As the student pulled the trigger, McDaniel would have him change his focus from the aerial target (initially, the big flat-washer) to a point two feet beyond the muzzle of the BB gun. There the student would pick up and track the flight of the BB he had fired and register the direction in which his BB missed the target (using an imaginary clock-face with the target at the center) and the distance of the miss. The student would then tell himself that for the next shot, he was going to miss the target by the same distance but in the opposite direction. If the student proved unable to convince himself of that and continued missing consistently in the same direction each time, McDaniel would tell him that instead of focusing directly upon the next thrown target, he should focus upon a point in space the same distance from the target but in the opposite direction from his previous miss. If that didn't work, McDaniel would tell him to double the distance of the previous miss. In such manner, the student would swiftly learn how to bracket the target with each of his succeeding shots; and shortly thereafter, he would inevitably begin hitting the target. When the student could hit the initial target regularly, with about 80% accuracy, McDaniel would switch to a smaller target, usually progressing from a flat washer the size of a silver dollar to one the size of a half-dollar, then the size of a quarter, then a nickel, dime, empty .22-short cartridge case, and finally an aspirin tablet. (If McDaniel really liked the student, and had enough time for it, he would teach the student to hit two or three out of ten thrown BB's in the air.) This basic training for bird hunters and police officers generally took about three hours.