The Routine No One Wants to Do

You should do the post-shot routine when working on basically any target. If you miss, this post-shot routine will then become automatic.

This is the one routine that nobody wants to do, but it's probably the most important. After you've made a great shot, just take those fractions of seconds to relive it. Then it goes into your brain and the brain says, “Oh, I got it. Now I know what you're asking me to do.” But not enough people want to do that.

If you do it enough in practice, it becomes automatic and then you will do it when you're competing.

But the most important part of the post-shot is that if you do it, the next shot will be exactly the same and it will be a good shot. You don't want to do that on a shot that you've missed of course, but if you make a really good shot, after every shot, stop and just relive it. Look back up at that breakpoint and see it happening.

It’s okay to know the lead or look at the lead, but don't use that same picture on the next shot because that picture is a lie. Speed and distance create lead. Of the two, speed creates more lead than distance. Angle creates perception of lead.

We’ve learned that the brain will anticipate the arrival of the target automatically - as long as our nose is on the target. And when the target comes to the lead, as you match speed, your brain is deadly.

I will match speed and whatever the lead is, when the speed is matched, that’s when I take the shot. I know that the next time the sequence of how the shot comes together is the most important because the sequence created the lead on the successful shot.

If a miss occurs, my first reaction is, “did I match the speed?” If I did and I was surprised that it didn't break, if it's a crosser, I will double the lead and if it's quartering, I will cut it in half.

As our brains go through this learning curve at each level, our brains are making judgments on the things that are sequences and suspends them from our consciousness - anything that is unessential to our success or anything that is confusing to our desired outcomes.

This is an adapted excerpt from the April 2025 Coaching Hour podcast. You can hear it in full - along with more than 20 years of archives in audio and written form - with your Knowledge Vault membership.