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: Muzzle too high. Muzzle going up. Not being comfortable with the muzzle being well in front of a right-to-left bird. Eyes moving when you call “pull.”

There are certain things that are going to be yours for this year. Now is a great time to look for them and begin to train them out of your game and train the right move into your game. There’s an unlimited number of goals that you could have for this year. But if your goal was to be the best in visual transition and plan, it will reward you tenfold.

You can do all of your singles practice that you want to. You can shoot ten in a row, shoot another ten in a row and move the bucket. But ultimately on game day they’re all pairs. And if your visual transition from the first broken target in the breakpoint to the pickup point on the second bird is the same every time, if you are the best in visual transition, you’re going to find yourself with one of the top scores.

Another goal that would be beneficial on both sides of the course would be always to be early with your nose on the target. See it come. Keeping your nose on that bird is something critical. This time of year, you’ll find that, because of your lack of training, you’ll find that your nose will come off that bird on certain targets.

Typically, if you’re right-handed on a left-to-right target, your nose is going to come off the bird at the beginning of the year. Just make sure you keep your nose on the target.

Dealing with distractions is also huge. You do that by having a routine, getting in, then coming back out, and coming back to the present via being very congruent in your routine. If you want to get away and train by yourself, I don’t see a problem with that; but ultimately, you’re going to have to face the distractions. That’s where having a good routine comes in handy because you can’t eliminate the distraction. You’ve got to let it in, deal with it, let it out, come back to the present, be congruent, work your routine, shoot the pair, and work your routine.

 

This is an excerpt from the March 2011 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.