Focus in Front   When I miss, I usually miss behind, especially on crossing targets. Recently, I have been trying to focus my eyes on a spot in front of the target, and it seems to help. Does this make sense?   I think you will find that your “new technique” is fraught with inconsistencies. When you call pull, your most important job is to feed the brain high-definition target information. To successfully and consistently intercept a moving target, regardless of the object being intercepted, you must apply acute visual focus on the target immediately prior to, and through, the … [Read more...]

Nose-to-Knuckle   Correct length of pull has the shooter's nose one to two fingers from the thumb knuckle. However, I noticed most top shooters have their noise very close to, if not touching, their thumb knuckle. I have a customer stock on my gun, but if I force my face forward to get my nose to touch my thumb knuckle, it's uncomfortable and I get a totally different sight picture to the target. Should I consider shortening my stock?   To a certain degree, the proper shotgun dimensions for a given shooter will depend on the shooter’s body type, stance and shooting style. An … [Read more...]

Endurance   What technique, procedure or exercise would you recommend so as to not to lose focus throughout the competition?   Peak performance in competition requires physical, visual and mental endurance. We can see our performance decline toward the end of a competition if our endurance in these areas wanes. These three areas are not mutually exclusive, either. Physical fatigue is usually the precursor of visual and mental fatigue. Depending on the size of a competition, 100 targets can take anywhere from an hour and a half at a local registered shoot to four hours at a … [Read more...]

Chandelles   I've always heard that you should treat a chandelle like a crossing target, but that doesn't seem to work for me. How should I be shooting a chandelle?   A chandelle is simply a transitioning target with an arc. Moving across the arc of the target, as you suggest, has two drawbacks. 1) Your timing has to be perfect, and 2) you are occluding the target with the gun as the target rises to its apex. The proper way to engage any transitioning target is to shorten your gun movement and approach the break point at a line offset from the target line. For the chandelle, we … [Read more...]

Spoiling the Line   At a registered shoot last weekend, I really had trouble with a 40-yard crossing target that was descending a little bit just before my break point. I tried to stay under the link of the target but I was still very inconsistent. Any thoughts?   It sounds like this crossing target was losing its line just before the break point. When a shooter struggles with this presentation, they are typically “spoiling the line.” This means that the gun is occluding the target just prior to the break point. In other words, the gun got between the eye and the target. For some … [Read more...]