In December 2015, I wrote a Tip titled "T&T." Tempo and timing–tempo of the swing and timing of the trigger pull. I’d like to re-visit that Tip and expand on it. Why? Because patiently building the correct swing speed is nothing less than vital to increasing our X count and our consistency.From the T&T Tip: ".....synchronizing of the muzzle and target creates a swing with precision, putting the muzzle on the right line and at just the right speed. Tempo - matching gun speed to bird speed - is the purest form of gun control, putting the muzzle into the right place at just the right time."It is difficult for me to remember a student who arrived with too little gun speed. ...
Last month we saw Gary lose the shoot-off because he engaged – moved his attention at precisely the wrong moment – to a distraction Gary claims Ed caused. Actually, you could say Ed caused it. But, had Gary not engaged – not turned around and looked at Ed – there would have been no distraction. That Gary did turn around and engaged Ed's actions – the distraction (and his miss) belongs solely to Gary, not Ed. It wasn't a distraction until Gary turned, looked and engaged. The ONLY person who was distracted was Gary – not Ed – not the Trapper – not the spectators – no one on the planet – just ...
With the tournament season now officially underway, I thought we could spend a little time on "performance skills," aka the mental game. It's one thing to stand in the box accompanied by our friends and the usual trash talk. It becomes something else when the score-keeper shows up and announces the shooting order. Why is that? The pressure we feel in a tournament is no different than the pressure that occurs from having to perform in front of an audience, a class, our peers, an Instructor, mentor or actually anyone whose opinion of us matters. For some, the stress can be overwhelming, typically paralyzing the performance. Jack Nicklaus spoke of his earliest experience ...