so we're going to talk about muscle memory for a second we get asked all the
time as instructors why do we have to spend so much time on the range doing
these same repetitions of these same shooting drills over and over and over
again it's killing it we want it we want to do
all the fun drills we want to do this we want to do that. gotta slowdown you've
got to take a step back and you've got to build what we call muscle memory
muscle memory what you're doing is you're building habits proper habits now
how you build proper habits is it follows the key phrase perfect practice
makes perfect performance repetitively if you do the same thing correctly over
and over and over again what you end up doing is you end up pushing that skill
into your subconscious mind and the subconscious mind reacts a lot faster
than the conscious mind I believe with Bill Rogers to quote him believe he said
it best when he said that the subconscious mind is capable of reacting
to stimuli with far greater efficiency than the conscious mind in combat
situations and that this subconscious performance is known as a conditioned
response this conditioned response this reaction
to what's going on around you, you fall back on your muscle memory
your subconscious what you've already trained your mind to do right so the
only way you can develop that proper muscle memory so that your subconscious
mind responds properly is through repetition muscle memory you've got to
push all of it in it so instead of me having to think about all right while
there's a bad guy I have to properly line up the sights I have to rotate
select deliver to fire I have to take up slack on the trigger all that needs to
be pushed to my subconscious thought so now I can focus on is it a threat is it
not a threat is it a threat that warrants deadly force
all right so lots of repetitions now there have been different studies done
some say 50 repetitions will develop a good habit there are other studies that
say all with the 3,000 repetitions to build a good habit that's why you'll see
the Marines on the range doing just hours and hours of those same
drills now if you can't afford to do it with live ammo like the military you can
do it through dry firing all right the only thing you can't work on doing dry
fire drills is recoil management other than that
reload drills everything that can all be done at home in a room with no live ammo
anywhere around do it in a safe environment you can do almost all of
this building a muscle memory through repetition doing dry fire drills so now
you say well I want to get better but I already have bad habits 50 repetitions
three thousand repetitions aren't going to do it it takes upwards of 5,000
repetitions to break a bad habit now you have to go over and over and over again
why do I say that why don't I point that I point that out because don't develop
bad habits go out right away say I've already made the conscious decision I
want to be a better combat shooter and every time you go to the range
practice have fun but practice doing perfect practice so that when the moment
of truth comes you have perfect performance that's the only way you're
going to do it all right now you've done all the repetitions you're way up here
you're cutting edge you're ready to go in mix metal and meat together
you're awesome all right now you go back home and you don't practice anymore
because you think you're awesome you're good to go are you good to go for the
rest of your life and no you're not they've done other studies you hit that
21 day mark and then you start losing percentages of your proficiency each day
till all of a sudden oh no I suck again all right that's and the tragic part
behind that is a lot of our conventional military units will train till they're
at this combat ready level and then they'll deploy overseas for 12 months
come nine month when they finally get in that gun fight the moment of truth all
sudden they can't hit what they're aiming at why is that that's because I
haven't fired a single round the whole time they've been deployed they've been
doing all the little presence patrols but they haven't been practicing that's
why you'll see a lot of your soft units your special ops guys overseas now
they're still going out doing the missions every night but while they're
back inside the wire when they're planning and prepping for
that next mission they're also going out to the range and they're continuing to
build and maintain that good muscle memory right so that's why when the
instructors say we're going to do this again we're going to do this again we're
going to do this again what they're doing is they're making you learn that
you have to develop that muscle memory when we take those Marines or those
SOCOM guys off the flat range and we move them to the shoot house when they
go through that initial breach point into that room they start looking around
for targets they don't need to be thinking about all right I need to
rotate my selector lever from safe to fire I need to bring the gun up and
properly line up my sights I need to worry about having a good rolling
through the trigger and then worry about reset no there's no time for that they
have to worry about is that a threat is that not a threat is it a threat that
warrants deadly force that's it everything else has to be
pushed into the subconscious mind and that's why muscle memory is so important
and that's why we'll push you to do perfect practice through perfect
performance through multiple multiple repetitions