Skeet Shooting - Skeet Season Preparation: by Russ Naples, JCTS Skeet Chairman
Hopefully, everyone had a nice holiday season and with the start of the new year comes hope, excitement, and anticipation. Following up from last month’s article “Skeet Season Wrap-up”, this month’s article is focused on preparing for the upcoming skeet season.
Please refer to the previous month's article for the details of what you were supposed to do, however, to start this article off we will list the topics and the expected outcomes followed by the preparation for the new season.
Please refer to the previous month's article for the details of what you were supposed to do, however, to start this article off we will list the topics and the expected outcomes followed by the preparation for the new season.
Skeet Season Wrap-Up Review:
Clean and Service your Equipment: Expectation is that all your equipment is clean and ready for use. This includes any service and adjustments to your gun. (For questions and scheduling, please contact Gunsmiths Inc. onsite at Jacksonville Clay Target Sports, (904) 757-4584)
Review your scores and notes: We did and have some notes suggesting what to focus on in practice.
Review of Skeet Shooting Materials:We did and have some ideas that we will incorporate into our practice.
Consider the Mental Aspect: We did and will work to incorporate some ideas into our shooting – perhaps our shot routine.
Shoot for fun!: We did – but since we are going to work on improving our skeet scores and shooting some tournaments, we will focus our “shoot time” on skeet.
Physical Fitness: We did, and as we practice, we will see if the few exercises and stretching that we do now are helping us move smoother and be more consistent.
Consider Equipment Changes: Equipment changes are complete and we have started by shooting some rounds utilizing the new equipment and are locking down the final adjustments.
Consider Routine Changes: We will focus on this area in the remainder of the article below.
2019 Tournament Schedule: Floridians have the website https://floridaskeet.com/ saved and ready to use to view shoot flyers and register for a few shoots here at the beginning of the year. We have selected a few tournaments such as the Fish Fry, held right here in Jacksonville, February 22nd– 24th.
Practice: If you are preparing for a tournament you need to practice. Depending upon your level of commitment you will practice 2 – 5 times per week shooting 4 – 10 rounds as your budget and physical fitness allows. At the more frequent amounts, it is good to have a variety of routines that you go through in order to keep the practice and shooting in general effective and fun.
Knowing when your tournaments are, you can work backward and figure the number of times you will have to practice and outline what you do at each practice. Ex. Shooting the different gauges, station work, shooting rounds, and doubles work.
Types of Practice:
Review your scores and notes: We did and have some notes suggesting what to focus on in practice.
Review of Skeet Shooting Materials:We did and have some ideas that we will incorporate into our practice.
Consider the Mental Aspect: We did and will work to incorporate some ideas into our shooting – perhaps our shot routine.
Shoot for fun!: We did – but since we are going to work on improving our skeet scores and shooting some tournaments, we will focus our “shoot time” on skeet.
Physical Fitness: We did, and as we practice, we will see if the few exercises and stretching that we do now are helping us move smoother and be more consistent.
Consider Equipment Changes: Equipment changes are complete and we have started by shooting some rounds utilizing the new equipment and are locking down the final adjustments.
Consider Routine Changes: We will focus on this area in the remainder of the article below.
2019 Tournament Schedule: Floridians have the website https://floridaskeet.com/ saved and ready to use to view shoot flyers and register for a few shoots here at the beginning of the year. We have selected a few tournaments such as the Fish Fry, held right here in Jacksonville, February 22nd– 24th.
Practice: If you are preparing for a tournament you need to practice. Depending upon your level of commitment you will practice 2 – 5 times per week shooting 4 – 10 rounds as your budget and physical fitness allows. At the more frequent amounts, it is good to have a variety of routines that you go through in order to keep the practice and shooting in general effective and fun.
Knowing when your tournaments are, you can work backward and figure the number of times you will have to practice and outline what you do at each practice. Ex. Shooting the different gauges, station work, shooting rounds, and doubles work.
Types of Practice:
- Shooting only incomers around the field for a box
- Shooting only outgoers around the field for a box
- Station work – pick a station or two and shoot the entire box
- Shooting regular rounds and keeping score
- Shooting a regular round of doubles
For those shooting doubles at a tournament shooting regular doubles rounds where you travel from station 1 – 7 and then back to 6 – 1 is an important practice point since this and shoot-off doubles are the only events and shooting activities where the shooter moves backward through the stations. Having familiarity and confidence to keep your hold points, leads and breakpoints sorted out takes some time.
Making the same Mistakes: Making mistakes is going to happen, making them often may also happen because of a particular challenge on that day. However, shooters coming each week and making the same mistakes on the same target or station nearly each round, regardless of challenges will find improving difficult until they become committed to determining the issue, and then practicing the options to solve using one or more of the above methods starting with the practice method “Station Work”. This also may involve asking for help, writing down some notes and then implementing some changes into a practice routine until you are comfortable with the solution, you are breaking the targets consistently, and your confidence has improved.
Keep a Journal: One of the best methods to improve shooting, without actually shooting is to keep a journal of your shooting experiences in both practice and tournaments and then refer to it often. A journal entry for practice will include the time, date, location (filed number), weather conditions, what was practiced and with what gauge and scores if they were kept. Write down notes of how you felt regarding shooting particular targets both breaks and misses. Write down any station work and experimenting with foot position, hold points, look points and practicing early and late target breaks. Look over past journal entries for commonalities and see if there is a “bigger picture” that you can learn about yourself – what you do well, what needs more work. All journal entries should be written with a positive tone which is easy when you are shooting well. For the times or stations that are not going well, describe what you think the issue(s) are and then focus on what you believe the solutions are that then become items to focus on at the next practice.
Practice and Get Ready to Get Better!
- Shooting doubles at stations 3,4 and 5
- Shooting any of the above practice routines using the different gauges
Making the same Mistakes: Making mistakes is going to happen, making them often may also happen because of a particular challenge on that day. However, shooters coming each week and making the same mistakes on the same target or station nearly each round, regardless of challenges will find improving difficult until they become committed to determining the issue, and then practicing the options to solve using one or more of the above methods starting with the practice method “Station Work”. This also may involve asking for help, writing down some notes and then implementing some changes into a practice routine until you are comfortable with the solution, you are breaking the targets consistently, and your confidence has improved.
Keep a Journal: One of the best methods to improve shooting, without actually shooting is to keep a journal of your shooting experiences in both practice and tournaments and then refer to it often. A journal entry for practice will include the time, date, location (filed number), weather conditions, what was practiced and with what gauge and scores if they were kept. Write down notes of how you felt regarding shooting particular targets both breaks and misses. Write down any station work and experimenting with foot position, hold points, look points and practicing early and late target breaks. Look over past journal entries for commonalities and see if there is a “bigger picture” that you can learn about yourself – what you do well, what needs more work. All journal entries should be written with a positive tone which is easy when you are shooting well. For the times or stations that are not going well, describe what you think the issue(s) are and then focus on what you believe the solutions are that then become items to focus on at the next practice.
Practice and Get Ready to Get Better!
Russ Naples
JCTS Skeet Chairman
NSSA Certified Instructor
Four-time NSSA First Team All American
JCTS Skeet Chairman
NSSA Certified Instructor
Four-time NSSA First Team All American