“Mental conditioning for sporting clays shooting includes visualization of the process, focusing on the leading edge of the clay, consistent swing, and concentration,” Barbee writes. “It is going beyond what you are comfortable with when exercising; involves self-regulation, planning, and implementing your directed repetitive practice sessions; a knowledge of what you know and don’t know; and the discipline to implement and follow through with your program.”

While few of us are willing to adopt the hard-core regiments of Navy Seal warriors, an aggressive exercise program is well worth the effort—if you really want to shoot your best. “We can,” insists Barbee, a retired physician, “by going beyond what we think are our limits, increase our mental control, better our response to stress, improve physically, achieve the concentration necessary to train, and develop the self-regulation that will not only improve our shooting but the way we deal with the challenges of living.”

Along with a fitness program, cutting distractions from your shooting game will also boost your mental performance, perhaps just what you need to garner consistency in the sporting clays cage. Dan Schindler highlights those brain-dulling distractions we should all strive to shave from our day afield, including the denial that we need to make a change in the first place, the confusion that a good instructor can help you identify and correct, and expectations of performance beyond your capabilities. “Make sure your shooting mechanics—your gun management—receive more of your attention than the outcome of your shot,” Schindler stresses.

Wingshooting editor Randy Lawrence cuts to the chase with his short-and-sweet advice to “See It, Believe It, Shoot It.” While we can’t underestimate the importance of vision, properly corrected as needed and then enhanced by quality eye wear and lens tints that let you pinpoint targets from any background, we need to know how to use our eyes.

“Even the best-matched glass to game or the healthiest vision won’t help us if we can’t be disciplined about how and where we try to see the target,” Lawrence notes. “Our sport comes with built-in distractions.” (There’s that word again.) “We’re so anxious to use our hands that we don’t let our eyes work to their full capability—to capture the target, in fact, affording the sensation of slowing the target through that focus and cuing our hands to best advantage. That kind of seeing is aware enough that if we need to make an adjustment or can learn from a shot, we’re able to do so. That kind of seeing is trust. That kind of seeing is believing.”

Finally, Marty Fischer’s “Target Tactics” column takes us back to school in our quest for greater consistency via really seeing what’s in front of us with a geometry lesson. He insists that the difference between where you might be today with your shotgunning game and where you want to be could in the end hinge on your ability to read targets precisely. As a target moves along its path, the picture needed to hit it is changing constantly, Fischer hammers home. “Once I discovered the sporting clays game,” the coach and target setter mused, “I wished I would have paid more attention to my geometry teacher.”

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Editors Notes
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Extreme exercise can condition the mind as well as the body to better fire on all cylinders.