21 Comments

  1. On the other hand, coming from the competitor/athletic side of things, you *don’t* change your swing the day before the competition, even if you did meet a really good coach.

    That said, saying afterwards that you’re disappointed with the instruction because you’re doing it so wrong that they can’t tell you the advanced things yet… it’s a little clueless.

    1. I do agree with the “don’t change your swing” concept, but if your swing is fundamentally wrong and Tiger Woods says “try this”…

      1. Tiger Woods telling you the right way to do it doesn’t matter if you don’t get the training time to adjust to the new form. Looks like they had two mags which really isn’t enough to ingrain anything.

        The bigger issue is that teacup is wrong. If you do any research, you’ll find out it’s wrong. If you want to shoot and shoot well, why would you train that way? Especially if you know you’re going into shooting competition.

      2. You never try something new on race day. This is the creed I teach all my distance runners to live by. There are practice days and those are for trying out new things. Trying to change anything on race day or at elimination will make you uncomfortable and uneasy. These are two things with do not go well with winning.

        Ignore the advice for the elimination. Yes. Follow up on the advice later and practice it, Yes.

    2. I didn’t watch the first season of this show, but the quality of the shooting on the episodes that I’ve seen this season has been simply abysmal. “Top Shot” my a#@. It pisses me off that people who don’t know any better are watching this drivel, complete with an inanely shouting host, and thinking that these are great shooters.

      1. For the most part, these *are* great shooters.

        The thing is that they are being asked to make specific shots they have never done before, with an unfamiliar weapon, under competition. Asking anyone to compete “cold” is always going to result in worse performance.

        They have had multiple world-champion shooters on both seasons of the show. I think the guys know how to shoot, it’s just that the show is taking everyone out of their element. Shooting is normally about controlling as many variables as you can to get high performance – you know your gun, your ammunition, and the type of stage of fire you’re going to see. This is throwing all of that out the window.

        1. Plus very little practice time…Forget all the show performances, most of the people (all?) have shooting resumes you can just lookup (aka National Champ at Name Your Shooting Event).

  2. Totally.

    I guess we’ll see how far he can get with it, as-is.

    *SEMI SPOILER*
    He didn’t seem to do too poorly for this particular challenge.

    1. I think it really shows:
      a) That at the end of the day, if the sights are lined up when the primer fires, the bullet is going to hit the target.
      b) Until you get to a high level of performance, practice is more important than technique.

      1. Practice does NOT make perfect… perfect practice makes perfect. Competitors using the teacup have not received proper training, so practice only reinforces improper technique. I say nip it in the bud.

        Consider the piano student. Without proper instruction, practice accomplishes little.

  3. While the “don’t change your swing” concept is normally good, it does not preclude someone from trying something new. Plus, he wants someone to tell him to shoot faster, which implies changing something, but he does not want to change anything. He cannot have it both ways, especially when he feels it is his duty to coach everyone else. He obviously has some talent, but he is going to plateau quickly.

    1. I was about to chime in on the “He should just go with what works” side of the argument, but you’ve convinced me otherwise.

      A good instructor is an instructor who is himself willing to learn, and Jay is not that.

  4. I can’t disagree with any of the above, though I will say that he has come off as a complete tool since the season began. Perhaps it’s selective production…then again, perhaps not.

  5. The proof is in the pudding. He’s still in it and he has performed in all the challenges. He may not be the best, but he’s not at the bottom of the barrel either – despite his wrong grip. If he had a week between challenges, then changing his grip is a good idea, but it looks like each episode is two days apart and they get a couple hours of practice for the entire team – changing his grip probably won’t help him too much. His strategy is right but his attitude is wrong.

  7. I’ve discussed how people are vs. how they’re edited to be on TV with several friends of late. Seems to me that a person can be painted a certain way with editing, as long as there isn’t a whole lot of footage. If there’s enough of it to show a pattern, then chances are there’s at least a big chunk of that characteristic in their personality.

  8. Caleb, I’m 100% in agreement with you.

    Jay’s admitted he has little experience on handguns and, in my opinion, is one of those people who have a metric buttload of natural marksmanship talent when, paired with an indomitable ego, will always refuse the advise and instruction of experts.

    That he’s marginally successful with lousy technique should encourage him to move past the Hollywood teacup as it will push his results far beyond his obvious self-instruction.

    And… I really wish someone would dress him down on camera for muzzle / gun control discipline. These guys are supposed to be the best shooters, not the most videogenic. Half the crap I see him doing would get him booted from any sanctioned amateur match.

  9. I would much rather see the Top Shot contestants get hours and hours of practice, and then do something cool. The idea that they should try to do something new, to see if they already happened to practice that skill, is silly.

  10. He’s had more than once to fix the grip, he was told it was wrong in an earlier episode. But, as someone said, he’s done okay in the challenges, maybe we should all practice ‘teacup’ – it may turn out to be the new hot thing. Heck, they used to use one hand and turn completely sideways to the target. Have to agree, he is a tool and really thinks he is somebody.

  11. I have to agree that even though he has some skills, his personality sucks big time. As several of his teammates have said.

    What he really needs to work on is his “people skills”, I don’t know but would bet he is an only child, as he acts like he never had to share or get along with siblings growing up. Kind of reminds me of those guys in the ‘high round count training’ video you had posted a ways back. The you should avoid this example……

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