Your Memory is a Choice
Remembering the past is intimately linked with imagining the future. You had a bad day at the shooting range and your buddy calls and says, “Let's go shoot at that range.” You’ll probably say no, because you think back to the day that you didn't...
Change Your Approach
Positive or negative, or even verbal encouragement on the course while you're shooting… none of it is good or will improve your performance. This is why the frustration occurs. What you're doing or how you're doing it, albeit well-intended, will not work, which means you...
Cue, Response, Reward
A habit is nothing more than cue, response, and reward. And you have to do that “cue, response, reward” enough times, so that it becomes a habit. When I look at the target, I always use a skeet choke on anything inside of 25 yards. I...
Blind Spots When Shooting Pairs
If the targets are hard to see due to lighting or background conditions, find a spot that's either on the target line or close to it. And after killing the first bird, get your eyes there and keep them still, so that they will go...
Confident – But Not Overconfident
"If we can accept that having some level of expectation is a normal and natural byproduct of training and competition, how do we best manage and deal with it?" Well, you always go into a practice or tournament with some kind of expectation. But you can't...
Learning to Shoot in the Wind and Rain
If you want to become a good competitive shooter, just like practicing your gun mount, you got to put a number on your back and get in the game. The first year in master class, shoot every event at every tournament you can afford timewise and...
Shooting Without Thinking
We think it would be good to talk about one more step in the performance part of sporting clays that not many of you have considered. When you look at a target for the first time, your long-term memory sees it and instantly searches the inventory...
Failing and Failing Better
For most of you, facing a long, crossing target will make you a little uncomfortable on your first attempt because you have no expectation of hitting it. You simply call for the bird and the gun magically goes out in front. Then the trigger is...
The “Win or Learn” Attitude
Things that happen to you just are. But how you remember them turns them into strong influences on who you will or can become. When you attach to the memory something positive that helped you to achieve this memory, it becomes more like you. We are...
The Habits That Are Hidden by Conscious Thought
Our research shows several patterns that have emerged over the years we have been professional coaches, and it basically boils down to two things: either shooters begin to try or begin to evaluate while they are performing. There is a sequence we have noticed as...