Shooting

There is a famous sports quote that goes: “If your head’s not in the game, you’re not in the game.” I don’t know who came up with this notion, but whoever did was spot on.
    No matter what the game, the player’s mental engagement is paramount, and it’s as true in shooting as in anything performed with some form of ball or anything else. My shooting-school partner, Bryan Bilinski of Fieldsport, planted the idea in my mind while recounting a late-season trip to hunt quail in Kentucky. After enduring some recriminations from me—based upon the fact that he got to go and I didn’t—he unrolled a thought that has stuck with me. I learned long ago to take Bryan’s insights seriously, because he’s usually right. We don’t always agree on the approach, but when it comes to the bottom line we’re on the same page. I think it has to do with differences in our teaching styles. More than once our students have identified Bryan as the cheerleader and me as the professor. Doesn’t matter; if we end up in the same place, who cares how we get there? A lot of our Fieldsport students have complimented the program for the diversity of style. It wasn’t something we set out to create.
    But when Bryan told me about his quail hunting trip, a bell went off that I believe every wingshooter should hear. What he said, in essence, was that when it was his turn to climb off of the quail wagon and walk in on a point, he would be successful according to how well he was mentally engaged with what he was about to do. This led to eight double kills in a row. It doesn’t surprise me, because Bryan does know how to shoot, but there is a fundamental truth lurking in there.
    He used the word “aggressive,” which I’ve heard from other instructors. I’m about as un-aggressive as anyone you ever met, but I understand the concept. Some years back I was shooting high pheasants at Molland Estate, in the West Country of England, hitting most of what I was shooting at in my characteristically laid-back style but missing some birds I really shouldn’t have been missing. After a while one of Holland & Holland’s instructors came by, watched me for few minutes, and said, “You need to get more aggressive. Go after these birds.”
    So I perked up and did get more aggressive—and killed almost every bird I shot at. I prefer to think of it as mental engagement rather than aggression, but by any name it works.
    Once you’ve acquired a sound technique—a method you can repeat over and over while keeping your wits about you—you will move from learning an athletic act to a kind of Zen experience that kicks everything to a different level. It is somewhere between conscious thought and sheer instinct.
    I have taken this up with my stepson, Aaron Cross, who is a Paralympic-medalist archer. You simply cannot perform at his level without mental engagement. So I asked what he does by way of preparation. To compress some long conversations, he begins with some head-clearing relaxation exercises that typically involve visualization—stepping outside of his body to see himself doing what he intends to do. It works for nearly any physical act. I once knew a young man who was a crack welder, and he told me that his approach was to visualize himself welding a perfect bead and then he could do it.
    Aaron says that he prepares for each shot by setting his mind on the task at hand and repeating his mantra. A mantra can be anything you want, so long as it’s a positive thought. I will hit anything that flies in front of me is an example. I won’t miss is an example of what not to think: too many negatives there. I’ve hit this before, and I can do it again is better. (I used that one when I was shooting about 5,000 skeet targets every month. There is no shot on a skeet field that I haven’t hit many more times than once.) You could call it The Power of Positive Thinking if you don’t mind lapsing into clichés; the key is to find whatever works, believe it and stay with it.
    I probably should mention that Aaron’s been confined to a wheelchair for about 18 years, the result of a bicycle-racing accident when he was a teenager. What he’s accomplished since is simply remarkable. He won his Paralympic medal from his chair, has become a skydiver and a SCUBA diver, and has done anything else he’s put his mind to doing. Next year he plans to go to South Africa, don his SCUBA gear and go down to watch the great white sharks gather. His escapades sometimes send his mother into a tizzy. They only add to my admiration of him. He reminds me of myself at that age—which also sends his mother into a tizzy, but that’s neither here nor there. Suffice to say that if I could manufacture a son, he would  be Aaron.
    And one more thing: the legendary Robin Hood shot, in which the almost-surely mythical archer splits an arrow he’s already stuck into a target. A few years ago a couple of dimbulbs who hosted a television show invited some so-called expert archers to duplicate the shot. In the end they all concluded it couldn’t be done. I’m here to tell you that it can. I’ve seen Aaron do it. You can’t really split a graphite-shafted arrow, but he stuck the second one squarely into the nock of the first, and it was captured on videotape. Put enough technique together with enough concentration, and you won’t go wrong.
    Back to the topic at hand. When your dog nails a solid point, the last thing you want to do is stroll in fat, dumb and happy with your mind scattered in 12 directions. That’s a sure ticket to a miss, and if you’re hunting rather than out for a nature walk, I would have to assume that your primary intention is to shoot something instead of just blowing holes in the sky. If it doesn’t matter, carry a walking stick instead of a gun.
    If it does matter, get your head in the game. You can’t keep up that level of concentration all day long, but you can learn to refocus when it’s your turn to shoot. It takes a great output of energy, but the rewards are mightily sweet.

Author’s Note: For more information on Fieldsport Wingshooting Schools, including a new Family Oriented Wingshooting School, contact Fieldsport, 231-933-0767; www.fieldsportltd.com.

Michael McIntosh is the author of such books as A.H. Fox, Wild Things, Best Guns, Shotguns and Shooting and More Shotguns and Shooting. His new book, Shotguns and Shooting Three, is available for $25 (plus shipping) from 800-685-7962; www.shootingsportsman.com.