CLAYTARGET NATION

CLAYTARGET NATION – 2021 June Paul Giambrone III addresses one critical area of technique this month, grip on the forend. Now, if you’ve ever seen Paul grip a forend you may wonder how he can give advice on it. He is however a product of his youth. When he was young, I have no doubt he held the forend this way because it was the most comfortable way to hold it, which also explains why he swings off his heels. If you didn’t know, many youth shooters stretch their ar ms way out to the end of the forend and lean back to comfortably hold the shotgun up. It’s a strength issue. The weight of the shotgun forces this on these shooters and I suspect Paul was one of those young shooters learning this way. Needless to say it works for the multi-time World Skeet Champion. This is not how he sug gests holding the shotgun. He only says he prefers holding “further down the forend” rather than in the middle as most shooter do. He advises against holding too near the receiver as it encourages ar m swing-

He thinks all five fingers should be engaged with the forend. I again agree, but for me who grew up shooting a Model 12 pump, it was a matter of pumping a second or third shell into the chamber when I was hunting. You need all five fingers engaged with the forend to do this properly. I doubt he ever saw Dan Bonillas shoot. Dan curled his pinky and ring finger under the forend. Paul doesn’t like this. To each his own. The grip should be light yet fir m. No tension in your ar ms or shoulders. Like a golf club or tennis racket, a shotgun is a piece of sporting equipment and should be handled the same way, soft yet fir m on contact. The advice on gripping golf clubs and tennis rackets applies nicely to shooting. I think it was Sam Snead who said: “You should be holding the golf club with the same pressure you would hold a small bird.” Fir m, yet loose and relaxed. Same is tr ue of a tennis racket or shotgun. On contact is the only time you tighten your grip to guide the ball to your intended target. As Paul says, swing “fluidly and smoothly”.

Gil and Vicki Ash discuss how physical (visual) problems are sometimes the issue with shooters when they cannot selfdiagnose a problem. Their example for right -handed shooters is the exact opposite of what I experience, so I cannot even begin to analyze what they are saying. Suffice it to say, if a certain presentation is giving you a problem, seek out a coach who is strong on diagnosing problems. You can’t expect a coach to diagnose a problem without seeing you shoot and ever y shooter is different. There are no generic diagnoses.

_________________________________ What is a post-shot routine? Ever ything that happens after an shot up until the preshot for the next target starts. Bill Miller inter viewed shooters about their post-shot routine. Here are the highlights. Dominic Gross replays how he used his eyes after each shot then if he misses he re-evaluates his approach searching for cor rections if needed. Haylyn Hanks evaluates how it looked and how it felt. She does this after the Station is complete. Her evaluation includes quer ying herself as to whether the targets were clearer in her vision as she progressed through the

Station or did she let up and lose visual clarity.

Also, she looks back on the feel for the targets. Did the targets break in flow with the shot or did she worr y whether she would break them? This is a mental and fundamental check as the event progresses. Like a kick in the pants to pay more attention or stay in the relaxed

“Zone” state. Will Fennell is also all about his visual focus on the target.

Did he see it clearly as he broke it.

Again, a mental check to see how his focus is working.

How do we become more comfortable with competition? John Shima gives his advice on the subject this month. John reviews how we must be able to switch ourselves on to shoot our best. This means tr usting our sub-conscious and focusing our conscious on seeing the target. How we wake ourselves up to switch into competitive mode is something ever y shooter must learn for themselves. Myself it is controlling my breathing and building a rhythm to it, so it is insync with my shooting. Some people have a catch-phrase “head-down”, “see the target”, etcetera. To each his own. To build competitive experience, tr y creating friendly competitions between your shooting partners as you practice. This is a separate practice, a separate type of deliberate practice, not intended to replace working on fundamentals. Enter as many kinds of competitions as you can. A trapshooter can enter sporting clays and skeet events to place themselves in pressure situations and sporting and skeet shooters can do the same. For sporting shooters I recommend shooting as many charity events as possible in the early stages of your competitive career. These are shoots where perfection is expected and the pressure is to shoot a perfect or near perfect score. The next stage for all shooters is entering as many competitive events in their discipline as possible. The goal is to shoot the target without the mental distractions of the outside world. Watch the target appear, focus on it, and execute your shot without conscious thought. Again, breaking a target perfectly is the goal, not winning. If you break each target as perfectly as you can, winning will follow. Process, process, process, watch the target break.