Skeet tips is taken from Chris Batha’s book “Breaking Clays” (simplifying skeet)
Fundamentals
Feet and failure both begin with an F! Your set up governs your swing. Poor foot position creates an imbalance and impairs your ability to pivot through the target break point, without slowing or stopping.
The correct foot position can be obtained by standing with your shoulder width apart in the front and the centre of the station , address the break point of the target ……by always ensuring that your belt buckle is always pointing towards the low house trap ( if you are a right handed shooter)
Posture
The correct posture should begin with your weight evenly distributed between your feet …once you have mounted the gun change so that 70% of your weight is on the ball of the front foot. This balance promotes good head position and enables you
To make good forward movement towards the target, particularly doubles which need a very positive approach. Other benefits of correct posture are improved rotation over the front foot and assistance in keeping the head firmly on the stock.
Gun holds
The tried and trusted formulas for breaking clays apply to your gun holds as well. You must watch the target to ascertain its transition point, when it changes from a blur to a solid object .This becomes your gun hold.
In skeet this transition point occurs one third of the way from the trap house towards the centre peg. Because of variations in our personal visual acuity and reaction times, individual adjustments, learning your personal gun hold for each station... Remember, your muzzles should be just under the line of flight for every target so that the clay can be better seen.
Visual holds
The correct visual hold should be halfway between the muzzles and the trap house. The eyes should be relaxed and holding a soft focus. Some individual’s experimentation is required to find your exact visual holds. Your eyes should achieve hard focus just as the target reaches the muzzles at the gun hold making a seamless hand-eye connection to the target
Lead
Even though the target trajectory and distances in skeet are constant in skeet the angle to the shooter changes constantly as the squad progresses around the stations. Angle, more than any other aspect of the target presentation dramatically changes our perception of lead.
Lead of forward allowance is a very personal perception. One mans feet is another mans four feet. Attempts have been made to lay down computed measurements of lead for skeet but there are so many variables, the technique used the weight of the gun the speed of the swing is the shooter left or right handed an individuals perception of lead, all require that each person learn and understand his own personal lead pictures. The accepted leads for starting out at skeet are as follows.
Station 1- High House 0 lead Low house 1 foot of lead
Station 2- High House 0 lead Low House 1 – 1 and half foot of lead
Station 3- High House 3-4and half foot of lead Low House 3-4and half
Station 4- High House 3-4and half foot of lead Low House 3-4 and half foot of lead
Station 5 – High House 3-4and half foot of lead Low House 3-4and half foot of lead.
Station 6 – High House 1 foot of lead Low House 0 Lead
Station 7- High House 4-8inches of lead Low House 0 Lead
(In American skeet Station 8 High house 0 lead Low house 0 lead)
Practice
The first rule of successful skeet shooting is to shoot the singles where you would shoot the doubles, this way you only learn how to shoot 14 targets not 25.
Begin at Station one and systematically shoot all the incomers through to station 7 using the markers for your hold points and lead pictures. Do not move to the next station until you can shoot 5 straight if you miss go back and start again.
Concentrate on being smooth and seeing the target clearly before moving it may take several sessions before you can consistently break all soft clays n, do not rush but concentrate on good fundamentals and building up your bank of lead pictures when you have mastered incomers replicate the whole progress with going away targets.
If you have applied the first rule shooting the singles where you would the doubles you will be in a good shape to progress to the doubles.
The doubles create pressure and it is easy to lose smoothness you have worked so hard to achieve with the singles. So when you first begin shoot the doubles on report i.e. instead of a pair thrown simultaneously the second target is thrown on report of the first shot.
With practise this delay can be gradually shortened until you are shooting a true pair, this method of practice encourages a smooth and successful progression from singles to doubles.
Start practising the doubles on station seven and one, then as you succeed move to stations two and six then to stations three and five and finally station four this will take several sessions so be patient. If you struggle with pairs consider the following solutions.
1 good balance is essential if you start right you will finish right
2 the double present widely angled targets do not favour one over another.
3 be smooth do not rush the first shot on or just past the centre peg is the optimum place to shoot the target.
4 create time by moving smoothly remember rushing ruins rhythm do not “poke and hope”
5 where the first target is taken impacts directly on the outcome of the second of all the above do not help then experiment with taking the first target at different places.
Station One- the high house can create difficulties and there’s nothing worse than missing the first bird at the beginning of a competition. Create better visual pick up and time on this target by moving to the back of the station. By stepping back you see the target earlier.
Station Two- - the high house moving back to the left back corner this station will also give you more time and better view of the target. This target screams “Crosser” at the pick up point but by the time the shot is taken it has to be turned into a straight away.
Station Three, Four, Five
The lead is required is the same for all three stations, remember, if your right Handed the perceived lead on the high house targets is half again as much as on the low house and vice versa, this is because the target is going against or away from the direction of your natural swing rotation.
Station four- the first target of the pair is nominated and can be shot in any order however there is a distance advantage to shooting high house first. The low house target crosses the centre peg at the same height as the high house target but then it flattens and holds that line far better than the high house offering a more constant second shot.
Stations Six- Low house creates a problem for some and is easily tamed if you adopt a gun hold 90 degrees to the base cord flat on the line of the target. Do not look back for the target, but soft focus directly out past the gun to the target flight line.
Try to ensure that you do not change foot position as you swapfrom high house to low house…..remember skeet is a game of consistency combined with flawless technique
Keep a log of your misses ,analyse where you are going wrong and look for patterns …in your practice work on these stations only …as a route to improvement.
skeetshooter says: The legendary Todd Bender skeet sheet …sums all this advice up rather concisely …and it can be printed off and laminated for use in practice on the field.
if anyone has some comments they would like to add ...please let us know!!