Master The Fundamentals Of Trap Shooting Then Let Your Eyes Do The Rest
In our journey to better shooting, we offer some ideas that might help to up your scores. Hope they help!
FieldandClays.com –-(Ammoland.com)- I know most trapshooters have been told that shooting trap is more mental than it is physical.
In fact, I’ve heard that it could be as much as 90% mental, with the remainder falling into the physical category.
I would tend to agree that the mental game is extremely important when it comes to breaking good scores, but if you are trying to think and shoot targets at the same time, you will probably find your scores going down rather than up.
The mental part of the game must be done prior to the actual firing of the gun. You have to do some thinking when you are learning to stand properly on each post. You have to do some thinking when deciding where you will hold the gun in relation to the trap prior to calling for a target. You have to think about the hold point you will use on EACH post as you move down the line. You have to think about keeping your head on the stock for every shot. There are many things to think about so they will be done properly each time you mount the gun and attempt to break a target. But you can’t be thinking about all these things when you are asking yourself to break targets.
It just doesn’t work that way. If you are letting your mind think about these and many other things while you attempt to break that target, your eyes will not be working for you. The time to think about all the mechanics and fundamentals is on the practice trap.
You think your way through things until those things become second nature to your style of shooting.
Eventually, your stance on each post will become second nature to you. As you move from one post to the next, your feet will move into position without much thought on your part because you have thought about it long enough that it is now second nature to you to stand properly on each post. After many rounds of thinking about where the gun will be positioned in relation to the trap, prior to calling for the target, it will become second nature to you.
No thinking required. After many practice rounds of forcing yourself to keep your head on the stock until after the target shatters, it will become second nature for you to do so and again, requires no thinking on your part.
Each phase of your game may require thinking until it becomes second nature to you. This is called effective practice. Once you have mastered the fundamentals and they are now second nature to you, you will be able to recognize errors made and correct them.
Now you are ready to let all this work for you without thinking. All you have to do now is to SEE the target and react to it. I emphasize SEE the target, because that is all you need to do. You can’t think about things and SEE the target simultaneously. At least you can’t see it to the extent that you will break every target.
Your entire attention must be devoted to SEEING that target. Your mind and your eyes work as one. What your eyes see, your mind will help you break, without thinking. You must let it happen. See it properly and you will break it.
Think about mastering the fundamentals and then let your eyes do the rest—without thinking. I think you’ll find out that what you see is what you get.
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