7 Habits of Highly Effective Shooters

[KevinF]

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Posted by: Chris Retired Navy SEAL,Maritime Counter Terrorism Instructor, Director of Training, Center Mass Group




7 Habits of Highly Effective Shooters

“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” – Aristotle


It’s happened several times now. I show up at the range to work with a new group of shooters who are supposed to be “past the basics” of shooting. Operators who the government trusts to move around confined spaces carrying automatic weapons. As we start warming up I’ll go down the line and make corrections on stance, grip, trigger control, etc and find out that they nod their heads in agreement, but when I ask them about the technique, they say they don’t know what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the basics of shooting! The fundamentals of marksmanship that everyone with a gun in their hands needs to know to shoot well. As a Navy SEAL these were ingrained in my head and repeated on a daily basis to achieve muscle memory. I know some people don’t like this term. I’ll say it and someone wanting to make themselves sound scientific will say, “Technically you muscles don’t have memories. You’re actually training your neurons and…bla, bla, bla.” OK, thanks for the refresher on 5^th grade biology. I’m just trying to make you a better shooter and communicating it in a way we can all understand. Don’t muddy the waters with your technical nonsense. Follow these 7 Habits of Highly Effective Shooters and your shooting will improve.

Breaking it Down

In this series of posts I will cover each of the 7 habits in detail. You’ll learn it the way I learned as a Navy SEAL and they way I taught it to my sniper students. These are the fundamentals of marksmanship that make good shooters either on a range at a competition or on the battle field. Some instructors will say there are three, five or eight fundamentals. If it’s easier for you to take a few of them and integrate them in your mind, then do so. Just be warned: Leave one out when you’re shooting and the round will miss its mark.

The 7 Habits

• Shooting Platform: AKA Body Position or Stance
• Get a Grip
• Sight Refinement: Sight Alignment
• Sight Video: Sight Picture
• If you stop Breathing you will die!
• Trigger Control comes from your eyes
• Get ready to shoot again: Follow Through

In each of the posts in this series I will break down each one of these fundamentals so they are not just a name or a term you need to remember. You’ll understand what they all mean, how to use them when you’re shooting and dry-fire training and why they are important to making you a better shooter. Shooting is an art. If you want to be a good artist, you need to go to school…this is not a replacement for seeking out a good firearms course, but it will help you understand what they are talking about when they try to make corrections or give you advice on the line.

If you have specific shooting questions on any of these skills, I’d love to hear from you and help you out. Reply in the comments section and we’ll do our best to get you hitting the X every time you squeeze the trigger. Ready to get started?


http://centermassgroup.com/2011/07/7-habits/

http://centermassgroup.com/2011/07/t...tive-shooters/

http://centermassgroup.com/2011/08/t...tive-shooters/

http://centermassgroup.com/2011/09/t...tive-shooters/

http://centermassgroup.com/2011/09/t...tive-shooters/

http://centermassgroup.com/2011/09/t...tive-shooters/

http://centermassgroup.com/2011/10/t...tive-shooters/

http://centermassgroup.com/2011/10/t...tive-shooters/

[Dinat]

Thanks for sharing

[DS]

Great read and a definite keep. Thanks K.

[ArnoG26]

Good read thanks!

[KK20]

one of our GS members is/was in touch to bring him down. i wonder how that is coming along.

[Longshot]

Great stuff, well worth the read.

[Sweet]

With acknowledgement to Steven Covey and his "Seven Habits of Highly Successful People" (and who sadly "bought a farm" last year). This is a very good read - thanks for posting!

[feroze]

one of our GS members is/was in touch to bring him down. i wonder how that is coming along.

At the time I was talking to them I had just lost a very close family member and things just fell apart. I got as far as a quote for what it would cost to fly them both to SA and run a course in JHB, Durbs and Cape Town. Cost was an issue at the time the rand was also in a free fall. Another issue was they required the passport or id of each person before they came in order to get some security clearance from their state department. They may be free agents at the moment but the knowledge they have was developed and paid for by the US Government and they picky about who it is shared with.