How We Can Teach You Self-Correction

I had a lesson not long ago with a shooter who'd been shooting with a pro-tournament shooter, complaining about vision problems and closing an eye. He'd been told over and over, “Now this target's going to take three feet to the right and a foot under.” And he was very frustrated.

After showing him what the sight pictures really looked like, I started him on left-to-right crossers and he was amazed what his brain could really do if he created separation on the correct side of the barrel and really matched speed.

We moved to right-to-left across the barrel. He missed the customary three to four shots in front, but then he finally hit one and he was off and was speechless. He shot crossers out to 40 yards and he was really centering the target. We immediately scheduled another lesson for a week later.

And here's where it really gets interesting. Between the lessons, he had shot on a skeet range - just crossers - and seemed to have trouble with low house across-the-barrel shots. Nonetheless, we started on left-to-right. He shot really well, matching speed. We shot some teal going up, some teal going down. We took several breaks, which he had intermittent results on, but he was having trouble with the picture across the barrel.

Finally, after about eight or ten shots, he hit three right-to-left crossers in a row. I told him to stop and look back at the breakpoint and replay what he saw when the target broke. “See it across the barrel. Replay it.”

He said, “I’ve never done this.” I said, “I know. Do it again. See the target coming to you. See it across the barrel. See the speed match.”  I had him do it three times.

Then we shot the same target over and over and over, right to left across the barrel. The guy had been closing an eye. He got to 14 in a row and I said, “Dude, that's 14 in a row.” Guess what he did on the next one? He missed it.

But the exciting thing is, the instant he missed it, he called his miss correctly and he corrected it on its own. Then we shot the same target over and over again. He was amazed at how just stopping and visualizing what he saw enabled him to break it 14 times in a row. Then when I screwed him up intentionally, he knew exactly what happened and he corrected it on its own.

This is an adapted excerpt from the December 2024 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.