Did You REALLY Match the Speed?

Any number of times when we were working with new shooters and they miss it and we say, “Well, did you match the speed?”

“Yeah, yeah, I did.”

“Well, match it better.”

On the third time of matching it better, they really matched it and the target blew up.

“So, you really matched that one, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, were you lying to me on the other one?”

It's either matched or it's not. That’s just all there is to it.

Getting shooters to admit that they didn't match it is sometimes harder than getting them to be patient enough to match it. It's just crazy what people will say. And it's all about the desire to break the target.

And I would advise you to shoot some targets low gun with an empty gun. Don't put a bullet in there - just work on keeping the tip of the muzzle on the line.

Early on, everything was low gun, and targets were 28 to 30 yards away from us and all in a straight line.

We'd start the gun at the 25-yard line. And when the bird passed the muzzle, we would come from behind and mount the gun in front of it. And doing it that way, if I didn't know where I was, I was in front. But now if I don't know where I am, I'm going to double it, unless it's a quartering bird. If I don't know where I am and it's a quartering bird, I'm probably going to cut it in half and get back close to it… if I match the target.

In our book “If It Ain't Broke, Fix It,” we said “match the gun speed to the target speed” a ton. We were saying it back then, but we didn't realize the brevity of what we were saying. We were coming from behind targets and mounting in front because you had to shoot low gun. That's what we understood from Chris Potter. That's what he said, and that's what we did.

But about 20 years ago, things changed due to some recent neurological discoveries, and it's been a real game changer for us.

Now we're controlling the bird from in front and matching the speed. And it makes everything so much simpler.

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.