How It Works

During sporting clay competitions, competitors are presented with a wide variety of targets that duplicate the flight path of game birds, which makes it essential for competitors to have great divergence. Divergence allows the competitor to focus on and locate the target at a distance. Having a strong sense of depth perception also allows the competitor to accurately assess where the target is actually located. Targets may be thrown in a wide variety of patterns such as singles, simultaneous pairs, following pairs, or report pairs, which makes recognition and tracking skills critical for competitors to train. Recognition allows the shooter to respond to visual cues and patterns to process the sequence of the targets, while tracking allows the shooter to quickly identify the target while taking in the whole field of view.

Divergence is arguably the most important visual skill for participants during Trap Shooting competitions, as targets are thrown from a trap house located in front of the shooter. The trap rotates in a random sequence, presenting the shooter with a variety of shots going further away from them, this makes divergence critical as they locate the target in the distance, as well as tracking to accurately locate the target as it rotates. Traps also tend to angle right, left, or stay straightaway which makes tracking and important visual skill to quickly identify the target in the field of view. With trap shooters rotating throughout the five stations, they must also be aware of their alignment and depth perception to accurately locate the target in the air, rather than before or after the target.

During Skeet Shooting competitions, the traps throw targets at fixed angles including high-house targets and low-house targets. These targets are shot from opposite sides, making tracking and recognition crucial for quickly identifying the correct target when your visual cues are seen. The ability to accurately assess depth perception makes it easier to identify skeet targets as they are thrown. Depending on which position or station you are responsible for, skeet shooters must be able to use both convergence and divergence to focus on targets both near and far as each of the eight stations offers different angles and distances.

Practical shooting or speed shooting relies on both speed and accuracy, which makes recognition important for picking up on cues of when to draw, aim, and shoot. Tracking must also be used as you are often changing fields of view to quickly identify targets. During multi-firearm practical shooting competitions, shooters must cycle through a combination of different firearm styles making alignment skills critical as each different firearm will have a different scope and line of view. This change in multiple sights makes alignment important to accurately locate the target, rather than before or after the target.