This month I want to explain step 3, “focus on the
target”, from John Woolley’s five steps to good shooting. For those of
you just tuning in, the five steps are; (1) hold your head still, (2) use a
proper gun mount, (3) focus on the bird, (4) never let the bird past your gun,
and (5) proper gun fit.
Anyone who has ever had a lesson with John Woolley can
tell you that his mantra is “Look At The Bird”! In fact, that phase became so
familiar to me in my early instruction with John that I considered having it
tattooed on my forehead. Seriously
though, we’ve even made “LATB” our email address. Some of our longtime friends and students have been known to
modify the phrase a little. Randy
Travalia of Minnesota often says, “Look at the bird, Stupid!” and Joe Palmer of
Nashville has been known to admonish himself after a miss in that booming voice
with a “Look at the bird, Dummy!”.
So what do we mean by “Look at the Bird”? First, pick up a standard clay target and
notice the ridges and the rings.
Usually the bottom is black and the top is orange. Now remember that when you are shooting at
the moving target, try to look at the target so intensely that you can still
see the rings, the shadows, or the definition between black and orange. If the target is too far away to see those
things then look at it as if you can see them.
The point is that if you are completely focused on the target, the gun will
naturally go to the right place to kill it. An analogy that John uses is catching
a ball. If a ball is coming toward you,
naturally you will reach in front of it to catch it. Regardless of how quickly
it is moving, your body will react accordingly. Your brain, when left to instinct, will put your hand in the
right place to catch the ball if you are focused on THE BALL. If you focus on your hand, or your gun,
you’ll miss.
How many times have you completely annihilated a
difficult bird and thought, WOW that wasn’t as hard as I thought? Often with very tough targets, we concentrate
so hard on watching it that the first shot absolutely smokes it. The problem comes when you try to exactly
duplicate what you or someone else did to hit it. (Like when someone tells you that it needs 7 feet of lead.) You hit it the first time using your
instinct, just trust yourself to do it again.
The most common problem that comes with not following
this rule is trigger freezing, or flinching.
What happens is that you take your eye off of the target to check where
the gun is and although you think it’s time to shoot, your brain no
longer has the target in sight, therefore it won’t let you pull the
trigger. Sometimes after a flinch you
can find the target again and still hit it, sometimes not. To consistently hit the target, you must
focus on it entirely. This doesn’t mean that you don’t see the gun. You do.
It should be in your peripheral vision and you will be aware of where it
is without being precisely sure. John
says, “you should FEEL where the gun is, not actually see where it is when you
pull the trigger”.
It all goes back to the fact that the game of sporting
clays was based on simulating wild game hunting. It was meant to be played instinctively while shooting a wide
variety of targets. Just like in
hunting you might see birds that whip and curl like battues or bounce wildly
like rabbits. You’ll find, if you ask
around, that hunters rarely ever trigger freeze. This goes back to years of training their eyes to stay focused on
the bird. Think about it, it makes a
lot of sense.
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