Practice

Almost 65 degress today, great for mid-March. Shot 3 rounds of handicap, a round of singles, a low hold corner drill, a 16-yd/25-yd slider and a box of shells shooting hard rights and lefts standing to the left of post 1 and to the right of post 5 (i.e. harder angles). Shot ok, nice to be outside, getting more consistent handicap scores.

Nicer weather = better practice scores

Getting >40 degree, sunny, less windy days. Shot at 400 targets since last Thursday and am finally getting some decent handicap scores. First ATA shoot is 5-weeks away.

Getting some practice in

Shot Saturday and Sunday, it was around 28 to 30 degrees and a litte windy but the sun was out. I shot 2 yard sliders where you start at 16 and go back to 25 yards on each post. Shot post 1 and post 5 sliders, shot some handicap and singles. Shot corner drills.

Within all that, some good shooting and some bad shooting. Hoping that the bad shooting will work out as the weather warms up.

You can't hit what you can't see

The clay target shooting books that I read at the end of last year talked a lot about eye exercises, both to improve the ability to focus and refocus over the course of shooting at a tournament (endurance) and to be able to quickly focus on and track a moving target.

I've been watching a 20 minute DVD everyday for a month which exercises the two ways primates track objects of interest. The first is saccades which allows the eye to quickly pick up a moving object. The second is smooth pursuit which allows the eyes to track a moving object. Both obviously important for clay target shooting.

On the DVD, you follow a dot with your eyes which moves at different speeds and in different patterns. It also flashes dots and series of letters on the screen to teach you to focus quickly.

I found this iPhone app which breaks the eye exercises into four categoires: analysis, reactivity, memory, and attention.

Our Wii has a target shooting game that I think also develops eye-hand coordination, focus, concentration, timing, etc...

Grand American Handicap, 1926

Look at this group of snappy dressers from 1958

Making plans to go to the Grand American Handicap this summer

Making plans to go to the Grand American this summer for the first time, have the RV rented, Dad and Cal are going. Mr F. E. Rogers of St. Louis MO won the Grand American Handicap with an LC Smith in 1906, the year this poster came out. He broke a 94 out of 100 in a "gale force" wind. That was just a few years after 1902 which was the last year they used live birds. 1900 was the last time live birds were shot at the Olympics. The first ATA Grand American was held in 1893. The Kentucky Derby has been around since 1853.