Sport psychology was a vital component of McDaniel's courses. To train a student, he would, as his first step, casually throw small targets (empty .22-short cartridge cases, aspirin tablets, or BB's) up in the air, and just as casually shoot and hit them in flight with his BB gun. This move would establish firmly in the student's mind that such shooting skills were attainable, and that McDaniel had mastered them, and therefore that he probably knew what he was teaching. Consequently, the student was usually willing to accept McDaniel's instruction as valid, and thereafter to do exactly as he was told without objection.