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Ever wonder why some guys
hit their intended target almost all the time even when conditions aren't the
greatest? Not the NRA 2700 Bulls-Eye shooters, or the IPSC or IDPA shooters.
Not the Benchrest shooters or the High Power Rifle shooters. Not the Trap or
Skeet shooters. We aren't talking about competitive shooters, not the Olympic
Champion Grade Grand Masters. We all know how they hit targets….they
aren't human, they are shooting gods. I'm talking about us every day common
folks, that may need to blast our way out of a criminal attack.
If your like most shooters, you frequent the
range when you can and practice shooting a bunch when you get there. Each time
you start, you get these annoying flyers. You say to yourself, "self, you need
to get out and practice more!" After about 50 rounds you are getting pretty
good again. After about 200 rounds, things are starting to fall apart. By the
time you launch 300 rounds down range, you are tired, fatigued and worthless.
You have "CHS".
Yet there always seems to be
one in the crowd that always hits their mark. These shooters have discovered
the "Defensive Marksmanship Secret". Some learned from someone else. Others
learned on their own. Most don't even know they have a secret.
OK, here it is, "line up your sights and fire
the gun without disturbing the sight picture" …….that's it, that's
the big secret. My students actually pay me for this secret and you just got it
free. Almost makes me feel guilty (I said "almost").
Well wait a minute, there has to be more to
it than this! Of course there is, any good champion will tell you how important
the isosceles stance is, just ask some IPSC shooter. Unless of course you are
shooting from prone, from a chair, from kneeling or running, and then none of
these positions utilize the "STANCE". So, that can't be it.
How about grip, now that is important. It
sure is. So important that anyone never firing a handgun before can pick one up
and shoot after viewing just one 30 minute cop show on TV.
It must be breathing control. Hogwash, in
fact breathing is something you probably shouldn't think about at all when in a
gun fight. If you hold your breath, sooner or later you will gasp for air and
start breathing again.
Probably you need new
glasses so you can look through the Rear Sight and FOCUS on the Front Sight
(ever hear that one before!). Bull buffalo chips, a blind person can hit
center-mass at three yards.
The key to this
secret folks is between your ears. It's called, a brain. The brain has two
sides, the light side and the dark side. The light side is the side you are
using right now reading this. The dark side is the side whispering in your ear,
"does this guy really know what he is talking about?".
Your light side uses logic, your dark side is
irrational and wild. All your life you have been training your light side to be
logical, use common sense, be responsible, use better judgment, or in other
words, it's your boring side.
Your dark side
works outside your control, more on emotion and instinct. It is wild and free
to react instead of respond. It's the side you let get you in trouble, when
your light side knew better.
And there lies
the key and the obstacle folks, your dark side is in-between you and hitting
your mark every time. What most folks don't realize is, your dark side needs to
be trained too….. |
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Before I continue, let me explain that
I feel all the fundamentals of shooting are important and all that coaching you
may have received from your instructor is wise information and skill building.
Also, please understand that I have the greatest respect for anyone that spends
time, money and energy participating in the shooting sports to improve their
skills. If I have offended anyone in the first section, I offer my apology, as
my intent was not to bad mouth anyone or any system, but rather to interest the
reader in what I have to say.
Behavioral scientist types tell us we
are born with two natural fears; the fear of falling and the fear of loud
noises. Everyone seems to be included in this group of "born with", so we all
have to address these natural fears to one degree or another. Some seem to have
very little fear and others seem to be overwhelmed with it even to the point of
incapacitation.
The fear of falling is not directly linked to the fear
of heights. I used to fly with another pilot that was afraid of heights. He was
a good pilot but didn't like looking straight down. That meant he enjoyed
straight and level flight and moderate turns. He did not enjoy flying on his
back and often let me know he didn't appreciate me flipping the cockpit upside
down!
I am not afraid of heights, but according to the
experts, I have this "born with" fear of falling. Your fear of falling can be
triggered by a sudden movement outside of your control. As related to shooting,
it is that sudden flip from the recoil that our dark side interprets as a
sudden uncontrolled movement.
The fear of loud noises is easier for us to understand
because we recognize the loud report of the shot going off as noise. Even with
ear protection on, the noise of gun fire can be annoying.
Most people shooting a handgun for the first time, that have not been
exposed to gun fire before, can hit a very small target area with only brief
instructions. Many will often jerk or react after the first shot is fired and
make some kind of comment that implies they were surprised and not ready for
the recoil or the loud noise.
It doesn't take long before their light
side becomes accustom to the recoil and noise which is usually explained by a
friend or instructor. But the dark side, the side that runs wild on it's own,
isn't really buying all that explanation stuff. It feels the pain from the
natural born fears of falling and noise and doesn't like it.
Also, the dark side is probably our smartest side, and it doesn't
take long for it to realize that every time the trigger finger presses on the
evil trigger, it experiences that sudden flip from recoil followed by the loud
noise. The dark side wants you to stop pressing the trigger, but your light
side is having to much fun. Not being able to stop this action, the dark side
sends signals to the light side every time it feels the trigger finger starting
to move. It tells the light side to react in a way that would prevent the bad
experience of sudden flipping and noise.
This action is rudimentary and not very effective at stopping the
recoil and noise, but it does have a direct effect on our accuracy. The signals
from your dark side work so fast that in the time it takes you to think "fire"
and start pressing the trigger, the light side receives this signal from the
dark side, in anticipation of the bad action that is about to occur, and we
jerk the trigger and push on the gun in a reaction, often times referred to as
flinching.
Now everyone has this problem, even those Grand Master
shooting gods. Some people have it worse than others, but none the less we all
experience it. So, what if you have it to the point that when you aim at the X
ring you hit the 4 or 5 ring or maybe even worse, completely miss the target?
Well, you have to start training your dark side to stop sending those nasty
signals which cause you to flinch.
Unlike most of the training we use on our light side, training the
dark side is a completely different aspect and challenge. It starts with
communications. That's right, you have to start communicating brain-to-brain.
This isn't a verbal out loud type of communications. I suggest you keep these
communications to yourself, unless you have a burning desire to visit the funny
farm.
Start with some understanding that the reaction your
dark side is experiencing, is normal. It is reacting the only way it knows, to
a very abnormal situation. It is not natural to hold a gun in our hands, press
the trigger and have it explode several inches from our face. Your dark side is
making a natural reaction to an abnormal situation.
One way we can train our light and dark side is by repeating the
abnormal action often until it becomes normal. That means we have to get out to
the range and shoot more often. How much more often depends on the individual,
but it usually takes more than every couple of months.
Let me draw a picture with words; when a soldier goes into battle for
the first time and kills his first enemy, he will encounter a normal reaction
to an abnormal event. Different soldiers react differently but they all go
through some type of trauma at the event of taking a human life. The next day
this soldier takes another enemy life and goes through a similar reaction. On
the third day and the third kill, the reaction is again similar, but not near
as dramatic. As the days go on and the killing continues, sooner or later the
soldier stops feeling and going through the normal reaction to an abnormal
event, because the abnormal event has become normal. Every day he goes into
battle and kills the enemy, nothing new any more, nothing different from
yesterday, or the day before, or the day before that. When the soldier returns
home from the war and settles down into normal life again, he goes through some
trauma because he doesn't go into battle and kill any more. After years pass of
peacetime, the normal day-to-day activity of killing returns to being an
activity that would be abnormal. After 10-15 years of peace go bye, and this
same soldier has to kill someone, he can expect to go through those same
feelings he had the first time. Not as shocking perhaps, but still a certain
level of trauma would be experienced.
Now take that picture and compare it to shooting. When you first
start, the dark side is reacting normally to an abnormal event. If you visit
the range and shoot every day or every week, after a few months, your system
will become acclimated to the recoil and noise and it will have become more
normal. Stop shooting for a few months or a year. Now when you start shooting
again, you are going to be faced with training your mind because it will have
lost the relation of the noise and muzzle flip as being a normal event.
Some people shoot every day or every week and still can not get over
the tendency to flinch. It usually takes more than repeated exposure to
shooting, to train the dark side. Remember the light side is logical, rational
and more receptive to mechanical events. It can understand that the shooting
sport you participate in is safe, rewarding and enjoyable. It recognizes the
enjoyment and satisfaction you get from launching tiny little bullets at far
off targets and hitting your mark.
The dark side is irrational, reactive and emotional. It doesn't care
if you are having fun, because it doesn't understand the purpose. Sooner or
later your light side has to take command of your dark side. Notice I did not
say "control", I said "command". If your light side can control your dark, you
are one in a million. But, you can train to command the dark side and educate
it about certain events.
Talk to your dark side and explain the
situation, continuously communicate with it. OK, I know this is starting to
sound a little flaky. Just trust me for a while and follow along.
When you bring your gun up, you start to establish your sight
alignment and sight picture. There is a continuous flow of information exchange
between your conscious thought process and the mechanics of your body parts as
you strive to keep the gun aligned on target. Depending on the shooting
scenario this period of time could be seconds or minutes. Regardless, the
communication continues.
After you take up the slack and have
preloaded your trigger the amount of time it takes you to actually trip the
trigger and start the ignition process, is but a split second. In that split
second we often neglect to communicate with the dark side to prepare it for the
outcome, noise and flip.
Now there are a few tricks or drills
instructors use to attempt to get students past the flinch. One of the old time
favorites, still being used effectively, is the Ball-and-Dummy drill. With a
revolver you load some chambers with live ammo (the Ball, for ball ammo), and
other chambers with fired cases (the Dummy part). The shooter concentrates on
the front sight and at the moment the hammer drops, they watch the movement of
the front sight. If they are flinching, the front sight will take a dive to the
low left (right handed shooters) when the hammer falls on a dummy round. The
purpose of this drill is to provide a visual realization to the shooter. The
shooter now can better understand what they may be doing and how bad their
flinch really is.
If they continue to use this drill, they
are now aware there are dummies in the gun somewhere and sooner or later will
come up, and they start to fight that urge to flinch. In a way they are
training their dark side by promoting the light side to take command of the
moment of firing. Folks that shoot auto-loaders can use the same drill by
loading dummy rounds (available at almost any good gun supply store) along with
live rounds in their magazines. If a friend does the loading, it will be a
surprise. >
Another drill is the Second Party Trigger, where an
instructor places their finger on the trigger and does the firing, while the
student holds the gun and does the sighting. In this case the students ability
for their dark side to flinch is tricked, because it is the instructors finger
doing the pressing. Usually this drill provides some rather miraculous results
often placing several bullets in the same hole or close to it.
Both drills are designed and used to better help the student shooter
understand what is happening to them at the time of firing. But neither drill
can really get to the root cause and make lasting improvements. The shooter has
to take the information they receive from these drills and then apply a cause
and effect to reduce their tendency to jerk the gun at moment of discharge.
Another effective drill or better put, fundamental element of follow
through, is "trigger rest". Trigger reset has done wonders for shooters getting
over and past their flinch. But, folks, it's a trick…..the trigger reset
does not prevent your flinch, but rather, it gives your mind something to do
immediately after firing and therefore seems to take away attention to those
fears. That doesn't mean trigger reset isn't a valuable fundamental tool in
your arsenal of marksmanship elements, it is very important. But the truth is
it has little lasting effect on gaining command over your dark side. You still
need more.
I consider that everyone has the ability to train
themselves to overcome these natural fears, however the fact remains that some
people are just never going to be any better than just, pretty good. Maybe it's
a lack of commitment or a lack of confidence. For others, it's a challenge they
accept and a long trip to success they enjoy.
A process I have found that works better than any other I have tried
or heard of focuses on the objective and not the cause. That is, hits on
target. Driving each bullet to the target requires the mental thought process
of follow through and determination. It extends the firing process by a
millisecond but focuses on the necessity, more than the cause, and the cause
becomes the process to an end.
The target isn't a surface placement of
the bullet. It's not just center mass or a face hit. It goes beyond what we
visually see, to that which we must mentally see. For example do you wish to
hit your attacker in the upper chest multiple times or do you wish to blow out
his heart with three rounds? If you desire to hit your target in the upper
chest (or center mass), then the cardboard target holder is where your skills
will end. On the other hand, if you wish to stop your attacker and that is what
you are training to do in the event you end up in a fight someday, maybe you
should think about the bullet flight path from muzzle (launch) through the
atmosphere through the skin, through the muscle and rib bones and finally
through the heart (impact)!
Don't think where on that paper or steel
target is the heart, the heart is inside. Study the human anatomy so you can
look at someone and see beyond the surface, look through the outer layers and
see the heart. See it so clearly you can see it pumping. As the person moves
follow the heart, not the surface.
Do you need to shoot someone in the face, or do you really need to
put a bullet in their cranial, the brain. If so, identify the brain and follow
the brain. No matter what direction their face is in, you should be focused on
the brain. Follow the bullet from launch until impact of the brain, deep below
the surface of the eyes, nose or skull. Then follow the bullet through the
brain as it is sucked out the back of the head.
You have to think quick, it doesn't take very long for that pistol
bullet to travel 3-5 yards. And it's not going to be long before you are
following the second, third or even fourth bullet to it's intended mark.
Sometimes it just takes more than one good destructive hit to stop an attacker
and sometimes there are more than one attacker. Can you think quick enough to
follow and drive those bullets through the selected target organs? Sure, but
you got to start thinking quick!
It's a mental thing folks, and it will
not be long before your dark side has too many things to think about and will
stop worrying about those natural fears. It will start to understand the
purpose, because this action and effect is more emotional than the pure
mechanics of shooting fundamentals. Focus your light side on the true objective
and command the dark side to assist rather than hinder. It's a warrior's
attitude, a mental approach to mortal combat that requires you to reach out
with your handy little impact weapon (pistol) and destroy the life organs of
your attacker. Your mind is capable of extending with that bullet through the
flight and into impact, if you let it.
At first, the thought of seeing the heart blown out, or the brains
being sucked out of the back of their head is probably pretty ugly. But, it is
amazing how beautiful that sight can be when you are in a life and death
struggle and the only means you have to live is to assure your opponent dies.
I know a precision rifle shooter, who once was a sniper so to speak,
that just isn't very good at most of the competition sports. He never seems to
take those paper or steel targets very seriously. But, if you put him on a real
target or can get him to settle down and offer him something realistic enough
he can get in his grove, he never misses. He said the faces never bothered him
like some other sniper, because he didn't really see the face, he sees the
brain or the heart. He actually says he can see the brain explode from bullet
impact through his sights at far off distances. Maybe so, maybe not….but
for sure he is not the type to kid about real things.
Take command of your natural fears, learn to press the trigger
smoothly and quickly while holding a bead, that will launch the bullet through
the organ of your choosing. It's fatiguing at first because focusing a thought
process can be stressful. Embrace the stress and acclimate your mind. It will
probably happen sooner than you think. You will start to command your body and
your mind. You will stop missing and be cured of the infliction of CHS. And,
you may amaze yourself of your rapid progress and skills improvement. Try it on
folks…..after all the only thing you may have to loose is your flinch! You
may also find the process of learning to command your own mind both light and
dark side, may help you with other matters we face on a daily basis.
And, although I feel the biggest and most important element of
defensive and offensive marksmanship is trigger control, don't forget the other
fundamentals and elements. Once you control your trigger, you will find
improving these other elements a piece of cake…..and your perspective on
what is important in a fight and what is crucial in a fight, may very well
present an entirely new outlook.
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