How to See Your Targets Better
In the game of sporting clays, your vision is one of the least utilized tools we have in our arsenal. Sure, we use our eyes on every pair, however, I believe we can do a lot more than just look at the target.
I like to think about it like this, imagine yourself driving down the highway. You are just plugging along, pass a car here, go under a bridge there. Change the radio station, take a sip of water, and so on. Just an average day commute. Your in the left hand lane, and all of a sudden, without looking, you know you have a car that is in your blind spot or right next to you. You didn’t have to look, but you knew it was there.
Ever been there?
I attribute this to our peripheral vision. Without it, we lose a lot of perception. Vision is key to hitting a target, when you don’t see the target, it is much more elusive to hit on a consistent basis.
You may have experienced something where you called pull, matched up with the target, pulled the trigger and missed.
I know I have, and once I did it, I knew the answer was quite simple. We usually say, “I just didn’t see it.” This is not uncommon. In fact while our eyes are the most underutilized, they are also the most worked. Every time you track a target, you’re transmitting roughly 10 million bits per second (click here for the article). This is the equivalent of a decent ethernet connection. This number goes up depending upon the type of information we are consuming. If we need extreme focus and attention, that “ethernet connection,” may bump up in terms of speed.
Imagine yourself on a busy day. What does that feel like? You have a hundred things going on, yet every one of those tasks require a high level of focus. After a few hours of intense work, you are usually on your way to wanting a break. In life, we can’t always run at 100 miles an hour and expect to keep up that pace. We have to learn to pace ourselves, know our limits, and use our strengths to our advantage. Whether you’re at work or at play, this principle exists to help us everywhere we go.
To look at this from a different approach, you wouldn’t walk up to a station and track every single target right before you’re about to shoot. Some people do, but that’s because they just don’t know any better, so I’m gonna give you the benefit of the doubt here.
If we don’t watch every single target, why do we expect our personal and business lives to be the same? Trying to focus on everything at once leads to a lack of excellence in everything.
However, when we look at our objectives or targets and make a plan, without wasted effort, things become much easier and simpler. So you want to ensure you’re limiting how much you view targets. Avoid screens and other things that can irritate your eyes on game day. This is vital to being able to see your targets over a long period of time.
In addition to limiting how much you use your eyes, maximize your eyes as a tool by exercising them through near and far focus drills. Always ensure you’re keeping yourself hydrated, and lastly, visit a doctor to ensure you’re seeing everything clearly. I shot for years as a junior with blurry vision, and I didn’t even realize it until one day I noticed I couldn’t read a particular sign that was off in the distance.
Keeping your eyes healthy is vital, but even more important than keeping your eyes healthy is setting up yourself for the shot. I go into this in the video here, so I won’t get too much into it here. Needless to say, if you’re looking in the wrong spot, chances are, you’re gonna shoot in the wrong spot. 80 percent of your success comes from just getting yourself setup correctly. There are a lot of variables other than that, but if you get your setup right every time, you will find greater consistency and accuracy.
If you would like more information on how to get yourself setup correctly for each shot, even when you don’t know what you’re doing, email me at coaching@budheaton.com and I will help you learn how you can implement better setup strategies for your shooting game.
Bud Heaton
