By: Paul Giambrone, III

It was a beautiful spring morning inAbita Springs, LA, and I found myself on the golf course with my father and some of his golfing buddies.  Prior to the season getting started this particular year, I liked to get out and go play a little golf here and there.  Now, I am no pro golfer…not even close!  However, I am not the weekend hacker either.  When I play, I try to play for bogey golf and I am very satisfied with that.  Throw in a few pars, accompanied by a double bogey or two, I generally find myself in the mid to upper 80s the few times that I play each year.  This particular morning, we were golfing with someone that I had just met about 15 minutes before we teed off on the driving range.  Feeling good about my swing, I felt pretty confident going to the opening hole which is a 500 yard par 5.  With a good drive, you could possibly get there in two, but there is a pond about 100 yards from the hole so the wise move is to lay up and go for the green on your third shot.  Anyways, I did the wise move but ended up in the sand trap.  Good out, but still ended up with bogey.  Next hole, I decided to play some army golf…left, left, left, right, left!  I was all over the place!  The 3^rd hole is a short par 3, and I was nowhere near the green.  So you see, I wasn’t playing my best golf, but hey I’m out there for fun anyways!  I started to get my swing back a little here and there, but was not putting together multiple good shots.  This was about the time the peanut gallery started to chime in…

I am on the 5^th tee box, and I start to hear the words that I really do not like to hear while I am in the middle of playing a round of golf, “You know Paul if you did this, you would improve this…”  Great, that’s all I need is for someone who is not a coach, not a professional, just another golfer on the course to tell me what I am doing wrong and how to fix it.  Thanks man, now you are filling my head with all of these things to focus on instead of trying to get the feel of my good swing back.  Luckily for me, I have the mindset to let this go because I know this guy didn’t mean any harm by it.  I let it go in one ear and out the other and sure enough, I found my swing again!  I started nailing the ball and making pars and may have even thrown in a birdie on this particular day.  However, it did not come from the unsolicited advice, but came from me focusing on my good swing and getting that “feel” back that I had found on the driving range.  And, of course, any time I made a bad swing, the advice started to flow once again, but I still ignored it and stayed focused on my good swing feel. Notice what I did there?  I focused on what a good swing was supposed to “feel” like and put my focus on the good swing, not the possible problems that could have been going on.  If I were to put my focus on that, my brain would be so focused on fixing the grip, instead of swinging the golf club like I had wanted!

How does this relate to skeet shooting?  I see it all of the time…the unsolicited advice.  Granted, I know the shooters are genuinely trying to help their fellow shotgunner get better, but all they are doing is making the shooter worry about so many different things that they cannot possibly focus on the target anymore!  What is the most important fundamental in skeet?  KEEPING YOUR EYES FOCUSED ON THE TARGET!  If your focus is anywhere else, you are decreasing your chances of making a good swing or a good shot!  Now, if you are training or practicing something new, yes, your focus must be on what you are working on to build muscle memory and the new “feel” (this is what a coach is for).  My main concern is the person who is constantly telling a shooter “you’re behind it, you’re under it, you’re over it.”  That is not how you coach or help a fellow shooter; you help them by addressing the CAUSE of them being behind the target, not the symptom.  When you go to the doctor, you give him/her a list of symptoms for them to come up with a diagnosis, right?  The doctor doesn’t prescribe you 6 different medicines for 6 different symptoms (hopefully they don’t)!  The doctor is looking for the CAUSE of all of your symptoms and is going to get to the root of the problem and treat the cause of your symptoms!  If we truly want to help someone when we shoot, we need to help the shooter solve the cause of the problem, not the symptom.  The cause of most problems are the shooter measuring for lead instead of keeping their eyes on the target fully, lifting their head because the gun doesn’t fit them properly, and stopping the gun because their eyes look at the front sight instead of keeping their eyes on the target.  Skeet shooters are some of the best people I know and all they want to do is help, but sometimes it does more harm than good.

I’ll close with a story about a really good friend of mine who was having some issues on his high house targets.  My buddy had developed a really bad shoulder roll on his high house targets, especially the incomers (high 5, 6, and 7).  Now, he would hit these targets, but his form was severely compromised.  The first opportunity I had to work with him, we worked really hard on breaking this habit and got him upright and got those shoulders turning with his lower body instead of the roll that had been in his game for quite some time.  After fixing this issue, I noticed he was on the very leading edge of High 7.  No worries, that’s the money side anyway, so we go to station 6.  I watched him make a beautiful turn to the target, with his head down and eyes locked on the bird and he missed 3 feet in front.  He looked at me confused…  I said don’t worry about it, shoot it again.  Same thing, everything was right with his form, but he was 3 feet in front.  And one more time… same thing yet again.  I asked, “How much lead are you putting on this target?”  His response, “About 4 feet.”  Wow!  We know the correct lead on a High 6 is not even close to 4 feet!  But do you see what the peanut gallery had done?  They kept telling him over the years, “you’re behind it, you’re behind it” but no one ever corrected the actual problem, just the symptom.  This led to my buddy thinking he needed 4 feet of lead on a high 6.  This is why shooters need to have professional coaches and instructors helping them, not the peanut gallery.

If you have any questions or comments, please email me directly at info@gsclinics.com and visit www.breakmoretargets.com for more information!  Please check the website for upcoming tournaments and clinics in your area and keep in mind that GSC is now in the DFW area!  GSC will be available to teach in the Dallas/Fort Worth area all year-round!  Please call for lesson availability today!

Tip of the month:      Be considerate of the shooters around you.  Do not force unsolicited advice to shooters that are struggling, help them out if you are asked and if you are capable of helping the shooter.  Your actions may create more harm than good, especially for newer shooters.   I know we are all out here as a big family just trying to help each other, but be mindful of your actions and respectful of others.