Project Appleseed

We've all heard this word, "Relax" and many have likely instructed it.

It is so critical to scoring well, in addition to all of the steady hold factors for each position, and the 6 steps of firing a shot, we need to RELAX.

This is a tough one.  I recall struggling with it, and even now I at times need to remind myself to relax.

True Natural Point of Aim (NPA) will never be realized unless one is relaxed.  And we can all agree, that if NPA is off, the shot will not impact where we are aiming.

I recall a good analogy of this used by an instructor when teaching NPA.  He said:
"Imagine the buffer spring of an AR15, if you were to remove it and hold it by one end....it would droop.  It is in a relaxed state."

That is exactly what we need to do when establishing our NPA in the 3 positions. 
Caveat:  There is a thing called "Controlled muscular tension" and that is what we are after.  An example of this for each position would be my cheek weld.  It takes me some controlled muscular tension to press my cheek down on the stock.  This is acceptable muscular tension.  There is also some muscular tension simply required to stand.  Becoming aware of what is "in addition to" that controlled muscular tension and elminating it, is the real goal here and what we are after when we say "Relax".

Standing:
Skeletal support, a stacked from the feet up position with skeletal support.  I am retired Mil, and for some reason we all like to stand with our shoulders up.  I had a friend point this out to me many years ago when I was struggling with standing (I still struggle with standing, just no where near as much as I used to).  He noticed my shoulders were up, tensed.  Told me to relax inside my shooting coat.  Wow....when I did that it changed my NPA a lot!
A coat is not needed for standing, especially when shooting the 25M AQT, or at 100 yards KD.  The relaxed shoulders thing still applies with or without a coat.

My abdomen:  I need to let that gut of mine hang out!  I am used to trying to hide that and "suck it in", that does not bode well for the topic relax.

Knees:  Not locked, locked is not relaxed

One of the best standing shooters I know, says before a standing string of fire he will breathe deeply and tense every single muscle he can in his body from his feet up to his neck and face.  Tensing each muscle and relaxing it.  He says this helps a LOT with pre-match jitters as well.

For Seated and Prone, it is all about "RELAXING INTO THE SLING"

Seated:
Relax into the sling.  For me, this means I need to loosen my belt significantly, and undo the top button of my pants.  If I do not do these 2 things, abdominal pulse will be more prevalent, because I am not relaxed. 
Relaxing my shoulders is also very important for the seated position as well.  I find if there is any tension in my shoulders during seated, it does not go well for my score.

Prone:
Relax into the sling.  Let my trigger side shoulder/elbow lie naturally on the deck.
No tension in my legs/thighs, the only tension is my support side shoulder, as I have that inverted some to get my support side elbow under the rifle, but the sling absorbs that tension.   

It is really all about relaxing into that sling, and letting the sling do what it is supposed to.  Provide maximum stability and support to the rifle.

Once we are truly relaxed, then we can find and establish our true NPA.

An example of this:

Standing, this is the position I (and most) struggle with more than the other 2.  I used to dry fire a session of 30 shots for record 3 times a week on my electronic trainer.  A small bore coach, and also a USMC team coach told me to review my scores for those 30 round sessions.   They predicted (and were correct) that by shots 17-20 my scores would be on the rise, my performance would be better.  Why?

That RELAX thing, as the body tires (muscles), the true NPA will be revealed!

The USMC team coach suggested I do 50 shots, and mentioned that by the 3rd string of 10, I would realize I needed an NPA shift.  He was correct again.  He said their team does a version of ball and dummy with 50 round offhand sessions, that is why they perform at such a high level at matches where they only need to shoot 10 or 20 shots for record.

NPA checks:
Knowing that the body will become more relaxed as we progress thru a string of fire.....it is imperative (speaking slow fire here), that NPA be checked for each and every slow fire shot.  There is plenty of time to do this.  If you are not doing this, consider starting to.  Your scores will rise.  I will do this with a round in the chamber (and my finger off the trigger) as that saves a bit of time.

You need to be very meticulous for this, do it with the eyes closed, relax....open em up and see what it looks like and DO NOT MUSCLE it back and think that will work, it will not.  Adjust the position for the relaxed NPA.

R/
Chris

Relax,  I use the military **BRASS**  Breath, RELAX, Aim, Slack, Squeeze.  Seems to help remind me to relax and I concentrate on it relaxing at the respiratory pause

BRASS is adequate as well, and the USMC teaches that.

If you use BRASS or the Appleseed 6 steps....they both work.  I prefer the Appleseed 6 steps, as they go into a bit more detail than the BRASS acronym.

My point/posts on the 6 steps of fundamentally firing a shot are that their are so many finer details that can be glossed over.  Often as an instructor I would "assume" it was self explanatory, that the simple words as written and spoken were sufficient to convey the message.  At times that is true, but for the most part it is not.  This is especially true if someone has already developed poor habits, and even worse if someone is convinced that their way is correct (which it never is....I let the targets speak to that, LOL)

As both an instructor and an attendee, I have been guilty of "glossing over" the importance of each step, and rarely did I enforce this point, that being that failure to maintain the steps prior will result in an errant shot.

Relax is a fundamental taught with BRASS, and it is not mentioned at all in the 6 steps of fundamentally firing a shot.  It is discussed during the instruction of natural point of aim, and the steady hold factors.  I feel it also needs to be reiterated during the 6 steps instruction as well. 

R/
Chris

Quote from: CarrollMS on October 09, 2019, 12:43:56 PM
Relax,  I use the military **BRASS**  Breath, RELAX, Aim, Slack, Squeeze.  Seems to help remind me to relax and I concentrate on it relaxing at the respiratory pause

I have the same thought in teaching Chris - about getting into the weeds vs glossing over a topic.  I think we try to observe the AS maxims of simplicity and precision, especially on Saturday as we introduce the six steps, so as not to overwhelm shooters. During individual coaching I may go a bit deeper with select students on some of the steps, for instance mention 'BRASS', or various approaches to trigger control. Then on Sunday when we review the six steps, I may get a little deeper. 

BTW. Brass is also in the FM/TC for Snipers...   See page 84-85 3.93 here https://archive.org/details/milmanual-fm-3-05.222-special-forces-sniper-training--employment/page/n83

Quote from: CarrollMS on October 11, 2019, 12:09:41 AM
I have the same thought in teaching Chris - about getting into the weeds vs glossing over a topic.  I think we try to observe the AS maxims of simplicity and precision, especially on Saturday as we introduce the six steps, so as not to overwhelm shooters.

From a student's perspective I wonder if this approach promotes or hinders the learning?

For example when I was instructing as my personal progress matured with the fundamentals....I started to think of "how could my learning curve have been shortened"?

I like the first Redcoat without any instruction.....but I personally would not allow another round to be fired at a target (squares) until the Prone Steady Hold Factors, Natural Point of Aim, and the 6 steps of fundamentally firing a shot had been instructed. 

I've seen it done in piecemeal, where Prone SHF's are taught, and the 6 steps...but NPA was not discussed....it was after a string or more of fire...., but not all at once.

I found that taking that extra time up front seemed to help the attendees, and gave instructors more opportunity to identify defects on the line (muscling, etc etc).   It allowed for the preponderance of the line to start shooting groups faster, and I feel it improved the percentage of those qualifying Rifleman at those events.  I did not track this statistically, but do believe that was the case.

I've attended Small Arms Firing School (SAFS) a few times, and that is all classroom up front....then live fire at the end of the day or on the 2nd day.  I found that to be BORING, as the attention span was definitely not all there after a couple hours.  The real VALUE from SAFS comes on the firing line, during dry and live fire.  The beauty of it is being coached by members of the Army Marksmanship Unit and High Masters in the sport.  That one on one time is well worth the time spent in the classroom prior to. 

I like the Appleseed approach, teach some, then shoot some, then teach some more and shoot some more.  I'm just saying that when I personally tweaked what I was teaching before firing some....it seemed to have good results.  And we were "Simple and Precise"....I recall some very high total round counts at some of our events.  Simplicity and Precision is good stuff....but in balance.....sacrificing precision for more simplicity never works out well.

R/
Chris