CLAYTARGET NATION

CLAYTARGET-NATION – 2021 August I’ve always been a proponent of the wholebody swing from the ankles up. This keeps the shoulder, head, and arms as a stationary unit moving to the target by moving the body as a whole. Paul Giambrone III agrees. He also believes in letting the shot develop without measuring the lead. Sharp focus on the target is next. For some targets that’s as soon as the targets appears for others it may only happen as they approach the break zone. Trust your shot and don’t check or measure leads. Focus on the target and let the shot happen. Trust the process and yourself. Gil and Vicki Ash have a contrasting view of body movement when clay target shooting this month. I’ve always believed and taught students to move from the ankles up regardless of the clay target discipline. This is a more athletic move in the same way you hit a golf or tennis ball. I’m going to comment on what I agree with and leave out the rest. The Ash’s like a forward lean with weight on the lead foot. Also, elbows at 45o angle to the gun. Hands closer together on the gun for tower shots is also recommended. Nothing I disagree with. Interestingly they agree with Don Currie about targets below your feet. They all agree, feet close together as well as the hands, butt out, and lean forward. The first article I ever read on shooting said the exact opposite. Don talks about reaching down to pick something up using your normal shooting stance and how uncomfortable it is. When I reach for something on the ground, I put all my weight on my left leg and I thrust out my right leg behind me. This was the advice I remember reading about for rabbits under my feet. Put all your weight on your lead leg, leave your trailing leg stretched out behind you, to the point you are on your toes of the trailing leg, and lean forward into the

target. Finally, Gil and Vicki advise against a full body swing from shooters over 65, since we are not ballerinas anymore and can’t handle 14 such an active sport as clay target shooting.

They actually advocate moving more from your hands and arms. Sorry, I will continue to shoot the way you should with a full body swing. My ballerina days may be behind me, but I can still move from the ankles up to swing onto a target.

John Shima speaks to shooters who aren’t satisfied with their shots unless they are perfect breaks this month. Hitting the target versus shooting the target is the point. The first is conscious the other is controlled by the subconscious. Consciously hitting a target is more mentally taxing than shooting a target. John believes a shooter who concentrates on good precision (repeatability) in their shooting is at an advantage over the shooter going for accuracy (the perfect break). Practice for repeatability over the perfect break and you will be more successful in the long run. Striving for accuracy is an activity of the conscious mind and as we all know, the conscious mind isn’t helpful when breaking a target. Let go of the result of a shot and watch it break. Concentrate on the process of shooting and stop concentrating on the result. Perfect the process and the results will take care of themselves.

When you reach a plateau, ask yourself, what’s holding you back? Gil and Vicki Ash ask this question, then provide advice on how to advance past your current plateau. Visualization of each shot so it becomes imprinted in your longterm memory is their standard mantra and it is repeated again in this article. They’re not wrong. Visualization of a successful shot is something you may be doing already, just on a subconscious level before each shot. Otherwise, how would you be as successful as you are? We build skills “through repetition with prediction and execution”. All based on your prediction of how the shot will come together in the break zone. Visualization first, then prediction, then execution. Bill Miller inter views some of the top shooters this month on the Champion Mindset. Describing his mental game, Derrick Mein states foremost he has no fear of failure and he always goes in confident and is always ner vous but he uses that energy to focus on the process of breaking targets. How does Derrick prepare for a big tournament? He spends time on “corporate level’ targets with an emphasis on his fundamentals as he breaks them. This would be Whitetail at South Florida Shooting Club or Red Course targets at Quail Creek. Gebben Miles admits to using visualization to prepare for big tournaments and using

his excitement about a big tournament to build his confidence and focus. Desirae Edmunds relies on consistency, the same ammo, eating at the same time, etcetera as part of her mental game. She uses side events to prepare for the main. She has a pre-station routine as well as a pre-shot routine. She emphasizes looking hard at the target and trusting her focus on the target. She likes the pressure of big shoots and believes it helps her focus more effectively than at smaller shoots.