Hi and welcome to this week's episode of
Shooting Tips from the Pros. Our pro this week is Kayle Browning.
This whole episode is going to be on Trap Shooting and we chose one of the
top, top trap shooters in the world. Kayle has been
Number One Lady in the Nation, she's won several world cup medals, she's
a 2020 Olympian. And so let's get started, we've asked our
audience for some of their questions that they have
for her, so those are what we're going to go over today. We're doing
eye dominance, what her mental routine is before shooting,
some of the way she practices at home just during quarantining,
so let's get started. Welcome Kayle to Shooting Tips with the Pros. Thank you
for having me, I'm so excited to be here. Awesome, we can't wait.
So our first question today that we'd like to ask you comes from Victoria
and she has asked, "What's the difference between
different trap shooting disciplines?" So American, Olympic,
International, Bunker, some of the words that we've heard before.
If you can explain to us the difference. Sure,
so basically Bunker Trap and International Trap are the same thing.
"Bunker" is kind of like a slang term for
International Trap. And basically the difference
from that from American Trap is, International Trap
has an underground bunker that hosts 15 machines.
The angles are a lot harder they can go from anywhere between 45 degrees left
and 45 degrees right and they can also vary in height,
so they can go up to 3 meters high. Whereas American Trap
only hosts one single machine that isolates
and the height is the same. American Trap is going about
42 miles an hour on average and International Trap is going about
68 on average, depending on where you're at.
The targets too variate in speed, so they're set to a distance not a
speed. So you know your hard lefts and your hard
rights are going to be a little bit faster or slower
than your straightaways. That's neat, I did not know that the
speed is set to the distance. Yeah, the distance the target is set to a
distance and then the speed is kind of off of that to get it to
that distance. Very interesting, so you are doing
Olympic. You're doing International Trap in the
Olympics, the 2020 Olympics? Yes, I shoot the International Trap and
that's what I'll be competing in the 2020 Olympics. Well, I guess
2021 Olympics now. Yes and congratulations for making it, that's
huge. Thank you. Alright, a second question comes from
Hossein and he says, "Do you clearly see the
targets from the beginning of the trap house to
where you break the clay?" So he's asking, where do your, International seem super
super fast, so where do you first see the trap come
the clay coming out of the trap house? Yeah, that's a really good question
and it's best to explain if I show you through my shotgun video.
So I'm going to open up my iPad and show you and explain it on that.
Okay, so here is the ShotKam video I've uploaded from my iPad. So
the red dot is the ShotKam and it's attached to my bottom barrel.
The red dot is where I'm going to have my hold point for my gun.
I'm going to draw a little dot right here, that is about where I hold my eyes.
And I'm also going to draw two little lines right here,
this is what I do when I set up my vision. So, I make
almost like a little window or a little box,
that way it lets my eyes be wide enough
so I can catch the target if it's a a little bit off of this mark right here.
Sometimes they come off a little bit left sometimes, or they come off a little
bit right. And if you do it this way then you'll be
able to catch the target. So that's how I set up my
eyes. Now, pay attention to the red dot
So the target comes out right here and if you notice
the red dot does not move at all. What is happening right here
is when the target gets right about here, which would be a little bit above my gun
barrel. My eyes shoot over to the target, latch
onto the target, but it's still not clear to me yet.
And as soon as I feel like I've got a good
clear connection with the targe, I'm going to start my move
straight to the target. Now can I maintain
visual clarity on the target through the whole shot?
Yes, because I'm able to shoot this way. So from right here -
no, it is not very clear, but I'm aware of the target and I can see the flash.
As soon as I start to move, which is about right here, you can see the red dot
is moving and that is when the target is clear to me
and I am able to maintain a clear focus on the target all the way
through the shot. That's super interesting Kayle. Thanks
for the visuals that just explain everything that you're talking about. So
that was Hossein's question about where you see
the clay coming out. Next question comes from Joel,
I am right eye dominant so should I close my left eye? We get this question a
lot at ShotKam. Left eye Right eye, typically in shooting
you've got both eyes open. So, what if you have a right
eye dominant shooter, should they shoot with one eye
closed? So, assuming that if they're right eye
dominant, I'm just assuming that they are shooting left-handed so they're
cross-dominant. This question has two
different answers. So basically to kind of sum it up, if
you were a shooter who is going out to shoot with your buddies or maybe you
shoot just a couple times a year and you don't really care about progressing in
the sport. I would say you know just shoot
with one eye closed or you can even put a patch over your dominant eye and
or even like some chapstick. Just something to blur that out so you can continue to
shoot. But if you are
wanting to progress in the game, then I would highly suggest working with
a "Pro" on eye dominancy issues, because
I don't want to make it sound like it's impossible to do, but it's going to be very
difficult to make the switch over, but it is possible with putting some
work into it. And that is exactly what it's going to
take, because naturally your dominant eye wants to take over.
So you're either going to have to build-up
your eye that's not quite as dominant or you're going to have to shoot
either right-handed to become right eye dominant and right-handed. So,
without watching the person shoot that's really kind of hard to determine.
Only you know your goals so, if you if your goals are to progress in
the shoot and you want to take it competitively and be as best as possible, then
I would highly suggest getting somebody that knows and that's an
expert in that field. Explain really quickly the chapstick
thing? So, let's say I'm
right eye dominant and but I'm left-handed so I'm shooting
left-handed so when I shoot left-handed, my right eye
wants to take over which makes me look down the side of the
barrel, because my right eye is looking down and I'm shooting
left-handed. So, you can take some chapstick or a piece
of tape or something to cover up this eye
without actually having to close your eye, and it will make your left eye take
over. Very interesting, little insider tip.
Alright next question comes from James, he says, "Can you tell me about
your mental rehearsal before an event?" Yes, so
my mental rehearsal changes per event and what I mean by that is I use
the same techniques, but I'm not always in the same headspace.
So, you know whatever is going on in my
personal life, if training's not going very good, or if
training is going very good, you know there's a bunch of different variables
that are going to affect the way that I'm thinking.
So what I've done and what I found best to handle that
is come up with a pre-shot routine. So basically a pre-shot routine
is something that gives your mind a job. You have to have a purpose so your
purpose is to go out there and break one target at a time. How do
you do that? So for me personally and this is
adjusted you know per shooter what works for you but for me
personally, I make sure that all of my mechanics are set
properly from what I've been training on and then I also go through some
breathing techniques. If I can kind of focus on my
breathing then it helps ease your mind. It helps make
those fear-based thoughts that tend to come in like, oh I'm straight,
I need to you know I don't need to miss, or I'm going to shoot a 24 and my
competitor just shot a 25 and I'm straight I need to you know,
whatever those fear-based thoughts are that are coming
in breathing really helps. Another thing that really helps is
focusing on what you have trained for so long. So
anything that is familiar to you is going to give you confidence.
Like I'm familiar with my pre-shot routine
and my technique that I do when I shoot. So focusing on those things allow me to
be able to shoot tension free. That's great and I think just pearls of
wisdom there, breaking one target at a time I think
Trapshooting is so hard compared to other disciplines with it's
just try you know next one, next one, next one
and focusing one at a time I think that's really good.
Next question comes from Jim and this one this question is about
choke, so if you're not familiar or not super familiar with shotgun shooting,
the choke is the metal piece that you put at the end of your muzzle. It's a
tapered constriction that affects the the pattern of your pellets so
you can basically have a tighter pattern or a wider one.
So this one comes this question comes from Jim he says
"Kayle, do you prefer fixed chokes or interchangeable chokes?"
Meaning do you like it set in the gun or do you like to be able to adapt it?
"Also, what's your favorite choke size?" So, I have two answers to that. If I'm
shooting competitively, I shoot a sporting barrel which allows
me to be able to interchange my chokes. The combination I shoot is, I shoot
it improve-modified on my bottom barrel so, for my first shot and then my
the second shot I shoot a full choke. But if I am hunting, I like to shoot
fixed barrels. I like to shoot the parkours particularly from Krieghoff
just because they're a little bit lightweight and if you know
you've got your dog and you're carrying your gun all day hunting
they're a lot easier to maneuver. I also like to shoot the fixed chokes and
the parkours in sporting clays and FITASC because
they're a lot easier for me to start with a low mount and get up a
little bit quicker than my trap gun is set up. That's so
interesting, I didn't even know that. So next question comes from
Morgan and he said, "What's the best way to stop gun canting?" So gun canting is
a tilted mount which you can often see if you're using a ShotKam video or if
someone's just staying behind you. So he's saying if my gun is
consistently canted how can I stop that. That's a good
question, again that's one that's hard to answer
without watching the person. But just the two main things that it could
be would be one you have to understand why are you canting the gun? Is it a gun
fit issue or is it your mechanics? So if it's a gun
fit issue I can't really explain without looking
at somebody you know to see why they're actually
canting the gun. If it's a mechanical issue and the gun
fits you more than likely, just what I've seen in
coaching, is when you're mounting the gun and your
shooter has this right arm pulled all the way up
here, naturally, the butt pad of the gun curves a little bit. So you kind of curve
your gun with it and that's one of the main causes that causes
canting of the gun if it's a mechanic issue. There can also be some other
factors too that play into that, but those two things are the two that I
see most often. Either it's poor gun fit and the person
is trying to cant the gun so that you know the barrel
lines up for them or it's bad mechanics and they
just truly don't know how to mount the gun and it's causing them to cant it.
Okay, awesome. Our last question today, Kayle comes from
Garrett and he says, "What are ways to practice
at home?" and I'm assuming he's asking this just under our current
circumstances but what are ways that shooters can be
practicing even if they're off the range. So ideally, if you have a trap machine at
home, that would be awesome to be able to do that. But if you don't
there are a couple different drills that you can do
at home, and one of those is gun mounts. You know, obviously
gun mounts are great and I suggest doing those in a mirror,
so you can watch yourself. You know, how you mount the gun, are you mounting it
straight. If it if the canting was a problem and
you're working on that, then make sure you're working on not canting
the gun in the mirror. Another one you can do is an eye drill.
You can set up some different things on a wall
and have your gun mounted and when you call "pull", you can get your eyes to
whatever you're looking at and then make the move to
your target. But eye drills are working the eyes really fast.
Then my favorite probably of all and
one of the ways that I use the ShotKam the most is video analysis.
So if you are or have been training you know with your ShotKam on or your
video on, go back and watch those videos and
analyze yourself. Say you know did I make a good move here, how
was my footwork, did my eyes leave first and kind of
diagnose yourself that's the best way to learn and those are also really good
things to do while you're at home. That's awesome. For anyone who's not
familiar with the ShotKam, a ShotKam is
a gun camera that just mounts right under your barrel.
It tracks movement, so it knows when to record and when not to record
and we watched some of Kayle's videos earlier and
so Kayle thank you so much for your time today. It was fantastic, jam-
packed with knowledge. We're super honored to have you honestly
and wish you all the best in your Olympics, next year so lots of
practicing. Yes, thank you. To learn more about Kayle, you
can follow her on Instagram. She's got tons of exciting
stuff coming on. She's got a YouTube Channel,
she's got a new shooting range opening-up
with David Radulovich. She's available for coaching
and can even do online coaching. So follow Kayle on Instagram and
comment below if you have any additional questions.
She and I are going to be monitoring and answering all of your comments,
so we look forward to any more that you have and if you love it,
then we'd love to do another one with Kayle. Thanks so much for watching.