Do you breathe while you're shooting?

[Duane Thomas]

The question isn't "How long can you hold your breath?" The question is "How long can you hold your breath before your vision is significantly impacted?" For most people, the answer is "Five to seven seconds".

I rewatched 3GM again last night. Hell of a DVD. I highly recommend it. During the "Accuracy" portion of the instruction, Saul does talk about breathing. But - in this DVD, at least - he never says, "You can't breathe when shooting as fast as we do in IPSC." Rather, he talks about folks' tendency to hold their breath while waiting for the beep. Which can lead to your vision, and even hand/eye coordination, being significantly impacted before the stage even starts. His advice: consciously keep breathing while waiting for the beep. It seems to me that if the advice is, "There are major negative effects that come from not breathing," the corollary would be, "Keep breathing if you can."

In any event, the results of this survey would tend to bring the "No one can breath while shooting fast" theory into question.

[jkrispies]

The other day, my wife watched me doing some dry fires, and she made the comment that I hold my breath while I'm firing and that I need to breathe more. I pretty much blew off the comment since I figured holding my breath for five seconds or so shouldn't be a detriment. After all, I've ingrained into myself "breath control" as a segment of my trigger control to assist with accuracy.

But then I keep thinking about it... Breath control is really more of a bullseye or rifle shooting technique, which this sport ain't. Plus, with the running we do, could it be more of an overall benefit to continue the flow of every bit of nutrients to the muscles rather than squeezing out that bit more accuracy than I really need for our shooting distances? And then there's the ever-present specter of tensionthat I'm trying to avoid... and holding your breath is a form of tension. Realistically, am I helping or hurting myself?

I guess my question is, should I be thinking about breathing through a string of fire on top of everything else? What's your guys' take on it?

[BritinUSA]

Breathing while running down range is fine and good, your eyes lose visual acuity if deprived of oxygen too long. Not sure about a short speed shoot though. If I'm actually making the gun go bang I can't seem to breathe at the same time.

[Lead slinger]

to be honest I dont even think about it. I just continue to do my normal breathing. there is no need to hold your breath, not shooting long distances liek a sniper. Just continue your normal breathing.

[badassmcgraff]

Snipers don't hold their breath. The first thing to go when you hold your breath is vision. There's two natural respiratory cycles where you're the most still, at the top of your breath and at the very bottom, it's better to break the shoot (with a precision rifle) at the bottom of the breathing cycle because your lungs act like balloons when they're full of air you have extra movement rather then if they were deflated at the bottom. Also when you hold your breath your heart rate goes up because it has to work faster to do the same job. Breathing is the most normal thing in the world you do it all day everyday, while you sleep while you eat. I don't know why people think just because you have a gun in your hand people automatically think they should stop breathing.

[dajarrel]

Your body will tell you when to breathe. If you override it, as a poster mentioned above, you are introducing tension.

The only time I think about breathing is when the RO says, "are you ready." At that time I take a short breath, drop the tension in my body and listen for the beep.

JMHO, fwiw

dj

[JThompson]

to be honest I dont even think about it. I just continue to do my normal breathing. there is no need to hold your breath, not shooting long distances liek a sniper. Just continue your normal breathing.

I have to go with LS... I inhale are you ready, give a nod and slowly start to let it out to the draw. After that I don't even think about it. The only time I might stop breathing is on a very long tight shot. I think I just stop where I'm at in the breathing process for long enough to break the shot then pick it up again.

[jkrispies]

Your body will tell you when to breathe. If you override it, as a poster mentioned above, you are introducing tension.

The only time I think about breathing is when the RO says, "are you ready." At that time I take a short breath, drop the tension in my body and listen for the beep.

JMHO, fwiw

dj

The tension issue is my only real concern in posting the question-- a few seconds of holding your breath on a full set of lungs (I tend to fill them up before I start pulling the trigger) isn't going to hurt much, methinks, regarding oxygen deprivation. But yet, I have to admit that I'm not satisfied with the amount of tension I'm feeling in my body after a string of fire. I'm really starting to question if this might be a contributing factor for me.

[AlamoShooter]

Your body may tell you to breath but it will not tell you how to breath when you get stressed. the breaths end up short and shallow= and that is not good. old school training is to get the stale air out so that fresh air can reach all the way to lungs. the Exhale is the key to get the deep breath started. On a long set at some point I will try to "Huff" out so that I can get a deeper breath in. most stages under 30 seconds its not that big a deal. If you are in a sport that has you shooting more than 60 seconds it is a very big deal

[Matt Cheely]

You'd be amazed at the number of shooters that don't breathe during a stage.

We had a local match with a stage (not legal but fun) that had a steel target at 100 yards. The stage was get as many hits on it as you can in something like 20 seconds, max of 10 hits. Half way into the stage, people would start hitting wildly, the ground at 40 yards, 20 yards off to the right, you'd yell at them "BREATHE!!!", they'd take a breath and start hitting it again.

That was a fun stage, I think a couple of us open shooters hit it 45+ times.

[G-ManBart]

You can't shoot and take a normal full breath at the same time without making a conscious effort to do so. Saul Kirsh stated as much in one of his videos...I don't recall which one or his exact words, but he said they studied it and nobody breathes while they're actually shooting. I think he said to take a full mag and shoot it at one second per shot and see what happens...you'll be out of breath at the end of the mag.

Think about it, how often do we run a stage that has a grand total of 15-20yds of movement and find that at the end we're really, really breathing hard? Why? We were only getting partial breaths during movement and wide transitions and not the rest of the time which made running 20 yards much harder than it normall would be. R,

Edit to add: I think you can maybe take some air in through more passive breathing, but not a normal chest up, chest down sorta breath.

Edited April 30, 2009 by G-ManBart

[-JQ-]

I keep AlamoShooter in my head saying "Breathe" - and you didn't think I was listening

...he's right too on the getting a good breath starts with forcing out the bad on the exhale...

I now associate two things together - "breathe...HIT"

[BritinUSA]

You can't shoot and take a normal full breath at the same time without making a conscious effort to do so. Saul Kirsh stated as much in one of his videos...I don't recall which one or his exact words, but he said they studied it and nobody breathes while they're actually shooting.

I think it's mentioned in his book 'Perfect Practice' as well.... I think he's right.

[fasteddy]

Really? If I hold my breath, I'll die?!

That would explain all of the dead shooters at the target competitions. If only they had known.

You've obviously never shot the Ironman...

Don't think about it and just breathe. Your body is smarter than you are, let it do what it's supposed to do. Your attention should be on the shooting afterall right?

+ 1

Our body parts and system got each own function let your body works for you..just concentrate on seeing the sight/dot in relation to your target then enjoy shooting.

[shooterbenedetto]

I just breath from the stomach and not from the chest. IF the stage requires a precision shot at steel first, I will take a deep breath when the RO says "stand by" then breath normally from STOMACH.

[Micah]

ARE YOU READY

*Deep inhale through the nose*

STANDBY

*Slowly exhale through the mouth*

[kurtm]

Breathing and shooting? Sounds like a life support sport. I can't say what I do as I don't even think about it. I have never had to have anyone tell me to breath and I have never run out of breath on large arrays of targets...but I know a lot of folks that need that reminder, matter of fact one guy I shoot with is nick named puffer. Part of his draw stroke is puffing out his cheek and holding his breath. It is darn funny to watch if you know what to look for....Now the guy we call thumper, well lets just say that is the sound you hear when someone takes a header at a full run and lands on the charging handle of his M-14. Looked like a hit on body armor, huge bruise with a very dark center point where the handle hit....OWE

[jkrispies]

So I do my morning dryfire today using 4 static strings that I have known pars for. My goal today: Deep breath on "standby" and consciously let it out through the string of fire (each running 5 shots, 2-3 seconds long total). Now, I'll be d@mned if I wasn't able to take .1 seconds off two of the strings and .2 off another one. The 4th and final string I shot didn't change enough to note, but it's also the hardest one. Admittedly, I don't know if this is due to the breathing technique, the fact that I've improved since the last time I officially measured myself two weeks ago, or if this is just a Trick of the Day, but... I normally measure my pars in the middle of the day on the weekend rather than at 5am when I'm still half-asleep (I'm usually .1-.2 slower at this time of the morning), so I think it is significant.

One thing I'm noticing is that as the practice session progresses, I feel like I'm getting faster on the buzzer (this is when I started nailing the string where I gained .2)... possibly because the continuous deep breathing is oxygenating my blood more, thus improving my reaction time???

EDIT TO ADD: I also have to say (now that I'm thinking about it) that I'm absolutely less tense in the back of my shoulders after the strings of fire. Since the only thing I've changed is the breathing, the lowering tension is due to the breathing technique, period. For that reason alone, I'm now making a modification with this in mind!!!!!

Edited May 1, 2009 by jkrispies

[DeepBlue]

As a long time martial artist, but a new shooter. I have been thinking about my breath a lot lately. At this stage I am not able to add speed, as I am still learning to control the trigger. I find that when I slowly exhale during the shot I can usually keep my trigger press smooth, and keep my sights aligned properly.

Hopefully I will be able to start adding speed in soon, and I don't see how I will be able to exhale over multiple shots. In the normal learning process does one stop needing to control the breath so closely, or do most people not need that close of a breath control to start with?

[jkrispies]

As a long time martial artist, but a new shooter. I have been thinking about my breath a lot lately. At this stage I am not able to add speed, as I am still learning to control the trigger. I find that when I slowly exhale during the shot I can usually keep my trigger press smooth, and keep my sights aligned properly.

Hopefully I will be able to start adding speed in soon, and I don't see how I will be able to exhale over multiple shots. In the normal learning process does one stop needing to control the breath so closely, or do most people not need that close of a breath control to start with?

You ever see the movie "A Christmas Story"? Ralphie and I started shooting at about the same age, and I didn't start thinking about it until now. I'm 36. What we're talking about here falls well within the "fine tuning" category.

If you're a new shooter, you're on the right path: the 3 most important things (other than safety) I believe for a new shooter to be aware of are a comfortable stance such as the isosceles, a grip that offers proper trigger control, and keeping your eyes open through the shot. Get those down first and the speed can be built upon them.

[Chris iliff]

Never really thought about breathing during the course of fire, I'm still here though, so I must. Your body will take care of it if it becomes a problem. Or you'll pass out and DQ. My question is do I need to be aware of my breathing during a course of fire? Would it make me a better shooter? I can easily conclude that holding my breath would cause undo tension and that couldn't be good.

[G-ManBart]

Never really thought about breathing during the course of fire, I'm still here though, so I must. Your body will take care of it if it becomes a problem. Or you'll pass out and DQ. My question is do I need to be aware of my breathing during a course of fire? Would it make me a better shooter? I can easily conclude that holding my breath would cause undo tension and that couldn't be good.

I wouldn't even try to think about it. You shouldn't be thinking about anything during the COF...it should just be happening. If a thought pops into your head it's not always a bad thing, but thinking about something specific, on purpose isn't a great idea.

I don't think most folks hold their breath when moving between positions, arrays etc so I wouldn't worry about that. Your body will take care of that just fine because it's a natural act. When actually shooting things change because it is decidedly not a natural act that we have to teach ourselves to do...your brain doesn't want a small, loud explosion going off in front of your face, nor does it want to be jarred by recoil. A friend told me about a sports medicine study on shooting and boxing. They said that both essentially cause tiny little short circuits to happen in your brain (when the gun goes off or when you get punched). That's why on a larger level flash bangs make people temporary zombies....it's a short circuit, just much bigger than a gun going off in your hand. Because of all of that I don't believe anybody is taking anything near a normal breath when they're in the act of shooting. As I've pointed out before, with so many great videos and picture strings available, you see people with their tongue sticking out like MJ while engaging targets, and similar things that show they're not in the act of breathing while they're shooting. Conversely, you don't see any where people are obviously taking a breath while engaging targets. R,

[Pat Miles]

It takes me so damn long to shoot a stage that if I stopped breathing I would pass out and get a DNF. Seriously, I don't even think about it. There are enough things that I am trying to do during a stage. I let my mind take care of that issue.

CYa,

pat

[ahtsay]

I don't think I breathe either. I've experienced a few matches wherein going to the last shooting position of a long stage, I literally gasped for air. Just as I was about to shoot, my body couldn't take in anymore and it felt like I was drowning. Although I didn't know it until it actually happened. I was kinda embarrassed because the RO was kinda staring at me strangely

[edwin garcia]

The beauty of breathing is it's both conscious and autonomic activity. You can either control it or it will go on auto when you're not thinking about it- don't need to remind yourself to breath when you're sleeping. I oxygenate when I'm one shooter away and not worry about it when I hear LAMR.