Training Under Physical Stress

[Anschutz]

Here at West Point we have had two main events that were stress fires. We had our squad of 7-9 depending on availability and targets that would pop up from 50m to 300m. They used smoke, Artillery Sims, and had NCOs, Officers and Cadre walking by screaming in your ear that your men were going to die if you missed. We set up fields of fire. Alpha Team got one side of the range and Bravo got another. Each team selected one member to engage targets past 200m. Then we would "target talk" and engage in our sectors. For example a combatant and civilian target pop up at 50 left sector and 125 meters center I would yell "left side 50 meters, kill 'em... middle 125 civvie, civvie don't shoot". To take care of the noises and other pressures there are three things you need to do. 1) Do everything just as you would if they weren't there 2) Breathe normally 3)Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. It will take a good bit of practice but effective once you grasp it.