By: Paul Giambrone, III

I was in Stockton, CA, recently shooting at the Western Open and decided to stay the week after for the 2012 Jr. World Championships to offer some help to the kids and to watch some of the young talent that is coming up in the sport.  What a great weekend to watch such great shooters and to see so much potential!  The hand to eye coordination is unbelievable at their age and it really is a great sight to see!  As I was going around helping some shooters here and there, a common topic came up about “one target.”  No, it wasn’t High 2 or Low 6.  It wasn’t any target in particular either – it was just that one target that jumps up and bites us.  A lot of the kids were asking me how to get that one target.  I would ask them, “Do you know how to break each target?  Do you have a routine for each target to break it?”  They would say, “Yes.”  So, the answer is simple: do your normal routine to break each target.  Sounds easy, right?  But boy is it hard to accomplish.  When you are shooting in this sport, unfortunately, all it takes is one slight mental slip to ruin a station, a round, an event, or even the entire weekend.  As soon as we make one bad move or slip, our minds want to put all of our focus on that one bad shot. Focusing on one bad shot can cause us to second guess ourselves and to over-analyze our shots, which can lead to more bad shots and more misses.  Why are we so stubborn to get caught up in the one bad move or bad shot and forget about all of the other great shots we made?  Why not focus on the great shots we made and forget about the bad ones?

In his prime, Jack Nicklaus made a statement in an interview that in the final round of a tournament on the last hole he never 3 putted and he never missed a putt inside of 5-feet (I am paraphrasing, but that is the gist of what Jack was saying).  A reporter stood up in the back and argued with Jack saying that he witnessed Jack miss a putt inside 5 feet at a major.  Jack shook his head and said that wasn’t true.  The reporter argued and Jack disagreed again.  The reporter wouldn’t stop and chased Jack down stating that he had video evidence of Jack missing a putt inside 5 feet.  Jack just simply walked off.  One of Jack’s body guards stopped the reporter and said the following: “Sir, do you play golf?”  “Yes,” the reporter replied.  “What’s your handicap?” asked the body guard.  “I am a 16 handicap.” the reporter said.  “Have you ever done those things Jack said and do you remember them?” the body guard asked.  “Well sure I have and I could tell you several occasions on when they happened.” the reporter said.  The body guard then replied, “So you want Jack Nicklaus, the greatest golfer to ever play the game, to change his mentality and think like you, a 16 handicapper.”  The reporter didn’t say anything and left.  The point is that no matter what the circumstances, Jack always stayed focused on the positives and forgot the negatives.  Why not apply the same concept to your skeet game?

I can give you a great example of focusing on the positives in your skeet game.  At the 2012 Jr. World Championships, a shooter walked up to me and said “LP, I’m shooting so well right now, but I am not quite finishing.”  The shooter had a string of 99s (12, 20, and 28) with one of those misses being a Low 6 the last round.  So I asked, “On that Low 6, were you fully prepared and ready?”  His response was yes.  I then went on to tell him about a recent experience I had at a shoot earlier in the year that yielded a similar result.  I was straight working on a 100 in the .410 and a 400 for the weekend and missed a low 6 in the last round.  The initial reaction is “he choked,” but I beg to differ.  Yes, I was excited and pumped about the event, but I channeled all of my mental energy into my normal routine and was 100% ready for the shot with no flaws in my setup.  Since I had channeled so much focus into the shot, I ended up seeing the target much sooner and clearer than normal causing me to get too far ahead and never could recover.  The result was a 99 and a 399.  Did I do anything wrong?  In my mind, no, I did everything exactly like I had trained myself to do; I just didn’t recover and make the shot.  With that in mind, I did everything the same at my next tournament, applied what I learned from the miss and shot a 400.  What did I learn?  That sometimes it just isn’t meant to be.  That my technique and my approach are solid, so why would I change?  After all, a single miss in the .410 isn’t so bad after all, right?  Anyway, back to the shooter who was talking to me about finishing strong – I simply said to him, “You know how to break the targets and you know you have a solid routine, now just get out there and keep doing it!  If something gets broken in the routine, just stop and start over from scratch.  Keep working hard and quit worrying about the one target and focus on the other 297 that you hit during the weekend!”  Focus on the positives!  Guess what he shot in the .410?  A perfect 100.  I had the opportunity to watch this shooter and he didn’t chip and hack, he absolutely rolled 100 targets in the .410, giving him a 397 for the weekend and winning his concurrent HOA.  You should have seen the smile on his face!  What a great moment!  So when all else fails, take a deep breath, stick to your routine, take your best possible shot on the next target and stay positive.

Tip of the month:      When you find something that works for you, stick with it!  Most misses are from a break down in our normal routine.  The problem, or why we never fully learn, is that we sometimes get away with a break down in our normal routine by breaking the target despite our mistakes.  My question for you is when there is a break in your routine and you say “I can still hit it,” how many of those do you actually hit?  Maybe a few, but I promise it is far less than you stepping up, doing your normal routine, and making your best shot.  Try to reset after those “I can still hit it” moments and clear your mind and see what happens.