By Chris Sajnog,  Author Navy SEAL Shooting

Psychologist K. Anders Ericsson, a professor of Psychology at Florida State University, has been a pioneer in researching deliberate practice and what it means.

One of Ericsson’s core findings is that how expert one becomes at a skill has more to do with how one practices than with merely performing a skill a large number of times. An expert breaks down the skills that are required to be an expert and focuses on improving those skill chunks during practice or day-to-day activities, often paired with immediate coaching feedback (New Rule #7). Another important feature of deliberate practice lies in continually practicing a skill at more challenging levels with the intention of mastering it.

Practice essentials are a required, irreplaceable necessity in the development of motor skills. Obviously, the first key to performing well on the range involves the extent to which you have developed shooting skills that are repeatable, predictable and reliable under pressure. Your on-range performance is directly related to your ability to deliberately practice off the range.

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.”
  — Aristotle

What does this mean for you and learning how to shoot? It means just going to the range and shooting is NEVER going to make you an expert shooter. In fact, every round you shoot that misses it’s mark is making you worse. Well-trained, repeatable shot groups are formed by way of practice. In order for your shooting to become a habit, you must understand and embrace four New Rules of deliberate practice:

1- FOCUS ON WHAT’S ESSENTIAL

A – Practicing “Shooting” is much too broad of an area to ever get better. Identify one set of essential skills (preferably with a New Rules instructor) using weakness-biased training. This means assessing your shooting, finding your weaknesses and breaking your training into the smallest chunks possible. This might mean that you’re deliberately practicing focusing on your front sight — nothing more — until you’ve paved a perfect neural pathway and your eyes can focus on it instantly. The smaller you can make these chunks into what I call isolation drills, the faster you will progress.

B – Use the 80/20 rule to work on the 20% of skills that will produce 80% of the results. But once you’ve done the easy stuff and begun improving as a shooter, working on the other 80% will lead to mastery.

C – Keep a training notebook and write down everything you’re working on and what you need to work on next.

D – Recognize that this is the first of the two types of practice: Technique and Stress. This is technique practice, with which you build the skills through perfect repetitions.

2 – PUT IN THE WORK (in as little as five minutes a day)

A – Be willing to spend the time and do the number of movements needed to ingrain a new motor skill. Focused, deliberate practice is essential for building new skills in shooting.

B – Make mastery your goal. 


C – When it gets boring, remember that’s when your enemies or competitors want you to quit. It’s also when you know you’re on the right path.

3 – SEEK REGULAR FEEDBACK 

A – Feedback must be ongoing throughout a practice period, whether delivered by an instructor, a coach, a video camera or the target. 


B – You can never have too much feedback.

 

4 – TRANSFER YOUR SKILLS WITH STRESS TRAINING (This is the FUN part.)

Having an explosion going off in your hand is stress training. The more deliberate practice you’ve done, the more myelination you’ve built up, the less the stress will affect your neural pathway.

Once you’ve reached the point where engaging targets on a static range is thoroughly ingrained in your muscle memory, it’s time to increase the insulation around those neural pathways by adding more stress. This can be done by incorporating physical stress through exercise, mental stress with a shot timer or look for opportunities such as competitions or hunting that can induce both kinds of stress.

It’s important to remember this one point as it may be the most vital part of the entire learning process: Doing these steps out of order will make all of your training worthless. What does this mean? It means that learning to shoot is very easy if it’s done properly, the problem is that we’ve been doing it wrong for 50-years.

I taught a reporter how to shoot who had never fired a gun before to keyhole the first three rounds she shot. I did it in under an hour. Here’s how:

1. I started by training her mind. I built up her confidence and got her to think positively.
2. I then used a blue gun to teach her all the mechanics and weapon safety.
3. I then moved to an Airsoft gun, with no recoil to work on trigger control and focusing on the front sight.
4. Only then did we go to the range. I had her dry fire at the range until she was comfortable with the noise and new environment.
5. Only after paving this perfect neural pathway did she load up and fire her first rounds. All dead center in her target.

How long have you been training with the old rules? It’s not too late to turn it around, but you need to be able to take a step back and start from the beginning. Don’t worry. The things that you’ve been doing right will stick with you and help you progress faster. But the things you need to change will take some time and a lot of effort…old habits truly are hard to break.

Is it worth it to you?

New Rules Review: Deliberate Practice

• How you practice is more important that how much you practice.
• Use the 80/20 rule to work on what’s most important first.
• Break each technique down into small “chunks” and practice “isolation drills.”
• If it’s boring, you’re on the right path.
• Keep a training notebook.
• Only add stress when the path has been paved.

 

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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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