07-01-2012, 07:57 PM
stokesrj Wrote:By the way, I'm 58 years old and have fired tens of thousands of rounds in registered high power competitions, and I'm still learning. In fact next saturday I'll be training for the National Infantry Team Trophy match and my trainer is in his 60's. Learning to shoot a rifle well is a life long endeavor.
Bob
Amen to that...
I read The Red Circle, by Brand Webb on the plane ride across the Pacific, and I was most impressed by what he was involved in with totally re-building the Naval Special Warfare Center Sniper Training program. They incorpotated a lot of unorthodox techniques, principles, and approaches to shooting, memory training, mental management, and instructor-student relationships to totally create a new regimen for making better SEAL Snipers, and the results paid off with measurable results.
They went to guys like Lanny Bassham, who wrote With Winning in Mind, and studied what an olympic shooter thinks, and how they think. They assigned student sniper pairs to instructors, and had all the instructors competing with each other to get their teams shooting better than the others, rather than the old, disconnected, "value attrition like it's a thing of pride" traditions where the blocks if instruction were given, and they could care less if you learned and demonstrated gaining new skill sets.
They started cranking out dudes who could shoot better than ever before, with much higher course standards, and more difficult training objectives. It was a totally "outside the box" approach to instruction, especially from within a military setting.
It sends home the statement about shooting being such a mental activity, and how mental focus and attitude play such a huge role in being a good shooter. I highly recommend the book, even though I look towards the Squeals from a perspective of rivalry.