[ISC]

I remember watching the winter olympics in Sarajevo. One of the events they had that I had never heard of before was the biatholon. I was inspired.

At the time I had a Crossman pump type air rifle. My best friend and I rode our bikes out to a clearing in the woods where the older boys rode their dirt bikes and ATVs (3 wheelers back then) and we set up a course.

We set out targets consisting of soda cans that were partially filled with sand. These targets were placed at various points on the track (about a 1/8th mile oval) and we timed each other with stop watches as we ran around the track and shot at pop cans and set up a time deduction penalty for missed shots.

It was a blast, and a real eye opener about the effects of heart rate and exhaustion on accuracy. My friend was a better shot than me, and could consistantly beat me at shooting paper targets. He was kind of fat though, and I almost always beat him on or "biathalon". It affected my friend too because he had never seriously thought about his wieght before that, b ut started losing the extra pounds afterwards. He eventually joined the Marines and fought in the Gulf War, something he wouldn't have been able to do if he hadn't lost the wieght.

Of course, right around that time we both started paying alot more attention to girls, so that probably had something to do with it too.

Anyhow, I'm older now and close to retiring from the army after many years as an infantryman, but the self directed stress shooting training I did as a kid is better than alot of the firearms training my unit conducts.

We always focus on the tactics and leadership aspects of preparing for a firefight. Marksmenship training consists of knocking down pop ups from a fixed position. We hear, "shoot move and communicate" all the time, but when we do live fire exercises it is done at such a slow pace no one ever even breathes hard thanks to the risk management controls.

I understand the neccesity of that, but have to wonder if we wouldn't be better off issuing each soldier a bunch of accurized paintball or airsoft gear a couple times a year and just spend a week in a shoot house killing each other.