Edition #2
as edited by Roisin O'Neill                                                                                                                                   

The Importance of the 16 Yard Line,
And Why You Should Practice From It More Often

Thanks for taking the time to visit our website and check out what is going on at your local trap club. I hope that if you had a chance to read my first article you were able to get some information that was helpful to your shooting team organization. At the time of me writing this article the 2009 winter league is in full swing and about two ATA registered shoots have taken place in the state. So as I see a great number of shooters come to the club to practice, let’s take a look at a common situation for winter league.

Your team just got placed at the 25yd line for the head to head competitions and you’re surprised your team is back that far. You are the 6^th or 7^th team and how are you going to compete? So the first reaction is to go and practice a lot from the long handicap yardage to try and see if you can get some better scores going. Although I encourage working a little bit from the new handicap and getting a feel for the timing of the longer yardage targets, it takes a long time to get consistent from long yardage. Keeping this in mind with head to head competition and limited practice time here are some recommendations on why working on your 16yard shooting will be time well spent.

1. The 16 yd. line is where most of us started to learn how to shoot trap. This is where we develop our shooting and can work on the foundation of shotgun shooting. Stance, gun mount, vision and movement.
2. It is obvious that the 16 yd. line being the closest distance you will shoot from, the hit probability goes up. So if you spend quality practice time from this distance and work on the fundamentals of good trap shooting you will see improvement quicker than if you were to spend time trying to concentrate on handicap.  Work on creating a good pre-shot routine without the added stress of shooting from a yardage you are not comfortable with.
3. For you winter league shooters, if your team commits to getting better results from the 16yd line you will notice the strength in numbers right away. Five shooters improving their shooting just 2 targets each will give you 10 targets to the positive every week and make your team much tougher to beat. It is much easier to improve by just 2 targets from the 16yd line than from handicap.
4. As you work on your fundamentals during quality practice sessions you will become more comfortable and relaxed thus giving you more confidence and allowing you to concentrate on your handicap.  

Thanks for taking the time to read this short bit of shot gunning tips. Next time we will get into pre-shot routines and how they help improve scores! If you have questions or comments email me and george44@centurytel.net.

Be safe and shoot well,

George Miletich JR.

F.V.C.T.C