Millitary, training and civilian competition

[Glenn E. Meyer]

It is often debated that competition may or may not be useful for training.

Here's a piece discussing that it is useful. It also discusses the resistances to civilian developed techniques from some:

https://medium.com/war-is-boring/top...r-469f8dfd917f

[AK103K]

Thanks, good article.

[1-DAB]

yep, good read.

[raimius]

As the article hints at, military training quality and quantity varies quite widely.
Some units will get range time on a weekly basis or better. Some personnel will qualify in basic and before deploying only...and that might be a span of a decade or better in some cases. (The latter is unsat in my opinion.)

Fortunately, many of the better shooters in the military do participate in civilian training and competitions. I've seen a good number of military, government, and LEO participants at civilian classes. This is good! Military and police experience is a great filter for what works in real life. Civilian experimentation against the clock and course is good for finding efficiency in movement and technique.

[g.willikers]

There's a series of well written and entertaining novels by Al Voth on this very subject.
http://www.amazon.com/Mandatory-Relo...ndatory+reload

[jglsprings]

Thanks Glenn,

A very interesting read. A refreshing change for T&T.

[Ruger480]

Interesting read. Thanks for posting. I have read similar things from other military personnel as well. Particularly in regards to how well civilian marksman shoot.

[Frank Ettin]

An interesting article, and I believe there's much to be said for the competence of the enthusiast/amateur. I do think he misses on two points, however.

Sargent Satterlee:

...lambasts the commonly repeated advice that shooters should “squeeze” the trigger in such a way that they feel surprised when the weapon goes off.

He is also critical of:

... idea that the shooter should keep their focus on their weapon’s sight as they aim. “That’s good for bullseyes or a stationary target,” he says....

While there are several schools of thought about trigger control, and there is the continual tension between advocates of using the sights and the point shooters, many of the top USPSA and IDPA competitors and other, similar enthusiasts he seems to believe the military could learn from in fact use the compressed surprise trigger break and their sights.

Here's an interesting video in which Jeff Cooper explains the compressed surprise break. The idea is that if you apply a smooth, continuously increasing pressure to the trigger, the gun will eventually fire without jerking off target. Applying that smooth, continuously increasing pressure to the trigger you are not trying to make the gun fire at a particular instant in time. You will not know exactly when, as you increase pressure on the trigger, the gun will fire.

But as you practice (perfectly) and develop the facility to reflexively (without conscious thought) apply a smooth, continuously increasing pressure to the trigger the time interval between beginning to press and the shot breaking gets progressively shorter until it become indistinguishable from being instantaneous. And that is the compressed surprise break.

As for the use of the sights, as Clint Smith wrote in the January/February 2008 American Handgunner:

It's always argued that in a fight shooters will not look at their sights. I strongly agree -- if no one has ever taught them otherwise. To say that people don't, or won't, look at their sights is wrong. People have, they will in the future, and they'll hit the...target too. The correct alignment of the sights is a learnable skill. Is a textbook perfect sight picture available in every fight? Of course not....In fairness, the sights are only part of the issue -- the jerked on the trigger doesn't improve anything.

And as Greg Morrison describes the flash sight picture (Morrison, Gregory, The Modern Technique of the Pistol, Gunsite Press, 1991, pp 87 - 88, emphasis added):

...The flash sight-picture involves a glimpse of the sight-picture sufficient to confirm alignment....The target shooter’s gaze at the front sight has proven inappropriate for the bulk of pistol fighting. However, the practical shooter must start at this level and work up to the flash, which becomes reflexive as motor skills are refined. With practice, a consistent firing platform and firing stroke align the sights effortlessly. This index to the target eventually becomes an instantaneous confirmation of the sight-picture.

...Using the flash sight-picture programs the reflex of aligning the weapon’s sights with the target instantly....There is good reason for sights: one needs them to align the barrel with the target reliably....