Chris Batha - Breaking Clays

My grateful thanks go to the many editors, writers and authors (living and deceased) whose works have helped build the knowledge to write this book and to the fellow coaches and clients who have helped create the experience to know what works:

Cyril Adams, Dolph Adams, Bob Allen, Gil and Vicki Ash, Lionel Atwill, Lanny Bassam, Fred Baughan, Paul Bentley, John Bidwell, Bryan Bilinski, Stephen A. Blumenthal, Bruce Bowlen, Robert Braden, John Brindle, Bob Brister, Bruce Buck, Nash Buckingham, Louise Burke, Major Sir Gerald Burrard, Dan Carlisle, G.L. Carlisle, Robert Churchill, Charles Conger, George Conrad, Chris Craddock, Dr Debbie Crews, Milhaly Csikszentmihalyi, Fred Neal David, Ken Davies, Bob Decot, Steve Denny, Chuck DeVinne, George Digweed, Andy Duffy, George Evans, Julian Murray-Evans, Richard Faulds, Alister Ferguson, Marty Fischer, John Gosselin, Rob Gray, Les Greevy, John Gregson, B. C. Hartman, Robert R. Hartman, Macdonald Hastings, John Hawley, Arthur Hearn, Gene Hill, Roger Hill, Charles Hillman, Tony Hoare, Dave Holmes, Mick Howells, Susan Jackson, Christopher Janelle, Alan Jarrett, David Judah, Nick Karas, Michael Kayes, Bill Kempffer, John King, Mike King, Richard Alden Knight, Frank Kodl, Charles Lancaster, David Leathart, Ernie Lind, John R. Linn, Frank Little, David Lloyd, Tom Mack, Robin Marshall-Ball, Dr Wayne F. Martin, E.S. McCawley, Jr, Michael Mclntosh, Jerry Meyer, E. Migdalski, Tom Migdalski, Chris Miles, Brian Miller, Fred Missildene, Jack Mitchell, Peter Munday, Andrew A. Montague, Bob Nichols, Tony Norman, Steve Nutbeam, Jack OConnor, George G. Orberfell, Michael Pearce, Tom Penman, Neal Phillips, Richard Rawlingson, Mike Reynolds, Michael Rose, Micky Rouse, Bob Rottella, Major J.E.M. Ruffer, Ed Scherer, Dan Schindler, Bruce Scott, Robin Scott, Roger Silcox, A.J. Smith, Ronald W. Stadt, Percy Stanbury, Jackie Stewart, Ralph Stuart, Dale Tate, Douglas Tate, John Taylor, Mark H. Taylor, Charles E. Thompson, John Topliss, David Trevallion, Vic Venters, Doug Vine, Billy Walker, Sam Wilkinson, Mike Williams, John Wooley, Mike Yardley, and Don Zutz.

I am grateful for the help given to me by a number of people and companies in the writing of this book:

Michael Brunton for his permission to use the original artwork illustrations from ClayShooting magazine.

BlacksWingandClay for their permission to use original artwork illustrations and tables from their publication.

Mike Barnes for his permission to use original artwork from Pull magazine.

Rob Gray of TheShootingTimes and CountryMagazine for his permission to use original artwork from the magazine.

Beretta, Brownells, Browning, Electronic Shooters Protection, Magna-port International, Promatic Traps, Ranger Shooting Glasses, White Flyer Targets, Winchester (Olin Corp) Inc for photographs and reference materials.

The CPSA and NSCA for the publication of their rules and regulations.

Sara Gump of Redfield & Associates for original photography and help and support without her the book would never have been written.

John Beaton for his editorial efforts in transforming my illegible scribbling into legible print.

Trudy Abadie-Fail for her excellent work in transforming ordinary photographs into handsome photo-illustrations .

Glyn Griffin, designer, and Rob Dixon, Production Manager, for their patience and dedication to creating an interesting and accessible layout and design.

Jeff Love, for his outstanding cover design.

Louis LaSorsa and his team at Phoenix Colour Corporation for his extraordinary generosity and assistance in printing this book.

And finally, my thanks go to Andrew Johnston of Quiller Publishing for his foresight and confidence in making the decision to publish BreakingClays.

I am a lucky man I enjoy my work. When I am not coaching, I am shooting and shooting has been my life-long passion. I still feel the same sense of anticipation and excitement entering a competition today as I did twenty-plus years ago.

My passion for shooting has taken me all over the world, offering more fantastic experiences and long-lasting friendships than I could ever have dreamed of. I often reflect on how this all came about it was not planned I never woke up one morning and decided to become a shooting instructor. I had never even considered it, it just happened. On reflection, instructing evolved from my own shooting. Being limited by my budget, I wanted to shoot more and thought working at a shooting ground would give me the opportunity. Silly me! As it ended up, I shot less!

I began by refereeing and helping with corporate entertainment and quickly recognised that there was a great deal of difference between being able to shoot a target and teaching someone else how to. Then I saw an announcement in the Pull magazine for a CPSA One Day Coaches Course and thought that this would help me to help the corporate clients break a few more targets.

I had opened Pandoras Box! I am a competent shot, not a great shot. I can, more often than not, straight skeet and trap and average in the mid-eighties at sporting clays. This one day course taught me that I knew next to nothing about how I did it. I was intrigued, curious and wanted to learn more. I began to read everything I could on teaching shooting: books, magazines, videos I bought and studied them all! At the same time, I continued to take CPSA coaching courses, one after another. These courses were held in the spring, followed by an examination in the autumn. The skills taught required practice to learn, so throughout the summers, I worked at any and every shooting ground or corporate entertainment company that I could.

You can learn any skill, but nothing teaches like experience. During the five years of courses that led to my receiving the CPSA Senior Coaches Award, I learned from every instructor I worked with, every client I coached, every article and book I read and every video I watched.

The contents of BreakingClays are not only my thoughts and ideas but are a distillation of all that I have learned from these many sources. I would like nothing better than to list and credit each and every one, but it would take another book in its own right to do so! Just let me offer a very big Thank you to you all and recognise that, if it were not for your willingness to share your knowledge, in person or on paper, I could not have written this book. I hope you may recognise a little of your input in my interpretation of how to break clays.

W hen asked to write this book, I had to make a decision as to its direction and content. During my life I have worked alongside many good instructors and shot in many competitions. Through these experiences I have had the opportunity to study the best shots in the world in action. I have always given special attention to anyone who had won two or more championships and observed the similarities among them in their approach to the game.

My intention is to share with you some of the secrets of successful clay shooting that Ive learned from years of studying the best. I have focused most of my attention on the fundamentals for this is where you will see the greatest similarities among the best shootersthis is where you see what the top shots consistently do that the also-rans do not. Secondly, I decided it would be impossible to do justice to all the disciplines in one book so I have chosen to concentrate on the three main or domestic games sporting clays, skeet and trap.