If they’re synced up and calibrated, shooting is fast and easy. This isn’t normal for most people. When they’re not synced up and calibrated, shooting is slower and less accurate.
You can fix the issue with high volume live fire training where you can see where every shot goes, but visual and vestibular resets take care of this common problem FAST, without wasting time or ammo.
Let me give you a couple of situations where this comes into play.
Sighted Shooting
When you use your sights to aim, you’re using your visual system or your visual aiming system to line up the sights…but you’re using your vestibular (inner ear) and proprioceptive (body awareness) system to draw and present your firearm so that the sights are directly between your dominant eye and your intended target.
The more the systems are in sync, the easier it is to make fast, accurate, first hits from the holster.
The less they’re in sync, the more wobble and delay you’re going to have at the end of your drawstroke while you find and line up your sights.
Unsighted, point, instinctive, target focus shooting
When you don’t use your sights to aim, you’re using your vestibular aiming system and your proprioceptive system.
Here’s the thing…if you’re looking straight ahead, but your vestibular system thinks that straight ahead is a few degrees off to the right, you’re going to have to shoot and adjust to get on target.
This adjustment depends on you being able to identify where you hit with your first shot fast enough to be able to correct for the next shot. That’s not really practical in most real world or low light situations. That’s one of the reasons why law enforcement hit rates are in the 15-25% range.
You see, it’s REALLY common for the visual and vestibular aiming systems to be out of sync.
And the consequences go beyond shooting accuracy. They can actually impact how fast your brain lets you move your body! So you not only shoot slower and less accurately, but you move slower when they’re out of sync too.
In short, your brain navigates through the world using various senses. They’re like gauges in an airplane.
And as long as your senses are all feeding the brain the same information about the world around you, your brain is happy and confident.
But, when your brain gets different input from different senses, it feels confused and threatened. It ends up having a constant argument/struggle about which sense to believe and which to ignore to keep the body safe. In order to reduce the struggle, the brain slows the body down…it slows down the speed that you walk, run, and move. << This is HUGE.
One way to tell if this is happening is to see how easy it is to close your eyes and stand without losing your balance. Do the drill on 2 feet as a start & see if you can stand on 1 foot with your eyes closed without falling as an advanced drill.
Another test you can do is called “Eyes Shut Shooting” which is based on a drill from 21 Day Alpha Shooter and Dry Fire Training Cards.
To do this test, you simply remove all live ammo from the room, draw and dry fire an empty firearm 3-5 times at a small (1 inch or so) target at 10-15 feet with a safe backstop.
Now shut your eyes, draw, aim to where you think the target is, and open your eyes to see where your sights are pointed.
If your sights are lined up with the target, congratulations! Your visual and vestibular systems are calibrated and synchronized. But this only happens with 10-20% of shooters at a given time and can change from day to day.
Do 3-5 reps. Don’t compensate for your last rep…just point the gun towards where you THINK the target is. If your brain self-corrects, that’s awesome!
If your brain doesn’t self-correct, try tapping on your cheek bone between the hole of your ear and your eye 2-3 times in the direction you want to move your shots and try again. This is a little neurology hack that therapists use to help with some of the vestibular symptoms of TBIs.
That’s it for today. This is a critical thing to get right, so if you have any questions, please ask by commenting below. Like what you saw? Please help your friends by sharing it on social media.
by Mike Ox
Mike Ox is an avid defensive and competitive shooter who has co-created several firearms training products, including Dry Fire Training Cards, Dry Fire Fit, 21 Day Alpha Shooter, and See Faster, Shoot Faster. His brain based training focuses on accelerated learning techniques for shooting as well as controlling brain state and brain chemistry for optimal performance in extreme stress situations. Learn more about dynamic dry fire training for defense and competition at www.DryFireTrainingCards.com/blog
