The Science of Skill: Building Blocks in Shooting and Life
Skill development is an intricate process rooted in biology and psychology, both in shotgunning and life itself. The key to mastering any skill, including shooting, lies in understanding how our brains evolve with practice. During adolescence, a protein called myelin plays a crucial role. It wraps...
Diagnosing Skeet and Sporting Clays Misses
Skeet and sporting clays both present unique challenges. Before you can even begin learning how to compete in skeet, you need to learn how to break targets in the same breakpoints on each station every time. It’s a more regimented game of the same targets over...
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 learn from failure. But here’s the catch: you get out of this game what you put...
Skill Comes from Repetition
You can think of skill as a series of railroad tracks. When they’re not used and exposed to the elements, they become rusty. But when they start to be used again, they get shiny – almost polished-looking. Remember that your skill comes from repetition, and to...
Paying Attention to Your Successes
We’ve learned that, in building a good mental game, you have to look at things for what they really are. Our brains are predisposed to not give successes nearly as much thought or emotion as we do failures. And it’s a real problem. It’s a real thing...
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 last few decades confused, constantly searching for a deeper understanding of how...
Being Honest with Your Score
You can’t run away from the score, but your ability to admit what the score is and admit the situation you’re in is huge. Controlling doubt and fear is also huge because if you can admit the fact that you’re only down two going into the...
Shooting “Bling”
If I could find ten people that would give me a million dollars to have a AA game in sporting clays overnight, I’d make them all drink a pint of goat’s blood and then leave town with their money. They would be too sick for...
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 barrel? There’s a choice. When will you be willing to...
Fear is a Funny Thing
Shooting with confidence and trust is a whole new and wonderful way to play our game. It’s very typical to learn conscious sight pictures, and one day hopefully you’ll be able to trust them. But if you learn to trust from the beginning without the fear...