Magazine Review ClayShootingUSA – 2021 March/April In my experience as a coach, when someone is riding a target they have serious underlying reasons for doing it. Usually, it means they are looking down the rib at the bead and aiming at the target rather than pointing at it. Bill Elliott doesn’t really address the problem of riding a target yet speaks about it at length. He believes the Mount, Move, and Shoot approach some shooters use make them look like they are riding the target. First this is wrong on so many levels I don’t have enough room to explain it. Perhaps he’s suggesting that new shooters mount the gun, then start to move to the target which may appear to some the shooter is riding a target. Here’s the deal, if your friends are saying you’re riding targets, you need to get help f rom an instructor. Enough on riding the target. Mr. Elliott next advises on dropping targets. I like his advice on inserting in front of a dropping target then using pull-away. I don’t agree with using maintained lead as he suggests. Dropping targets are accelerating as they drop. Pull-ahead is the only method you can use to get a feel for a
dropping target’s speed to gauge the lead. Just my opinion. On crossing targets he has little to say other than watch the target and create a plan. John Shima concentrates on the visual Crossover Phenomenon this month. There are situations where your visual field is conflicted. For a right-handed, right-eyed shooter the barrels interfere with the sight picture when a target comes from left-to-right, especially on an incoming, crossing target. The non-shooting eye picks up the barrels and the shooting eye is somewhat blocked by the barrels. This isn’t such a problem from the low-gun position. It defeats the crossover phenomenon. Even a soft mount where the eye starts above the barrels in a head up position improves your chances of beating the crossover problem. Sifting through all the science and references John uses to support his suggestions, here are some ideas to take home from this article. Between stations or fields visually focus on distant objects. Distance viewing is more relaxing for your eye than focusing on near objects. Before each shot, settle your eyes in expanded soft focus and shift your attention to visually picking up the target. It’s one thing to stare off into soft focus without any conscious effort and totally different to shift to the attentive anticipation of picking up the target. Finally, continual focus on the target prevents our conscious mind from interfering with the shot. Perfect focus on the target prevents peaking at the bead, measuring lead, and a host of other problems you can create for yourself. The more you allow yourself to focus on the target and the task of breaking it the closer you will get to being in the zone and having a true flow experience. Watch the target break. 8
