By Chris Sajnog, Author Navy SEAL Shooting
After the success of my first book on shooting, How to Shoot Like a Navy SEAL, I received a lot positive feedback from fellow SEALs, world champion shooters and other authors. Of course I also received some negative feedback. The one I heard most often was that the book was just ‘too short’- only 120-pages in fact! It didn’t matter that I covered all the content in detail not found in any other book to that date. It didn’t matter that it included 12 videos of me showing the techniques; some people needed more fluff or “there I was – knee-deep in hand-grenade-pins” stories.
Well, that’s not the type of writer I am and I don’t support other authors who are providing intelligence to our enemies via personal war stories. I get to the point and give you the information you need in as few words as possible. So to those detractors I offer this Marksmanship Manifesto – A shot across the bow in the first of an 8-part series that will fundamentally change the way we learn to shoot. And I’ll make it even shorter – with fewer words!
I don’t know if I’m even a very good writer, but I do know I am one of the world’s most passionate firearms instructors. I can’t stand by and see shooting taught the way it is most commonly taught, anymore. So please, if I get a little boring or don’t say it quite right, look past that to my overall message and, if you agree, become part of my movement. The New Rules of Marksmanship movement introduces a new set of ideas and standards that will benefit you by giving you a chance to become the kind of shooter you have always dreamed of becoming.
Shooting is such a great endeavor, in so many ways. It’s a shame it seems so hard to get better. I’m going to contrast the common practices of the past; the Old Rules of marksmanship that have been ineffective in helping you shoot your best, with the New Rules of Marksmanship I designed to accelerate your learning.
The desire to be a Navy SEAL Sniper got me shooting a lot more in the Teams, and I knew to get better I had to become an instructor. When I began teaching the old rules as I was taught, I found it difficult to correct some of the most common shooting errors. We were restricted by a set of “fundamentals” that after more than 20-years of research, trial and error and learning outside the world of firearms training, I found were not “fundamental” at all. What we’ve taught as the fundamentals for all these years are actually methods and this leads to madness when you try to teach any one method to a group of individuals. I’m going to tell you my personal story because it speaks to what has been common in learning how to shoot—the old, ineffective rules.
I’ve been lucky enough to have learned and taught at every level in the shooting game. Before I fired my first round in bootcamp in the spring of 1989, I had never touched a firearm. By the time I retired from the SEAL Teams in 2009, I had not only run the most elite Special Operations Sniper school in the world – I had written the manual.
The time and training resources I had available to me also touched both extremes of possibility. In the SEAL Teams, during workups we had some of the hardest working support personnel that would take us, our guns and ammo to the range, set everything up; and all we had to do was shoot. As fast as we could pull the trigger, they would have not just a box of ammo for us – they’d give us another crate!
On the other extreme, once I retired – I no longer had unlimited ammo – or time to train. I had a real job! Even though my job was teaching others how to shoot, it wasn’t shooting. I also had a wife and kids – soccer, baseball, basketball. I’m sure a lot of you can relate. I needed to learn and develop the fastest, easiest way to train so I could maintain my skills…and my family. The old rules were developed by people who had the time – professional shooters. That stopped being my job when I retired and became a professional trainer. Some people may think they’re the same, but they are very different.
This manifesto will outline for you the New Rules you should start living by if you’ve found the old rules ineffective. If you put these New Rules into practice, they will guarantee your success as a shooter. – Yes, I said guarantee – But let me tell you up front, there is some work involved. (OK, a LOT of WORK) You won’t be told to do one easy thing (read, method) and instantly start key-holing shots. But I hope you’re as sick of those old empty promises as I am. I’ll give you the inside scoop on how to improve your shooting, including how to train and reach whatever level of proficiency you desire.
I’ve made a 20-year study of why some people get better and some don’t. So what have I discovered? First and foremost, it is that the concepts and ideas you’ve picked up along the way are what shape your techniques. I’ve learned how amazingly easy it is for you to pick up a little idea about shooting, that sets the course for all your future learning. Unfortunately I’ve also learned that those initial ideas and concepts can be flawed (like the ones I had), but they direct how you shoot just the same. I write this to get you to consider a set of simple concepts that will make sure you don’t have the type of experiences I had; to save you 20-years.
The Old Rules failed me. I wasn’t given the information that would have helped me improve to my fullest. Much of the information was out there, but it wasn’t found or taught in the firearms industry, I had to go hunting. Until now, there has not been a clear vision that defines the best process to help you reach your full potential with a firearm. I asked completely different questions as I built my teaching career: How do people best learn a motor skill? What is an individual method, and what is truly fundamental? What training examples in other sports and activities are models for what we should be doing in shooting? How do mental fitness, physical fitness and the equipment we choose apply to these questions and answers?
The answers to these questions have formed the New Rules of Marksmanship. I am writing this for the shooters who want to enjoy training and are willing to put in the hard work. When people train poorly enough, long enough – they quit. I want this discussion to help you understand the process and system that will lead to your shooting your best. As I draw analogies to other sports and activities, please consider how the same principles of learning a motor skill apply to shooting.
The New Rules of Marksmanship refers to a new set of “Fundamentals,” a set of ideas and concepts that will become a new paradigm for effective firearms training. How did we get to the Old Rules that we commonly see today? I believe the answer is simple: because firearms instruction developed through a trial and error process among professionals. A professional shooter had success as a competitor and then taught his “method’ to others. This led to a lot of different theories, because there were a lot of different “methods.” But what works for one person, especially a professional shooting at static targets on a flat range, rarely work for the rest of us. But because they were professionals and shot great, we all took it as gospel.
In the Old Rules of marksmanship an instructor develops an exact model. He picks his favorite motor techniques, methods that work for him and teaches them like they’re the only way. Those techniques then become the model for all the students who come to this instructor. So we end up with instruction that makes a shooter shoot a certain way. It requires students to use certain positions or grip the gun a certain way no matter what individual characteristics they possess.
This is “style” or “method” teaching – not rules or fundamentals teaching. These methods come and go. One method teaches everyone to hold their pistol a certain way; another method teaches everyone to shoot in their “modified” stance. In certain methods everyone is charged to put their finger the same place on the trigger, even though if we look at each of our hands we’ll quickly see we are all built very differently.
Ultimately each professional shooter has a great way to hit the center of a target, not the only way. The problem with introducing new methods every year or so is the confusion it brings to you and your shooting. And by the way, I was no different. Under the old rules you couldn’t teach another way – you had to have a method – in the new rules you can have any method as long as it’s mechanically sound and the focus is on specific training, not a specific technique.
In the New Rules of Marksmanship, I have identified the essential skills a shooter needs, not unlike the essential skills needed by a freestyle swimmer, who must learn to kick, move his arms, float, hold his breath under water, turn his head and breathe, then put it all together to create a freestyle stroke. These essential marksmanship skills are evaluated and prioritized. New Rules shooters are able to have a higher degree of success because they focus on the skills and training techniques that create a repeatable result every time they pull the trigger.
In the Old Rules of marksmanship, instructors preach to people how important the trigger finger placement is, though they very rarely talk about the importance of mental training or ANY aspects of training for that matter. In the New Rules of Marksmanship you’ll learn that what you practice off the range is far more important than what you do on the range and you’ll learn that HOW you train is more important than WHAT you train. This gives far less excuses for not training, since the majority of your training can and should be done at home.
In the Old Rules, a shooter is told the surface, quick fix mental keys like “think positive,” “don’t think about your last shot.” Not terrible advice, but it works on the effect and not the cause. In the New Rules of Marksmanship, the mental game starts with getting to the core by understanding why you shoot in the first place and then builds upon that as your shooting foundation – something much more important than if you use the weaver or isosceles.
In the Old Rules of Marksmanship, you were lucky if you were even told to practice, and if you were, you weren’t given clear directions on how to practice. In the New Rules of Marksmanship, I am specific, and there is a contrast between live fire and dry fire practice.
Let me be clear that the term Old Rules does not refer to the age of the instructor. It refers to a set of beliefs and standards that are outdated and need to be replaced. I know many older instructors who are not stuck teaching the lessons we all learned 20 or more years ago, but just need some direction. Yet there are many younger instructors out there who learned the “Old Rules” and like I had, took them as Gospel and keep on preaching.
Old Rules vs New Rules
| Old Rules | New Rules |
| Stance – Weaver or Isosceles? Should I modify? | Mindset – You must first train the mind -The mind controls the body. |
| Grip – Was that 60/40 or 40/60? What size gun is this with? | Planning – Decide where you want to go and then figure out the shortest route. |
| Sight Alignment – Put the front sight in the middle of the rear sight. Simple! | Physics – Mechanics, not methods will always work. This is “Fundamental.” |
| Sight Picture – Point open end of gun at target…this one is important! | Focus – The key to aiming and your training. |
| Trigger Squeeze – Pull straight back! No, No…I mean PRESS… | Dry Weapons Training – Scientifically proven to be more effective. |
| Breathing – Hold your breath? Wait…Why is it called breathing? | Deliberate Practice – Very specific drills for very specific purposes. |
| Follow through – Keep shooting until you hit! | Constant Feedback – Hyper-accelerated skill development. |
Next week I’ll teach you New Rule #1 – Mindset. You’ll learn why this is the most important skill you need to develop to learn to shoot better and faster than you ever thought possible and I’ll give you some easy exercises you can do to start Paving Your Path to Perfection.
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Please welcome Chris as a contributor to the Daily Caller. You will see his article up every Sunday.
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Chris Sajnog is the bestselling author of How to Shoot Like a Navy SEAL, a retired Navy SEAL Master Firearms Instructor, Neural-Pathway Training Expert, speaker and Service Disabled Veteran Small Business Owner. He is one of the most experienced and respected firearms trainers in the world, being hand-selected to develop the training for the US Navy SEAL Sniper program. As a Navy SEAL he was the senior sniper instructor, a certified Master Training Specialist (MTS), BUD/S and advanced training marksmanship instructor.
After retiring from the SEAL Teams in 2009 to spend time with his family, Chris began training civilians and law enforcement officers. He is the founder of the New Rules of Marksmanship, a revolutionary approach to firearms training and has a passion for finding innovative ways to teach elite-level shooting skills online.
He is a federal and state certified law enforcement firearms and counter-terrorism instructor and has trained DOD, DHS, FBI, CIA, Law Enforcement, and multiple foreign allies in all aspects of combat weapons handling, marksmanship, and tactics.
He lives in San Diego, CA with his wife Laura and two boys, Caden and Owen.