Desirable Difficulty
In our 31 years now as professional coaches, we have seen thousands of performers who have had differing degrees of skill with a shotgun, fishing rod, golf club, tennis racket, public speaking and many more activities. The ones who eventually end up being really good...
Flushing Birds
When shooting flushing birds, you can’t use shooting sticks and you can’t take a little extra time and aim. The target is always moving at an unknown speed and most of the time an unknown distance. In the instance of a flushing bird, after you...
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 the classes you are (or should be) building filler...
Gun Fit: Adjustable Combs and Cheek Pressure
Gun fit is a fairly broad topic that encompasses many different facets, starting with how consistent the shooter can mount the gun. Of course, this comes from repetition, repetition, repetition. We are sure you have been told or have read that gun fit is important and...
Building Your Habits in Practice
Skill building is a process that few really understand. And even fewer are willing to put in the time and repetitions necessary to really build skill in their shotgun game. There are so many shooters out there who, for various reasons, just will not make the...
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 are not among them. We have two reasons for...
The Sun Will Still Rise
The ability to take disappointment out of a situation is a full-time job for a coach. It also needs to be a full-time job for a competitor if they really want to be good. Our brains will take the negative road in a heartbeat. You must...
Keep a Calm Mind
You are going to miss. Accept it and move on. But knowing what missing does to your physiology can be very helpful. While we’ve observed that different shooters react in different ways, they all speed up. You lose control between the pairs and stations and you...
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 plateaus. This is described in detail in several different sports in Daniel...
Keep Process-Oriented
The one trait that seems to be common among all successful competitors is the ability to stay calm under pressure, which leads to the ability to think clearly and act according to a plan - to stay process-oriented instead of outcome-oriented. We use the phrase “process-oriented”...