mental exercises to learn to control ones pulse and breathing in really
stressful situations or when very nervous what do you do mental exercises
so we touched on this very briefly in the last episode which was on the book
where I talked a little bit about sniper training visualization is probably your
biggest tool and what in my experience train train the shit out of it
train train train and when you think you've trained enough keep training but
when you're not training think about it think about it the more you think about
it become in tune with yourself okay I'm gonna get a little Spacey here little
earthy just sit there cuz you know what you do in your ear sniper you fucking
sit there you have a lot of time to yourself
you can't really talk cuz you got a job to do and what you gotta do is you just
gotta okay I know my heart rates go up here but I do my best to make sure it
doesn't overwhelm my motor functions and you can control it pretty mint that
pretty easily if you prepare yourself for that moment but it's all about
preparation training and visualization even like even making the shot you know
like Tim Kennedy was on here right when you talk about dry-firing mm-hmm
considered dry firing that this is your dry firing for for you for controlling
yourself or your brain for your brain exactly and dry fire your brain like
that and and it only comes from experience now I guess there's probably
some exceptions to the rule out there that are just born to be cold-blooded
killers that a second they get behind a barrel but but for me it was
visualization and just preparing to accept the feelings that were coming
and also overriding them because that they could still be happening but you
can still control yourself with the right kind of preparation and it's also
a perishable skill funny enough I realized I don't know if that answered
the question but no I think that's I think that's good and I think for me
one thing that I that I know I do and this is a I guess it may be considered a
technique but it's like the technique creates the solution let me explain this
to you one of the things that I do in stressful situations
there's something that I always try and do and that is no matter what's going on
I try and remain calm in my voice so when things are going crazy I try and
get on the radio and say hey we need two more people over here not hey we need
two more people over here Roger so if you're gonna talk in a calm controlled
voice then you can't be breathing hard you can't be excited you can't get angry
you can't get frustrated you have to lock all that up and get it under
control before you open your lips right and start saying something and so I'm
always very focused on I am gonna sound calm cool and collected when I open my
mouth that way and when in in doing that the only way to make that happen is to
do everything we just talked about control your breathing
control your pulse control your emotions get all those things under control and
then say all right we need two more guys down here immediately now and everybody
goes okay let's make this happen and coming from
you especially you're the in your kit in your case you were the boss so if you're
if you're calm cool and collected that translates to your troopers it
absolutely right so when we wouldn't and it would for us as well when we were
doing overwatch you know six-two six-three
you move into your left yeah no no no no laughs right think about
what happens when you do that so let's imagine if I let you shoot six there on
your left on your left right I'm freaking out they would it would all be
it would be lost but your that call your that voice because we're over with
snipers are overwatch we're eat what they the troops feel
better when they know okay the snipers do know overwatch okay we can we're
gonna be okay so if I they're on the radio and talked the same way so you
know nope okay yeah just fire four hundred meters north you know fire for a
fact Roger that you know like you got it
that's a good point I never even thought of that I think airline pilots train
that too because you know we hit the turbulence just go ahead and put your
seat yeah yeah actually if you hear Sully the guy that landed on the river
he's like that yeah yeah we're gonna have to I think they they have to teach
them that because that's where people are so apprehensive we've when they're
in the plane favorite part about that is a it's like yeah we'll be in the river
and the guys like say again we'll be in the Hudson Roger out and like the plane
it's like real-time you're watching the video and he's just like yeah yeah we're
in the river we're in the road what in law by controlling his eyes in order to
control his voice he's got to control his breathing he's got to control his
temper he's gotta control his emotions and so that's what I do
in those situations and I'll tell you what if I haven't if I don't if I'm not
in a situation where I need to talk I'll just talk to myself be like okay you
know just say that in my head yeah all right
what is the next movement you're good I know we're spending a lot of time on the
first question that's but that's what saved my life Oh
staying if I had gone into shock dude I'd be dead right and I say it in the
book I say I did my best to go into the zone so I know I'm bleeding it and I
know this and I know that but in my mind it was let the system do its job okay
fine Jody it's okay and I just I just kept saying talking to myself you know
visualizing what okay so that choppers gonna come in you know and I just
visualized each step and my but the whole point to it was I couldn't have my
pulse jackhammer otherwise more Bloods lost
more blood lot and then you're in what happens right blood gets sucked into
your core when you go into shock and and that would sucks it out of your brain so
excited of everywhere where you where you know I I needed to stay conscious so
no anyway a long long answer for one question but this this is also something
you know you gotta learn practice keep practicing it you'll figure it out yeah
it always and we talk about this again all the time on the podcast inoculate
yourself to these stressful situations that's right Colonel Grossman that's the
guy's name yes stress inoculation yep inoculate
yourself to the stress so that when you you get used to it yeah the more stress
will such I mean training going through training man they they put all kinds of
stresses at you yeah so that you learn to deal with it and if you want to learn
how to that's your time to practice controlling all those things absolutely
and I'm not trying to go level seven Zen Buddha on you all like you need to get
to the mind state to control your breathing like no it's a practical thing
it's a real thing it's not a yoga thing it's a practical real thing of hey get
calm down yeah take a deep breath get yourself under control now it's time to
talk and give clear concise orders then calm yeah or make that shot or crack one
off if you're in the sniper zone lack a bad guy