Ask The Instructor: Lightning Fast

Question: Let’s say you have a true pair, Battue and a fast right-to-left Crosser. If I chose to break the crosser first, the Battue will be falling like a rock. What do I do to brake the Battue?

Answer: It depends on the pair. The broader question, that I think will answer your specific question, is what do you do if you encounter a pair with a very quick transition? In other words, the target setter has given you a pair which allows very little time to engage the second target of the pair, after engaging the first target. The short answer is, you will need to engage one of the two targets using a technique that you likely wouldn’t use if you were shooting the pair as singles or even a report pair. Fundamentally, I don’t believe that you can excel in our sport if you are limited to only one target engagement technique. We still have many in the sport that advocate using a single method on all targets: sustained lead, pull-away, etc. The fact is, in order for you to successfully engage today’s sporting clays targets, you must be able to engage the same category of target presentation with a variety of different engagement techniques. I demonstrate this in my video “Target Tactics” by Sunrise Productions. Visualizing the pair you described, I would have two options. I could either engage the battue first, fairly close to the trap with an intercept technique, or I could intercept the crossing target first, close to the trap, then intercept the battue just after its apex. If I chose to intercept the battue first, and had sufficiently increased the time I had to transition to the second target (the crosser), I might even use sustained lead or pull-away on the crosser. Obviously, I can’t answer your question with certainty without seeing the pair. The point is this: you must be able to draw on different techniques to make an otherwise very difficult pair, with a quick transition, into a much easier pair by using a different engagement technique on one or both of the targets. This also means that, as an aspiring champion, you must achieve competence and confidence in employing multiple engagement techniques on any given target.