Breathing

[BigDave]

Its well known that breathing is highly important when shooting rifle. Have we ever disussed breating and shooting pistols at high speed.

One thing that made me think of this was reading a post by our host about tension. Tonight when practicing reloads (tension is the enemy of speed you know), I focused on exhaling while performing the reload. It seems to make sense. Its very difficult to be tense when exhaling (at least for me), which is likely the biological factor behind the sigh (it releases excess tension, when done unconsciously anyway). I'm thinking this might work also for the draw. If nothing else, it might put some of your focus on speed (which doesn't yeild like you think it should, often the horrible opposite) into a different area.

Any other thoughts?

[PistolPete]

You def. bring up a really good point. As a Martial Arts instructor breathing the correct way can decide if a technique is effective or not. Knowing when and how to exhale makes all the difference. This same priciple should be able to be applied to shooting. To throw a fast punch your body needs to be loose and relaxed until the moment of impact where you tighten up exhaling as you implement the movement. Applying this to your draw and shooting I would think would be totally beneficial so long as you weren't focusing on your breathing while in a match as that might interfer with your overall focus. I would believe it would be good to do during practice until it becomes 2nd nature. Maybe some people can elaborate on this.

[Flexmoney]

The Burner talks of exhaling during the draw.

[ErikW]

I'm very conscious of breathing after "Are You Ready?" but not during the stage. I like to pick out the exact spot where my first bullet is going to go and slowly exhale waiting for the beep.

And maybe the 40-50 yard shots I see once or twice a year. Those I'm conscious of my breathing.

[pwalker]

I am a big believer in breathing control to relax. I do a lot of public speaking and I always take two or three deep breaths before walking on stage. I do the same thing in IPSC, just as I give the "ready" signal to the RO, I practice two or three slow deep breaths. I am sure that it helps.

But, on the other hand, I am not sure that I'd want to assign specific breathing actions for specific tasks, like doing a mag change. I think that you'd need to practice it so many times for it to become automatic that it would reduce practice time for other, more-significant techniques. I believe that, if you can start the stage with relaxed brething, it will probably stay under control all by itself.

Also, once the start signal beeps, I want my breathing, and most other things not directly related to navigating the stage, to be on automatic pilot. I worry that a specific breathing regime for in-stage activities might just add to the brain clutter that can be so distracting.

Regards

Peter

[spook]

Breathing is exremely important. The first thing that deteriorates when out of oxygen is your eyesight. Since it is's damn near impossible to breath during the high speed shooting, it is essential that you get your oxygen before (when waiting for the beep) and during the couse of fire when not shooting (on the move or changing position). My 2 cnt.

[TDean]

Interesting topic for sure.

I don't think I breath sometimes! I noticed a year or so ago that during dry fire in the house, I would only exhale when I was re-holstering. I pretty sure that during stationary classifiers (el-prez) I only exhale on the reloads and when I'm done. On field courses...I have no idea.

I guess I hold my breath when I'm shooting.

[EricW]

I wonder if this might be one of those deals where if you think about it, it will only screw you up more. I've never been conscious of breathing when shooting at speed - and I think I might be happy about that.....I think...

[Garfield]

Hi,

Eric, I guess you're right with the conscious/not conscious thing.

When I was target shooting, I used the correct breathing technique, but even there it became a sort of non-conscious thing.

In IPSC, as others said, I relax myself before the COF with breathing in/out a few times slowly and deeply. Upon / just before "standby" I inhale and hold until the starting signal and from there on it's "autopilot" for my breathing again.

This works for me.

[kevin c]

It helps not to run out of oxygen holding your breath - "In, out, in again, then half out and hold it on the trigger press" is what I was taught for precision shooting, though I usually end up adding "take too long and then turn purple, sputter, and then jerk the shot"

[AikiDale]

Breathing is fundamental. If you hold your breath you will begin to tense, slow down and lose your vision. If it is all going to be over in 10 seconds or less you could probably get away with inhaling at "Standby" and exhaling or, if you must, holding your breath as you fire. If there is any movement involved or if it is a longer course of fire I would think being in the habit of just breathing would be a big help. Over the years I have learned to tell my students to just breathe out when engaging in aerobic activity. If you do that breathing in will take care of itself.