Bringing the Mental Game into your shooting can make a tremendous difference. For each of us, more consistency and higher scores are absolutely doable. Nothing mysterious or complicated is required, just a few basic understandings of where to step, and where not to step in your shooting. The adjustments are simple in nature and ask you to reconsider your current approach to shooting. Adding the recommended changes will, I assure you, prove immensely rewarding…in the shooting box and on your scorecard.
Assembling and then putting precision into our swing…reducing Random Gun Movement (RGM)…is a high priority on our to-do list. Those set-up and swing basics should come on board early so the various shooting “methods” can then be added and applied. Correctly. Folks, this is the strategy…your new swing putting more Xs into your game. Dependably. Without this foundation, over and over again, burdened with RGM, our shooter is using an inconsistent set-up and swing. Xs will likely happen sometimes, but never consistently. Clean up to aisle One, please.
Here’s how the Mental Game can increase your X count, both in focused practice and competition.
Chambers loaded. PULL. OO. Hopefully, you know how to self-correct?
Truth is, you are going to miss. You are. Wait…wait…here’s the good news. So does everyone else. No exceptions. Not me, not you, not a single Big Dawg shooter anywhere. No one. We’re all going to miss. Welcome to our group. So…no more “self-blaming,” OK? Count on it, that negative reaction will be costly on your next swing. Here’s a better mental approach to every miss.
Missing isn’t the problem…
Finding and correcting the miss is the problem.
Two Mental Game FACTS worth remembering: 1) Skill improvement is a journey, an ongoing process, not an event. An event being a missed target, which will happen. When it does, accept the miss. Over and done, it’s history. Fussing over it won’t change it. Mentally, let go of the miss. 2) Every single missed target is an “opportunity” to learn what went wrong in the shooting box. After a miss, there’s a very brief, hugely advantageous opportunity to stop, review and find the set-up and/or swing error. To first (and most importantly) forgive the miss…then examine, evaluate and improve your next swing. Right on schedule, more X’s by not succumbing to all the negativity and losing the opportunity. If we cave and react negatively: OOXOOXOO. Or, take advantage of the opportunity, forgive the miss, evaluate and adjust: OXXXXXXX. My point being…to correct your swing mistake and break the next six targets, don’t let your emotions overrule your better judgment and rob you of the opportunity. Taking advantage of that opportunity is a Mental Game adjustment…a good lesson learned…that will immediately move you closer to your improvement goals and raise your scores. Today, tomorrow and every day after.
We are not defined by our mistakes.
We improve by learning from our mistakes.
Let’s continue this theme…keeping our improvement goal uppermost in our mind. Two words here…our ”intentions” and our “attention.”
Understandably, we all want to break more targets. Without question, an admirable, worthwhile intention. For 108 perfectly good reasons. Kind of obvious, yes? That's everyone’s goal. So far, so good.
Here are 4 questions:
1) When the trigger is pulled and the shotstring leaves the muzzle by 1,000th of an inch, how much “control” do you have over the shotstring now? None. Zero. Your control over what happens now has officially ended.
2) Which asks…what is it that you can control? The ONLY thing you can control…which takes place inside the shooting box “before” the trigger is pulled…is the movement of your gun. Swing management.
3) With the very best intentions, during the swing, was your attention “out there” trying to break the target downrange…where you have no control?
4) If yes…who was guiding the gun, back here in the shooting box?
Instead…every shell, and every target…if you move your attention to building a more precise swing…which you can control…your “guided” shotstring will find that target and break it. And not just sometimes. XXXXXX.
Understandably, many shooters
let their “intentions” guide their gun.
Whereas good shooters,
target after target,
very deliberately focus their “attention”
on guiding their swing.
So I’m not misunderstood here, please, I’m not advocating “aiming” our shotgun. The question is…in the box…who is guiding the gun? Where is our attention? For consistent X’s…our “attention” must be on building a good swing…that’s all we can control.
Take the mystery out of missing targets and feathers with Dan Schindler's 3 books: Take Your Best Shot, To The Target and Beyond The Target. These simple, easy-to-understand books are your road map to consistently and dependably shooting higher scores. They are written for shooters of all skill levels. More information on the Paragon School of Sporting website along with dozens of blog posts.
Thanks for joining us here. Be safe and I hope our paths cross out on the course.
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About Dan Schindler
Dan Schindler is one of only 60 worldwide members of the Guild of Shooting Instructors (UK) and is one of the most highly respected Sporting Clays and Wingshooting Instructors in the US. Dan is an NSCA Level III Instructor (since 1995) and founded the Paragon School of Sporting with one goal in mind. Whether it be for the advanced competitor or providing the basics to the entry-level shooter, Paragon provides the simplest, most practical and most effective Instruction, Coaching and Mental Training for the Sporting Clays, Skeet, Trap & Wingshooting enthusiast. Dan Schindler helps shooters alleviate a lot of their frustration by taking the mystery out of breaking targets, calling their own misses, and making their own corrections. Lessons are fun, enlightening and our clients learn to shoot better in minutes!
Testimonials
"Folks fly from around the world to take lessons with Schindler at River Bend Sportsman’s Resort, his home course in Inman, South Carolina. Clients have included Bush staffers to NASCAR drivers to the U.S. Ambassador to Belgium. The approachable teacher has spent 25 years on “gentleman’s coaching” (with social and corporate shooters) and formal instruction (with individuals, groups, and competitors). Schindler has even certified more than 230 instructors using his handcrafted curriculum—a system that signaled his qualification as the first American admitted to the British Guild of Shooting Instructors... “Shooting, like golf, or anything like that, is a mental sport, and he has the mental game down so well.” To find out how he calibrated mind with metal, we head to Japan."
Dan Schindler's Books
"Recommended for shooters of all skill levels, Coaches, Instructors
and parents of youth shooters."
Take Your Best Shot (Book I), 3rd Edition is THE Gold Standard Primer It's all about the fundamentals, a requirement for good shooting. This book is used by high school and college shooting teams, recreational and competitive shooters from around the world. Solid, valuable, concise information that has helped thousands of shooters shoot more consistently with higher scores.
To The Target (Book II) Builds on the steps outlined in Book I. Emphasises Gun Management skills when the trap fires, creating a consistent, reliable, trustworthy swing.
Beyond the Target (Book III) is for shooters of all levels, filled with valuable information, clay target truths. Entertaining and a culmination of 3 decades of Dan's life's work as a teacher, competitor, published writer, and much more.
Here's what Shooters, Coaches and Clay Shooting USA saying...
Take Your Best Shot (Book I), 3rd Edition
THE TRUSTED PRIMER
To The Target (Book II)
Beyond The Target (Book III)
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