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Try trusting your natural ability to bring the gun up in the front of the target and shoot when the gun gets to your face. They way the eyes work is like this-- Look beyond the flight path of the target-focus on something ( a bush, a tree anything, but you must keep your eyes still). Let the target come into your view, then start moving the gun the same speed as the target and insert the barrel in front of the target. Shoot as soon as the gun gets to your face. If the gun comes to the face and the shot is not taken, the eyes will go to the thing that is moving the fastest in the picture and that is the gun. The only time eye dominance comes into the equation is when you don't fire and your eyes go back to the barrel and this causes confusion to the brain. Trust your ability and your instincts as they are always correct. Just think how you drive a car and merge into the traffic with 2 eyes so why close one with a shotgun. You don't look at the front of the car to get there you look where you are going. Look at the front of the target, as that is where it is going and put the gun in that lead window and pull the trigger. Did you know that if you don't tell yourself to look at the front of the target, your eyes will naturally go to the back. So where is the gun going to go. To the back. Try it on the clays range just see where your eyes will go naturally. Always look at the front. The goal is to make these little 4" disks look bigger, not smaller. Don't worry about the eyes so much, focus on the target. Just look at it and shoot it. Attitude Toward Winning Shooters that are so intent on winning are at a great disadvantage because these desires create tension and pressure. We become our own best enemy and you tend to lose the joy and fun of the game. Detching from these external desires reduces tension and improves performance. When you go into a course and you go to shoot a score, your performance will suffer. Your goal becomes not to hit each target, your goal has become not to miss. The difference in attitude makes the conscious mind become more aware of missing not hitting. If you are thinking of missing, what will you get. More misses. Think more about each target and how to hit it. If it doesn't break, there is always another one coming for you to hit. Make your conscious mind think of only one bird at a time and how to hit it. Any time wasted on getting upset with your miss, will only make more misses happen. If you miss, stop and figure out what it takes to hit the target. Don't dwell on where you were if it did not break. That did not work so why be so consumed with it. Make yourself figure out how to correct the miss and make it a success. Failure is a good thing if you will learn from it. That way whenever you see that type of target again, you will know how to hit it. Putting emotion into a miss ensures that you will miss again. Become more focused on hitting and learning from each hit and miss and your performance will go up. Besides, no one wants to shoot with someone that gets angry at himself everytime he/she misses a target. Practice Routine Have a specific goal in mind when you go to your practice sessions. If you go out and shoot the whole course, you are not making yourself a better shot, you are just burning powder. There are times when you will go and do that, of course, when you go shoot with your friends, but if you really want to make your practice sessions, helpful- work only on one thing. Today, I'm going to go out and shoot 150 right to left quartering targets. I would shoot them where they were ńsweet", then I would change my break point and shoot them in several different places. The goal is to break each target 10 times in a row, then change the break point again. You want to stay with easy targets and get where each time you change the break point, you shoot it till you have shot it 10 times in a row. Get comfortable with breaking that target in different places 10 times in a row. Why? This is sporting clays, you need to know how to hit targets in all different places. Shooting it 10 times in a row makes you practice staying focused for that length of time. In a tournament, you will need to do this, so practice it so it beomes natural. When you see it on a station, you first thought is ---Great, I've seen this target break 10 times. The confidence level you have going into this stand is high and you will become more relaxed and the tension will not be a hinderance to your performance. You will need to keep the targets simple and build up your ability level and your confidence. Most targets on a sporting course are all between you and 30-35 yards. What is the one target most people practice before a tournament? Its that long 45-50 yard crosser that you will only have to shoot 5 times. Everything between you and 35 yards must be hit. Make that your goal. Then your scores will improve. Confidence that you can hit each of these targets in any place will relax you. Being relaxed will enable your body to react to each target. That's what you must do as a shotgun shooter.
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