Surprise and Sacrifice
For most shooters, there is no rhyme or rhythm in their results when shooting a shotgun at a moving target - painted or feathered. If you shoot a shotgun enough, when you’re surprised by a target at the range or bird in the field, you...
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 end. Either way, if the shooter is successful, it...
Giving 100 Percent, 100 Percent of the Time
Shooters often do not practice with intensity, which can confuse them. They go through the motions and fun, and then when they go to a tournament they try, and their brain doesn't recognize them. They're not relaxed or happy-go-lucky - they're not having fun. They're...
Ego and Evaluation
Shooters can get so obsessed with breaking the target instead of the process. You can't do anything unless you have a plan. This game is all about ego. And ego is all about breaking the bird. So, that evaluation part when you're trying to learn makes...
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 see them when they're gripping...
What Should Your Post-Shot Routine Look Like?
After you break the first pair, the typical emotional reaction is relief. Wrong. When you break the first pair, and you break that second bird of the first pair, as you open the gun, the first thing you ought to do is replay visually what you...
The Contents of Your Pre-Shot Routine
Less is important. The mistake that most people make in the beginning is they put way too many things in their pre-shot routine, which means they haven't done enough of what they do in their routine to make it a habit. It's eight things instead...
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 a practice session, or whether you're just watching clay target kill shot reviews and...
Small Muscle, Big Muscle
The ideal way for the brain to move the body is small muscle, big muscle. And when I'm moving, as I call or I'm moving before I call, it's so much easier for me to get everything synced up. Because my hands are moving, if the...
Regardless of the Result
Leading up to a big event, we're all excited to go to the Open or Nationals. But if I expect to do well, I need to have to time to practice, and for maybe months or weeks and days leading up to the event, I...