Aim With AMU Practice Makes Permanent
BY SGT. 1ST CLASS HANK GRAY USAMU
As a member of the
United States Army Marks- manship Unit (USAMU), we spend a lot of time on the fi r- ing line practicing to become the best in the world. How- ever, there is much more to a training session than sim- ply going out and shooting bullets for four to six hours a day.
makes permanent” is the version I prefer to use. This- refers to the fact no matter how something is done, the more it is practiced the more likely it will occur
again.
Therefore, it can be easily seen how important it is to practice the proper tech- niques in order to prepare for competition.
of “practice,” but have only shot maybe 60-80 shots in that time. Then, during the match, they must stand up there and shoot 60 shots straight in a much shorter amount of time, and they can’t do it. They fi gure they’ve been putting in the time, but can’t understand why the match is so dif-
goal. How do you develop specifi city? One of the keys lies within developing a training plan. This is some- thing all of us at the USAMU do religiously. Each year we design a plan for the upcom- ing season. This includes all our major goals for the quad and the year. We look at the competitions throughout the year and work backward to develop the skills we need to accomplish our goals.
A shooter’s hold at the begin- ning of the day’s training. Eff orts were made to reduce the “length” numbers through altering the bal- ance of the rifl e and tweaking the position.
Most everyone is familiar
with the old adage “prac- tice makes perfect.” Some- times it needs to be refi ned to “perfect practice makes perfect.” Both of these im- ply one must put in the time and effort to become really good at something - There really is no surprise to that, however, I have also heard these statements altered a bit more to become even more explanatory. “Practice
The concept of perma- nency should be applied to all aspects of your training. I have seen people frequently stepping up to the fi ring line, shooting 10-20 shots, then taking a break. They chat with friends or play around on their phone a bit and fi - nally return to shoot 10-20 more.
After that, off they
go for another break and repeat the process again. They may put in four hours
58 USA Shooting News | July 2014
ferent. However, a simple look at the training pattern makes it quite obvious. They are trying to do something in the match they’ve never done before. Specifi city in your training is the key to avoiding this type of pitfall. Remember the reasons why you are out there practic- ing. The end goal is to per- form great at the match and your training needs to be designed to accomplish that
Each month we then gener- ate plans specifi c to what we will do every day for our training. We might be work- ing on hold, position refi ne- ment, SCATT, or shooting a record day (days devoted to shooting just like you are in a match). Training plans provide the roadmap to im- provement and help to en- sure one is making the right things “permanent.” An important note about training plans is to remem- ber to refer back to them. I can even admit to being guilty of this mistake in the past. I’ll make a great train- ing plan and put a lot of ef- fort into developing it, but
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