Clay Target Nation, August 2019

and we all knew what his problem was In trap you know the targets point of origin but you do not know the line of the target so you can shoot trap effectively swinging through the target but then most of the shots in trap are going away from you and are at very narrow angles To shoot trap at the highest level takes a lot of commitment thousands and thousands of practice targets and a lot of time In skeet swing through is not quite as effective as maintained lead due to the many crossing trajectories but the game is very repetitive and all targets are known distances directions and speed The largest reason maintained lead is such an advantage in skeet is that to be competitive often you must run 100 straight in the main event and then win in a shoot off shooting doubles at stations 3 4 and 5 When shooting doubles from the center stations if you can break the first shot 15 feet before the stake with minimum movement then when you flick your eyes to pick up the second target you will see it coming to you and it will appear You cant be in two places at one time to slow down as you move with it and match speed The reason minimum movement is critical is because every bit of movement and speed of the movement on the first target in doubles must be overcome to switch directions and efficiently and effectively hit the second target of the double There is one more huge 38 WWW NSSA NSCA ORG AUGUST 2019 similarity in the targets in skeet and the targets in trap and that is that the speed of the targets in each game is consistent throughout the round In contrast the targets in sporting clays are at various speeds angles distances and even sizes making for some optical illusions that will never be found in trap or skeet Now before you trappers and skeeters get your dander up I am not by any means saying these games are simple or easy to master only that they are the same whether played in Alaska or Texas High 2 is high 2 regardless of where the targets are thrown or shot Less gun movement is a common thread in all great performances and not looking down the barrel of the gun in the setup is another not so frequentlymentioned but essential fundamental in all clay target sports When you break down all the clay target games to their base level everything in the games is designed to make you speed up everything you do when practicing and performing Tournament jitters in any of the clays games makes your heart rate increase and your breathing get short and labored Your hands shake with anticipation and most detrimentally your eyes bounce from one thing to another making it impossible to see the target clearly shot to shot to shot While experience in playing the games and more deliberate practice will lesson the felt MAKE THE GUN DISAPPEAR p Your gun mount especially when shooting FITASC or another game where the gun is not pre mounted must be practiced until you trust it so much that you dont have to check the alignment with your eyes