Reflexes

If you have read the article, “Rapid Fire – 10 seconds of intensity”, you probably have a good idea of what this article will be about. Instincts and reflexes play a vital role in achieving high scores. We are born with and have learned many instincts and reflexes, some of which are not beneficial to shooting high scores. As a shooter, you must first understand these instincts, then work to change them. Changing basic human behavior is not an easy task and will require substantial effort, but just about all athletes go through the process.

Have you ever taken a balloon and squeezed it slowly till it breaks, or better yet, watched someone do it? You will notice that a lot of muscles tense up during the action, the face wrinkles up, and the eyes squint. All of this is done in an attempt to protect ourselves from nothing more than a loud noise. We have learned that loud noises, especially loud pops or bangs are associated with danger and we react in a defensive way. If you hear a gun shot (while not at the range), you may hit the floor or take cover, if you hear a car backfire (not so common anymore), you may turn to assess the location of the noise. These are all instincts that cause us to react.

Lets look at some other instincts and reflexes that other athletes deal with. In golf, the mantra is “Keep your eye on the ball”, yet we instinctively want to look to where the ball went. In America, almost all ball sports are played with the hands and therefore our instinct is to use our hands in ball play, yet soccer creates a problem with that instinct. In (American) football, a receiver has to keep his eyes on the ball and ignore the instinct of self-protection when the defender is about to collide with him. Athletes in all sports must overcome natural instincts to achieve higher levels of performance.

Reflexes follow instincts, they are the reaction to a condition. Being that instincts are very primal in our thought process, we don’t consciously control the reaction, rather, reflexes are the reaction. Reflexes are also very primal in our thought process, they are primal behaviors, not driven by a conscious thought process. Changing a reflex, like changing our instincts, is very difficult because they are not conscious behaviors, but rather subconscious. This is where training is required to change.

Relating to shooting, there are a number of instincts that have to be changed so lets explore some of those natural instincts.

• Instinct tells us that if we want to shoot a ten, the point of aim must be exactly on the 10. Common sense right?

• Instinct tells us that if our point of aim is exactly on the 10, then we must pull the trigger before the point of aim changes again. Common sense right?

• Instinct tells us that if our point of aim wanders slightly off the 10, we should stop pulling the trigger and force the gun back onto target. Common sense right?

• Instinct tells us that if the gun goes bang, then there will be a substantial force pushing against our body and we must prepare for it. Common sense right?

All of the above instincts seem to be common sense and in some manor, they are, but for precision shooting they are very bad instincts. There are reflexes associated with those instincts that will cause very poor performance. To achieve higher scores we must replace those instincts and reflexes. Lets review those instincts again…

Instinct tells us that if we want to shoot a ten, the point of aim must be exactly on the 10. I suspect all shooters assume that Master level shooters have a perfectly steady hand and can hold their point of aim perfectly on the 10. I have asked many masters this question and all of them told me they wobble just like everyone else. During a shooting clinic, we even proved that to be true. We used a laser bore sight in a gun and had one of the best shooters in the country hold on the target. The laser dot danced around just like it did when I was holding the gun. I know he can shoot more tens than most anyone, yet his point of aim wobbles just like mine so I think it is now safe to assume that my instinct is wrong. Replace the original instinct with “If the point of aim is reasonably close to the 10, odds are in your favor you will shoot a ten”.

Instinct tells us that if our point of aim is exactly on the 10, then we must pull the trigger before the point of aim changes again. I believe most shooters do this much more than they think they do and the sad result is very poor scores. When this occurs, you consciously pull that trigger very quickly to make the shot before something changes. The reality is that by pulling the trigger quickly, you have changed the point of aim, probably all the way out to the 7 ring or worse. A common phrase for this action is “Grabbing the ten”. In other words you try to shoot in that very instant everything appears perfect. We need to replace the original instinct and reflex with “If our point of aim is exactly on the 10 continue the controlled pull on the trigger”.

Instinct tells us that if our point of aim wanders slightly off the 10, we should stop pulling the trigger and force the gun back onto the 10. Very few shooters will recommend a trigger control process wherein you pull-stop-pull-stop, rather you want a continuous, controlled pull on the trigger. Every time you stop the pull, your point of aim changes and every time you start to pull, your point of aim changes. Because the point of aim is constantly changing through normal wobble and by starting and stopping the trigger pull, you will never achieve the perfect moment to finish the pull. A common phrase shooters use for this is “chicken finger”, you are afraid to commit to the shot. Continued effort in chasing that perfect shot will cause fatigue and eventually you will rush the trigger pull just to get the shot off. The reflex we have to deal with is the desire to force the gun back onto the 10. If you force that to happen you will most probably overshoot your motion and end up on the opposite side of the target. Let your normal wobble get you back onto target, in other words, trust your hold. The original instinct needs to be replaced with “If the point of aim wanders slightly off the 10, continue the controlled pull on the trigger or bench the gun to avoid the fatigue”. Remember, the goal isn’t to get the shot off, rather, it is to shoot a ten!

Instinct tells us that if the gun goes bang, then there will be a substantial force pushing against our body and we must prepare for it. This is a very primal instinct and reflex because it happens a lot in our daily lives. Our mind instantly reacts to forces acting upon our bodies. If we trip over something or lose our balance, our mind very quickly processes a lot of information to get you back in balance. If something comes towards your face, your hands instantly rise to block it. If a loud noise occurs with a bright flash, we instantly close our eye and probably flinch. All of these occur when the gun goes bang. For many shooters, we are so sure that the gun’s recoil will cause our arm to rise that we actually help it along or perhaps we might push forward on the gun to prevent it from happening. We may be concerned the gun will fly out of our hand so we squeeze on the grips even harder just before it goes bang. Being concerned about our eyes, we may close them to keep them safe from the flash. That instant the gun goes bang, our mind wants our body to do a lot of bad things, all of which will reduce your performance. This instinct (actually many in this case) needs to be replaced with “When the gun goes bang, I must let my body absorb the force without reacting to it”. To further clarify what we need to do…

• When the gun goes bang, it will not hurt because it is a target load

• The gun will recoil, I can’t stop it from happening

• The gun will recoil under its own power, I don’t have to help it

• The gun will recoil, I can’t reduce it by pushing forward on the gun

• The gun won’t fall out of my hand, I already have a good hold on it

• There will be a loud bang, it won’t hurt my eyes or ears

Changing all of these instincts and reflexes isn’t something you can do in one training session. Be fair to yourself and be realistic. The old saying “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” fits closely with what has to be done here. You have to retrain your mind to react in ways that it is not comfortable with.

Some of the training can be done at home with dry fire practice. You can practice the controlled pull of the trigger along with your area aiming. During this training, you are going to allow yourself to pull the trigger in a continuous manor over and over again. You are going to avoid the pull-stop-pull-stop habits and your are going to learn to bench the gun when things are not right and you have a bad case of Chicken finger. You are going to develop the instincts to know what feels right and what feels wrong so that you respond in the appropriate way. In other words, develop reflexes that go along with your new instincts.

While you may see some hint of problems with recoil during dry fire, you will not be able to cure them during dry fire. Live fire is required to deal with those issues and I highly recommend you do that training with slow fire. Slow everything down as much as you can to feel every bit of reaction going on. Learn to accept the recoil, let your body absorb that energy. Get your body used to those forces so that you are comfortable with how it feels.

Watch for all the indicators of anticipation etc. Do you feel you are helping the gun rise during recoil, does the gun rise before the bang? If so, talk your way through it to prevent it but don’t reverse the problem by attempting to stop the recoil (watch for muzzle down just before the bang), just let your body deal with it. Do you feel your hand tense up as you are pulling the trigger or does the muzzle move sideways or does your hand start to shake when the gun is about to go bang? If so, focus on relaxing your grip and keeping that grip force constant during the trigger pull. Are you able to call your shots, or do you have no visual record of what things looked like at the time of the bang? You have safety glasses and ear muffs on for a reason, to protect your eyes and ears. Learn to trust them for protection and try to keep your eyes open.

I believe that there are more points to be found in the paragraphs above than just about anywhere else on this website. When you go to do your training, pick a few of the topics and focus on them with every shot. Keep doing that training until you understand as much as you can about the issue and start seeing some results. There is so much to the shooting process and it happens so fast that it is very hard to see these subtle details. In training you must slow everything down as much as possible to give yourself a chance to focus on them.