What are fundamentals? Are they really necessary for good shooting? The definition of "fundamental" is "one of the minimum constituents without which a thing or a system would not be what it is." The fundamentals of marksmanship, then, are the basic techniques that a shooter must employ to attain even minimal proficiency. You bet they are necessary for good shooting!
How many marksmanship fundamentals are there? The number of fundamentals is always a hot topic of discussion. I know some coaches and instructors who only teach two fundamentals, while others claim to teach 86. But the NRA Training Department uses five fundamentals to teach marksmanship.
The names of these fundamentals are different from the names of fundamentals that have been used previously, but the objective is unchanged. These newly named fundamentals apply to both rifle and pistol shooting, and will standardize marksmanship instruction terminology for NRA Certified Instructors and Coaches. These five fundamentals are: aiming, breath control, hold control, trigger control and follow-through. This article is intended to help instructors and coaches understand how these fundamentals work.
By way of simple introduction, aiming is first on the list. Aiming is simply lining up the gun so you hit what you want to hit. The process has two stages: sight alignment and sight picture. Sight alignment is establishing the proper relationship between the shooting eye, the rear sight and the front sight. When the sights are aligned, you add the aiming area (target) so you are working with the shooting eye, rear sight, front sight and target. That is sight picture.
Breath control is next in line. This is simply regulating your breathing so it does not disturb the sight picture as the shot is fired. If you feel the need to breathe when executing a shot, just stop the shot process and breathe. How long do you stop your breathing before interrupting the shot process? That depends on the physical condition of the individual, but as a general rule a perfect shot is fired within eight to 10 seconds after you stop breathing. When you stop the breath for a period of time, one of the first senses to fail is your vision, which may result in a shot off call. The eye did not pick up the error in sight alignment or sight picture because of the lack of oxygen in the system. We all need to know that when we over-hold our air supply, the likelihood of a successful shot drops rapidly.
Hold control starts the moment you stop breathing. You hold your body motionless except for the trigger finger until the gun fires and settles back into the aiming area. Motionless, you say? The body is never perfectly motionless. It will have an arc of movement or wobble area. With training, wobble area can be minimized. (We will have follow-up articles on how to reduce wobble area, covering development of the inner position, balance, natural point of aim and shot process.)
Trigger control is a simple movement of the trigger without disturbing sight alignment and sight picture. As hold control improves, a shooter learns to fire while hold is at its steadiest—during maximum hold. If a shooter sees maximum hold before starting to move the trigger finger, the shot will be fired as hold goes away, and the shot will be wide of the mark.
Placement of the trigger finger on the trigger is another important topic for discussion. Learn to establish a grip that positions the finger correctly on the trigger. Last, but not least, of the NRA fundamentals is Follow-through. Many of us learned to follow through after we pulled the trigger. The thinking where follow-through is concerned has been refined. Following-through starts early in the process of firing a perfect shot—as soon as we stop breathing and begin to control aiming, our hold, and the trigger—-and continues until the gun returns to the aiming area after recoil.
Marksmanship training has been repackaged many times and in many ways. The way to success in shooting has many paths. With solid understanding of shooting fundamentals, the trail may be smoother and shorter. In future articles, all five of the fundamentals will be discussed in detail, along with the reasons why each is an important building block.
Most Popular
