December 28th 2:00 PM
The Free Clinic has returned and will vary each month as to the day it will be held. This month it will be on December 28th. Price is $22.63 for a practice round ticket and a box of shells. Price is reduced if you bring your own shells.
Attendance on Mondays continues to be well attended by 12-15 students. We are still getting 5-8 on the advanced field and 7-12 on the beginner field. If you are interested in Youth coaching or just getting experience as a coach, come and see us on a Monday night and get the paperwork started.
Registered Trapshooting has returned to South Florida Shooting Club. Their first event will be held on December 29th. Hope to see you there.
The last Sporting Clays Tournament saw 56 shooters in attendance. Congratulations to Luis Herrara and Rodrigo Mehich for the high scores of 91 and 90.
Trap soared last month with 29 shooters attending and 4,200 targets thrown. The skeet shoot was attended by three shooters who shot 400 targets.
I’m planning on doing a Doubles Clinic and Ladies Clinic in January. If you are interested send me an email.
See you at the club.
Joe Loitz 954-857-5278 jloit@bellsouth.net
CLAYTARGET-NATION
December2024
“All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure”.
MarkTwain
Confidence is an elusive quality in sports. Some are born with it, some grow it, and for some it’s lost at the first sign of stress. John Shima’s philoso-
each target. Many never invest the timetorealizethis level ofskill. The pressure of a major competition like a state, zone, or national competition disappears when you accept one simple fact, performing perfectly is your only chance of competing at that level. Concentrate on the process and breaking the targets perfectly eliminates the need to think about score or
phy on confidence is similar to the one I used during my salad days in the 70’s and 80’s. Concentrate on the process, shooting one target at a time. Add to this the desire to break each target perfectly. Sadly, this takes a thorough knowledge of your sport and a trained ability to know how to perfectly break
what your competition is doing. Near perfect or perfect scores are required to get to the shooto6s. It’s too late to worry about score. Trust the process and let the score happen. It’s the only thingunder yourcontrol.
Developing self-discipline to control your behavior is John’s solution toconfidence. Use your self-discipline to implement your pre-station and pre-shot routine to “achieve optimal target acquisition”. In the final analysis, visual target acquisition is the most important aspect of successful shotgunning. Pre-station and pre -shot routines along with stance, barrel control, and optimized hold and look
points all set up the visual target acquisition needed for a perfect sight picture.
John believes developing your selfdiscipline is the nexus tying everything. Trust the process. Reset if the process is interrupted. Follow the routine and concentrate on breaking one target at a time. Any break in the routine brings doubts to the forefront of your mind and interferes with target acquisition. Reset. When you’re in the box, station, post, the world stops and you own the moment. Selfdiscipline is all you have. Use it. Don’t tell yourself, “It’s alright, I don’t need to reset.” Yes you do! Reset and stay in the rhythm of your shot. Your swing starts with your pre-shot routine. It’s all part of the rhythm of your swing andshot.
crossingtargets you can expect.
Anthony Matarese, Jr.’s article is a good companion piece to John Shima’s. Anthony discusses his preparation for tournament shooting. Don’t practice only the extreme targets you think you might see, practice the bread and butter targets seen in most events. These
targets build confidence. Practicing only the most di6icult presentations may leave you discouraged. You want to pump up your confidence not lower it. Pay attention to the 35-45 yard
Part of your preparation is sticking with good routines concerning your sleep and diet. Plan your day from waking up to driving to the shoot and have all your equipment in order before you leave. Get to the event early, keeping anxiety to a minimum. You have enough just dealing with the targets in the event. Most pundits advise getting to your starting trap or station 20-30 minutes before your shooting time. This allows time for observ-
ing the targets and how they react to the weather, visual issues with the background, choice of glasses, etcetera.
Allow time in your schedule If you’re going to shoot warm-up targets. Again, get you to your trap or station with the least amount of time anxiety as possible. Anthony advises shooting Preliminary events to warm up under competition conditions. I’d shoot the unregistered 100 target events at the Tipp City gun club on Thursdays and Fridays at the Grand American in Vandalia. I usually squadded in the 600’s so I would be shooting in the mid to late afternoon. Shooting Tipp City in the morning got me thoroughly warmed up for the Preliminary and Grand American Handicap events. I shot my best scores on the days I warmedupatTipp City. All these preparation routines are designed to “eliminate doubt and unnecessary thoughts that would distract from the job” according to Anthony. He’s right on point. Your only concern should be being fully vested inshooting your best.
George Digweed follows the first two articles with his take on preparing for major competitions. He doesn’t shoot many practice targets. He admits, most of his learning (98%) comes from competitions. George plans his year around the major competitions then builds up to those events through local competitions a month before each Ma-
month before a major event and expect to do well. The goal is to build your confidence gradually leading up to a major. Once he does enter a major shoot, he’s there to compete, he’s not there for theshow.
jor. He approaches the local competitions in a more relaxed manner than he would a major event, working on moving the gun well, getting his timing together.
He feels you can’t stay on edge for a
During major shoots he gets lots of sleep, up to 14 hours a night! George also regulates his food intake. He doesn’t eat until after he shoots in the belief that digestion slows him down. Maybe being hungry coincides with his hunger to win. Fluid intake is a vital aspect of preparation
for Georges’ day. He drinks orange juice before starting the competition for electrolytes and sugar, but switches to water once the competition begins.
ClayShootingUSA – November/ December2024
John Shima’s article this month is very similar to the CLAYTARGET-NATION article with a nice twist at the end. He breaks the shot into a prey/predator relationship. Skip that. The good stu6 comes at the end of the article where
he discusses the stages of the shot. The first stage is the pre-shot routine and entering soft focus in preparation
for acquiring the target. This is the prey phase of shooting, watching the targetpass from softtohard focus. Quiet your mind and send your vision into soft focus in the prey phase. When the target emerges transition into allow your eyes to transition into hard focus. Acquiring hard focus too early compromises the subconscious’ ability to determine distance, speed, and trajectory of the target. Track the target visually and as it comes into hard focus transition into predator mode. Then and only then is hard focus concentrated on the target. John calls this hyper-focusing on the target.
John defines an interval between reaching hyper-focus and firing the shot as the focus-fire gap. Hyper-focus occurs instantaneously just before firing the shot. Any loss of focus on the target prevents hyper-focus and will a6ect your swing. Shifting focus o6 the target and into the gap between the target and your barrels will cause your swing to slow or stop. Shifting focus to the barrels will also cause the barrels to slow or your swingto stop. You’re nowleftwithashot behind the target, a flinch, or a forced recovery shot. John finally suggests managing your intention before each shot. Stick with your process and concentrate on visual focus on the target throughout theswing.
ROYAL SPORTING ARMS
located at 1059 NW 31st Avenue, BLDG H, Pompano Beach, FL 33069. We are open year round to serve you at our FL Location.
Here at Royal Sporting Arms we are excited to help you with your next gun purchase.
We carry new and used Beretta, Perazzi, Rizzini, Krieghoff, Blaser, Syren, Fabarm, Caesar Guerini.
We are a full service shop, offering Fine guns, Ammo, stocks, over and under Barrels, gunsmithing, Gunstock work, recoil pads etc
We'll Pay TOP DOLLAR for your used guns and also take firearms on trade / consignment! We are excited to see and work with you! Please contact our team to make an appointment or to stop in!
Saturday,January4th
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50targets12gauge
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$22each50targets
Miramar National Guard Armory December 28-29th
Skeet
Trail Glades December 21st
Markham January 7th
Trap
Trail Glades December 21st
Markham December 22nd
Gulf Coast January 5th
Palm Beach January 11th
Sporting Clays
Markham December 22nd
OK Corral December 28th
Vero Beach December 29th
Gulf Coast January 4th
South Florida January 11th
Quail Creek January 19th
Tuesday9-4:00 Thursday10-3:00 Thurs.Night6-9:00 Saturday9-4:00 Sunday9-4:00
