Eye Dominance and Visual Delay
The instant the new shooter says something about the confusing picture, they are immediately misdiagnosed as “cross-dominant!” There is a perception out there that if you are right-handed and right-eye dominant that you can look at the target and look down the barrel and get the...
“Talent Hotbeds”
Daniel Coyle, author of “The Talent Code,” has a knack for putting things in words based on his research of “talent hotbeds” - coaching situations that produced high performers consistently. This book is where we first learned about the myelination of circuits in the brain. The...
You Can’t Practice Confidence
Consistency and confidence cannot be practiced; they are what is left over from practicing, which is why you must bring your practice game to higher and higher levels. There is a myth out there that you can talk yourself into becoming a better shooter. But...
Dealing with Compliments Effectively
Eventually, your game will elevate to another level and your fellow shooters will begin to notice your scores are either becoming more consistent and/or higher. You will begin to be complimented on your game. The normal response to a compliment about your score is to be...
Opening Your Over-and-Under Automatically
Let’s use opening your over-and-under shotgun as an example. You don’t have to consciously tell your hands where to hold the gun and you don’t have to look at your thumb to make sure it hits the top lever and exerts the correct amount of...
No Shortcut to Proficiency in Shotgunning
One big thing we have been emphasizing is that skill resides in a person’s memory. A person cannot visualize something they have never seen, so there is no shortcut to becoming proficient with a shotgun - especially in hunting situations. In addition, our brain has...
Light Cheek Pressure
Something that must be considered is the amount of cheek pressure required to shoot the gun consistently. If the salesman says you will have to cheek the gun a little tighter, don’t buy the gun. Years of shooting and coaching has shown us that the greater...
The Pointing Instinct
Since you were six months old, you have been pointing at something you were looking at, so your pointing sequence is highly automatized due to the number of times you have pointed at a distant object. In our game, the gun must be pointed ahead...
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...