step by step by ntoufekos dim

STEP BY STEP TO SUCCESS T H E A RT OF S K E E T S HOOT I NG by tonino b l as i

STE P BY STEP TO S UCCESS THE ART OF SKEET SHOOTING “There i s n o s e c r e t to s u c c e ss i n a ny profession including skeet shooting. S uccess sim ply dep e n d s o n th e way yo u w o r k ,” sa id Blasi. “ You can find a perfect technical solution to the p ro b l e m o f m i ss i n g ta r g e ts b ut you must first determine the source of the prob lem th ro u g h c a r e f u l o b s e rvat i o n a nd in-depth analysis. Once you have recognized the general problem, you must carefully examine it from all angles to gain a better understandi n g o f i ts va r i o u s fac e ts. A n d o nce you have grasped the problem in its entirety, you can wo r k o n s o lu t i o n s u n t i l yo u f i n d the best way of solving the problem and perfecting a given as p e c t o f yo u r s h o ot i n g p e r f ormance.”

onino Blasi was born in Taranto, Italy and started his shooting sport career as a trap and skeet shooter back in 1972. Before ending his career as an active shooter in 1990, Antonio Blasi competed in numerous international competitions. In 1993, Tonino Blasi made a career of his former hobby and became the head coach of the Italian skeet team. With the experience he acquired in management at one of the largest European steel manufacturing companies, he helped his team reach their ulti-

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Start your fascinating journey through the “Art of Skeet Shooting” and follow Tonino Blasi step by step to success in skeet shooting. Also see “Step by Step to Success” in skeet shooting under: www.issfnews.com CHAPTER 1: I’ve reached a certain level in shooting, but still have... (repeated ISSF NEWS 5/01) CHAPTER 2: Is Your Cup Empty?

I ’ v e reache d a certain l e v e l in shooting , but sti l l hav e . . . Step

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any times, on shooting ranges throughout the world, skeet shooters have joined me and, as easy to imagine, have started to talk about skeet shooting and problems associated with it. Their most frequent problems sound something like the following: “I have reached a certain shooting level but still have two basic problems. On the one hand, my score isn’t consistent during the competition. My results go up and down with a few ‘ups’ and too many ‘downs. On the other hand, I don’t know how to improve my upper limits. Regardless of how much practice shooting or physical and psychological training I do, my score doesn’t improve. What should I do?” Keep in mind that these questions are not only of interest to intermediate shooters. Advanced shooters have also asked me the same questions in the past, since all shooters have the same problem of acquiring constant and stable scores and of breaking through the wall of those two or three targets that separate them from a “perfect score”. 2

mate goal in 1996: gold and bronze medal victories at the Olympic games. This was the culmination of former achievements including European and world championship titles, world cup and world cup final victories and world records. Following the Olympic games and a short stop over in Brazil, Blasi once again returned to Europe and took over the national team in Cyprus. Up to this day, he continues to coach skeet shooters all over the world.

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I realize, of course, that they have confidence in me and I also consider them as friends. They would all like to have an answer that would allow them to make great strides in their performance... This is naturally not a suitable time...

However, a shooting match is not a suitable time to deal with such complex problems. That’s why I usually answer: “A very important competition is about to take place, and I know that the secret dream of every shooter here is to perform well. And for that very reason, the best thing to do at the moment is to stop talking about problems until the competition is over.” They understand that a hasty change would only be detrimental to their performance from a psychological viewpoint. But for some reason or another, such as the rush to get home after a match, we never got around to examining the real problems facing skeet shooters in a proper, methodical way after the competition.

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I would now like to go far back in time and talk about the skeet shooters’ first approach to the clay target discipline. A wrong approach when they were just getting started may be the reason why they cannot improve their upper limits. It must be made very clear to them that they are able to correct their wrong approach and will not improve their limits until they do so. The meaning of “first-time experience“

Sigmund Freud, who was a psychologist and the father of modern psychoanalysis, based all of his theories on the importance of “firsttime experience”, sustaining that the first psychic and physical experiences in a child’s life are of fundamental importance. Experiences between the ages of three and six years have a positive or negative impact on the formation of a child’s personality. Freud also added that 80% of the personality and character are formed during these years. I believe that Sigmund Freud’s theory of “first-time experience” can also be applied to skeet shooting.»

a Almost all shooters become acquainted with ‘skeet shooting’ through the world of hunting. This explains why the fundamental phase of becoming acquainted with the shotgun is omitted in this discipline, since it is falsely assumed that a hunter already knows how to handle a shotgun! b The mounting action (the way shooters bring the stock of the gun up to their shoulder and face) is usually too rough and incorrect. c Shooters are always afraid of the targets.

d IT’S ALL ABOUT YOUR BRAIN! I t is incred ib l e !

If you analyze all other sports, in which some device is required to practice the sport, you will notice that trainers first teach the basic elements of the respective sport, the socalled “fundamentals”, to beginners. We have all certainly had personal experience in other types of sport such as tennis, fencing, baseball, golf, etc. or have been able to observe beginners at least once during their first tries... Just think of the many hours a tennis novice has to hit a ball against a wall with his trainer and how often he is corrected on the way he holds his racket, the use of his wrist, his arm, his shoulder and his body... Or how long it takes a golf novice to more or less master the ground action or properly use the various clubs. The same holds true for fencing, for baseball, etc. Learning the “ fund amenta l s”...

Everyone knows that this beginning phase is a very important and fundamental phase in shaping the athlete’s ability, and no one would even remotely consider sending a beginner to a competition without in-depth, basic training! This basic training phase is a very important period, in which beginners become acquainted with the tools needed to practice their sport (tennis racket, golf clubs or foil). They develop a feeling for these tools which more or less become an extension of their own body, like arms, hands or fingers and which they must learn to fully control. They can only do what their brain and their autonomic nervous system order them to, if they have full control of these tools! Ho w m any shooters started correctly. . .

Since a great variety of methodical approaches are used in the beginning phases of a sport, I wonder how many shooters used a correct method when they were beginners? We have no answer to that question and I assume that no research has been done in that field, but my own observations and studies throughout the course of my long career have brought me to the following realizations:

They always think that they are lagging behind and therefore rush through their actions.

e They often perform the entire shooting action under the influence and pressure placed on them by the target and are therefore unable to coordinate their action in such a way that they gain total control over the target.

f All shooters, whom I have observed, can improve their performances if they work on perfecting each action down to the last detail. Points b through e are closely related. The reasons for the incorrect behavior of these shooters can probably be traced back to the first, incorrect learning of the fundamentals of this discipline during their first appearance on a shooting range. Later on, we shall take a closer look at how a beginning skeet shooter should approach his “first-time experience” on the shooting range. At the moment, we are interested in shooters, who are no longer beginners, and want to make several recommendations to help them improve their shooting performance. A m etho d ical approach ...

For the time being, let’s take a look at “skeet shooting” from a different point of view. Let’s consider it as an Olympic sport discipline, which it is, and not just a derivative of hunting. From this point of view, we can see that this Olympic discipline has become so technical that a special shooting technique has also become required and it has therefore lost all connections with its “classical” origin from the world of hunting. The following check list was compiled for the benefit of those shooters who really want to analyze their technical ability and who prefer a methodical approach to training with the aim of improving their limits and stabilizing their scores. A series of questions ...

Before starting your journey through the fascinating world of skeet, you should first ask yourself the following questions. Keep in mind that this check list is supposed to draw your attention to a topic that will be dealt with in more detail later on, but if one topic or another is of no interest or practical use to you, simply ignore it.

1. Do I have a clear idea of how much lead I should give the targets during each phase? 2. Am I able to select the correct lead without feeling insecure or anxious on each station? 3. Do I believe that my way of hitting the target is the easiest way or do I think this way can be improved? 4. Do I consider my actions well coordinated when shooting? In other words, are the various actions of my overall shooting performance performed in sequence, one after the other, or do I try to perform many actions at the same time? 5. Am I in a position, during the shooting action, to properly use both arms and hands? Do I feel confident when checking the accuracy and diligence of my left hand as it guides the barrel in front of the target? 6. Do I think something happened in the past twenty years that made skeet more complicated? Is it possible to shoot skeet today with the same technique used twenty years ago when everything was much easier? 7. Do I find it convenient to individualize the “control zone” in order to gain better and easier control of the target? 8. Do I find that there are similarities between a skeet shooter and a piano player? 9. I think that there are similarities between shooting and steering a car? Concretely, I think that both activities largely consist of automatic processes that have to be trained individually and very consciously. The logical part of the brain is restricted here to the basic control of the processes on a higher level. 10. Does it seem to me, when in action, that the time I need to fire at a clay target - about 0.650 sec. - is more like 10 seconds? 11. Do I feel, when observing other high-level sporting events, that great athletes give great performances in a very simple way? We will deal with these questions and other topics in the near future. A Zen story

The following text is not a part of the check list but rather a Zen story which every athlete, wishing to analyze his own performances in order to improve himself, should consider before he decides to continue “this trip into the skeet shooting world...” “A cup of tea ”

Nan-in, a Japanese master of the Meiji era (1808-1912), was visited by a university professor who had come to question him on Zen. Nan-in served tea. He filled his guest’s cup to the brim and kept on pouring. The professor saw the tea spilling over and couldn’t contain himself any longer. “It’s full! You can’t pour in any more!” “Like this cup”, said Nan-in, “you are also full of your opinions and suppositions. How can I explain Zen to you, if you don’t first empty your cup?” »

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is your cup e m pty ? Step

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nce we have emptied our cup, we can immediately set out on our trip. Skeet shooting originated as a substitute for hunting. For the magazines, “National Sportsman” and “Hunting and Fishing”, which are not only sponsors for the shotgun discipline but are also an important historical source of information, the main objective of skeet was “to occupy the hunters outside the hunting season”. From 1910 or 1915 – opinions differ on the discipline’s year of conception – up to this very day, skeet developed tremendously. It originated as a hobby for hunters, developed into an Olympic discipline (1968 in Mexico) and has become increasingly complex in order to maintain its status as an Olympic discipline. The split character of this discipline, in view of its origin, has stuck with it in quite a remarkable way. But where does this duality come from? It comes from the fact that the discipline was developed for hunters and as such had a shooting technique for hunters which although it continued to develop as a sport discipline was still conceived for hunting. Just think of D. Lee Braun, the renowned US “American Skeet” shooter, multiple national champion and author of several publications on skeet. In his manual, “Skeet Shooting with D. Lee Braun”, he almost exclusively deals with the starting positions of both types of shooting. It’s no longer that way today.... Skeet has reached a technical complexity, where it can no longer be claimed that it has not developed any further and is still practiced as it was prior to 1993. In 1993, it was decided to introduce double targets at the station, where none had been formerly planned in the semi-circle: at station four. The consequence of this very necessary and overdue decision was that all skeet records were broken several times. All out-dated skeet techniques were suddenly discarded, and the sport was forced to open 4

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new avenues and find solutions to overcome the unforeseeable problems that arose with the introduction of the new double targets. Several years earlier, the introduction of double targets at station three and five had caused problems for even the most experienced shooters. At that time, many of them could not adjust to the new rules and then they disappeared, but the double targets at station four were what created the greatest technical problems for the shooters. The prob l e m of contro l…

But what was the fundamental problem, which is still a problem today for many shooters, when shooting the doublets? It was largely the control of the second of the two targets – the one from the low house. This problem stemmed from the commonly used, at that time, shooting technique of leading more than necessary on the first double with a consequential delay in taking aim at the second target and the resulting inability to control the shot. The situation was so that the shooter was able to control the shot at the second doublet from all other stations, since the target approached his shooting position. At station four, however, the shooter was faced with the problem that the second of the double targets appeared to rapidly move away from his position! This new scenario gave the shooter a permanent feeling of uneasiness and insecurity which everyone, who has ever practiced the shooting sport, knows is an extremely unfavorable starting situation for the shooter, which indeed makes it difficult and often quite impossible to fire a rationally controlled and effective shot. Rationa l ization of the entire m ove ment

The main concern was, therefore, to rationalize the shooting action within the entire shooting round of skeet (not only at station four), to break the shooting action down into all of its constituent parts, to analyze them

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and then put them back together in a rational pattern that had nothing to do with the outdated pattern used prior to Barcelona in 1992. The goal, which was set very high, was to lay the cornerstone to make it really possible to hit all the competition targets.

Obviously to reach that goal, a very methodic and scientific approach had to be taken, from which the following logical steps emerged:

a Recognition and description of the problem b Recognition of possible alternatives to solve the problem c Examination of applicability of the various alternative solutions d Examination of results achieved e Choice of the best problem-solving alternatives With a broad consent and special motivation and interest shown here by several great Italian shooters who had dominated the international scene between 1994 and 1997 and had won some important finals in 1998 and 1999, we went through the entire shooting round in skeet again, filtering out the aforementioned logical steps with the aim to expand the shooter’s ability to control all targets as simply, rationally and quickly as possible, including the “newly introduced doubles at station four. The ideal and practical approach that we use will work for anyone who has decided to “empty his cup” and who wants to accompany us on our trip. We urge our shooters to try out new methods and to experience new sensations in order to develop their intuitive abilities of understanding and conscious perception, going beyond the indications that we give them!

T o e x ecute a controll e d action

We determined that the major problem at station four was the inability to execute even a minimally controlled movement for the second target as a result of leading too far and too late on the first target. That’s why the following concepts must first be analyzed and visualized with the aim of shortening the execution time in order to improve the control time:

a T H E S H O O T I N G A C T I O N: We assume that

the more simple and rational the movements of a competitive athlete are, the better his performance will be. So how can the shooting action be made more essential or how can it be maximally simplified and freed from all unnecessary components, so the main goal can be reached which is to shoot down the target! It should be noted here that every un-

necessary component of firing a shot automatically has a negative effect on the outcome, quite contrary to other types of sport, in which unnecessary technicalities sometimes effect the style but nothing more.

b L EAD ING: An exact explanation and visual-

ization of this term at the respective stations and for the individual targets according to theoretical (scientific viewpoint) and practical opinions (shooter’s viewpoint). The active shooters must develop their own concept of leading, that is their own personal concept of leading and the way they perceive it.

c AUTO MATIS M: Breaking the entire shooting

action down into single actions and learning repetitive ones with the objective of training them until they penetrate into the area of the extra-pyramidal nervous system. This procedure is comparable to the one which each of us experience when learning to drive a car or when practicing a musical instrument.

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ANALYSIS OF THE SHOOTING ACTION A normal shot movement consists of the following logical phases

FIGURE A Action

1 Perception of the target 2 Stock mounting 3 Achieving the correct lead 4 Controlling the lead 5 Commanding the trigger of the gun (fire)

TOTAL TIME

6 Follow-through after the shot

FIGURE B TIME / Action

2+3+4

No change

2 + 3 + 4 simultaneous control 5

stock-to-shoulder contact

shortest movement

TOTAL TIME

According to this diagram, however, the time required to fire the shot at the first target is too long which is hard to reconcile with the control needed for the second target of a doublet, especially at station four. Moreover, this diagram also points out a troubling deficit for the user. He executes a shooting action in sequences and does not utilize one of the greatest abilities of the human brain, if it is optimally developed, namely the ability to execute several activities at the same time. But ho w can w e organize the brain ? A n d in or d er to achiev e what ?

In order to answer this question and to better understand what we can do and how far can go to find a solution, that can save us valuable time, with the aim of establishing both a better and coordinated control over the target, it is important to understand the logic of the multi-programming technology of computers with high-performance capacity. This technology is comparable to the function of the human brain, when it is required to execute a complex activity. With the discovery of the silicon semi-

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conductor, doors were opened for the construction of computers with nearly unlimited storage capacity and an astounding computing performance. The problem then was to organize the computer in such a way that this enormous feature could be optimally utilized. The profession of software specialists emerged along with the so-called multi-task computers that allowed several programs to run simultaneously and that could transfer the results to several terminals simultaneously. In order to do this, however, it was necessary to install a “controller” in the computer with the function of ‘overall control’ which is a logical part that oversees the correct execution of all running programs. The human brain is by far the most complex computer, although its complexity and potential are not yet fully understood. The computer manufacturers admit that they have been inspired by the human brain and have assumed its logical functions, even if only in a very rigid and limited way. However, what we know with certainty today is that man only uses a very small part of his brain potential.

Juggl ers and musicians

Just think of the ability of jugglers or musicians, who use their brain potential just a little more and differently than other people in order to acquire total and simultaneous control over their bodies, hands and fingers. But what makes these people different is the multiple programming of their brains in order to control their arms, hands, fingers, words, or songs, all individually controlled, while the “overall” or logical part of their brain can joke around, entertain people or interact with them, but still maintain control over the activity being practiced at the same time. We want to see if this ability, to control several activities at the same time, is also of advantage for a shooter. It can be the shooting action combined with mental organization and the simultaneous and synchronized control of individual parts of the body in combination with the extra-pyramidal nervous system responsible for automatism. B ut how can we change a shooting action type A into one of type B ?

(To be continued in next Issue)

STE P BY STEP TO S UCCESS THE ART OF SKEET S HOOTING

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Let’s learn to use our brain’s potential. Step

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o better illustrate the differences, let’s compare the diagrams of the two different “shooting actions” below which appeared in our last chapter. Let’s take a closer look at these actions and describe their individual, logical components.

TOTAL TIME FIGURE A · Action 1 Perception of the target · 2 Stock mounting· 3 Achieving the correct lead · 4 Controlling the lead 5 Commanding the trigger of the gun (fire) · 6 Follow-through after the shot

FIGURE B FIGURE B

2+3+4

TOTAL TIME FIGURE B · Time/ Action 1 No change · 2 + 3 + 4 simultaneous control · 5 stock-to-shoulder contact · 6 shortest movement

Let ’s analyze this...

If we take a closer look at the two shooting techniques, the following two features become evident: a In figure B, the total duration of the shooting action is drastically reduced to acquire a better control of the second target. b The time for stock mounting is prolonged, and the movement is smoother and more accurate, since stock mounting is no longer an accentuated segment in relation to the rest of the action. ISSF NEWS

Fotos: Tonino Blasi

FIGURE C View from station 3

FIGURE D View from station 5

FIGURE E

c Of fundamental importance for this technique is the absolute and accurate control of the barrel (muzzle) from the very start of the shooting action up to the point of achieving the correct lead in step 3 and controlling the lead in step 4. d Since the total time of the shooting action is reduced, the firing times are logically reduced as well. This means that we can calmly and accurately hit all outward-flying targets at least 3 meters before the central stake [note: as defined in the technical rules] which is used to check the target’s crossing point. Consequently, the inward-flying target will never cross at any station or overtake our barrel and escape into an area which is not yet under our control... We shall always control the second target of a double on the right side of the barrel at stations 1, 2, 3, 4, when we move back from right to left, or on the left side of the barrel at stations 5, 6 and 7 when we move back from left to right. As a result of this, we are no longer forced to “leap” into an “out-of-control” zone, searching for a target that escaped our control while we were spending too much time controlling the first target. By performing a “pendulum movement”, we then have the second target in front of us in a zone that is under our total control! (fig. C/D) We ended the second chapter with a question: “How can we change a type A shooting action into a type B shooting action?” Let’s take a look... Do you remember the first chapter? We asked, whether you thought there were any similarities, from a technical standpoint, between a piano player (or any other instrumentalist) and a skeet shooter (or better stated: “... a skeet shooter who is up with the latest technological developments”). We also asked if there are any parallels between the coordinated movements of shooting and the movements of driving a car... After what we have explained and summarized on the shooting action in diagram B, the answer can only be “yes”, there are definitely some parallels. Actions 2 through 4 in diagram B must be viewed as a kind of complex movement, in which the

individual segments are carried out simultaneously in a coordinated manner. In other words, they “overlap” each other.

Based on the aforementioned parallels, let’s start to practice our “scales” just as a musician practices his music scales, hour after hour. We too must practice for hours, because the more we practice, the sooner we shall see the results of our work, which is to achieve better control over the targets. So let’s start training like a shooter but with the mentality of a musician, for whom technique, fast reflexes, rhythm and self-control are fundamental elements.

color which starts at a height of one meter and 10 centimeters and rises to five meters. If no wall with these dimensions is available, we have to prepare wood beams instead of the painted lines (or beams of similarly rigid material like plastic or sheet steel). They have to be the same size as the previously described lines on the wall, painted with the same color and then attached to the supporting posts at the same height and with the same gradient as previously described (fig. E). As soon as our mini training place is completed, we can begin with the hard work which will enable us to gain better control over the barrel while performing the shooting action.... (dry training action).

Let ’ s build a mini training place

How to use the mini training place?

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Let ’ s no w take a concrete look at the probl ems ...

We should build a mini training place for the following reason: We train to acquire a very accurate control and an absolute and millimeter-sharp command of guiding (or driving, if you prefer) the end of our shotgun barrel (muzzle). We have already mentioned the importance of correctly guiding the shotgun barrel to acquire a fast and correct control over the target. We should consider this as the first of our “music scales”.... Let ’ s see ho w w e can acco m p l ish this : the training wall…

We have to illustrate the trajectories of both targets in a skeet course, namely the flight path of the target from the high house (pull) and flight path of the target from the low house (mark). If we have a wall that is long and high enough (at least 18/20 meters long and six meters high), the matter is easy. You only need to draw a diagonal line on it – in a contrasting color to both the shotgun barrel and the coat of paint on the wall – which should represent the imaginary flight path. This guideline should be 20 centimeters wide and nine or ten meters long. It should represent the path of the target from the high house (pull), starting at a height of three meters and rising to five meters. The procedure is comparable for the low house (mark). We draw a line with the same length and same

We position ourselves at a distance of about 15 meters from the wall (or the beam) on an imaginary station. The stations run from number 2 to number six. Our practice should look something like the following: We sharply follow the line of the flight path with the point of the shotgun barrel (the muzzle) for about six/seven meters (it is not necessary at first to perform this movement with the same speed as when taking aiming at the target). We have to make sure that the movement of the barrel is absolutely smooth with no jerky tears and no stopping and moving again. The mounting action takes place during this movement without disturbing the smooth course of the barrel and is completed more or less at the end of a given distance. This will be our first test. With the help of this, we can see whether our shooting technique is lined up (fig. A) or overlapping (fig. B). Practice this several times with different, ever faster speeds, until you have reached the speed of the imagined flying target which, don’t forget, is not a jerky target but retains its constant course for the first 40 meters or more. Furthermore, look to see whether the barrel temporarily stops during the mounting action and then moves again along the flight path after the stock has reached the shoulder. Also carefully observe whether the barrel muzzle moves outside the lower part of the line

when you mount the stock to your shoulder. If you are not able to do these practice controls by yourself, which is quite likely at first if you are a shooter who uses the lined-up shooting technique, then let another shooter help you - one who has a clear understanding of your goal and who will tell you afterwards what you actually did! Practice this alternately from both the pull and the mark flight paths. You have made great progress if you notice after several days of practice that you totally or partially lose control of your barrel when you perform the mounting action but then resume control of it after the stock has touched your shoulder! You will see, that it is not easy to practice this correctly, no matter what kind of shooting technique you have, and you will not be able to carry it out correctly, if you do not heed a special precautionary rule. But w hich precautionary rul e?

Let’s learn to use our left hand (or the right hand for left-handed shooters) in “guiding” the barrel to the lead. We all know the great ability and accuracy of our right hand (and naturally the left hand for left-handed shooters, so we’ll no longer refer to this difference hereafter) when pointing at given objects. You will be surprised to learn that if you point a finger of your right hand at a given object and then close your left eye, your finger will land precisely on the object! Unfortunately, this only holds true for our right hand. However, we trust the very hand we use less often, the left hand, for the most difficult part of the shooting action, which is to guide the barrel to the lead. Consequently, we should also practice (our music scales), just as a piano player does, in order to learn how to use our left hand, so we can give it the same dexterity, precision and care as the right. We should practice our double-handedness as often as we can which is nearly any time. This means to use our left hand instead of our right. Everyday, let’s do a number of special practice exercises such as playing ping-pong or playing ball with our left hand or intentionally catching a tennis ball, thrown to us, with our left hand! We

mustn’t forget that we have to continuously practice at the “mini training place” in order to develop the skill in our left hand! These practice exercises should be a firm part of our routine at the beginning of each training session. They should be our “stretching exercises” or the first few music scales that we practice in order to warm up our muscles and guide the barrel. They should be our warm up! Many shooters, including those who are already successful, have been using their own mini training places as a firm part of training for a long time. Let’s close this chapter, so you can start working on this great task - the task of starting the recommended exercises as early as possible and with the greatest possible conviction. We shall also show you that there are marks on the lines that look like colored spots. In the next chapter, we’ll show you what these marks are for and how to use them. We’ll also establish the basis for a further “music scale” for advanced shooters who want to refine their shooting technique even more... Tonino Blasi

(to be continued)

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C o a c hing

STE P B Y STEP TO S UCCESS THE A RT OF SKEET SHOOTING

4 Cha p t e r

L e t ’s c o n t inue our t rip t hrou gh t he fasc inat ing w orld of skeet... S TEP BY S TEP TO S UCCE S S : T H E A R T O F S K EET S H OOT I N G

t the end of chapter three, we asked you to heed the marks and colored spots on the lines of our mini training place. In this chapter, we shall explain their meaning and use. We shall also keep our promise and discuss what we refer to as a further “music scale” with which you can improve the coordination of your shooting action and acquire better control over the target when tracking the barrel to the lead of the target. We also asked you to work as quickly and intensively as possible with the recommended practice lines to become familiar with them and to get used to guiding the barrel of the shotgun smoothly and continuously with your left hand during the mounting action, while tracking the muzzle of the barrel exactly on the line. If you have already attempted to practice this, you will have definitely made some interesting discoveries either about the way you used to follow the trajectory with the shotgun barrel or the great accuracy you can achieve when moving the barrel along the line in a smooth and continuous action with your left hand. Let’s perfect the music scale....

We now have to perfect our “music scale” in order to make further progress. To do this, let’s paint some targets in their original size on both lines, the first one about five meters away from the beginning of the lower half of the respective lines, and then continue to paint a target about every two meters. After that, let’s go stand on an imaginary station and “visualize the lead” we have to give to those targets. To do this, let’s draw colored spots at the points that should graphically represent the lead: Once we have completed this, we can start with the second and most important phase of training. Let’s stand on one of the “imaginary” stations we talked about in chapter three and begin our practice shooting. This practice doesn’t only consist of moving the barrel along the line smoothly and 10

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continuously. Once we have chosen the target we want to hit, we let the muzzle track along the line, during the mounting action, in order to achieve the lead directly with only one smooth and continuous movement. At the beginning, we needn’t do anything else but repeat this exercise several times, while keeping the speed of the target in mind and varying our “imaginary” station and the target we choose to hit. We don’t even have to pull the trigger. We do however have to practice this new “music scale” over and over again. Our entire attention should be focused on the muzzle of the shotgun barrel which we mustn’t let out of our sight over the entire line until we have reached the lead. While practicing this, we must be certain that the action is correct, that we have complete control of the barrel, without losing it for even a moment, and that the barrel moves continuously along the line. We have to practice this repeatedly at all “imaginable stations”, varying the targets and the lead at each station. This should be done with the firm conviction that it is enormously important for us. Now let’s train each part of the shooting action separately...

I would now like to point out that our training method in this phase is aimed at training the respective parts of a shooting action “separately” (see fig. B in chapter three). In chapter three, we exclusively dealt with point 2 of fig. B: “stock mounting”. With the practice exercise we are introducing now, let’s concentrate on achieving the lead under point 3 and controlling the lead under point 4. These exercises are very important for us. Once we understand that these parts of the shooting action are repetitious, which means that they are done repeatedly and must be executed the same way each time, we then will begin to execute them automatically. They seep into our autonomic system which, according to scientific definition, represents the domain of the “extra-pyramidal nervous system”. Let’s

analyse for a moment how to steer a car. We execute all the actions required to drive very precisely on the basis of stimuli. The stimuli comes from our “overall control system” which is the logical part of our brain. Our brain overlooks the traffic situation and sends out a stimulus for every change so that we can adjust the gears, change the speed, disengage the clutch, jam on the brakes and control the steering wheel. All these adjustments are executed accurately and automatically and in a synchronized way in the region of the extra-pyramidal nervous system. We have to execute the action!... We have to control the game....

I would now like to draw your attention to another special feature of the practice exercises shown so far. Let’s practice them and become accustomed to “executing the action”. Once we’ve decided which of the targets on the line we want to hit, we then bring the barrel firmly and resolutely to the desired lead in one movement and act resolutely! “We execute the action!” If you stop the time required for this action, you will discover that no more than five tenths of a second are needed, when the action is smooth and controlled. This means you are able to execute the whole action: while mounting the stock, you move the shotgun barrel to the point you want to hit!” You perform this complex action in only five tenths of a second! Once you have managed to really convince yourself of your ability to execute “this” action and bring the barrel to “where you want to have it” in no more than five tenths of a second, it will no longer matter, whether the target is flying or whether it’s painted on the line on our mini training place! In five tenths of a second, you are able to bring the barrel to the lead of a flying target! If you take full advantage of your ability to execute several parts of the action simultaneously, you will become conscious of the fact that “you are the one” who controls the game and who does not allow the “target to play against you”! ...You are definitely capable of carrying out a complex

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action, which consists of “mounting the stock”, “achieving the lead” and “controlling the lead” at the same time. This means that you carry out three different parts of your shooting action in a single unit of time! However, another important segment is required before we can make the action automatic: point 5 of fig. B, “command on the trigger of the shotgun”. The significance of pulling the trigger in a coordinated manner

We’ve already arrived at point 5! I would like to make it clear at this point, how important this part of the shooting action is and what it means for the final result. A very high percentage of missed targets is due to the fact that the shooter executed the action perfectly from a technical point of view ... but didn’t manage to pull the trigger at the right moment at the end of the action! In the explanation of the previous practice exercise (achieving and controlling the lead), we recommended that the trigger should not yet be pulled in this phase. This instruction was given because we wanted to train two parts of our shooting action: “achieving the lead” and “controlling the lead”. We have to “concentrate” exclusively on these actions and mustn’t let our attention be diverted by the introduction of a third segment – the firing action!

Fotos: Tonino Blasi

The use of your voice as a means of controlling the lead.

However, the moment has come, when we should develop an interest in this important segment and should reach it via an intermediate step, “the command on the trigger”. Let’s return to our mini training place and the previous exercise of “achieving the lead” and “controlling the lead”. Once we are certain that we are able to execute these two parts correctly and with no inhibition, let’s add another special feature. When we notice that the muzzle of the barrel has reached the exact lead, let’s quickly say a one-syllable word – without pulling the trigger – such as “bang,

sí, yes, ja, oui”! But you must make sure that you really see the exact point of the lead and say the word at precisely the same time you see the lead! You may have problems in properly executing this exercise at first, but with practice and hard work, you will see that everything is possible. The advantages you will acquire with regard to a coordinated shooting action will be unbelievable! In doing so, always remember two things. First, don’t make fun of yourself and don’t say the word until you really see the exact point of the lead! Second, don’t pull the trigger yet! Why do we use our “voice” instead of pulling the trigger? Quite simply, because the stimuli of the brain are transferred outside faster with the spoken word.... and when shooting, it is of utmost importance to react to the brain stimuli as quickly as possible! Let’s transfer the reaction speed of the brain stimulus to the finger and trigger.

When we have progressed to the point that we master this partial segment, command on the trigger (a partial segment because we have only used our voice so far as a real control for the lead and as a substitute for pulling the trigger), let’s continue to bring our voice and finger into synchronization. In other words, we have to transfer the reaction speed of the brain, when a word is spoken, to the finger – that is, to the trigger. For this purpose, an empty shell should be placed in the lower shotgun barrel to avoid wearing down the release mechanism and firing pin. Now, let’s do the same practice exercise as described above – mounting the stock, achieving the lead and controlling the lead – but when we say the word, bang, or something similar..., let’s pull the trigger at the same time! Furthermore, we must be sure that our voice and the “click” of the trigger are heard at the same time! At the beginning, you will almost certainly notice a slight hesitation between the moment of the “verbal command” and the moment of the trigger click. You have to work on this as

long as you are uncertain, when listening, that both commands take place simultaneously! If you practice this way, you will no longer have the unpleasant feeling, which you have certainly experienced a number of times throughout your shooting career, of hesitating when pulling the trigger and then missing the target because you missed the decisive, concluding moment of the shooting action, although you had the action well under control up to that moment. Doubt will no longer overcome you when you execute this action, because you are executing a correct action and it is not the target that is forcing you into an uncoordinated and full-of-anxiety action. You are the one who is capable of bringing the barrel to the point of the lead, where you want to have it, within five tenths of a second. You are the one who synchronizes the perceived brain stimulus and the command on the trigger. Therefore, nothing other than your own correct action can ever take place! The flying target is merely a signal for you to begin your action and to execute it automatically without being pressured by the flying target. You are now capable of utilizing a greater potential of your brain! Like a pianist or a juggler, you too can now execute several different segments of a complex actions at the same time. Moreover, it seems in your mind that the control time for the target has extended! In the course of our notes, the word “lead” has been heard a lot. Perhaps we should take a closer look at the meaning of this term. That will happen in the next chapter. Tonino Blasi

(To be continued)

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STE P B Y STEP TO SUCCESS THE A RT OF SKEET SHOOTING

5 Cha p t e r

THE LEAD S TEP BY S TEP TO S UCCE S S : T H E A R T O F S K EET S H OOT I N G

ne of the most asked questions heard on shooting ranges deals with the lead. “How much lead is required for High 2” or “how much for Low 6?” Questions like these are very common among shooters, since they all know that a fundamental requirement for executing a successful shooting action is to determine the correct lead and to execute it properly. If you go and ask a shooter for an exact definition of the lead and how he consciously perceives it, you’ll more than likely only get a vague or very general answer which won’t make you any more clever than you already are… You shouldn’t think, however, that the shooters are trying to hide something or guard a secret with such answers. In reality, the shooters have such a personal, interiorized and almost abstract concept of the lead that it is very hard for them to rationalize it or explain it… In other words, every shooter has a different concept of the lead which is more a “mental picture” than a conscious perception. The fact that shooters commonly claim and even swear that they shoot without any lead (!) is a good example of what a personal concept is and shows that the lead, in their case, is sometimes perceived irrationally! We have attended very heated discussions on this subject among high-level shooters, including several world champions. We asked them to give us their estimation of the lead for a target at a given station. The difference in the answers was startling… but only on the surface! Some shooters swore by a lead of only a few centimeters… and others insisted on a lead of one meter and more when aiming at one and the same target and standing on the same station! This discussion was continued in a very heated manner, while each shooter tried to show, though somewhat confused at times, that his concept was the right one and how totally convinced of it he was. Very reasonable and relevant arguments, however, showed that both answers were actually correct… although two fully different approaches were used to reach them. Let’s take a closer look at these two ideas.

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How often have we already mentio ned this concept?

In each of the previous chapters, we mentioned the concept of the lead several times. Here a few examples: ◊ “Do I really have a clear concept of the lead and of how much lead to give to each target? (chapter 1)” ◊ “…an exact definition of the lead for the respective stations and the individual targets from both theoretical (scientific viewpoint) and practical (shooter’s viewpoint) stand- points (chapter 2)” ◊ “…achieving the lead. (chapters 2 and 3, figures A and B)” ◊ “Let’s learn to use our left hand while guiding the barrel to the lead. (chapter 3)”and finally, ◊ “…focusing our full attention on the muzzle of the shotgun barrel and not let it out of our sight over the entire line until we reach the lead” (chapter 4).

fundamental importance of this concept enough. All targets are fired at using a lead! Not a single target can be hit without a “lead”... To fire at a target without a proper “lead” means to miss it. The lead can be large or small according to the following two fundamental aspects: a) The station, from which the shot is fired, and the target to be hit. b) The collimation method the shooter is accustomed to and uses.Let’s keep these concepts in mind as we continue. But how many leads?

Let’s look at the problem of a theoretical lead or, in other words, a lead that can be calculated through simple, mathematical computation, using two flying objects – in our case, the target and the pellet pattern. The distance and speed are known, but to develop a feeling for this, let’st try to understand what dimension a “theoretical lead” can have under the following conditions: A

Let’s familiarize ourselves with the lead…

Distance, measured along the flight path, we want to hit the target.: 19 m (Td).

Having a clear mental concept of the lead is of fundamental importance when shooting at a flying target. Simply stated, we could imagine the lead in skeet shooting as follows: “The impact point of a flying target with a moving pellets pattern” If we know the speed of the target and the one of the pellets pattern and we determine the distance, from which we want to hit the target, it is relatively easy to calculate the lead – with the aim of making the “correct concept of the lead” clearer in our minds. When we built up our mini training place, we painted several targets on the lines and marked the respective lead points – the points which our pellets pattern should be directed at - with colored spots. This model helped us to move our barrel smoothly and continuously along the flight path in order to gently reach “the point” where the target would be located when intercepted by the pellets… that is the lead! We cannot emphasize the

(target distance from the trap-house)

Speed of the target:

22 m/s (Ts).

(target speed)

Speed of the pattern:

340 m/s (Ps).

(pattern speed)

If we use the following fomula: Lead = Ts/Ps x Td, we’ll obtain a result of 1.23 meters. We define this value as our “theoretically calculated lead” and would like to stress that this value is the same at every station, if the starting values are the same as those used for this computation. In reality, the “theoretically calculated lead” remains the same, even if we are standing on various stations. But our “visible lead”, which means what we see of our lead, will nevertheless be different (parallax effect). Let’s try to explain these concepts with the help of two illustrations: I think both figures (fig. A in the outline, and fig. B in 3 D)

Stakes as reference points, fixed in position on a skeet range, viewed from station 4.

= “theoretically calculated” lead = lead that a shooter sees from the third station: “visible lead” = lead that a shooter sees from the second station: “visible lead” = l ead that the shooter sees at the front sight

help us to better understand the different concepts of the lead. Several considerations…

Let’s briefly stop here to make some considerations: 1 There are relatively few stations on which the “theoretically calculated” lead correlates with the “visible lead” that is seen by the shooter when he fires. This only happens when the sighting line of a shooter on a station is exactly perpendicular to the flight path of the target! 2

At nearly all the stations, the “visible lead” is far smaller than the “theoretically calculated lead” and always varies from station to station. And that’s precisely why this lead must be considered the most important one – from a practical viewpoint – with which the shooter should become well acquainted. He must build up a “mental picture” of the lead in his brain - the point to which the shooter should guide his barrel during the shooting action. Let’s remember that the shooter guides his barrel and sees the lead – for the target – directly with both open eyes. That’s the point where the target is hit by the pellets – the point of the lead! And in this case, the lead is what the shooter perceives, a lead of considerable size, especially on stations three, four and five, regardless if it’s seen on the flight path from the High house or from the Low house.

Fotos: Tonino Blasi

There is still another way of seeing the lead: the shooter check the lead looking, at the same time, target and front sight with only the sighting eye opened. If you determine the lead in this way, which is done by only a very few shooters all over the world, you will quickly see that this method is very precise but requires more time for execution and control. It is difficult to reconcile this method with the demands of an “extreme skeet”, as

practiced today, which demands fast execution times. Whoever continues to execute the lead in this way will definitely have problems caused by no constancy of good results which he didn’t have earlier when the technical demands of skeet were easier…. A comet?

Having clarified the views on the different leads and on the different ways of perceiving the lead theoretically, it is now necessary to add another remarks. Let’s not forget that once we have fired, a pellets pattern flies towards the point of the lead. This pattern is reminiscent of a comet whose broadest, most useful section is about 80 centimeters at a normal distances of shooting. The practical advantage of the special shape and diameter of the pellets pattern is that, any deviations resulting from mistakes, in giving the lead, can be annulled to a certain extent. We’ll examine this aspect in order to clarify how important it is to have a clear concept of the lead and of the different ways of applying it. However, it isn’t necessary that the lead be used with absolute accuracy… we should however try to execute the lead correctly, since we know that a mistake of even half a meter may be forgiven in borderline cases. A mathematical model!?

The same meaning we have to give to the “mathematical model to calculate the lead in skeet” which we created and you will find in this site. We’ll give you a vast number of useful and very interesting tips. However, these should only be considered as a means of increasing your knowledge and “background” or deepening them for some of you. The more information you have on a topic, the greater your command of it will be and the greater your confidence! This model will serve as a means of deepening your knowledge and a means of control and will also give you an answer in doubtful cases. It will help you to better distinguish the various types of leads already shown. The model will show you how the “theoretical lead”, the “visible lead” and

the lead “ at the front sight” changes from half meter to half meter. It will let you discover on which stations and at which point on the flight path the “theoretical lead” and the “visible lead” are identical… But it should never occur to you to go to a station with the notion of using a mathematical model in shooting! We should go to the stations with a mental “concept of concrete things” that must be done, the majority of which, I hope, we have already learned. Up till now, we have only dealt with the lead from a theoretical viewpoint. However, a shooter needs something different…. He needs a concrete reference point on the shooting range, so he can “actually visualize” the values of the lead which we have only talked about in theory until now! It is all right to visualize a 1.5 meter lead in your mind. However, it is one thing to estimate a 1.5 meter lead from a distance of 3 meters and something entirely different to understand what size this 1.5 meter distance assumes in our mind at a distance of 18, 20 or 22 meters . The “mathematical model to calculate the lead in skeet” can be downloaded at: http://www.issfnews.com / download / LeadCalculation.zip But these very leads are the most important…

The visualization of distances between 8 and 24 meters is of major interest to our shooters. These leads must be “photographed” in their own mind! To acquire these pictures and mentally photograph them, we have to “provide stakes as reference points” for the lead!” This will be the subject of our next chapter, in which we shall handle these , jointly to another topic: the “control zones”. Tonino Blasi

(to be continued)

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STE P B Y STEP TO SUCCESS THE A RT OF SKEET SHOOTING

6 Cha p t e r

STAKES AS REFERENCE POINTS S TEP BY S TEP TO S UCCE S S : T H E A R T O F S K EET S H OOT I N G

o you remember? We closed the fifth chapter with the following sentence: The visualization of distances between 8 and 24 meters is of major interest to our shooters. These leads must be “photographed” in their own mind! To acquire these pictures and mentally photograph them, we have to “provide stakes as reference points for the lead!

think it’s important to mentally photograph the size of the lead of a given target on its flight path. You may want to do this, for example, on the flight path of the low house (mark) at stations five and six.

Low house bounds marker

high house bounds marker

Measurements…

The stakes should be set up in accordance with the following measurements. 1

Positioning the stakes for the double at station 4

The first stake with the ball on top, representing the lead, should be set up on the flight path of the high house (pull), namely one meter in front of the central stake which is about 18 meters along the pull’s flight path. 2

What are they…?

These stakes are rammed into the ground in pairs until they project 2.80 meters out of the ground. A target of original size and a ball of conspicuous color, representing the lead, are alternately attached to the top of the stakes. It would be of help here to procure some extendable aluminum rod used for cleaning high surfaces. Each pair of stakes is positioned along the respective flight paths of the high house and low house. In the above illustration and the last photo of chapter five, the stakes were used to graphically represent the lead and the control zone for the double at station four. It would be a good idea to dig some holes or use some supports to secure the stakes, so you can start your special training sessions at any time you decide. Careful though, the stakes must be absolutely vertical to the ground, and the distances between the bases and the uppermost points of each pair of stakes must be exactly the same.You can also set stakes up at other stations where you 14

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The second stake with a real clay on top, representing the target to be hit, should be positioned on the same flight path, 1.20 meters in front of the previous stake (the measurement can be taken from the mathematical model for the lead calculation. 3

The third stake with yet another ball on top, representing the lead, is positioned on the flight path of the low house (mark), nine meters in front of the bounds marker of the low house. 4

Finally, the fourth stake with a real clay on top, representing the target to be hit, should be positioned on the same flight path, 1.30 meters in front of the previous stake (see the mathematical model for the lead calculation). Each pair of stakes must be exactly aligned on their respective flight paths with the central stake of the shooting range. For proper positioning, aim is taken on station one at the stakes on the flight path of the pull and on station seven at the stakes on the flight path of the mark. To make this more clear, the position of the stakes and their measurements are shown in the following diagram:

What are these good for?

We have arranged our instruments in such a way that they now enable us to practice another “music scale” which we consider the most concrete of all scales practiced so far. This scale deserves our undivided attention, since we can gather a lot of information and practical knowledge from it. Furthermore, it also offers us numerous practice opportunities… We have set up the stakes and can now proceed to the first four stations of the skeet range. Let’s first take a look at the two stakes on the flight path of the high house (pull)… If the stakes are set up properly, we can see from station one that they form a line with the central stake. On top of them, we see the target and, “slightly below” it, we catch a glimpse of the ball, representing the lead. Viewed from the side at station two, the ball is “slightly higher” than the target, because of its position on the ascending part of the flight path in front of the target! Let’s not forget that we have placed the ball 1.20 meters in front of the target. However, viewed from station one, the target and ball appear to have merged as one! Let’s start to familiarize ourselves with these pictures and imprint them in our minds, since they can be very useful to us when we start training with the shotgun. Let’s remember that the lead ball is “slightly below” the target. And that’s exactly where (below the target) we shall aim our shot!

Let’s “shoot” a mental picture…

If we now stand on station two and look at the stakes on the flight path of the high house, we acquire valuable information on the perceived size of a lead (relatively small in appearance at this station): 1.20 meters at a distance of about 18 meters. Let’s also mentally photograph this picture and then take up our positions at stations three and four. After these two stations, we quickly notice that the perceived lead is closer to the theoretical, calculated lead. Above all else, this shows us how much lead to give the target and where to aim our shot (at the lead/ball) if we want to hit the target. In addition to observing and mentally photographing the stakes on the flight path of the pull at stations three and four, we must also heed the two stakes on the flight path of the mark. They appear to be hanging in the sky like still-motion pictures and give us a feasible notion of the real size of the lead in a very clear and graphic manner. We must therefore try to mentally photograph the lead given to each target at every station and to imprint it in our mind. We’ll discover that each target has its own lead and we’ll learn to integrate that lead in our technical repertoire and to pull it out whenever we have to hit a target.

Fotos: Tonino Blasi

The control zone…

We have already dealt with one, very practical approach to graphically reconstructing the real size of the lead with the use of stakes as reference points. We have also gone to each station with the objective of seeing the targets and leads at real distances and not virtual distances (like the ones represented by the “practice lines” on our mini training place. But let’s not forget that we were learning at that time… We practiced leading and controlling the barrel there, while mounting the stock…. And I hope you haven’t grown tired of that exercise and still practice it at the beginning of each training session. Let’s now get ready for several practice exercises with the shotgun, but not without first talking about the “control zone”. In this zone, let’s do our practice exercises with accuracy, determination and conviction! Let’s use this new music scale with the same enthusiasm, the same spirit of sacrifice and the same rhythm as a conscientious pianist before a major concert. Do you remember what we wrote about the “practice lines” on our mini training place? It would be a good idea to review chapter 4 again, since the exercises recommended there are similar to the goals we have just set but with one very important difference. Having already learned to mount the shotgun and to guide the barrel to the lead in a coordinated and controlled manner with the help of the “practice lines”, let’s now use this newly acquired ability to practice on a real shooting range and on a real flight path. The new flight path is now an imaginary line connecting the target’s departure point at the high house to

the two reference stakes (with the target and ball)…This is the flight path which the target will really take and which our barrel must track along, guided by our left hand, while we are mounting in a smooth and controlled manner...

A correct “driving” to the lead on mark 5 (low five)

We observe…

If we carefully observe the flight behavior of the target from any station along its flight path (let’s concentrate on the target from the high house at stations two through four and on the target from the low house at stations four through six), we get the impression that the target is traveling at a very high speed, like that of a rocket, for the first ten or eleven meters. But after twelve meters, the “speeding object” appears to move quietly… and not as fast as it did before. This feeling of speed becomes even more apparent at stations two and six. Observed from these stations, the target resembles a “projectile” for the first ten meters, after which it slackens its speed and appears to glide infinitely slow in the sky... There are two features that explain why the speed of the target appears to be so fast on the first part of its flight path. The first feature is of a more subjective nature. Experiments conducted while drawing up the mathematical model to calculate the lead have shown that the speed of the target in the first 35 to 40 meters is nearly constant. However, the closer we are to the point, where the target emerges, the more we perceive the speed. The second feature, however, is a concrete problem. The target actually has a slightly greater speed on the first 10 to 12 meters, which then stabilizes to a constant speed in the “control zone”, as long as the target is ejected from a throwing machine with a “short arm”. Both cases pose more of a psychological problem than a real one, if we consider the fact that the targets lose their aggressive speed after the first 12 meters. One question: Is it a good idea, for a shooter, to focus his entire attention on perceiving the target’s speed on the very first part of its flight path? Or would it be better to ignore the uneasy feeling of a speeding projectile and to bring our entire controlling action directly into the zone from 12 to 18 meters where our perceptions are more reliable and less strained? This question, of course, is only rhetorical in nature but helps us to focus our entire attention on the part of the flight path of major importance to us which is the part from 12 to 18/19 meters. This is the control zone! The zone, in which the control over the target is more rational, easier and more effective if we manage to use everything explained and learned so far. In this zone, we will track our barrel directly to the lead in a coordinated manner with a smooth, controlled and firm movement. This is the zone, in which we will mount the shotgun in less than five tenths of a second and while we are mounting, we will bring the muzzle where we want to have it … exactly to the

target’s lead! This is the zone, in which we will execute our action, the zone, in which we will control the play… In our dear and reassuring control zone…

Control zone for the double at station 4

I want to point out once more, that the positioning of these four stakes will be very important when we arrive at the question of which shooting technique to use for the double at station four. For the time being, however, we only want to use the same stakes to acquire a mental concept of the real lead at real distances on the first four stations. The reason for pointing this out is that for stations two through four the two stakes represent the outermost boundary, within which we must end our shooting action for all outwardflying targets… but our new ability to mount while moving into the lead in a smooth and controlled manner, will certainly enable us to end our shooting action some meters before the two reference stakes. In the next chapter, we’ll talk about using stakes as reference points for practice exercises. Tonino Blasi

(to be continued)

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STE P B Y STEP TO SUCCESS THE A RT OF SKEET SHOOTING

7 Cha p t e r

what have we accomplished so far? S TEP BY S TEP TO S UCCE S S : T H E A R T O F S K EET S H OOT I N G

ll of you who have chosen to continue your trip through the fascinating world of skeet with the special methodic approach, “Step by Step”, in the meantime have logically continued to do your exercises, practice rounds and a number of experiments parallel to this. Whoever loves skeet cannot manage very long without shooting and can therefore not wait until an entire course has been completed! Nevertheless the “feedback” from the ISSF News forum and many e-mails has shown us that some of you have entirely or partially started using this new concept. You are in the process of acquiring these skills and may have already gained new impressions and a renewed interest in the sport, with which you have also developed the élan to continue experimenting! On the other hand, we need to point out that, you will never be able to achieve scores of a higher level with this shooting technique, if you do not simultaneously embrace all the activities and solutions with conviction down to the last detail, especially those that have been discussed so far and those that will follow. Let’s not forget what was specified in chapter two when we started to work on this project: “The main concern was therefore

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to rationalize the shooting action within the entire shooting round of skeet (not only at station four), to break the shooting action down into all of its constituent parts, to analyze them and then put them back together in a rational pattern that had nothing to do with the out-dated pattern used prior to Barcelona in 1992. The goal, which was set very high, was to lay the cornerstone to make it really possible to hit all the competition targets.“ Now again, our goal must continue to be “to lay the cornerstone that will enable us to hit all competition targets”. Whoever thinks he needs only to include a part of the technical applications in his own shooting method in order to make any progress will not achieve the maximum score which can be guaranteed, however, through the total adoption of this method. He also shows, with his behavior, that he has not yet “emptied his cup….” What have we accomplished so far…?

It would be of advantage here to briefly check the extent to which you have developed the basic activities so that a change of mental pattern from a type A shooting action to a type B action is possible. (Do you recall the difference between these patterns?) Let’s check this over using a series of questions:

How much time have I spent so far training my left hand to acquire the same ability and accuracy as my right hand? Do you remember what kind of exercises are necessary to develop its ability to guide the shotgun barrel? Do I practice these exercises on a regular basis?... Do I really feel that my left hand has become an “active” hand? B

Do I have practice lines at my disposal, with which I can correctly train my shooting action? Do I use these lines on a regular basis at the beginning of each training session? Is my action fluid when I track the lead? Is it a coordinated action and well synchronized with the “Bang/Click”? C

Have I acquired the ability to avoid the psychological pressure caused by the flying target? Do I feel that I am the active part of the action – and not the flying target? Am I able to execute a complex shooting action synchronously? That means, am I able to achieve the lead and to control the lead and action to the trigger within the time span of mounting the stock? Am I able to do this in a fully automatic mode,

since the said constituents of a shooting action are done repeatedly? And when I execute this action in a fully automatic mode, am I able to clearly see what I am doing? If we have answered these questions affirmatively, we are on the right path and can continue to develop this “technical skeet” with confidence and conviction. Fully aware of the tasks that should be performed with proper commitment and genuine ambition, we will first improve our scores and stabilize them later on.

This is our real training place.

At last… Now, we are at last on our real training place. A shooting range that we have equipped to assist us in the development of our ability to control and hit the targets in the easiest and most rational way possible. Obviously, there are still a lot of interesting details we have to deal with: The position that our body assumes on the respective stations; the point on the flight path, at which our barrel starts tracking (the lead); the point that we must look at when we are on the station and are about to call the target; what we think of when we are waiting for the flying targets… and what should be done in the break between the action on one station and the action on the next…? We will consider these aspects and if necessary examine them in detail when we continue our trip in the next chapters. The subjects mentioned deserve special attention, since all of them definitely contribute to the quality of the final result. Do you recall the sentence about “The more simple and rational the movements of a competitive athlete are, the better his performance will be.” All what we did up to now it was to work in that direction and we shall continue to work on simplifying our shooting actions in order to perfect many other details. At the end of chapter six, we asked you to read chapter four again, since we are going repeat all the exercises with the practice lines of our mini-training place. However, we now have a real shooting range equipped with valuable stakes as reference points. Let’s remember: The ultimate goal of this training phase, which is to learn to control a real target on a real flight path, is of utmost impor-

tance. We begin this new training session by taking up our position on station one and loading our shotgun with an empty cartridge. We mount the shotgun and aim directly at the lead-ball. While we are aligned with the lead, we position our body and our feet in such a way that we have a feeling of balance, harmony and relaxation. When our position is correct, we feel absolutely no muscular tension in our neck, our arms or our legs. We must practice this over and over again until we finally find the right position. Once we feel that we have reached the correct position, we will bring the shotgun into the waiting position again – without moving our feet – and check whether the barrel coincides exactly with the flight path of the target. If this is the case, it means that we have found the correct position and can begin with our exercises. The exercise, as you may have already guessed, consists of visualizing the target departure and moving the barrel into the control zone while mounting the stock and guiding it to the lead-ball with a single action. Do this exercise with very great precision and watch whether the barrel’s muzzle moves exactly along the flight path while mounting the stock. This must happen from the beginning of the control zone all the way to the lead-ball without deviating to the right or left of the flight path by means of a coordinated movement that should match the speed of the target.

Pull-one starting position

Pull-one final position

Now for a small digression… let’s talk about our position on the station.

What position should we assume on the station? As for the position and tension of the body, remember that you are on a shooting range and not at the starting line for a 100-meter race at a track-and-field competition. All the peculiar positions you see at the

stations, including the classical crouch position, are not only useless for acquiring a correct and fluid shooting action but can also downright destroy it. Furthermore, an excessively strained position is a clear indication of excessive and harmful inner, psychological tensions in view of the tasks to tackle and the action to take. As we have already repeated several times, a movement that, if from a mental viewpoint is, practically, well organized and therefore properly trained – which is what we are trying to impart to those who are interested through “Step by Step” – is far less complicated than it appears and only requires great accuracy and a simplicity of the execution. The physical and psychological condition must be shaped through great ease, calm and composure. An almost controversial psychic and physic condition prevails for the “sprinters on the station”. To learn a correct movement, we must only assume a normal, upright stance like we have when conversing with friends and then correct it to the extent that we can compensate for the effect of the gun’s recoil against the shoulder when the shot is fired. To achieve this, we only need to shift two thirds of our body weight to our left leg which we slightly bend – without sagging at the knee – and tilt our upper body slightly forward. This bearing of the upper body combined with a simultaneous movement of the arms not only helps to deaden the gun’s recoil, when a shot is fired, but also makes easier the mounting of the stock to the shoulder and cheek. The head should be slightly stretched out with no muscular tension in the neck and prepared for the gun’s stock to the cheek but should not be tilted any further to the front. Through a combined movement of the right wrist and the right arm, the stock must mount to the cheek. By no means should the head ever move down to the stock… Let’s remember that our feet form the base of our balance. The breadth of this base depends on our height. For a shooter that is 1.80 meters tall, a distance of 20 cm, measured from his heels, is correct. A taller shooter must proportionally enlarge the interval between his heels, and a shorter shooter must reduce it. The right foot is placed slightly behind the left one. You must have the feeling that you fill the station! You must develop a great awareness for the control of the station and a great sense of stability. You must feel that this is your station! Feet that are too close together can throw you off balance, especially when shooting doubles, while feet that are too far apart make your body too rigid which sooner or later has a negative effect on your movement. Let’s return to our practice exercises…

Repeat the recommended exercise several times on station one and say “bang” when the muzzle of your barrel reaches the leadball. At the same time, make a mental note of ISSF NEWS

It is possible to assume the correct position… even at the age of 14

how far the muzzle lies below the target as a reference point. The interval you see between the muzzle and the target is our lead! After several such practice exercises, you will then synchronize the “bang” with the “click” of the trigger – as on the practice lines of our mini training place. You must very clearly perceive that you perfectly synchronize the bang and the click! Make sure during this practice exercise that the positioning of the shotgun barrel forms a 45° angle in relation to the angle formed by the shooter and station and that the barrel extension crosses the flight path of the target in the green point, as shown in figure A. During the initial phase of mounting the stock, the muzzle of the barrel moves, starting from the green point, to the first of the two blue points, which is the beginning of the control zone, and must then be firmly guided to the leadball (figure B). You will notice that the muzzle of the barrel makes a short movement from up to down… observe and conscientiously train this technical action which will enable you to shatter diving targets even during very strong winds. This movement gives you control over the target and prevents you from shooting too far above it and therefore from missing the target! If you have correctly used this target as a reference point during practice training, you have undoubtedly created a clear sequence of pictures in your mind which would not have developed without this “dry” shooting action. Before long, you will be practicing this action on real targets. Let’s allow the target to enter the picture…

Now, the moment has actually come to let the targets fly. Repeat the same action that you formerly practiced in training while using a target as reference point…. Assume the waiting position and conserve the inner calmness and relaxation which you had during practice exercises. Everything you should repeat now – from the shotgun’s starting position to the completion of your action – is already very clear in your mind. Guide your glance to the point where the extension of the shotgun 18

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barrel crosses the flight path of the target (green point in figure A). Remember that the emerging target is only a “signal” for you to begin your action according to “model B” from chapter 3. You have already organized the action in your mind and you are prepared to this moment. Finally, remember the concepts we used to lend a concrete form and substance to the shooting action when trained on the practice lines of the mini training place – the moment has now come to use them! Remember what we wrote in chapter four? “...let’s practice them and get used to “executing the action”. Once we’ve decided which of the targets on the line we want to hit, we bring the barrel firmly and resolutely to the desired lead of the target getting it (the lead) in one movement (mounting/going to/ getting the lead) and acting resolutely! We are executing the action!” If you stop the time required for this action, you will discover that no more than five tenths of a second are needed when the action is smooth and controlled. This means you are able to execute the whole action: stock mounting and, while mounting the stock, you move the shotgun barrel “to the point where you want to hit the target!” All this complex action you perform this complex action in only five tenths of a second! Once you have managed to convince yourself of your ability to execute this action and bring the barrels to the point “where you want to have them” in no more than five tenths of a second, it will no longer matter, whether the target is flying or whether it’s painted on a line at our mini training place!” Now let’s see, whether all of that is also correct…We were in the waiting position, glancing at the crossing point between the barrel extension and the flight path of the target… We call for our target and at the very moment it appears, we execute the action in a coordinated manner: control zone, lead, bang/click! And stop! Let’s not make the mistake of following the target any further… we have not fired any real cartridges, so the target will obviously fly further!... Let’s just let it fly! I repeat, we will no longer follow it! It fully satisfies our purpose to have guided the barrel to the proper lead (we have imprinted

and photographed this in our mind) and to have seen, even if only for a moment, the moment of the bang/click – in other words, the moment in which the target exploded! Don’t worry about anything if, on your first few attempts to execute this action on a real flying target, you are not able to have it perfectly under control… That can happen! Learn with the greatest possible commitment to evade the effect of pressure caused by the flying target and to work hard to become a protagonist of the action and to execute your action! Repeat this practice exercise continuously, and you will see that you are the one who begins to control the game! Be confident that you can do this, that you can perfect your action, guide your barrel and see the lead very clearly. The automatism of your action always ends with a well coordinated bang/ click! Don’t be annoyed that you use up targets without shooting them down… console yourself with the thought of at least having saved the cartridges…Sometimes, you learn more and faster when you observe your own action without shooting down targets than when you shoot hundreds of targets and thousands of cartridges without understanding what happens…!

When you have analyzed your actions and have reached the logical conclusion that the flying target no longer has a chance… load a cartridge into the shotgun and … repeat exactly what you have done up to that moment. There will only be one single, electrifying difference at the moment you say bang/click… a black cloud will be left instead of the target! Be delighted that you hit a target with the help of an “adequate technical action” and that you can also be sure of having perfectly executed “your action”. In the future, the “pull-one targets” that can escape your action will be seldom. Tonino Blasi

(to be continued)

The left hand co ntrols th e target from th e high house… also du ring

a final!

#1/Starting Position

8 Cha p t e r

We are on station two! Our left hand starts its decisive activity… S TEP BY S TEP TO S UCCE S S : T H E A R T O F S K EET S H OOT I N G

e spare no pains in pointing out the correct use of the left hand during the shooting action for those friends who are accompanying us on our trip. And we shall continue to do this – even if we run the risk of boring you! Now that we are on a real training place and have started to train with real flying targets, we can determine to what extent our left hand has gained control. The following exercise will become one of the basic elements of your shooting technique. Once you have mastered it, it will accompany you throughout your entire shooting career. You will notice, how much this exercise will help you obtain a soft and precise control of the flying target. At the same time, it will show you, how useless or wrong you held your hand before… This exercise will continue to serve as a method of emerging from the “relaxing phase” which must be entered directly after the preceding shooting action. It will ultimately help you re-enter the “concentration phase”. This important phase should activate you physically and psychologically to the point that your attention is directed to the “things

to be done” immediately before the next station for the next shooting action. Later, we shall talk about these two phases in detail. They are a very important psychological support for every athletic activity, including the shooting sport. Ennio Falco, who is still one of the greatest specialists in international skeet shooting, adopted the shooting techniques that form the basis of “step by step”, with conviction, and integrated them into his great shooting talent. In the above photograph, he demonstrates the starting position of this exercise to achieve control of the target. It should be pointed out here that the moment captured in the photograph was not during a training session but during a very important final of an international competition... For him, there is absolutely no difference! The importance of maintaining total control over the left hand, together with all the other rules, is a fundamental part of the action for him which has be executed a few moments later! We are on any station we please (you can also do this exercise outside the station…) and we point our hand at the flight path of the target, approximately at the point,

where we would position the muzzle of our barrel. We imagine that our hand is the muzzle of the barrel. When the target appears in flight, we make the same short and resolute control action to the lead with our left hand which we would make if we were holding the shotgun barrel in our left hand! I repeat, a short and resolute… but precise action that keeps the target in our reassuring and reliable control zone! Simplify your action… eliminate unnecessary things!

Do not follow the target beyond the point where you would have hit it! Repeat this action as often as possible. It can always be done whenever you are training on a shooting range. Also practice this exercise on the targets of other shooters by standing directly behind them or on the next station, provided of course that you have their consent and do not disturb them… During the first few exercises, you will notice that your left shoulder twitches when the target appears and that your arm and hand will most probably be beyond the stake that defines the center of the range… and in ISSF NEWS

Fotos: Tonino Blasi

With the control of the left hand, the shooter enters the “concentration phase”…

The control continues.. a mark behind station five.

#2/Concentration Phase

#3/Training P hase

fact far sooner than the target reaches the zone! This fact shows you, how much “psychological pressure” you are still under from the flying target and how much you still have to work on avoiding this negative “pressure”. However, if you have worked hard on training your left hand with the exercises recommended in the previous chapters, you will be able to control the targets softly and precisely within a very short time. Regardless of the station you are on, it should be as though you want to “caress” the flying target with your fingertips. Using the same delicacy with which a painter moves his brush! Remember that the progress you make while shooting is closely related to the quantity and quality of training your left hand on the flying targets. If you now know how to take proper advantage of your possibilities, you will come home after a training session, in which you have shot at 100 targets, having “controlled” and “caressed” at least 500 targets with your left hand… your targets… more than those of the other shooters. This also means that you actually completed five training sessions instead of one on that day! Just imagine the advantages you will have from this, from both an economic viewpoint and the viewpoint of psychophysical shooting stress… We are now almost ready to do the same things with the shotgun barrel that we did with our left hand… But we first have to carefully examine stock mounting down to the last detail. We have talked a lot about the basic task of the left hand on various occasions, including the last paragraph, but…

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What contribution does the right hand make for a correct action while mounting the stock?

One of the most common mistakes made by shooters is not bringing the stock of the shotgun to the proper point of contact on the shoulder. If the stock is custom made for the shooter and correctly mounted, the heel of the stock rests against the upper part of the shoulder or projects slightly above it, as shown below in the photograph of Romano Garagnani, the unforgettable master in humanity, technique and style, who has taught an entire generation of Italian shooters many things, using humility. The stock touches the cheek-bone in this position. The head should not be bent too much, and the master eye should be located in the center of the rib skimming of it, with the glance, up to the front sight. Under these conditions, and you can bet on it, the shot pattern will be at the point, on which you have turned your eyes, at the moment the shot is fired! As a rule, however, we can observe that the contact point between the stock and shoulder is too low. Consequently, the head is too low and the neck is craned so the cheekbone can touch the stock and still remain in the line of sight. It is quite obvious that a line of sight achieved in this false manner cannot guarantee reliability. In the long run and under competition pressure, the moment will come, when you are completely outside the rib, and you will miss the target! But why is such an important feature as the exact stock mounting so frequently underestimated by a

large number of shooters? The reasons for this are different and largely lie in the “cultural” grounds. In past times, it was difficult, if not downright impossible, to get a custommade shotgun stock. Whoever wanted to buy a shotgun, went to a gun shop and selected his gun primarily according to such features as aesthetics and mechanical and qualitative

Homage to Roman Garagnani: a master in technique and style

fineness and perhaps, as a last criterion, according to the conformity of his own physical features with the drop and cast off of the stock. Under these conditions, the body would be forced to contortion in order to reach only a minimal line of sight. The body adapted to the

A/STARTING POSITION

gun – rarely was the gun adapted to the body! The gun changed hands time and again from generation to generation and forced the new owner to new acrobatic feats of adaptation. In the course of time, this way of bringing the gun to the cheek and simultaneously tracking the line of sight with adaptive movements of the head to the stock has become an almost genetically accepted rule! Those who pick up a shotgun for the first time have always seen these contortions before and think: “That’s the way it has to be done!”… They repeat exactly the same mistake in the same way and thus continue this false mounting procedure! Finally, there are also arguments for a psychologically and technically correct approach which are often not considered. We have discussed at length and explained our critical views of the mistake that a shooter makes when mounting the shotgun too fast, since he feels that he must “subsequently” control the flying target. Such a shooter is always in trouble because his shooting technique is sequential in nature, and he is therefore psychologically late and feels tense (type A shooting action, chapters 1 and 2). It is very difficult to synchronize the fast speed with the necessary precision when mounting the stock. On the other hand, the special characteristic of a shooter with a type B shooting action is the longer period for mounting, since the time to achieve and control the lead is included in it. Taking more time to mount the stock means a greater precision and accuracy of the control! And finally, there is another technical aspect for the proper use of the right wrist which is usually ignored by the shooters. The proper use of the right wrist can help a lot when lifting the stock to the cheek-bone, so you will not be forced to sink your head and to raise your shoulder and the elbow of your right arm.

B/FINA L POSITION

Let’s rationalise the mounting action

As seen from figure A, the right hand and wrist assume the illustrated position at the start in order to rationalize the mounting action and to reduce raising the shoulder and arm to the necessary minimum. This position is characterized through a very distinct angle between the hand and lower arm which is about 110° at the very top of the wrist. To acquire the correct position, you should heed the following. A

Mount the shotgun so that the stock rests exactly in the shoulder – as though you were really about to shoot. B

Position your hand correctly on the pistol grip and try holding it flat. Obviously, a customcontoured pistol grip is of great help in finding the right position. If a pistol grip is not cut to size this way for the shooter, part of his fist will be exposed when gripping with a flat hand, since the pistol grip will be too short! C

Without changing the position of the hand as described under item b), bring the shotgun into the waiting position. A wrist position, as shown in figure A, is normally not a customary position. But this is exactly the position we are looking for! Starting from here and using a rotary movement in the middle of the wrist (see figure A) and a simple but “active rotation“ in the air (see figure B), it will be surprisingly easy to bring the stock to the right position at the shoulder and cheek without the necessity of a larger movement of the arm and shoulder.

We are rationalising, quite simply, a further detail…

This time, it is a question of assigning an “active” role to our wrist with a certain relevance. Until now, the wrist was (poorly…) lifted along to the cheek (which was lowered), when the arm and shoulder were raised, without playing an active role. The up-and-down wrist action must be continually trained with great care, since we are normally not accustomed to moving the wrist this way – not even when an up-anddown rotation is anatomically possible. The more customary wrist action is opening it to the right or closing it to the left, but almost never moving it up and down. Above all else, we are not in the position to execute this action with a load, that is with the weight of the stock and a part of the shotgun, and all of it up to the shoulder and cheek! That’s why we have to devote a lot of time to this action when training, because we certainly will not execute it properly with the real weight of the shotgun in our hands and we can greatly benefit from this training for another important and rational part of the shooting action… This particular movement will be performed in total automatism just like the entire mounting action. Do you think this is difficult? Yes? Then ask a guitarist how to play a G sus4 chord in less than five tenths of a second. And then… tell me which of the two is more difficult! Tonino Blasi

(To be continued)

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9 Cha p t e r

We Visualise the Shotgun barrel as an extension of the forefinger aon our left hand... S TEP BY S TEP TO S UCCE S S : T H E A R T O F S K EET S H OOT I N G

he previous chapter was devoted to the correct use of our left hand. Before the detailed analysis of the mounting action, we wrote: “we are now almost ready to do the exact same things with the shotgun barrel that we did with our left hand...” Let’s continue from this point and try to visualise the barrel as an extension of the forefinger on our left hand. Remember, we are standing on station two, and the exercises, we are about to do, follow a given logic which we will also use at the other stations. The only thing that will change at the differ-

ent stations is the extent of the visible lead and thus the extent of the respective actions. We will devote special attention to station four at a later time. For us, the real training place looks like the following sketch: Figure A: Action angle for the individual target (black lines) and the double targets (pointed lines) at station two. Legend: Outline ball: Barrel’s starting point Black points: Control zone as seen from station two Arc with arrows: pendulum movement

As usual, we will start with our “dry” shooting action. We aim the extended barrel/finger at a point on the flight path (outline ball) which is about one third of the distance between the target’s departure point and the central stake. Our action for the individual target is carried out in the “control zone” illustrated by the two black points (fig. A) On the pull’s flight path. While doing this exercise, we should always bear the target in mind, which will be flying on the left side of our barrel, hence, (the barrel) in front of it, during the mounting action. The mounting action consists of achieving and controlling the lead through a well co-ordinated action, according to the B-type shooting system, and the acquired skill of our left hand. Also take note that the “action angle” to control high two is really quite narrow. Therefore, the action and the control done with the left hand is enough to cover this “action angle”. The body’s task is to support the action of the left hand with a short rotary motion, whereby no resistance is created. Nothing more. But where should the shooting action end?...

A 22

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While shooting at real targets, the entire action ends one to three meters before the central stake. The shotgun barrel may never go beyond these limits and, by no means, beyond the central stake! Keeping these conditions in mind, try to find the position on the station best suited to your bodily structure. Bear in mind, however, that your chest

should be maximally positioned in direction of the central stake but not beyond it for outward flying targets at stations two, three and four. As already mentioned, you must use the extension of your barrel as a starting point (outline ball in figures A and B) on the flight path about one third of the way between the house and central stake”. What about the starting position?...

We have to be very careful when we assume the starting position for our shooting action on station two. We must be careful to line up, as much as possible, our face to the direction of the barrel, turning only our eyes towards the house. This way, when the target emerges, we will follow it with our sight, but our face should be already lined up and parallel to the gun, so we are not forced to make rough and dangerous head adjustments towards the stock. Turning the head to look “in the window”, where the target exits, is not only useless but also dangerous, if you react hypersensitivity to the psychological pressure of the target “dashing off”!… Obviously, we are very much interested in ‘perceiving’ the target at the very beginning of its flight, since it is the signal to “start our action” (do you remember these thoughts?). But we want to control the target in the zone, in which it is less “aggressive” (control zone). In order to obtain a good perception of the targets with the objective of starting our action correctly and, at the same time, to have our face lined up with the gun, we have to make the best possible use of our “visual angle”. We therefore have to center our “visual angle” in the “useful shooting area” and enlarge it as much as possible. We have to use the natural gift of our eyes, our “field of vision”, with which we can look at a point and get, at the same time, a good and wider vision of the area that precedes it and follows it.

Fotos: Tonino Blasi

Do we use our “field of vision” in the right way…

To center our field of vision towards the “useful shooting area” at station two, we only have to position our chest in a line that runs somewhat in front of the central stake. To enlarge our field of vision, we go and stand at the back edge of the station. Stepping back 90 centimetres (the distance between the station’s front and back boundaries) will enlarge our field of vision by two meters! We can now commence with the exercises. Let’s try to execute the entire mounting action as correctly as possible. But above all else, let’s continue to drive the barrel exactly into the “control zone”, while the muzzle runs along the whole part of the imaginary flight path up to the ball/lead. The entire action ends with our ritual bang/click (see fig. A). Starting at this phase of our trip, we will consciously summarise the exercises on the stations. We are convinced that all those, who have patiently and unwaveringly followed us on this path, have come to realise that the technique used on each of the vari-

ous stations is the same one they learned to construe throughout the entire course, “Step by Step” – starting with the “mini training place” up to the present stage of the course. We are also convinced that many shooters have already organised their thoughts – or are well on their way to doing so – so they can execute a complex shooting action with co-ordination at the same time, “overlapping”, and no longer in sequential phases (see fig. A and B in chapter 3). These shooters have worked hard on the development of their system of automatism so that the repetitive part of their shooting action is executed under the effective and sure control of the extrapyramidal system. At the same time, these shooters have also become skilful masters with the use of their left hand! As for the details of how to get from the “dry training” phase on the flight paths to the real firing phase, remember how we analysed the shooting action, step by step, at station one in chapter seven. Let’s now examine how to use the same concept on the other stations. This will enable you to use the entire philosophy and the entire shooting technique, which you have learned so far. The scheme we will use is summarised as follows: A An exact repetition of the “dry” actions on the flight paths in the control zones up to the ball/lead, without flying targets and without pulling the trigger! B “Dry” shooting action at real flying targets, control of the targets in the control zones and closing the action with a co-ordinated “bang/click!” C Proper firing action. A real cartridge replaces the empty cartridge. The action is ended with a “bang/click”, as though we were still in the “dry” phase. In order to effectively arrange our shooting action for the doubles, we have to reinforce another feature… Doubles… “Pendulum movement”… What is that?

In fig. A of this chapter, we have drawn a arc with directional arrows which are defined in the legend as a “pendulum movement”. In chapter three, we already referred to this extremely important technical movement and defined its application as especially useful and decisive for all shooting actions at double targets on stations two through six. Let’s examine this “pendulum” movement a little more closely to better understand its significance and enable us to use the advantages of its practical application. If we observe the pendulum of a clock, we will probably notice the regular breadth of its swings and especially its temporal constancy…. The precision of the clock is therefore dependent on these two components – breadth and constancy of the pendulum swings!

Looking at the pendulum …

All shooters are quite aware of the great difficulties involved in shooting double targets (especially at stations three, four and five). These difficulties arise from the vague idea of “where” the second target will be after firing at the first one. The less refined our shooting technique is, the worse the problem of controlling the second target becomes. It becomes quite clear to us that the more time we spend controlling the first target, the more likely the second target will pass over our barrel and escape into a zone that we do not yet control. We then have to search for the second target under great pressure… During our shooting action, however, we do not want to be pressured… Quite on the contrary. We will be relaxed and calm, since these two special qualities help us to be highly “concentrated”.

…we want to be relaxed and calm

We become conscious now, that the technique, we have just acquired, allows us to hit all outward flying targets with calmness, composure and precision, one to three meters before the central stake! The second target is at the “same distance” from the same stake but in the semi-field of the cabin it came from (see the target marked with the small arrow in fig. B). This way of shooting is of great advantage to us in controlling the second target… We are no longer “forced” to leap into an “obscure zone” under great pressure in search of the second target… since the target is directly in front of us! If we adopt the prudence, upon firing at the first target, to return to the second “control zone” (not in search of the second target but independently of it) with the same speed, with which we arrived in the first “control zone” to dominate and hit the first target, we will enjoy like a feeling of a new “epiphany”, to ISSF NEWS

use a word of great significance, reinvented with the purpose to describe this particular mood, by an American friend of mine. We will discover that the second target is flying right next to our barrel…We only have to “complete” our action – which means to execute the action controlling the lead and firing at a target that we may define “devoted to the suicide” target! Let’s summarise. Assuming that we are in the process of shooting at double targets from station three: FIGURE B: We aim the extension of our barrel at the outline ball.

(arrows in figures A and B). This is, obviously, a pendulum on a “horizontal plane”. We derived the following theoretical idea from this: The extent and constancy of the swings of a pendulum can be used in practice to simplify the control over both targets, since they have an important, common feature: they both fly at the same speed, but, on crossing flight paths. According to this, there are two control possibilities for committed shooters when shooting at doubles: A To search “somewhere” for the second target after firing at the first target…

The movement of the barrel has absolute priority when mounting the stock…

Again, we would like to stress the importance of the barrel’s movement to the target’s flight path at the moment we start the shooting action and firmly aim the barrel at the starting point of the “control zone”. We have to include this “starting action” in our “technical repertoire” so we can execute it automatically. However, we should always make ourselves “conscious” of what we are doing at every time we start our shooting action. A good “starting action” will enable us to be just as fast as the target in a very short time without losing control for even a moment. We must definitely have clear concepts about the work to do! This is a part of how we mentally organise our entire shooting action. But above all else: If we are not clear about the things we have to do, it will be the target that ends up “driving us somewhere”… and with certainty far away from it! With a well co-ordinated and developed shooting action at double targets, we will suddenly notice that the entire action has the features and the rhythm of a dance… We will “see” the barrel dancing back and forth between the targets with the rhythm and

B A When the target appears, we firmly direct, without a doubt, our barrel to the beginning of the “control zone” (the first of two black points) on the pull’s flight path. While mounting the stock, we bring the barrel precisely to the lead (the target is always to our left and may not be permitted to pass our barrel!). We control the target and when we “sense” that the stock has gently touched our shoulder, we firmly pull the trigger! B “Immediately” after firing and independent of the position of the second target, with the same rhythm (and speed) we execute the action to the first target, we must reverse and enter the second “control zone” (black points on the mark’s flight path). During this action, we begin to focus on the second target. If this return action is executed correctly, the target will be on the right side of our barrel, while we are swinging in the same direction and with the same speed… Starting here, it is easy to control and “execute” the last part of the firing action… We do not have to search for anything and we did not leap into a “dark zone”. We find the target…where it is fully logical to be! The action described above under A and B is nothing more than the description of a “pendulum movement” 24

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B To perform a very simple and autonomic “pendululm movement” by fluidly swinging the barrel towards the outward flying target, in order to control and shoot it, and then immediately returning the barrel into the second control zone with the same speed and same rhythm, irregardless of the second target’s real position at the moment, but with the knowledge that it will definitely be in the zone, to which you swing your barrel during the return movement! Decide for yourself which of the two possibilities you prefer according to the criteria of logic, reason and certainty… They will never cross each other…

If we use this shooting technique correctly, including the “pendulum movement”, the double targets will never cross each other… at any station! We will hit the first target at each station long before it crosses the flight path of the second target. Since we do the return movement autonomically and irrespective of the position of the second target, we can observe the target flying towards our barrel. In this way, we can keep the target fully under control at all times. We have all the time “we” need to decide when and how we will complete the action on time!

the beat of a musical score… …we “feel” our body which becomes an active part of the dance… it dictated timing and cadenza…we feel the beat and the harmony, and the calmness, determination and certainty resulting from this… Contrary to this are negative feelings: We feel like we are in a constant state of doubt or the doubt of not to be measured up to the skills required for a well organised and executed shooting action… Worrying about a lack of time that, very often, torments us and forces us to execute thoughtless and uncontrolled actions… All these feelings, will disappear or tone down considerably, but only in function of the degree of maturity, refinement, solidity and reliability that we have been able to achieve, applying our reassuring and rational shooting technique. Tonino Blasi

(To be continued)

10 Cha p t e r

The time has finally come for us to take a closer look at “station four”…

S TEP BY S TEP TO S UCCE S S : T H E A R T O F S K EET S H OOT I N G

tation four – a nightmare? Have no fear of station four! As we all know, however, there is no shooter – regardless of his level – who feels comfortable when he sets foot on “station four”… For some shooters, the tension becomes so great, especially during a competition, that it is impossible for them to maintain even a minimal degree of clarity. This is indispensable, however, for a station with such high technical demands. According to statistics, the majority of competitions are won or lost on station four. Nearly every tie-breaking match is broken at station four. Since all shooters are aware of this fact, the thought of this alone is enough to make them tremble when they set foot on station four! This all started back in 1993. The new rules for the introduction of doubles at station four became effective that year. The Olympic games in Barcelona were over, and with them, the wheel of history had come full circle in international skeet. Within this circle, it was still possible to command skeet with relative success from a technical point of view without having to develop or apply special technical refinements, although various changes in the course of fire were adopted back then. “Individual talent” outweighed the “technical factor”. This was made possible by the essential characteristic of the old courses of fire, which no longer required this ability. The introduction of doubles at station four was a kind of a “turning point” in international skeet, since it posed a new, dreaded technical problem for the shooters. It was no longer possible to compete with “talent” alone

and it was not by chance, that shooters, who had dominated the international scene up to that point, gave up skeet due to this innovation. With this last fundamental change, international skeet became an “extreme form of skeet”. In my opinion, a further step must still be taken: the introduction of one last definitive change, which the majority of elite shooters also find to be correct and unpostponable to the purpose to open the doors again for a “new world record” in this discipline. To be able to set a goal for a new record and guarantee a higher technical value to the new record than before, one possible solution would be to eliminate two individual targets from the course, “incomer singles” at stations three and five would probably be the most suitable for this) and to introduce a new double, in exchange, as a “reverse double” at station four. The shooting program could therefore be ended by shooting the two doubles from station four, after the “spectacular” targets at station eight have been shot.

We have termed this necessary measure as “correct and unpostponable”, since a sport, in which there is no longer a possibility to set or break a world record, becomes a sterile Sport… like a “dream without hope!” But let’s return to station four… We had posed the following question in chapter two which still continues to haunt us: “But what was the fundamental problem, which is still a problem today for many shooters, when shooting the doublets?” Let’s now add to that, “…and why?” The question of why is easy to explain: the two single targets at station four were always thought to be targets which required special efforts in order to successfully control them… At that time, the majority of missed targets were registered at station four… This was used as a justification for the commonly held notion back then, that “greater care” had to be taken when controlling these two “difficult targets”. “Greater care” basically meant a “longer period of control”… This way of countering and solving a problem was very reassuring for all shooters, and

…a spectacular mark (low-house) eight

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Fotos + Illustration: Tonino Blasi, Sascha Pollach (1)

there was also nothing to be said against it... There was no reason why more time should not have been devoted to controlling the individual targets. More time meant greater precision, in a sequential way of shooting (Chapter 3 fig.A)! It could therefore be observed that the large majority of shooters had absolutely no difficulties in hitting the out-going targets, at least, several meters before the central stake, regardless of whether they were ejected from the high house or the low house – and this occurred on a regular basis – but when it came to shooting the high four, the preferable area of impact was, at least, two meters “after” the central stake! And this is how it was for many years. It is therefore easy to understand that this way of shooting the high four has become a sort of “genetic marker” for active shooters over the years and has been a reference point for observers… as well as young and new shooters who are always on the lookout for new methods to inspire them in their eagerness to learn. Under these preliminary remarks, it is understandable that, when the shooters begun to deal with the doubles in station four, the “greater care” they used to take for the high four was at the expense of the time required to control the second target of the double… Consequently, a problem arose that basically made the second of the two targets more difficult to control. “Leading more than necessary” on the first target of the double with a consequential delay in taking control of the second target allowed for no extra time and thus made it impossible to control properly the second shot. Let’s remember “that the shooter was able to control the shot at the second target of a doubles from all other stations, since the second target approached his shooting position. At station four, however, the shooter was faced with the problem that the second target of the doubles appeared to rapidly move away from his position!” Obviously, ambitious shooters and especially young, acknowledged shooters soon experiemented with various solutions to this problem. But no matter how hard they tried, good scores were long in coming… Back then, possible solutions were examined every now and then. But to enumerate them here would take some time and would be of little use for our purposes. To show the widespread resignation among shooters that they could not hit the low-four in doubles at a distance of even 34 to 35 meters, the following was reported: Many shooters changed the choke of their shotgun’s second barrel to make the pellets pattern more compact and effective at this distance... Now think of the the other unavoidable distances, at which they had to shoot! It was really a pity that the negative consequences of this choice were not adequately considered. Such a decision forced the shooters to shoot at all in-coming targets, or targets at short distances, with a well adapted barrel and pellets pattern but for long distances… you can image how many targets “escaped unscathed” as a result of this not-too-rational decision. The shooters, who stoically have accompanied us on our

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trip, after “emptying their cup”, know intuitively why solutions, like the ones above could not be “the solution”... It could be done and must be done better. If the actual problem to be solved was “how” to regain the time required to effectively control the low-four in doubles, we would carry on the right track. We would have to look for this extra time in our “own head” by expanding our mind through a new organization of our habitual thought patterns and a more appropriate use of our brain potential that is still unknown to us. We have already gone down this path… we have worked with and developed “overlapping” patterns and have used methods of training which only the most loyal readers have known about for quite some time. One of the most eager shooters in commenting on and deepening the chapters of “Step by Step”, since their publication on the internet, sent me a very brief but impressive e-mail some days after the ninth chapter was published (Anyway I regret that my readers send me private e-mails instead of using the forum which would be more beneficial to the entire community). The e-mail read as follows: “Following the publication of the ninth chapter, I thought I would find some technical suggestions to help me with the unresolved problem I still have with doubles at station four. Having found no solution, I was a little disappointed… But after I had carefully read the entire chapter, I thought to myself that I could apply the suggestions for station three at station four as well. I am so happy that I did this, since I begin, now, to see a light at the end of the tunnel. The more I suffered before, the greater my pleasure is now that I can finally see the relationship between my barrels and the targets. It’s like magic… If the “pendulum movement” is properly applied, the barrels and targets are attracted to each other like magnets!” I could not better describe the feelings experienced by this sensitive shooter when using a good technique for doubles at station four. Furthermore, he displayed initiative and intuition which we already addressed at the beginning of our training course when we wrote: “We urge our shooters to try out new methods and to experience new sensations in order to develop their intuitive abilities of understanding and conscious perception, going beyond the indications that we give them!” Actually, there is great similarity in the approach used at stations three, four and five apart from minor details, of course, which have more to do with the shooter’s personal ability to react than with technical questions. I therefore appeal to you to do the following: Set foot on station four with the same secure feeling that you experienced at station three and use the same technique and rules… with the same determination and conviction! Proceed from the customary phases in doing so:

A An exact repetition of the ‘dry’ actions on the flight paths, in the control zones up to the ball/lead, without flying targets and without pulling the trigger! B ‘Dry’ shooting action at flying targets, control of the targets in the control zones and the end of the action with a coordinated ‘bang/click!’ C Proper firing action. The empty cartridge is replaced by a real cartridge. The action is ended with a “bang/click, as though we were still in the ‘dry’ phase.” Only shoot when you are really convinced that you are able to easily achieve a perfect control over both flying targets and you feel you have complete consciousness of your actions. If you notice in phase c) that you are still missing a lot of targets, return to phases a) and b) without hesitation… Missing a high percentage of targets means that you have not yet perfectly mastered the recommended pattern… hence, it’s better to stop and return to the phase of “rationalization”. That way, you prevent “mistakes from creeping in” and at least save… your ammunition! Please consider the fact that it is a fundamental requirement that you have mastered everything you have learned so far and incorporate it into your “technical repertoire”! You must apply all the details of the shooting action properly and with conviction: from the coordination of mounting the stock (use of the left hand, achievement and control of the lead, brief follow through) to the correct use of the “control zone” and the punctual application of the “pendulum movement”…. Let your automatism (your extra-pyramidal system) work for you under the brain’s “overall” control. Do not forget that you have trained with the same techniques and the same mentality as a musician… You have practiced the music scales well… You have practiced your rules of shooting over and over and know them by heart. The moment has now come.. You execute the actions precisely and with the same beat… Your barrel must start to dance, also, between the dreaded doubles of “station four”…

Figure A: Shooting scheme at station four Key: Gray ball: initial position of the barrel. Black balls: beginning and end of the “con-

trol zones” on the respective flight paths. Black arrows: breadth of the “pendulum movement”. Small gray arrow: shows position of the low four when shooting at the high four. But, let us describe this action once again: we start by positioning the prolongation of our barrel on the green ball – a little before the beginning of the “control zone” (this is bordered on the pull [high-house] flight path by the first blue ball on the left side. The green ball however is located about one third of the way between the high house and the central stake). When the target emerges lock your eyes onto it and do not “let up” until the firing action is completed… While you mount the stock, guide the barrel with great care towards the “control zone” with your left hand. Always stay ahead of the target, check if you are guiding the barrel directly to the lead, and when the stock touches your shoulder… you must be exactly at the leadpoint… fire without hesitation! Immediately thereafter, you “must” start the reverse movement, the second part of the “pendulum movement”. If your movement is well synchronized (it ought to be syncronized, considering all what you have learnt so far), you will certainly be able to focus on the second target, which is flying to the right of your barrel in the same direction of your movement, and you will also be able to clearly see the relationship between your barrels and the target! Under these conditions, it will be quite easy and very reassuring for you to resolutely complete the action to the lead… The second target will not escape your control for even a moment! Of course, we will give also some practical tips for those shooters, who do not yet feel ready for a “master shooting action” on station four (like the one Mr. Fox & C. are suggesting in their user’s manuals, here above…), and for those who presently have a problem with the execution of this action. These suggestions, in addition and/or integration of the points a, b and c will help them to rediscover and to regain their coordination and rhythm of execution. Let’s start with the following way of looking at this: All advanced skeet shooters can still easily remember the great difficulties they had in the beginning at station eight before they became “experienced hitters”of these two targets! That’s right, I am speaking of the high and the low eight… Only newcomes are granted the right to miss these two targets! On an international level, it is nearly impossible to see any missed eight today, whether high or low. However, if does come to pass, everyone speaks of it, as

if it were an unbelievable happening!... It’s even worse than missing an eleven-meter goal! Have you ever asked yourself why these two targets, which also have a certain degree of difficulty – even though it’s only due to the fact that the entire action “takes place” in less than half a second – are now among the targets least feared by shooters? The answer to this is found in the set rules that “these two targets have to be hit before crossing the central stake which marks the center of the station eight!” All shooters know that the referees take great care that this rule is observed! A target shot down beyond the central stake, even if only by some few centimeters, is mercilessly scored as a “ missed target”! But necessity is the mother of invention! Every shooter has therefore been forced to find a solution, that will comply with this rule, and has learned to execute his action rapidly, precisely and with coordination… and in return for this has been rewarded with a very reliable and consistent score! If you feel ready to take our observations with you to station eight, then we ask you to use this nice, new ability, without hesitation, as a tool to improve your executing technique at… station four!

Figure B: And this is how we will do it: We will shift station eight by two meters – only in our mind of course – on the route connecting station eight to station four. Place yourself at this point and begin to shoot from this position at the high eight! It is not yet necessary to also shoot at the low eight. Keep in mind: Even if you move on by two meters, you will always hit the high eight… under the condition of course that you shoot down the target before the central stake. Think about the following: If you have no problems hitting the high eight from the “real station eight”, you

will have no problems from the “new imaginary station”. If this is the case, then let’s go on to the next phase. We move two more meters in the direction of station four and shoot again from this “new station eight” at the high eight (you are now only four meters away from the real station eight). We are pleased, if we can keep you in good humor while doing this, but above all else, we congratulate you for having managed to continue hitting our new “high eight” with no problems and always before crossing the central stake, exactly the way the rule says! We now suggest that you make a further change: Move exactly to the half-way point between station eight and station four (approximately seven meters away from both stations…) This is our “new” station eight! Shoot and hit a lot of targets from this position, both from the high house and the low house. Always hit the pull before crossing the central stake. The mark should be hit six to eight meters beyond the central stake in the direction of the high house. It is important to heed this rule for the mark, since you have to hit the target there, when you shoot at the doubles later on! We now come to the doubles. We are still half way within stations 8 and 4 and we ask you not to underestimate the time needed to practice this. With this exercise, you will construe everything that will serve as a basis for the correct approach to the doubles at station four: coordination, mounting the stock, control, determination of the “control zone”, “pendulum movement”, the basis of the entire action… All this cannot be achieved in half an hour! You have to plan this exercise well and also spend a certain amount of time practicing it. You will be surprised with the level and the effect of the results you will achieve practicing this way. Before you begin shooting at the doubles, it is important that you briefly go through the phase of dry training again, as described under the points a) and b) in the middle of this chapter. Here again, we would like to point out that you should only start to shoot when you are certain that you are able to easily achieve perfect control over both flying targets; you have a clear understanding of everything and you have a total “consciousness” of what you are doing. You will immediately find it easier to control and hit the doubles. If you succeed to hit the doubles from this position, there is no doubt at all that you will succeed to hit the doubles just as easily at station four with the same executing technique and with even less sweeping movements... ISSF NEWS

Once you realize that you can hit the targets from this station with a nearly constant regularity, which we could refer to as the “extra 8-4” station, I advise you to approach station four step by step, always two meters at a time, and to always continue to shoot in the same way! If you have found these exercises interesting, then you have understood how useful it is to acquire a mentality to shoot at the target from the high house, regardless from which position on the route connecting station four to eight, as if it were a high eight! Therefore shoot at station four’s pull with the same determination you would shoot at the “high eight”! The technical rules do not force you to do this… Make it your own rules and you will not regret it! This target must be shot down with great quietness and precision within three and two meters before crossing the central stake! Do it!... If you become an enthusiastic user of the “pendulum movement”, there will no longer be any hope for the mark!

STATION FOUR REVERSE DOUBLE: Everything you have already learned regarding how to approach the double in station four, the same way you have strictly to apply to the station four reverse double. The only difference is that you must shoot first the low house target... And all your action must be performed in the area between the Low House and the central stake, according to Fig. A-1 here below. That’s all! It’s worth only to remind that a well trained use of your left hand and a well co-ordinated ’pendulum movement’ will easly drive you to your goal: two hit targets.

Fig. A-1

Note: Also in this case, in order to help you to get good results in a shorter time, exercise yourself as described here above in this chapter 10 but, perform your action according to fig. B-1 here below.

Fig. B-1

Key:

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Green ball: initial position of the barrel.

Blue balls: beginning and end of the “control zones” on the respective flight paths.

Green arrows: breadth of the “pendulum movement”.

Small gray arrow: shows position of the high four when shooting at the low four.

Tonino Blasi

To view a “video clip” regarding the “pendulum movement” at station four, go to: h t t p : / / w w w. i s s f n e w s . c o m / d o w n l o a d / station4doubles_5MB.zip

5,6,7, 8… 11 Cha p t e r

Stations Five and six… S TEP BY S TEP TO S UCCE S S : T H E A R T O F S K EET S H OOT I N G

he pictures in figures A and B are a graphic support which should help you to acquire a summarized notion of a correct, general approach and the technical actions to be performed at stations five and six. However, as for the real and actual shooting action, that must be performed at these stations, let’s think about the following: Those, who have studied the methodological way of “Step by Step” up to this point, know exactly, from an operational point of view, what has to be done and how to deal with these stations. The customary, step-by-step method of approach is used, which we have already described several times (see chapter nine, for example, under the paragraph: “Do we use our field of vision in the right way…”, points a, b and c). The detailed information, that you find with a stepby-step methodological approach to stations two, three and four with the goal of preparing for a correct shooting action, can also be applied in exactly the same way to stations five and six. That’s why we advise you to read chapters nine and ten again, in which you can find detailed information on all the important and useful characteristics needed to develop a correct action also at these two stations. We also think that the interpretation of the graphic code (grey ball, black ball, double black arrow, etc.) is familiar to everyone now and thus contributes to a fast understanding. A mere glance at the illustrations is enough to recall the necessary reference points for a correct approach to the shooting action. Figure A: Shooting scheme viewed from station five

Key: Grey ball: Starting point of the barrel. Black balls: Beginning and end of the “control zones” on the respective flight paths. Black arrows: Width of the “pendulum movement”. Small gray arrow: Shows the position of high five during the shot at low five. Be that as it may, we are going to point out several elements below which characterize these two stations: A A correct starting position enables the righthanded shooter to observe the target departure more easily from the moment it first emerges. Consequently, the problem of adjusting the face to the stock and barrel in the waiting position does not exist at all. (Chapter nine, under the paragraph: “What is the starting position?...”). For a right-handed shooter, this means, quite simply, that the shooting action is more harmonious, more fluid and more comfortable at these stations, at least theoretically. The same argument can naturally be made for left-handed shooters at stations two and three. B Another characteristic, we want to point out, is the observation that an “identical size of the lead” is assessed differently by a righthanded shooter (the same holds true for a left-handed shooter but in the reverse direction), depending on whether the target to shoot comes from the high house or the low house (we refer to shooters who use to shoot with both eyes open). A better explanation: Try to determine the visible lead for a high three and a low five with the help of the mathematical model in chapter five of “Step by Step”. Assume that both targets must be hit at 18 meters on their respective flight paths. The answer, by the lead calculation model, is: a visible lead of 0.91 meter for both targets. Consequently, both targets are hit with the same lead: 0.91 meter! However, if you ask shooters, who have an exact knowledge of the action they perform, for their assessment of the lead for these two targets, they will almost certainly answer that they feel they give a greater lead to the high three than to

the low five (left-handed shooters will answer: more to the low five than the high three)! This fact can be explained, if you take a closer look at the eyes position in relation to the barrel: for the shooting action to the high three, the right-handed shooter will find his leading (right) eye lined up to the rib during the control phase over the target. He will find also his left eye towards the part of the shootingrange zone, in which the target is flying at the time (high house – central stake). Even if the left eye is not the leading eye, it is instrumental in helping and sharpening the sight of the right eye. In addition, the left eye also supports a perfect three-dimensional view, through which the assessment of the target lead becomes clearer. Unfortunately, this does not occur in the case of low five. Here, your left eye is on the other side of the barrel with respect to the area, in which the shooting action must be completed (the half range between low house and central stake). The sight of your left eye is partly covered by your own barrel and therefore can no longer give the same contribution it delivered with such brilliance for the action to the high three. The overall view is different, the there-dimensional view of the target decreases, and above all, the sight of the right eye becomes fundamental and decisive. All this leads to a different assessment of the lead’s dimensions. You have the feeling that these dimensions shrink, since the contribution of binocular vision has decreased. Left-handed shooters naturally know how they must adapt these considerations to their personal condition. Figure B: Shooting scheme for station 6.

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Key: Grey ball: Starting position of the barrel. Black balls: Beginning and end of the “control zones” on the respective flight paths.

Fotos + Illustration: Tonino Blasi

But what is the practical meaning of all this…? Above all, this means to become conscious of the fact that the problem of a different view and a different assessment of the same size of the lead exists on the pull (high-house) and the mark (low-house) flight paths, and if we want to become accurate and ambitious shooters, we have to take a mental photograph of the lead for every target! At the very moment we lay foot on the station, we must immediately call to mind, apart from the other things we have to do, the associated picture of that station with the target we are going to call. It’s not enough to think, “for this target, I must have a lead of 91 centimeters”, if we have not associated these 91 centimeters with the concept we have internalized and imprinted in our mind of “this” size of 91 centimeters at “this” particular station and “this” particular target. STATION SEVEN We have very often witnessed discussions between shooters or the officials, who rule the world of shooting, on whether to maintain a “simple” station within the skeet course… as station seven is commonly rated… or not! This station is actually regarded more as a station with a rather undemanding technical content. That’s why its elimination in favor of the introduction of a new double at a station with greater technical content has been repeatedly discussed…(read station four “reverse double”!) We have always agreed to the introduction of a “reverse double” at station four and also wrote this down in “Step by Step”. However, we think that the two targets we need, for the introduction of this new double, could be much better acquired by eliminating two single targets at other stations (such as the single targets at low three and high five). Since we are accustomed to never underrating a target and even less a station, we will take a look at the pitfalls that are concealed behind the apparent simplicity of station seven! The first one is a snare with technical character and deals with the first of the two targets, the low seven. This target has an ascending flight path. It moves away from the shooter’s point of view, on a frontal flight path, perpendicular to the shooter’s chest, and needs a lead that must be absolutely respected! Very many shooters shoot “at the target”. This means, they set their sight on the target and fire. They do not notice that they hit the target with the upper, outer part of the shot pattern, which means with the more critical part of the shot pattern. Furthermore, a possible mistake of only several centimeters at the level of the muzzle increases to between 20 and 25 centimeters after 16 to 18 meters which is, normally, the impact point of the shot pattern on the target. If this mistake is made in such a way,

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that the shot pattern is directed towards the upper part of the target, everything has gone very well… but if this mistake shifts the shot pattern to the side of the target or even worse to the lower part of the target, a zero is as good as certain! Also, only a light gust of wind, that “rears up” the flight path of the target, is enough for the shot pattern to elude the impact point with the target, provided that the right lead has not been given to the target. The right lead for a target that is hit at 16 meters on its flight path is 15U centimeters (“U” means above the target). This is the result of the mathematical model (see annex to chapter five) and the practical evidence on the shooting range. With the right lead, the target is hit by the “heart of the shot pattern” and turns into black smoke! Naturally, to give the lead in this way, also means that the target is partly lost from sight at the moment the shot is fired because it is partly obscured to the sight by the barrel. That’s why a lot of shooters make due with hitting the target with the outer, upper part of the shot pattern and prefer to see the target while firing… and, obviously, risking everything that we mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph!

Figure C: Station seven. The second one is a snare of psychological nature. At important finals, in particular, station seven is reached under stress. The inevitable muscular and psychological tension, which gives rise to stressful situations, cannot always be controlled. The accumulated psychological tension from the previous stations leads to an unconscious drop of the attention level when walking onto a station that is considered to be “easy”. Furthermore, muscular tension, that is not well controlled, can produce vibrations that are passed on to the muzzle of the barrel and, consequently, are amplified along the flight path… getting unbelievable “missed”! This is how the mistakes developed which we already discussed further above. No one is spared of this special circumstance! There are many top shooters, who remember having missed a decisive low seven at least once in the course of their career, which was crucial for admission to a Final of a major international competition or which caused them to lose a competition. And thanks to such critical and unpredictable mistakes, one has been often determined to postpone proposals, early on in the testing phase, which were aimed at eliminating station seven from the skeet course.

STATION EIGHT As we have already mentioned in other series of “Step by Step”, it must be noted that station eight is no longer a problem for shooters of a higher level throughout the world. Nevertheless, we will also examine several ideas here to benefit those of you, for whom station eight still poses an unsolved technical problem, and in order to complete an informative account that we have given all other stations of the skeet course. This should help you acquire the confidence you need when you set foot on this attractive and spectacular station which is very popular among the spectators. Naturally, we are certain that everyone, who has had the patience and the interest to follow us through these eleven chapters of “Step by Step, feels more capable of being able to control the mounting action down to the last detail. You have perfect command of controlling and guiding the shotgun barrel with your “active and participating” left hand and have greater confidence in your own ability to control all the targets of the skeet course. The different concepts of the lead and the way to assess and achieve the lead are part of the package of useful knowledge and are used with naturalness and precision when walking onto a station at the beginning of a complete skeet course or when simply training at the station. The B shooting scheme, which has been pointed out several times since chapter two, has now become the basis of the technical package of these friends. The synchronism between the achievement of the lead and the triggering process are perfect! The determination of the “control zones” and the “pendulum movement” are the fundamental technical elements which the shooting action is based on. The extra-pyramidal system has been trained in the right way. The “automatic” performance of the various segments of the shooting action has been made possible with the help of the “over all control” of the brain, so that the entire movement is “controlled” and thus proceeds in the “desired” manner. Our loyal readers “feel”, in the end, that their mental times have been extended… that the targets are no longer uncontrollable “rockets” and that they are the ones, the shooters, the protagonists of the shooting action. They “perform the action”… and they no longer feel like victims of the psychological pressure that the target produced. Now and then, this pressure caused them a long moment of paralysis at first which directly thereafter resulted in an uncontrolled and uncontrollable reaction. This new consciousness of the technically prepared shooter leads to greater composure and clarity. It is the effect of being aware, that you well know what you are doing, and above all, that you know that you are capable of doing it well! If a major part of the acquired technical package is used at station eight, the action at this station will turn into a pure delight... ,

If we use the principle of the “control zone”, everything will be much easier… In photo A, the shooter has perceived the target. Starting from the waiting position, while mounting the stock, he begins to move the barrel’s muzzle on the flight path of the target to the beginning of the “control zone” (red line, about 10 meters away from the high house). Here, you can see that even though the target is still far away, the shooter has already begun, with great smoothness and precision, to “track” the flight path of the hardly visible, outgoing target with the muzzle of his barrel. In photo B, the shooter has almost finished mounting the stock and he is in the process of entering the “control zone”… The target has not yet entered the “control zone” but is no longer far away from it and from the barrel of the shooter. The shooter continues to move the barrel with his left hand, maintaining the same speed of the target, going before it, on its flight path, in a very soft manner. The mounting action is almost finished (photo C), and the target has already entered the “control zone”. It is under the full control of the shooter, who is going to end “his shooting action”, after he has aimed his barrel at the lead and controlled it with great smoothness and precision (between 15 and 20 centimeters lead, depending on the distance you plan to shoot at)… There is no escape for the target! A black cloud is there to bear witness to the great coordination and precision, with which the action has been completed (photo D).

We are dedicating an analogous series of picture without commentary to the low-eight station… With these pictures, we complete our trip through the technique of the fascinating world of skeet. Considering not only your comments posted in the “Step by step” forum, but also the numerous e-mails which we have received in private, we can confirm that all those who have followed “Step by Step” over this long period of time, find themselves again today with an expanded and reinforced technical package. The instruments to improve yourselves are now in your hands and your heads. Now, it is only a question of using these instruments in the best way possible using method and conviction. In the last chapter of “Step by Step”, we will handle several psychological aspects of the shooting sport and we will give practical tips on how to deal with them. We will obviously leave the task of working out the psychological problems related to shooting, in view of stricter and more precise professional consideration, up to the specialists.

H I G H EI GH T LOW EI GH T

Tonino Blasi ISSF NEWS

Preliminary remark… According to an analysis of various sport disciplines, psychologists rate clay targets shooting as a sport of great skill with high and complex technical attributes. Even active shooters often tend to ignore the second aspect: the high and complex technical attributes. But how can a shooter not be aware of the real technical value of the sport he practices?

12 Cha p t e r

is it only talent? Above all else, it is hard, continual and intelligent work… S TEP BY S TEP TO S UCCE S S : T H E A R T O F S K EET S H OOT I N G

ne of the possible explanations could be linked with the special feature that there are two completely different ways to shoot at a target: – The first is an almost “instinctive” and rough way, a so-called dilettant method of practicing the shooting sport. Even if it offers the opportunity to hit a lot of targets in some instances, it provides absolutely no certainty about also hitting… the next target! This, of course, can not be the shooting method of a shooter who has ambitions to become a topnotch shooter in competitions of international, world or Olympic level! In such a case and with such a shooting method, it would be out of place to speak of a shooting technique. You could, at most, speak of skill, instinct and natural ability … but not of much more. A good many shooters throughout the world shoot in this way… – The other way is characteristic of a shooter, who has made the goal of missing no targets one of his highest priorities! Quite obviously, skill, instinct and natural ability alone are not enough to reach this goal. In this particular case, it is necessary that the shooter be in the position to master a very demanding and optimally learned technique. At the same time, he must ask himself to bring forward the best of his thinking abilities and physical prepara-

tion. He can’t only act “instinctively”! Following this method, the “shooter” becomes “aware” that the entire shooting action must be prepared and “mastered” down to the smallest detail on the basis of strict, psychophysical coordination, so that the action, even after being repeated dozens of times, as it happens during a competition, is always carried out and completed successfully. The shooter must also be aware of the fact that his action is constantly carried out within a few tenths of a second all the time. This fact, however, does not “bother” him in the least, since he knows that it is one of the fundamental characteristics of the sport he practices. During his technical training, the shooter worked on this and succeeded to “expand his mental times” by transforming a few tenths of a second… into endless seconds! After an assessment from this point of view, it is clear that there are only a few sports that have similar features, whether related to speed, the complexity of performance and the unusal but required ability of the psychomotor coordination or the wearing repetition, which, even if it always varies from station to station, accompanies the athletes over the entire span of the competition.

{ PSYCHOLOGY } 32

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But is it only talent? Also, the general opinion of all people involved in shooting, spectators and the mass media, shows that they can not correctly assess how complicated this sport is, when a shooter wants to achieve performances of absolute high value. They continue to look upon “natural talent” as a fundamental aspect of this disicpline. As already mentioned, this is not enough for shooters with high standards and high goals… The shooters throughout the world (in reality, there are not so many…), who have grasped the fundamental meaning of a “technically ambitious and rational” preparation and who have managed to ‘successfully reproduce’ this technical action at every competition…, take the winner’s rostrum by storm each time and… feel no great necesssity for any supportive psychological preparation! Above all else, it is hard, continual and intelligent work… A great shooter continuously works to keep his technical level “consistently high” which, from an objective viewpoint, is not always easy to do. He anticipates the targets with the sure knowledge of how he can control them and that he can control them… As a rule, he has no moments of weakness. The consciousness of his own preparation can not be destabilized through doubt or through technical uncertainties. In other words, the shooter knows that he must always have a state of mind, with which he can keep his action, from a technical point of view, under complete control, especially when he hits the targets! He knows that if he does not constantly control his technique, a technical deterioration is inevitable and that it lasts a long time and becomes treacherous… and sooner or later, the moment comes, when his

{ CONTROL } performance is jeopardized! When this happens, the damage is already done. To get out of the situation again can take a long time and be very strenuous! The shooter, who is aware of the importance of constantly controlling his own technical condition, will be very attentive during his training times. His proof can not only be “how many targets have I hit?” but “how have I hit them?” with regard to the way he performs! As soon as a shooter, who is aware of the risks, notices an uncertain emotional condition about himself, he will use all his strength to understand with great prudence and equally great certainty the technical cause of his mistake. If he does not do this, the shooter knows that a shadow of doubt will begin to creep into his thoughts. This shadow is the weight of an unsolved problem, which, if not confronted with great responsibility and clarity, can become the cause and motive of an even greater uncertainty and inadequacy in the correct performance of his (your) own task. These are precisely the emotional conditions that hopelessly bring a shooter to miss! A prudent shooter will not restrict himself, as others normally do, to call the missed target again and hit it once, twice… or up to ten times and then believe the problem is solved. He will go further on but not at that moment! The prudent shooter will have the care to stop as soon as possible, … think, analyse and then plan his individual training sessions. He should do this alone so he will not bother others and will not be bothered by other shooters. He should also not set any time limit, so he can conduct substantiating controls on the reasons that are determining the problem. To devote attention to these special features means to be an intelligent and prepared shooter. A technically prepared shooter is “aware” of his abilities, and that is precisely “his strength”, his ‘self-confidence!... He waits calmly, with composure and a deep sense of pleasure for the moment he will set foot on the station… knowing with certainty, how he can stop the target’s flight… and that he will stop it for sure!

{ SELF-CONFIDENCE } A student, who knows that he is excellently prepared for a test, is in the same psychological condition. He will face the test with optimism, ease, certainty and with awareness of his abilities. He knows that success is certain for him through his substantial and complete preparation! However, it can also come to pass, that the same student, only a few days later, is faced with another test,

which he knows he is not well prepared for… and he changes beyond recognition, becoming uncertain and anxious… and there is no psychological help in the world that could help him overcome this “uneasy and uncertain state of mind… which stems from his own poor preparation! Panic, anxiety, uncertainty… certainty: What do these mean?... We now want to try to better understand the emotional or psychological conditions which can seize the mind of a shooter during a competition (normally, this never happens during training sessions). Let’s first take a look at how a dictionary explains these terms: A Panic: Reaction, that suddenly seizes the mind and body on the basis of a real or imaginary danger (situation), in that it takes away the reflex ability and drives one to uncontrollable actions. B Anxiety: Excitement caused by a “tormenting” uncertainty. C Uncertainty: Situation that gives an inadequate guarantee for success as a result of “a not well defined and/or not well learned problem-solving pattern.”

{

Be merciless with yourself when rating your technical level… it will help you! We now want to close this clarifying analysis of the existing relation between technical preparation and psychological stability. Absolute “certainty” is a mental state of mind, which we must enter, if we want to be shooters with consciousness of our abilities, and want to perform effectively. The shooter has confronted his problems, has solved them, has mastered the problem-solving pattern to perfection and will step onto the station with the awareness that he “controls the game” and that he has the technical abilities for it! The flying target exerts absolutely no psychological pressure on his action. For the shooter a flying target is merely a reference point and a signal to begin his shooting action. When you enter this “mental set-up”, it will, luckily for you, no longer allow much room for problems of a psychological nature. You must therefore be merciless with yourself, in order to realize your “true” technical level, without hiding anything and without fooling yourself. Ask an experieced shooter for a help, just in case you do not succeed by yourself. The result of this stern analysis will bring you to draw up a program to improve yourself.

MENTAL SET -UP

D Certainty: Positive state of mind free of real or imaginary dangers. When we analyse this realm of emotional conditions (panic, anxiety, uncertainty), the first grade of the scale is obviously uncertainty, which upgrowths with greater intensity into “anxiety” and then into “panic”. The definition of “uncertainty” is very clear in its meaning and equally characteristic in its consequence: “Situation that gives an inadequate guarantee for success as a result of “a not well defined and/or not well learned problem-solving pattern”. Therefore, as for definition, in our case, we are confronted with the problem of how a target is to be continuously and consistently hit. However if, we either have not managed to “define the problem well” and resolve it, or we have managed to solve the problem but not “mastered the problem-solving pattern”, in both cases we place ourselves in a state of “uncertainty” about the outcome of our action. If that condition continues to exist, can cause a state of “anxiety” and in extreme cases, a state of “panic”.

{ PROBLEM SOLVING pattern }

}

With what attitude do I approach a shooting station? A small example will help us explain this: The “data bank” of your training and competition scores (I hope all of you have a well organized “data bank” in your computer which is continuously updated and contains the training and competition scores station by station and target by target for at least two years) implies that your overall average of hit targets is 22.5 out of 25 this implies that you need to continue to work very hard on your shooting technique. If in a competition, you score 24 out of 25, it’s good but, do not immediately go around and explain to your friends the reason why you missed ‘this only one “stupid” target’… Keep it to yourself and ask yourself instead, what technical factor and what mental condition made it possible to hit 24 targets in view of your average score of 22.5 out of 25! These two attitudes are completely different: In the first case, you show that you are looking for “useless gratification” for the 24 you scored in the competition (poor mental state of mind… “I am worth something because I hit 24 targets), and in the second case, you show that you are “continually” focused on your technical improvement… This is far more ISSF NEWS

useful, and you also find yourself in a positive mental state of self-satisfaction (“I accomplished more than my technical level actually allowed for and I also understood the reason why! I enhance my personality and my ability to control myself through shooting and that is why I am satisfied!) When you manage to argue this way, your approach to a competition will be more correct and more carefree... You will not set foot on the station dreaming of “improbable triumphs”, only to experience the usual “bitter disappointments” almost every time. Instead, you will set a pleasant goal for yourself which your “data bank” will feed into your mind with great detachment and impartiality: 22.5?!

The analyis of these difficult cases gave rise to two fundamental facts: A That the shooter in question, though he theoretically has an optimal shooting technique, is no longer able to apply it correctly. B That his psychological abilities to remain focused in a “concentrated manner” on the essential and fundamental elements of his activitiy are strongly jeopardized and nearly impossible to maintain. His mind constantly strays, and the usual techniques, he uses to remain concentrated, no longer help him… In these cases, only the close cooperation

{ TECHNICAL ABILITIES }

Bet on it and try, if possible to improve it, if only by a half point!... Creating unrealistic expectations for yourself causes a state of anxiety, and we know how detrimental this emotional state is for our sport! Therefore, anticipate that you will miss an average of 2.5 targets during a competition! Do not be ‘surprised’ when the “zeros” come, and do not show any spectators, in a state of anger, your meager, strategic preparation. However be surprised, in a positive sense, when the anticipated “zeros”, that your attentive and impartial computer produced for you on the basis of your previous scores, do not come this time at the end of the competition.

It’s funny, but it’s easier to admit a mental weakness than a technical one… The more frequent reality, that we meet with on shooting ranges, is that the shooters are the most convinced followers of their own technical abilities (which are often somewhat moderate). This is probably because they manage to score a 25 from time to time and explain a poor score with an assumed “mental frailness”. Fortunately for them, this is not the case, as already mentioned. It remains a fact, however, that these shooters find it easier to give the explanation of their problem a psychological inference because they think it would per haps make the matter easier to resolve. This is not so. The “real” psychological problems of a shooter are much harder to solve! Avoid this pitfall yourself, since you otherwise will run the risk of turning a normal, technical problem into a non-existent, psychological problem. You absolutely need to fulfill your duty of an indepth, correct analysis in order to see where the real problem is! On the other hand, the real , important, complex and difficult psychological problems are totally different! These are problems that arise for some shooters who have perhaps already proven their very good technical level getting victories at important international competitions but who suddenly are no longer able to win! 34

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of the psychologist and trainer, each within his special areas of competence and with the complete willingness and cooperation of the interested shooter, can lead to the most desirous of all results: to help the shooter “pull himself out of the quagmire” in which he is stuck! In the quagmire…

Try hard to determine “where” your faults are… After everything we have written so far, you might think that we only attach relative importance to the correct psychological preparation in our sport and only in special cases. However, the very opposite is true. We only want to try and help the shooter avoid underestimating his own technical faults by thinking his problem is of a psychological nature. This aspect appears to us to be of great practical interest for shooters who are unable to give any continuity to their performance. The use of such logic can be very dangerous and can put you on the wrong track. The shooter continues to move farther away from his real problem which is to “correctly define his technical problem”, solve it and finally manage to master the “problem-solving pattern”. We do not want you to make the mistake of turning a problem, that has nothing to do with psychology but is basically only technical in nature, into a psychological problem causing, therefore, an unnecessary loss of time to all the people involved in! That would be the worst of all solutions. In order to remove any doubt about our position on this topic, we contend that we were among the first, in recent years, to come up with the notion and make it possible for several national federations, that we have worked with, to “constantly” take advantage of professional assistance through a specialist for sport psychology. We consider their work as helpful and will continue to support it under the following conditions:

A The first condition would be that the specialist in sport psychology also becomes a specialist in “shooting psychology”. Every serious professional psychologist knows, that in order to convey the right things to a shooter and to help him get the most out of his technical abilities, it is not enough to be specialised in “sport psychology” alone… He has to “know shooting” and live it side by side with the shooters and the ‘technical team”… He has to “understand” its peculiarities… the details… the characteristics… and not just the emotional conditions. Above all else, he has to be able to understand, while working closely with the trainer, the possible ‘technical faults’ of the shooter… In such a situation, a psychologist could effectively perform very useful work. At this point, we would like to remind you of an outstanding professional psychologist who through hard work and a number of personal sacrifices managed ‘to understand and penetrate the world of clay target (air rifle) shooting”. We shared together moments of success and valuable experiences of professional growth: Professor Alberto Cei. B The second condition would be that the presence of a “psychologist” on the team not becomes a flight for the shooter from his obligation of improving and perfecting himself from a technical point of view. One of our most frequent experiences on the shooting range is that shooters come to us with the following words: “I just can’t deliver the same performance in competition as I do in training… My average number of hit targets during a competition drops by at least one or two targets!” And finally, they say: “… it’s my mental game that I must work on!”. We can bet on it, that they would immediately run to a psychologist, if one were available, in that moment, on the range! We are convinced that these shooters, whose technical limits we know, do not, in nearly all cases, need to work on their mental games at all and also do not need any psychologists. More than anything else, however, they have to work with all humility, in order to recognise their own technical limits!... At least until they have pinpointed all their technical problems to systematise. Training and competition must be approached

{ TRAINING } with the same mentality and respecting the necessary time (about 25 minutes) requested by the round of a six shooters squad… It is necessary to remind these shooters that the existence of technical problems is often “disguised” by favourable conditions which, for instance, your own training place, where you practice alone or with nice friends,

can create. In such a case, we are only surrounded by “positive reference points”. We are not exposed to any stress… and our psychic condition is very favourable. We are in training, and missing a target does not have any practical consequences. “We are only… in training!” With this state of mind, supported by very favourable external and psychological situations, it is quite easy to “imagine” that everything is going well. In such a case, the only control for a shooter is whether or not he has hit the target… and not ‘how’, and a lot of targets can be hit under favourable conditions, far more than the objective technical level would otherwise allow! That means that under favourable conditions, we manage involuntarily to “disguise” our technical problems… But we have not solved them, we have only disguised them! And the moment we find ourselves in a competition, everything suddenly changes: the psychological tension for the beginning “competition”; the shooting ranges (even when they are the same, we “perceive” them differently); the team-mates (whom we do not choose but who are assigned to us, and perhaps our training partners are not very nice to us); the “values which we attribute to the missed target” (a target missed in training has no value whatsoever…but now it does! Now we are in com petition…in competition…in COMPETITION..! A missed target jeopardizes the COMPETITION…! The word “COMPETITION” pounds in our head!)… and right on time, the “dis-

{ COMPETITION} guised” technical problems are there again! These stressful conditions mercilessly bring out our old technical limits! We increasingly notice – consciously or unconsciously – their presence, and our “self-confidence feelings”, that is the basis of our performance, is immediately assailed… The consequence is that our performance becomes worse… and that is entirely normal so! If the problems of psychological uneasiness continue to exist after very focused and polished in-depth work on our technique (very rear cases), the help of a psychologist is important and can eliminate the problems. However, it is very difficult for a shooter to be able to objectively decide this on his own! We concluded the eleventh chapter with the statement that we would deal with several psychological aspects of shooting and also give several practical tips on how to deal with them in the last chapter of “Step by Step”. Let’s continue our work of dealing with the psychological aspects of shooting in a practical way. As you have already certainly noticed, the previously conducted analysis attempted to explain a very important practical aspect: This is, quite generalised, the state of confusion, during which you tend to attribute 35

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{ CONCENTRATION } the state to a psychological frailness, whose cause however are nothing more than simple or complex technical faults. As if by magic, this assumed, psychological frailness disappears or clearly weakens, however, if you only eliminate the technical faults. In all our years of training, we have experienced many such cases. About the meaning of being able to think right At the end of a theoretical and practical skeet seminar, one of the students came over to a group of shooting friends, who had just exchanged their final impressions and assessments on the new things they had learned during their past days together. With a smile and shining eyes, he said: “Before this seminar, I assumed a very concentrated facial expression while thinking during a competition. I did this more, however, to impress my opponents than for my own genuine necessity! In fact, I realised that I had thought of nothing at all!... And my thoughts were straying without control… and among the things that were buzzing around in my head was a thought that repeated itself: ‘Be careful that you do not miss. Otherwise you will lose the competition’…” That is how I forgot the essential element of our sport: the target! I replaced it with “the round” or, even worse, with “the COMPETITION”. Fortunately for me, although I still assume the same expression, I have now a technical picture that I can concentrate on… I have visualisations that I must recall and bring to life in my mind. All these things occupy my mind, so there is no room for distraction and deviation! I know that I have to be continually focused on the things to do… and there are a lot of things worth thinking about, so the time flies by… and before long, the time has already come for me to walk onto the station, and it is my turn to shoot.” Once more: A shooter produces with his own mentality and his own feelings both positive and negative key concepts in order to get off to a good start in the round: Good thoughts: • I have things that I will concentrate on. • I am thinking of the target. • I have visualisations that I must bring to life in my mind. • I am concentrated on the things to do. •The time is passing quickly, no room for distraction and deviation… and it is already my turn to shoot. Negative thoughts: • I acted as though I were concentrated in order to impress my opponents.

• I thought of absolutely nothing. • I strayed with my thoughts. • I said to myself: “Don’t miss the target!” • I thought of the outcome of the ROUND. • I thought of the final outcome of the COMPETITION. Learn to concentrate sooner… starting with training Let’s assume that we belong to the shooters with a normal behavioral pattern. With a neurotic behavioral pattern, according to its definition, a thought retards or even blocks an action in most cases. In such a case, a psychological aid is obviously obligatory. We would like to mention, however, that we have never before met a top-notch shooter who, from a strictly sportsmanlike viewpoint, demonstrtated neurotic behavioral patterns. The one condition obviously excludes the other! A shooter with a normal personality is aware of the importance of thought. He knows that he can get the most out of a given technique with the correct use of thought. He shows no insecurities whatsoever. He has great self esteem and a strong desire that it will soon be his turn to walk out onto the station and hit the targets! He is opimistic, easygoing, secure and aware of his technical abilities! That is the condition you should be in on the shooting range, whether you are about to start a training session or a competition. As long as you do not “feel” you are in such a condition, you should ask yourself why… and be honest about where your insecurities could still be hidden.… We will repeat again: As soon as we set foot on the shooting station, starting with the training sessions, we have the obligation to let an automatic mechanism come into force, a “routine”, that enables us to change from times of “concentration” to times of “relaxation”. This should give us a certain order, lend the previously mentioned behavioral pattern of our shooting friend a “ritual character” and create favorable conditions to use our abilities as best as possilbe. We would like to point out to you that there are a lot of books that deal with “concentration” and “relaxation” on a practical basis. Yoga, Zen, all Oriental philosophies and autogenous training are largely based on concentration and relaxation techniques. However, if you limit your curiosity to only one possible aid for clay target shooting… you will sever yourself from the notion of delving very deeply into the world of philosophy which is both complicated and attractive but superfluous for your needs as a shooter. The decision to go this roundabout way could take you very far off the beaten trail! You could open up new existential scenarios for your mind and ISSF NEWS

see many aspects of life with different eyes… including skeet shooting! That’s why it would be better to contact a sport psychologist. He has managed to get useful things for you in your case out of these volumes and limits himself to giving practical tips on how to very concretely develop and train your abilities to concentrate and relax. He will sort these things out, according to your real needs, without exaggerating or making something worse, and only to the extent that it is really necessary. Bear in mind, for example, that you have to become accustomed to doing the right things for 25 minutes during a skeet round. This important point alone should make you think about the fact that “psychophysical resistance” and changing from concentration to relaxation also have to be trained over this period of 25 minutes. You have to be convinced of the fact that this is the very thing you have to do also in training, if you want to come to the point that it will also flow into your technical potential. If you do not train your mind to the same extent as your technique, you will not be able to alternately relax and concentrate during these 25 minutes, let alone during the rounds of a competition. It would be senseless to complain afterwards… We are now going to analyze the time of a skeet round for a single shooter: During the entire skeet round, a shooter is “on standby” for about 21 minutes and he is “active on the station” for four minutes and 40 seconds. Let’s transfer these times to a single station. Our shooter is on standby for about two minutes and 40 seconds and in action on the station for about 35 seconds. We are dealing here with seemingly short periods of time. In reality, however, these are the times, which, depending on how they are managed by the shooter, can partially or fully determine your scores, in line or not in line with your own technical level. Let’s first take a look at what our reason and the psychologist advise us not to do during the waiting times before the round starts and during the round itself: – To attach too much importance to the things we have to do. We are only practicing a sport, even if it is a high-level sport. Our life does not depend on it and neither does our love or our honor. It is only a sport. – To view the mistakes we make too critically. The mistakes we have already made belong

to the “past”, and we’ll analyze and correct them in the “future”. We no longer have any power over them. We do have the obligation, however, to keep them from influencing our “present situation”. – To be in a rush! A round lasts about 25 minutes. Acting too hastily is an expression of excessive tension combined with a manifest

{ EXPLOSIVE MANNER } anxiety about the outcome. The outcome will turn out the way we construe it, namely now, in a patient manner, and from moment to moment. – To fear defeat. Defeat is not a punishment but rather a possible occurrence on the road to success… Success is a journey, not an end station! – To be interested in the fate of your opponent. In shooting, there are no opponents. Each shooter has to find his own answer to what he is able or unable do. – To think about the outcome of the “shooting round” or even worse about the outcome of the entire “competition”. You are shooting at a target! You cannot shoot at a “round” or at a “competition”. Not even the best of shooters can wager on the outcome of an entire round, let alone an entire competition. However, they can always bet on hitting a “single target”. – To let your thoughts roam without control. When this happens, the target, which is the vital subject of our sport discipline, will escape our mind. To prevent these things, that we should not do, from insidiously creeping into our mind, we must fill our waiting times between stations with “useful thoughts and behavioral patterns”. What we suggest you do are only possible “routine” actions recommended by psychological shooting experts. These routine actions have the advantage of having already been tried out by other shooters and they have been rated as a good aid in supporting their phases of “relaxation” and “concentration”. Of course, changes of this basic pattern to suit your personality are both possible and desirable. In any case, however, the outcome must be “to force yourself to think right” during the two-minute and 40-second break between one action on the station and the next one. Let’s get accustomed to using these waiting times for two important phases:

{ RELAX } 36

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Relaxation: We have just completed our action on the station. We consumed psychophysical energies in an “explosive manner”. We have to regain these through a phase of relaxation. Now it would be of immediate necessity “to empty the mind completely” for the duration of a few tenths of a second. This state can only be achieved with the help and assistance of a psychologist in about eight weeks of sessions. The goal is to take your mind off shooting as much as possible for several moments and to ease the tensions associated with it. These routine actions also function well alternatively: 1. Count 10 very long steps with your eyes lowered. 2. Take three deep breaths and concentrate on the sound of air flowing in and out of your lungs. 3. Count 10 steps two times and slowly synchronize them with your breathing rhythm. 4. Imagine an impressive scene which makes you cheerful (a scene already experienced which impressed you) Total relaxation

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20” 80”

Concentration: We have managed to release our thoughts from shooting and all its consequences for over one minute. We thought of nothing other than the things recommended for our relaxation routine and we stay “focused” on them alone. If we did not accomplish this, it means that we have not adequately trained the correct way of doing it. We then must further intensify our efforts. Until we are able to do this, other thoughts can enter our mind and hinder our performance. The time has now come to devote our attention to the most important phase of “concentration” before walking onto the station. 1. We have to come out of the psychic phase again, in which everything is directed inward (our attention is directed to the sound of our breathing, to our mental counting and our lowered eyes to isolate ourselves from external incidents), and we have to enter into the shooting world again. We have to regain our physical sensations and do this by looking up and rapidly blinking our eyes and by standing on the our tiptoes several times while pressing the pistol grip of the shaft with great determination. You can do all of this simultaneously while approaching “your” next station. 15” 2. Select two cartridges and carefully examine their cases. Admire their quality, strength and reliability which will help you acquire your winning action. 10” 3. Visualize the flying target and your shooting action in your mind. This action must contain everything you know and have mastered on your shooting technique. Visualization means to live through your action mentally. It means ISSF NEWS

to think with your mind and your body and to perceive your muscles, your arms, your left hand and the index finger of your right hand which move rhythmically, elegantly and harmoniously in coordination with each other. 20” 4. There is still about half a minute left before it’s your turn to shoot. Remain calm, since calmness is a virtue of the strong! Now look at the targets that are really flying. Visualize the action you will perform on the targets down to the last detail. Perform it on all the targets you see flying from now on, both on the single targets as well the doubles, as though you were already on the station. The moment is approaching, when you will be the active protagonist, you, and not the target… The fate of the target is already sealed! 25” 5. There are only several seconds to go before you will walk onto the station. Adjust your sunglasses and cap and dry your hands… The station is free. It’s your turn… 10” Total concentration

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The action on the station: Walk onto the station and “take possession” of it! You must consider it as “your station”. You have to feel your feet standing firmly on the station! Focus your sight and attention sensibly and coolly at the “control zone” and

{ STEP BY STEP } visualize the target that is flying in your reassuring control zone”. Insert one or two cartridges carefully into the shotgun. Breathe deeply while you close your shotgun and assume the correct starting position with a relaxed musculature. After breathing out half way, call the target and hold your breath until the shooting action is completed. The target appearence is only a signal for you to start your action… and your action is the application of the entire technique that you yourself have developed! Remain calm, concentrate and repeat the same “routine actions” with the same “ritual” for the other targets on the station, no matter what the result of the previous targets was! 35” After the eighth station, the round is completed. You now have to relax and mentally refrain from your previous activities as much as possible. Refuse making any positive or negative comments about the round you have just ended. Avoid analyzing any missed targets in the competition until it has ended. Until you are assigned as a side referee, look for a comfortable place, where you can relax with your eyes closed for a quarter of an hour… Drink something slowly, if you feel it is necessary. Now you are ready to enter your world of shooting again. If anything from the previous round was not clear to you, now is the time to discuss it with your coach… but only in a relaxed manner. 37

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REALISATION OF A DREAM

What should you do from one series until the next?... Do not become pent up but simply try to be as normal as possible… Avoid hot discussions… Maintain your cheerfulness… Avoid talking to others about shooting and missed targets… Relax, listen to your favourite music, read, eat… Consume mineral salts, if you have sweated! Twenty minutes before the next round, do some “light stretching” in order to activate your muscles. Perform several stockmounting exercises on the appointed training range, just the way you are used to doing from the lines on your mini training place. Ten minutes before you walk onto the station, carry everything you need to the shooting range of your next round. Sit down and make yourself comfortable and observe the targets… They will not always be the way you want to have them… Perhaps they will be higher or lower… Observe them, but do not let yourself be influenced! You have to shoot at these targets, and you have no other choice but to hit them! You mastered your technique to the point that it enables you to achieve a lead on the target, whether it is flying high or or low, while guiding the barrel with your left hand! That is one of the strengths of your way of shooting! While you are waiting for your turn, simulate several “actions” mentally. Apropos physical preparation… When using the same shooting technique, the person who wins is the one who has better physical training and better athletic endurance… Training should be on-going and a part of the your lifestyle. Physical activities, such as swimming, running or callisthenics help you increase your aerobic abilities and strengthen your musculature. Practice these activities two to three times a week between 60 and 80 minutes each. To end up… In conclusion to our journey, we would like to tell you of a journey by the American author, Robert M. Pirsig, written in his novel, “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”). The title of the book may seem somewhat eccentric, but its content is rich in enlightening aspects. The protagonist of the story mounts his beloved, old motorcycle one summer morning with his 11-years-old son seated behind him and a couple of friends driving next to him on another motorcycle. They embark on their jouney with a greater desire to simply travel than to reach some pre-determined destination. From the very beginning, everything intermixes, a constantly changing of landscape,

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swamps, prairies, forests and canyons… Memories flooding in the individual minds and the tenacious grid of thoughts thickens around the protagonists. The friend stops because he has a breakdown. He curses and does not know what he should do. He becomes angry and kicks the motorcycle. The narrator wonders what makes motorcyclists, who have some understanding of the motor, different from those who do not know how it functions. Wich measures shall a person take for the maintanence of his own motorcycle? The exciting plot of the entire book is built on this metaphoric expression with indepth digressions about what technology actually means. Why can it evoke anger? What does Quality mean? Why can’t we live without Quality? I think that everyone who has had the patience to accompany us on our long journey through “Step by Step” will recognise himself in this story. You have understood how important it is to become acquainted with your “own motorcycle”. That means to know yourself as well as the art of skeet shooting. You have recognized Quality as an indispensable reference point for your refined action. You have learned that you may not make any compromises in your technical, physical and psychological preparations and that these must always be of a high qualitative standard. We are now almost at the very end of our jouney, and the American author, Pirsig, comes into my mind again, when he says: “The Godly” dwells in a chip card of a computer or in the gear box of a motorcycle, with the same ease as on the peak of a mountain or in the blossoms of a flower…” It comes to us spontaneously to add in a humbly way: “The Godly also dwells in the elegant gesture of transforming a target into dust, when it is the last thing that separates you from the realisation of a dream!” Tonino Blasi

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