The True Commitment Required for Greatness
Great performers are not born with some innate ability that predisposes them to be able to be great at anything. They all have spent thousands of hours doing what it is that they do. But each person became great by the commitment in time, money,...
“What Are You Going to Give Up?”
Some think if they would just try harder, they will improve and eventually find the “holy grail” of consistency. But try as they may, that holy grail turns into a nosegay of excuses that simply masks their lack of commitment to ask for help or...
The Move and Mount is Crucial
Here’s a little-known fact: shooters who can move and mount the gun learn as much as three times faster than those who don’t! Said another way, people who refuse to learn to move and mount the gun learn as much as three times slower. The choice is yours. Some might...
Building Long-Term Memory in Practice
We are finding out that practice is perhaps the most valuable tool in our game of shooting a moving target with a shotgun. At the same time, it’s the most wasted tool. Shooters shoot a lot and think they are practicing, but all they are...
A Flexible vs. Fixed Mindset
Our research shows that a person’s mindset is the greatest single determining factor that opens the door to higher and higher levels of performance because it must be learned. The majority of shooters have what is called a “fixed mindset,” where their main goal is to...
The Myths of Skill
In his book Peak, Anders Ericsson mentions that there are three myths associated with skill and improving skill. We think it’s important to talk about them. That way, you can be aware of them and not fall prey to them, because they will kill the learning...
Building Long-Term Positive Memories
You become what you repeatedly do, and eventually, you become what you remember. How you file those things in your brain as positive or negative will determine who you become. In their book Be A Player, Lynn Marriott and Pia Nilsson share this about memory: “Psychological research has...
Inconsistency and Evaluation: What’s Holding You Back?
Ask a room full of sporting clays shooters if they would like to be more consistent, and they'll overrun you with enthusiastic responses. Few, if any, really know why they are so inconsistent. They’re good on some days and not so good on others. But...
The Limits of Massed Practice
Our intuition persuades us to dedicate stretches of time to the single-minded repetitive practice of things we want to master. We’ve been led to believe that the regimen of massed practice is essential for building mastery of a skill or learning new knowledge. But it...
The Power of Learning and its Challenges
Remember that the most successful students take charge of their own learning and follow a simple but disciplined strategy. You may not have been taught how to do this, but you can do it and will likely surprise yourself with the results. Embrace the fact that...