There were other factors easing the pressure on the student. One of the most important steps was to eliminate the complications of noise and recoil when the gun was fired, which the use of the BB gun as the training aid did. The second step was to make it as easy as possible for the student to begin hitting the target right away. To do that, McDaniel not only threw up a large flat washer for the student, but also lofted it straight up into the air, parallel to the ground, and gave it a spin for added stability. This presented the student with the easiest possible target. But if the student could not begin hitting that target quickly, then McDaniel would switch to a larger target. Occasionally, he would find it necessary to throw up an aluminum pie-plate right above the muzzle of the student's BB gun with the goal of getting the student to hit the target regularly, as it was then just a matter of shrinking the size of the target in small steps.