they said.

We know what they will say. The simple answer is “No, but I talked to someone who has.” B.S. No one has spent the time or the money to research the science of visuomotor skill or skill development or produce the products that we have produced to enhance the learning experience of our students worldwide.

We’re off to Reno this week to do seminars at the SCI show and then back home to rest for a couple of days. Then to Phoenix for first time for four full days.

We rescheduled OK Corral for February 14-17 to handle overage from this trip, and we’ll probably take another trip in April – around fishing, of course!