When I grew up my father had a ten year old or one hundred pound rule. You had to be one or the other. In part that was to make sure you could hold and use a gun properly. I think his point was that a 50 pound kid is going to struggle with a seven pound gun with full recoil. When I wanted my kids to start clay target, Skeet, shooting the first thing they learned after safety was how to pull targets. In fact I had them pull hundreds of targets and watch every one of them from out the window to past the fence. It taught them how to see targets and by seeing hundreds of them it slowed them down. They got use to target speed and flight.
When they started shooting it was with a 20 ga. 1100, shooting 3/4 ounce reloads. First shot was low seven then high seven. After they mastered those I went right to station one and started them on a regular round. We did this with no others shooting with us. That way they did not need to feel nervous. After a few rounds they added doubles into their rounds at 1,2,6 and 7. Station 8 was added last. It took my middle son 15-20 rounds before he ran his first 25 his little brother longer but he had a number of 24's which just about drove him crazy.
Funny thing is when they wanted to try Trap they sat behind the shooters and watched a few rounds first, to figure out the birds, before they shot their first round. It comes natural for them when shooting Sporting Clays to watch the birds when others are shooting in front of them. They learn by others mistakes and by what they do correctly.
