"Why do the women shooters always score 10-20 fewer birds than the men?"
Why do the women shooters always score 10-20 fewer birds than the men?
Phyllis Lundquist, Seattle, WA
***
A great question, since this is not a game of strength. It’s not like golf where the ladies need to be yards ahead of the guys to get their ball down the fairway. Shooting is more a game of finesse – not of strength. Gil and I have been trying to figure this out for years. Here are a few thoughts we have had.
The biggest difference between men and women (and therefore in their scores) is that women have more trouble staying focused on the goal of hitting the target. Women are used to doing six to eight things all at the same time. I can see all the ladies' heads nodding yes. Men do one thing at one time. Therefore, they are very focused. Their only thought while they are in the shooting cage is hitting that target and making it break.
Ladies, what we need to learn (and it is a learned art) is to have all our focus on hitting the target while in the shooting cage. Talk all you want before you get in the shooting cage, but once in there, you need to be all business and very focused. Your goal must be only of hitting the target, not what others are saying or who has walked up to the station or where you are having dinner tonight. Women need to think of the target as the enemy and get a little more assertive about hitting it. When you call for the bird, your whole concentration must be on hitting the target.
How to do this? When do women become the most focused? When they are angry.
A woman gets very focused when she is mad. There is a reason for that old saying that "nothing is worse than a woman’s scorn." So let’s use it to be the best shotgunner in the world. The goal for each woman, as she is shooting, is to find something within herself that triggers that assertiveness for her to become so completely focused on hitting that target that you keep loading your gun until someone tells you to stop.
Don’t get mad - get even! By becoming focused on nothing else but the target. If the ladies can become that focused, it can only help their scores to rise.
Phyllis Lundquist, Seattle, WA
***
A great question, since this is not a game of strength. It’s not like golf where the ladies need to be yards ahead of the guys to get their ball down the fairway. Shooting is more a game of finesse – not of strength. Gil and I have been trying to figure this out for years. Here are a few thoughts we have had.
The biggest difference between men and women (and therefore in their scores) is that women have more trouble staying focused on the goal of hitting the target. Women are used to doing six to eight things all at the same time. I can see all the ladies' heads nodding yes. Men do one thing at one time. Therefore, they are very focused. Their only thought while they are in the shooting cage is hitting that target and making it break.
Ladies, what we need to learn (and it is a learned art) is to have all our focus on hitting the target while in the shooting cage. Talk all you want before you get in the shooting cage, but once in there, you need to be all business and very focused. Your goal must be only of hitting the target, not what others are saying or who has walked up to the station or where you are having dinner tonight. Women need to think of the target as the enemy and get a little more assertive about hitting it. When you call for the bird, your whole concentration must be on hitting the target.
How to do this? When do women become the most focused? When they are angry.
A woman gets very focused when she is mad. There is a reason for that old saying that "nothing is worse than a woman’s scorn." So let’s use it to be the best shotgunner in the world. The goal for each woman, as she is shooting, is to find something within herself that triggers that assertiveness for her to become so completely focused on hitting that target that you keep loading your gun until someone tells you to stop.
Don’t get mad - get even! By becoming focused on nothing else but the target. If the ladies can become that focused, it can only help their scores to rise.