WITH ALEX HATTON // TUITION
anyway and then hit the Skeet layout. Why Skeet?
Because it is consistent. Skeet layouts are set out
the same, meaning whatever ground you go to,
you will encounter a near exact set of clays and so
measuring your success and improvements is
easier. If you also think about the angles you will
encounter while moving around the layout, they
may not be high like a pheasant, but they cover
every possible angle and therefore if you can hit
the majority of these targets it is a very good
starting point.
It was no surprise that I started to miss. Jane
could see that my gun was moving sporadically;
there was no smooth gun swing. We kept on
shooting but I hit under 30% of the targets.
It was at the moment I told her that I could see
that my gun was missing that it clicked. “How can
you see where your gun is pointing?” she asked.
A long discussion then ensued about eye
dominance. As she pointed out, you do
not aim a shotgun, you point it – it
sounds simple, but we had a go at
a few more clays and I could see
the bead on every shot. We put
the gun down and stood back to
talk it through. Of course, it was
all information I knew, but these
bad habits were now set in.
Eye dominance seems to be the
buzzword at the moment and there are
all sorts of opinions on how to test which
eye you are dominant in, whether these tests are
even accurate, and whether it even matters – and
there are an awful lot of products out there to help
you work on your particular eye dominance issue.
We looked at my eye dominance and I appear to
be left eye dominant, which is as previous, and I
am a right-handed shooter. I know that if I do not
shut my left eye, I do not consistently hit targets.
But I seemed to have got into a habit of shutting
my left eye very early and focusing on the bead
and not the target.
Jane asked me to very quickly point at her left
eye and then asked me if I looked at my finger
when I pointed at her, which of course I didn’t. I
knew how to point my arm/finger and did not
need to aim it, and this she reminded me, is the
same principle with a shotgun. Great in theory,
but I needed to break that habit so we went back
to the clays to try a couple of techniques. The first
was to physically say ‘rib, bead, sky’ when
shooting gun up. I must say, this immediately
worked and I started dusting clays instead of just
breaking off edges (or missing). It was so
satisfying yet so simple: stop aiming, start
pointing! As soon as I started hitting clays,
everything started to loosen up and that feeling of
muscle memory came back.
The second method we tried with gun down, so
more in keeping with rough shooting, was to keep
both eyes open until the target was acquired and
then shut my left – this also worked as it allowed
that peripheral vision to come in, and perhaps
being left eye dominant drew my right eye away
from the bead, which stopped me aiming! A half
hour at the clay ground and already my season
was looking brighter.
One other issue I have had this year was with
walked-up snipe, so we moved to the Down The
Line layout as I feel it perfectly simulates
snipe. It is a tricky discipline, as per
the quarry, and I like to shoot this
layout where I can move a bit
closer to the trap, usually on my
own bit of ground, but here we
did not. Within a few shots, and
misses, Jane identified I wasconsistently missing underneath the clay. As
simple as it sounds, I was being caught out by the
speed of the clay, and was pulling the trigger with
the clay already sitting on top of my barrels, thus
missing underneath.
The trick is that they are rising with so much
speed, and at varying angles, that you have to
cover the target with the barrels of the gun,
effectively shooting at the air. I am not going to
say I hit them all, but I did start to hit them. We
had two rounds on the layout, analysing why I
missed each shot – and as I gained confidence
and knowledge, my score improved.
Those that do try and train on the clay ground
often rush for the Sporting layout, which is a great
idea, providing you can learn from each target,
but in my case, having a coach with me was
invaluable – otherwise I would have come away
with the same faults and less confident. Instead, I
learnt from the misses. Being on a layout such as
Skeet, where there is the repeatability of targets,
covering all the angles you will encounter in the
field, you can measure your success and fix
issues before you get back in to the field again.
The rest of my season was much improved, but I
am certainly not going to neglect my homework
this summer. ‘The repeatability of
targets on a Skeet layout
means you can measure
your success and fix any
issues before you get
back in the field’
TOP TIP
Use the summer to hone
your skills for the coming
season. Take a coach along, even
just for one session, to help
identify any issues.Just one session with a coach
can save your season