Trap Progress

[midlife]

Can anyone suggest how to not choke when trap shooting. The other night I ran the first ten birds. Then missed the next 5.

Best round was a 22 out of 5 rounds. Worst was 15.

The suggestion to focus one bird at a time sounds good. But is hard to apply in real life.

How about focusing on not score out of 25. But 100?

[Captain Dick]

Technique, Technique, Technique. Have a plan. One bird at a time. Work your plan. Trust. No Hesitation. Oh Yeah, More lead down range, and quit trying to hit birds. See the bird, shoot the bird, go back to your basics.

[koehn,jim]

Shooting and more shooting, the more you do it the better you get.

[pakk]

Can anyone suggest how to not choke when trap shooting.

I've been shooting trap for almost 6 years and I have not figured it out. If you happen to figure it out, please share.

[AAShooter]

Technique, Technique, Technique. Have a plan. One bird at a time. Work your plan. Trust. No Hesitation. Oh Yeah, More lead down range, and quit trying to hit birds. See the bird, shoot the bird, go back to your basics.

Spot on advice. Particularly for doubles . . . never miss your first bird worrying about your second.

Trap is an extremely mental game . . . especially at higher levels of competition. World class trapshooters can shoot 100's of birds in a row.

Lanny Basham (http://mentalmanagement.ipower.com/) is a good place to start as far as building your mental game. I usually tell people that once they are consistently breaking 21-23 birds they really need to work on the mental aspect of the game.

His book "With Winning in Mind" is a good read and has some good principles. It is commonly recommended. Lanny also does more specialized work on the clays sports.

[SonofWWIIDI]

Forget about your score. In your head you're probably saying; " okay, that's 10 in a row..." And bam you start to miss. Always think "that's one".

Practice, practice practice. And don't think about score. As in golf, the longest six inches is between your ears!

.02

[alfred1222]

Do you count your birds? if you do, stop immediately. Every shot, every single shot, has to be a fresh shot in your mind. Don't count how many you've hit, don't count how many you are down, don't think about how you're shooting, just open your eyes, call for the bird, and break it. Close your eyes, breathe, open them, call for the next bird, break it.

On doubles, break the first bird as soon as your mind says shoot. Don't measure. As soon as your eyes tell your brain everything's straight, pull the trigger. Don't think about it, because then you're behind on the second bird. Also, NEVER wait to see if that first bird breaks. Shoot the first, then instantly move to the second. If you broke it, great. If not, waiting only screws you up more.

also, improve how you practice. You don't get BETTER at trap or skeet by playing game after game. You get better by practicing each station until you shoot it perfectly. When i was learning skeet, i would shoot one full game, to address where i was deficient, and then from there forward, i wouldnt shoot another full game unless i felt ready too. Instead, i would load about 4-5 tokens into the machine, grab a flat of shells, and sit on station 4, and throw doubles, and shoot until i didnt miss. Then id go to station 6, and throw the low house, and shoot till i broke 15 in a row. I would do this until i felt every single problem i had was worked out. Then, i would play a game. If i shot perfect, id play another. If i missed, i would grab some more shells, and fix where i missed.

[kmca]

Sorry, there's no easy answer. Learn to work with the nerves and adrenalin. Get into as many shoot offs as you can. Don't count birds??? It's pretty tough to do, when you're 199 into your 200.

[squeeze]

STOP COUNTING!
I asked two guys today "How'd you do?" "Not as well as we'd like." "Did you have fun?" "Oh yeah!" "Then you were successful"
When I am having a bad day shooing: I quit for the day. No one performs well when they are angry and upset. Go watch some of the better shooters and see what they're doing..
Like the guy throwing his golf club into the creek. Oh, that'll make his game better.......NOT!

[actium31]

Like others have said, you shouldn't "chase the bullseye." Each shot should be independent in itself. Each shot should have its own sight picture, front sight alignment and smooth, steady trigger pull.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[alfred1222]

STOP COUNTING!
I asked two guys today "How'd you do?" "Not as well as we'd like." "Did you have fun?" "Oh yeah!" "Then you were successful"
When I am having a bad day shooing: I quit for the day. No one performs well when they are angry and upset. Go watch some of the better shooters and see what they're doing..
Like the guy throwing his golf club into the creek. Oh, that'll make his game better.......NOT!

I do the same thing. If i start stressing out or hating my shooting abilities, i just pack up and go have lunch. I see no reason to keep shooting when im feeling crappy. No amount of practice can fix a bad attitude.

[squeeze]

No amount of practice can fix a bad attitude.

Well said. I'm adding that one to my list of great quotes.

[midlife]

Well...Shot a 23 again today. And felt like I could dust every bird I saw...except the ones i missed. I'd say I'm making progress.

[MeatyMac]

Like the guy throwing his golf club into the creek. Oh, that'll make his game better.......NOT!

Oh no, it will make your golf game better, one less club that you can't hit in your bag, eventually you'll find that one club you can hit