Bender in a nutshell: A cheat sheet

The introduction to the game provided the new Skeet shooter with a pretty good idea of what it's all about and how it's played -- but very little on how to play it skillfully.
For that, you'll need competent, consistent instruction and you'll likely not get it from a group of fellow shooters, some of whose tips may prove valuable but whose mishmash of advice, techniques and opinions will likely do more to confuse than put you on a path to consistently high scores and straights.
So aside from that, you have several options:
1. Buy some books on the game, several of which were mentioned in the introduction. The problem with that is many of them are unworthy of their price and the best two, Missildine's and Braun's, are simply a bit behind the times for today's more technologically advanced Skeet game. Nevertheless, they're classics, well written and illustrated and would be worthwhile additions to your library.
2. Hire a professional instructor. If he's really competently professional he's probably worth his money and will do you a lot of good. Problem is, the money won't be cheap and you may not be able to locate such an instructor anywhere near you.
3. Buy a professional instructor's video for about the price of one hour's personal teaching from a pro.
Option 3 will likely provide the best, quickest and least expensive route to successful Skeet shooting for the beginner, and the biggest bonus is you've got the pro right there with you and can replay his instructions anytime and as many times as you like -- just plop the DVD into a player and punch a button.
And few would question that the top gun these days with the slickest instruction videos is Todd Bender.
Bender's credentials, both as a champion Skeet shooter and an instructor, are nothing short of sterling and his videos -- either the older Insight Into Championship Skeet or his current Winning with the Fundamentals in Skeet -- are of the highest quality, enhanced even further by utilizing a unique "Eye Cam" to show you exactly what Bender sees on each shot.
Bender's system for success at Skeet is itself unique. But most impressive is how he's simplified and boiled the game down to several important fundamentals and a half-dozen or so easily remembered shooting techniques.
But even simplified systems have their learning curves and unless you can take along a laptop computer or one of those neat little mini DVD players to the range, the next best crutch is a printed cheat sheet in your pocket -- a handy quick-reference summary of the salient points of the original instruction package -- and that's what you'll find here.
The cheat sheet will be useful not only for beginners, but for anyone who follows Bender's methods for shooting Skeet.
But it's still just a cheat sheet and in no way can be a replacement for the actual video. It can only be truly useful after you've watched the video -- preferably several times.
So if you don't already have it you'll have to spend upwards of about sixty bucks for the DVD, which is not much considering what you'll get out of it. You'll spend that much on shotshells and a few rounds of Skeet, the results of which will likely continue to be unimpressive until you've had some good instruction.
Here are a couple of sources for Bender's videos:
Sunrise Productions, the company that produces Bender's videos: $59.95, plus S/H.
eBay seller ncpms -- This guy always has new copies of the current Winning with the Fundamentals in Skeet available in an auction at a Buy It Now price of $49.99, plus $4.50 S/H, so you could save a few bucks there. The link will take you to his profile. Click "Items for Sale" in the box to the right and you'll get a huge list of his current auctions. Might be quicker to just put Todd Bender in the eBay search engine. You'll not only get this guy but any other Bender video auctions, where your winning bid might cost even less.
This cheat sheet reflects Bender's specific way of doing things and avoids offering alternatives. If after a fair trial you feel the need to make some adjustments, by all means do so and give 'em a try. But at least give Bender's methods a fair shot before you branch off into modifications. Otherwise, why buy the video in the first place?
You can get a couple of leaner versions of the cheat sheet without this introductory text in .PDF files from links at the bottom. They're quick downloads at less than 40 seconds.
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I hope this is easier for you to deal with and I am not smart enough to make it pretty so you can save the link that this sends you to, sorry!
In Trap, the targets emerge from the house at different angles and at Sporting Clays they're apt to come from anywhere. But with Skeet the targets take the same predictable flight path, at the same height and at the same angle and speed from the High and Low Houses every time.
The targets' behavior may differ slightly from range to range but they'll mostly fly the same on any particular field. You'll just have to note any differences from field to field and adjust accordingly.
Since the mechanics of Skeet are all consistently repetitious, so should your approach be to dealing with them.