Most recently at the Autumn Grand, there was a situation where in a Championship round two shooters ended up going head to head for about 70 shots in a shootoff to determine a winner. During this shootoff it became apparent that one shooters pre shot routine was getting on the nerves of the other one. The shooter had his gun on the pad, and would rock back and forth on his feet once or twice to get his feet set before picking his gun up and mounting it. The other shooter was incredibly annoyed by this and ended up loosing the shoot off and the very large sum of money that was attached to it.
At the missed shot and instant loss of the championship, the shooter turned around and started yelling profanities and saying that this other shooter was being unsportsmanlike and trying to distract him. Instantly the herd of spectators jumped on him to shut up and keep his own behavior in check. The champion was 14, the loser well above 60.
Despite the constant yelling, grumbling and throwing hulls around the champion stuck to their pre shot routine and won it all.
Once you have your set routine you have to stick to it no matter what is going on around you. If you do not have a base, then when you call for the bird you are not gonna be ready. goofing around and changing what you are doing before each bird, your mind is in a completely different place and not focused. this directly relates to being behind the bird and trying to play catch up from the second you call for it.
I shot in 30 degree weather, while rain was coming down sideways. I was in a long sleeve cotton t-shirt and shorts and tennis shoes. I broke a 96/100. How did I do that? Baseline. Given in between shots I was shivering uncontrollably and hand my soaking wet hands in my soaking wet pants. But before each shot I would put that freezing temperatures, the fact I was in a puddle up to my ankles and the rain in my eyeballs aside and did the same thing every time.
Here is what I do. Now this is my personal thing but everyone I have seen has a derivative of this.
Pick the gun up and close it. Mount it, make sure it feels right in my shoulder. Look out and set the barrel where I think it should be on the trap house. Exhale. Inhale and set my eyes on my eye hold point. Exhale. Inhale and before I exhale, "PULL!"
To show how important this is I will give some examples. The whole above sequence takes me between 6.5 and 7 seconds. If I don't take the second breath, or just look out and call for the bird, My eyes are not set. I can tell this because 1 of two things will happen. I will be looking at the bird fly away and have to catch up to it and shoot at it. or I will lift my head off the gun and try and re mount the gun and still shoot the bird. Both of which will almost always result in a miss. If I take a extra breath or blink somewhere in that process I will extend my pre shot and end up staring straight out as the bird flies through my vision and I am way behind it playing catch up once again. This will also result in a miss for me.
Once you have the baseline and pre shot routine, never deviate from it even if other people complain or say something to you. The rules state you can take as much time as you want. You are out there for yourself to shoot a perfect round. sticking to the basics is how you do that.
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