Ballard Sets Sights on Setting His Sights : Shooting: After refining his skill in the Army, he takes a shot at another Olympics and a world championship.

Brian Ballard believes there is a formula for success in trap shooting:

--90% visual skill--the “instinctive” ability to point.

--8% technique.

--2% luck.

He said 98% should come easily for him at the 45th World Shooting Championships in Moscow, U.S.S.R., next month. “Realistically, if I can go in there and have that 2% luck for three days, I’ll come back with a medal,” Ballard said.

Luck is important in a sport in which the 4 1/4-inch width of a single flying clay targetcan be the distance between top honors and middle of the pack.

Only three targets were the difference between the 1988 Olympic gold medalist, who hit 195 of 200, and Ballard, who placed 12th.

Ballard, 29, began developing shooting skill and technique at age 8, when his father in Cul-de-sac, Ida., taught him how to use a rifle.

Ballard began competing at 10, and after he graduated from Lewis-Clark College in Lewiston, Ida., the Army gave him the opportunity to work full time on refining his shooting skills with the Marksmanship Unit at Ft. Benning, Ga.

He stayed with the Marksmanship Unit--the one responsible for training most world-class American shooters--for seven years, but left to avoid serving overseas as an infantry staff sergeant.

His reputation as a trap shooter got him another job offer--this time to manage the Coto Valley Country Club Hunt Lodge in Coto de Caza.

Ballard believes just about anyone can develop some skill as a trap shooter.

“I can take anybody who has decent eyesight and decent hand-eye coordination and make them into a recreational trap shooter.” he said. The “mental game” required of a world-class shooter, however, is a different matter.

Ballard’s mental game has improved in recent years. He went into the last 25-target round of the ’84 Olympic trials needing to hit 23 to make the team. He hit 22. “Looking back on it, I was scared,” he said. “I just choked.”

But at the ’88 trials, where Ballard found himself in a similar situation, he was ready. “I remember I had a smile on my face when I walked out on the field for the last round,” he said. “I had been in that situation before and I knew I could deal with it.”

Ballard also finished second at the national championship in 1988, has shot on five U.S. national teams and is the current California state champion.

Though he has made a livelihood of standing up to the pressure of competitive trap shooting, Ballard said he is more comfortable hunting dove or giving lessons at the lodge.

He said the ranges he competes at are “like my office.”

“It’s not all fun,” Ballard said of the four months each year he spends traveling to and participating in trap-shooting tournaments. “It is (fun, sometimes) or I wouldn’t be in it. But it’s my job. . . . It’s something I want to excel in like anyone wants to excel at their livelihood.

“It’s the competitiveness in me that keeps me doing it. It keeps me going.”

The National Rifle Assn. is one of the governing bodies for U.S. trap shooting and often uses competitive events to raise money to support political lobbying against gun control.

Just by telling people what he does for a living, Ballard is often forced into discussions he sometimes finds tiresome. “Of course I’m pro-gun,” he said. “I’m not into the politics that much. . . . Again, I’m just a competitor. I don’t think the politics should be involved in it. . . . I’m just a guy trying to have some fun.”

Off the shooting range, Ballard can let go of his competitive edge. “When I’m hunting with my friends, if I miss a shot, I’ll get ribbed a lot,” he said. “But I’ll laugh right along with them.”