The core purpose of the visual system is prediction. Our visual processing system, when you combine that with other senses, provides information to the central nervous system to allow a prediction of what is coming next. Our game is based on what is coming next. Rather than trying to predict where it’s going to be, […]
There’s a reason that everybody in sporting clays gets stuck at 72 to 75. In skeet, you get stuck at 88 to 92, 93. It’s because they do not have a vivid movie in their head of where and how they want the shot to come together. They’re just going to pull it out of […]
Any number of times when we were working with new shooters and they miss it and we say, “Well, did you match the speed?” “Yeah, yeah, I did.” “Well, match it better.” On the third time of matching it better, they really matched it and the target blew up. “So, you really matched that one, […]
More than two decades ago, I was coaching a student in FITASC, and he asked me, “What do you think about?” I said, “When you’re between stations or between shooters on a FITASC parkour, I want you to look at the ground and see if you could find a Viceroy cigarette butt.” “A what?” “A […]
What we have learned, especially on the birds that intimidate you, is that the lead is the most forgiving part of the equation. If you will just get the gun too far out in the front and match speed, your brain will correct it. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It seems that the more […]
You should do the post-shot routine when working on basically any target. If you miss, this post-shot routine will then become automatic. This is the one routine that nobody wants to do, but it’s probably the most important. After you’ve made a great shot, just take those fractions of seconds to relive it. Then it […]
When you watch an elite shooter, everything is always the same. You can think all you want to with the gun open, but once it’s closed, it’s go time. If that gun closes and there’s a thought, if you look at the barrel or a bird in the distance or something, you need to open […]
Do you remember the first time you broke a target that was really out of your comfort zone? “Oh, I was a school bus in front,” some people say. You might have to be the school bus in front at first so your brain can get out there and put the gun far enough out […]
We have been to South America and Mexico more than 50 times both to hunt and coach in the field on the real thing. Almost all of the hunters that went with us were our clients and could already shoot really well. But like all great performers, they were always pushing themselves to get better […]
Imagine that you’re at a tennis match, seated in line with the net and higher up in the grandstand. Would you put your nose on the net and follow the ball with your eyes? Or would you keep your eyes on the ball by pointing your nose at it? In our travels, we see shooters watching […]
These days, it seems like target setters are giving shooters less time to hit the first target to make the second target consistently broken. This evolution has changed the game from a low gun to a high gun game. With distance comes a slower muzzle movement but with less time to keep the muzzle movement […]
Dr. Dan Laby is probably one of the best sports vision scientists in the world. Anybody that’s in that business will tell you he is the pioneer in sports vision. He found that when they tested elite athletes and non-trained people on simple visual decisions, they all had the same reaction time. When I say […]
When we’re looking out at the horizon, we see a circle of vision. Two-hundredths of one percent of that circle is where your sharp vision resides. Your sharp vision cannot see movement and it’s only five milliseconds behind real time on the arrival time of the data from the fovea to the motor center. It’s […]
The first thing we lose when we take any kind of time off is timing. As we preach, everything is routine, everything is sequence-oriented – and it all revolves around timing. So, when anybody takes any time off of anything, no matter what you do, you need to go back to the basics. Whenever I […]
When we teach new students our system, they’re just gobsmacked with how simple it is and how the brain will take care of all the stuff that they’ve been trying to take care of. But several things have to happen in a sequence for that to happen. The first and most important thing is you […]
Deliberate practice is critical for reaching a focus ratio of 95-5. The baggage that everyone carries through all of these plateaus is worrying about the lead. The more you think about it, the more you reference it, and the more it’s going to hurt you. At the highest level, you don’t have to worry about […]
When you finally get to a level where you have a focus ratio of 90-10 or 95-5, your routine’s automatic. You look at a target and instead of saying “Oh, what am I going to do with that?” it’s “I’ve seen that 100 times and broken it 99; I know exactly what to do, let’s […]
In Daniel Coyle’s book, “The Little Book of Talent,” he talks about breaking things down into chunks and taking a little bit at a time. “Letters are useless by themselves, but when you combine them in the right sequence and become words, and the words become sentences, and the sentences become paragraphs.” Pay attention to […]
Everything we do with a shotgun occurs in the periphery and how much awareness of the barrel is an evolution. We’ve all been through it. When I’m shooting well, the lead looks the same on almost every target. It’s just space, but it’s stable. If I see a target that is fast crossing at distance, […]
As your focus ratios improve, there is less and less confusion due to neurological suspension happening. You are actually performing better with less visual input, less conscious planning, which allows your brain to concentrate on fewer things when the target is in the air. In turn, this allows your brain to orchestrate fewer things at […]
It’s important to use the post-shot routine when working on your weaker targets in practice. When you use it after every shot, it helps you with your correction routine if you miss. When performing, the post-shot is automatic for me. But even though I saw the lead, I do not get involved with the lead […]
I had a lesson not long ago with a shooter who’d been shooting with a pro-tournament shooter, complaining about vision problems and closing an eye. He’d been told over and over, “Now this target’s going to take three feet to the right and a foot under.” And he was very frustrated. After showing him what […]
At a focus ratio of 90-10, the leads seem very similar, with a few big ones still out there. But you’re beginning to control the bird from in front with good gun speed. Then 95-5 occurs and everything looks the same and slow and lead is no longer part of the process. Then you go […]
Speed match is critical. Without it, the picture is not real. But with speed match, it becomes real afterwards. Anything you’re aware of in your sharp vision arrives at the motor center in five milliseconds. It takes 300 milliseconds for anything in your periphery to arrive in the motor center. When you’ve matched the speed […]
Sports vision expert Dr. Dan Laby taught us that there’s no difference in reaction time between experienced and non-experienced athletes in simple reaction situations such as “red light, green light, stop, go.” You’ve been doing it your whole life. However, there is a dramatic difference in non-trained and trained athletes in complex decisions where the […]
Skill is not transferable. This is why many shooters who are trying to get better are going to a good shooter they know, but quickly become frustrated with trying to see what the good shot sees. Everything we do when shooting a shotgun at a moving target happens in the periphery. Everything we perceive in […]
If your barrel’s not on the bird, you’re going to miss it in front. These are the kinds of things you need to give your brain instructions in great detail. You don’t want it to get fooled by the illusion. We have learned that the brain will anticipate the arrival of the target automatically as […]
Put 100 shotgun shooters in a room and ask all of them to raise their hands if they would like to be more consistent with their shotguns and everyone in the room will raise their hands. But how many of them will leave their hands up when you ask who is willing to actually spend […]
