Physical training techniques for combat snipers. Sniper shooting training Everything a sniper needs to know

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Basic special forces training [Extreme survival] Ardashev Alexey Nikolaevich Combat psychophysiology

sniper Combat sniper fishing is a responsible occupation that requires special precision and concentration. This process requires not only a certain physical endurance and hellish patience, but also high costs nervous energy. Accurate shooting is always associated with tension in the nervous system. Knowledge of the physiological and psychophysiological processes occurring in the shooter’s body greatly helps to increase the effectiveness of sniper shooting. First of all, a sniper has no right to emotions. With mental tension, motor skills and so-called static coordination are impaired. Coordination stability and static endurance decrease. Jitters appear, which begin to “drive the pulse.” For beginning shooters, all of the above is caused by the so-called “pre-start state” before shooting. The pre-start mobilization state physiologically justifies itself in dynamic views

combat activity, and with the static shooting position it takes on the course of ordinary stress. How to deal with this? Firstly: when adrenaline and other stress hormones are released, a lot of vitamins are “burned” in the body. Therefore in Everyday life

the sniper must constantly replenish their deficit. A healthy liver is necessary for better absorption of vitamins. Therefore, stop drinking alcohol.

To relieve anxiety and prevent it, inhale slowly and deeply through your nose all the time, and exhale only through your mouth. Or inhale through your left nostril and exhale only through your right. At the same time, rub your hands. Stretch each finger until you feel warmth. Using the knuckles of a clenched fist, knead with force inner surface palms of the other hand. This simple technique effectively relieves not only jitters, but also nervous tension. This process occurs at the reflex level. You should know that the mechanism of excitation is embedded in the subcortex and operates on a subconscious level. It will not be possible to “turn it off” by an effort of will, but it is quite possible to use reflex-physiological techniques. Old-timers are not worried about jitters - they are hardened to stress. And for beginners, it is very advisable to practice the above-described method of stress relief. Practice and you will succeed.

The next stumbling block, known to all practical shooters without exception, is static stability. This very static stability, for which sports shooters endlessly struggle, drops sharply in the mobile sniper work characteristic of special forces soldiers. Not so much because the specific activity of such units is mainly running. The fact is that in this case you have to turn your head all the time, fall on your stomach and kneel. Few people know that frequent turns of the head and tilting it back while frequently adopting a prone shooting position physiologically reduce shooting stability. Therefore, a sniper working in a mobile group needs to turn his head less, and observe only in the direction determined by the group commander. You can’t “squint” with your eyes either. What to do? Train in the development of peripheral vision. Tunnel vision, which is very necessary for a sniper, does not suffer from this at all. For shooting, constantly mark out shelters and folds of the terrain, from where you can shoot either while sitting, or from your knees, or in the “Estonian” position, which does not require much tilting of the head back. You should know that after shooting while lying down, stability deteriorates in some cases by up to 50% - all for the same reason of lying with your head thrown back. Dense food also significantly worsens static stability.

It is also necessary to constantly remember that shooting stability requires maintaining active attention to this state of the body and this process and does not tolerate tension - both muscular and mental. Shooting stability in prone, kneeling, standing positions, as well as in special non-standard positions, depends primarily on the sense of balance, which is provided by the vestibular apparatus. This stability is ensured by the continuous automatic firing of certain muscle groups. This automation directly depends on the so-called rectifying reaction. This reflexive straightening response is triggered not only by the vestibular system and sensors in the skin and tendons, but also by pressure sensors located in the soft tissues of the human foot. The reflex reaction of straightening is largely directed by the mechanism of muscle coordination memory, the so-called “balance memory” of muscles, which represents the second vestibular apparatus of the living organism. This is the so-called “proprioceptor muscle sense”, the essence of which is still poorly understood.

American sniper in Iraq

At one time, when selecting candidates for sniper schools, there was a test: if, when the subject’s eyes are closed, his static stability and the associated righting reaction during slight but sharp rolls and trims do not change, then this meant that this individual had very sensitive not only vestibular apparatus, but also receptors of the skin, muscles, tendons. And also the function of the above-mentioned proprioceptor muscle sense was great. All this, without the help of the eyes, was able to react to vertical and horizontal displacements of body parts in space, and moreover, to automatically return the necessary parts of the body to a given position, in our case, to return the weapon back to the aiming line. The phenomenon of proprioceptive sensitivity itself most interesting topic for research and a powerful physiological reserve for improving the quality of shooting. For the sake of curiosity, try practicing shooting with... your eyes closed. After you have taken the usual classic position lying down (no matter, with a rest or with a belt), lie down and peer into the sight, take aim, close your eyes. Keep the “target picture” before your eyes using visual memory and match all the “visible” changes on it with the sensations that arise in the muscles of the arms, shoulder girdle and back. Match all “visible” movements of the aiming element relative to given point aiming with muscle effort. Learn to use muscle tone to direct the aiming element to the desired aiming point and hold it there. Open your eyes and get checked. Repeat again. Be patient and practice this way for 3-4 weeks. Soon you will no longer be surprised by the fact that with your eyes open after working “blind”, the sight pictures will coincide exactly. Moreover, you yourself will not wonder how it turns out. In scientific slang this is called the phenomenon of associative reflexivity. It just works out, that's all. Proprioceptor muscle sensitivity and the directly related reflex equalizing reaction in the complex are developed very quickly. The degree of training or the innate quality of this reaction determines shooting stability. By the way, it is worth noting that the muscular-vestibular ability trained in the manner described above increases stability and allows accurate sniper shooting in the dark when “spotting” the target after any lighting flash.

Belarusian sniper in training

Having practiced working “blindly” for about 4-5 weeks, the shooters are surprised to note that the accuracy of fire has noticeably improved, and the “breaks” have inexplicably... disappeared! Let's explain why this happens. From the well-known principle of cinema, it is known that for the human eye to perceive a single frame, its exposure (display) time should be 1/20–1/24 of a second. A faster change of frames is not perceived by the eye and blurs the picture. But there is a phenomenon of the 25th frame, which is not perceived logically, but is recorded by the subconscious. Practical shooters know that it is impossible to “tightly tie” the aiming element to the aiming point. The barrel of a weapon fluctuates continuously: for beginners - more, for masters - microscopically, but fluctuates. The visual speed of perception is the above-mentioned 1/20–1/24 second. That is, the shooter’s visual memory displays a picture that was 1/20–1/24 seconds ago, and not the one that exists in reality. During this 1/24 second, the rifle barrel can “move” to the side, and the shooter will not notice this. And trained muscular proprioceptor coordination sensitivity will detect such a deviation immediately. The desired aiming point will be deposited in the subconscious - this will be the very 25th frame, which provides an internal setting reference for the leveling reaction, that is, the direction of reflexive counteraction to the unwanted displacement.

For poorly trained shooters (and these are the majority), vision is still the main controller of the degree of stability. When beginners' vision is “turned off,” static coordination is “liberated” in the direction of mobility, and shooting accuracy decreases. Closing both eyes reduces standing stability by more than half. Moreover, if you rotate your eyes left and right with your eyes closed, which is done with arrows to restore blood circulation in the visual apparatus, stability deteriorates another two to three times. But closing one eye has little effect on stability. Therefore, when resting the eyes, so necessary for snipers, you need to close your eyes one at a time - first one, then the other, always leaving one eye open. Or don't close your eyes completely. It should be remembered that stability lost with closed eyes will be restored only after 10–15 minutes. Static coordination stability is largely determined by impulses arising from sensors - reserves of the skin, tendons, muscles and other soft tissues. It should be taken into account that cold increases the sensitivity of these sensor-receptors, and heat decreases it. But all this is within reasonable limits. Best temperature for this +5 o – +8 o C. All this was once known very widely and was used in combat sniper practice. The name for this was kinesthesia(motor sensations). And the above-mentioned sensor-receptors captured kinesthetic stimuli and caused sensations of motor stimulation. The role of kinesthetic analyzers is unusually great. It largely provides a given aiming direction and completely relieves vision from monitoring the physical motor processes performed by the shooter. Vision performs a targeting function and “switches on” to action the developed mechanism of motor kinesthetic connections that ensure muscle activity against the will of the shooter. And the more fully the sniper’s actions are provided by proprioceptor sensitivity, the easier and more fully the aiming eye fulfills its assigned task.

Ready to open fire!

What should you do to feel kinesthetic sensations? The answer is simply to focus your attention on them and you will begin to perceive them fully and clearly. Proprioceptive sensitivity, together with the rectifying reaction, forms the so-called “posture reflex”, on which shooting stability is based. That is why any exercises to develop balance are extremely useful for shooters. Moreover, it will be especially good if the shooter learns to feel rolls and trims with his eyes closed and immediately straighten them. Static activity, which includes sniper shooting, is unnatural and requires increased concentration and sharpened focused attention. What does this mean? This means the need to control stability by sharpening visual attention to aiming.

When shooting from sniper rifle In the final phase of squeezing the trigger, it is necessary to turn aiming into the main task! Why is this so? Because for inexperienced shooters (the majority of them these days), when pulling the trigger, active attention switches to this trigger process. As they say, “attention goes to the trigger.” Unbeknownst to himself, the shooter stops aiming altogether - what he sees through the sight is enough for him. With such a subconscious orientation towards inaction, the “eye reaction” sharply slows down - the shooter does not even see the same aiming picture that was 1/20–1/24 seconds ago, but already 1/10–1/12, that is, he is practically unable to control the position of the aiming element in relation to the aiming point. Aiming in itself dramatically reduces the degree of trigger control. Therefore in Stalin times in sniper schools of various departments, snipers were trained to use the trigger finger on the descent in the same way, namely, using kinesthetic muscle memory. How exactly? The cadet was put on a long paper cap on the trigger finger and was forced, without firing, looking at this cap, to pull the trigger with a uniform increase in force on the trigger finger. The uniformity of development of the trigger force became evident from the movement of the long cap-pointer both for the instructor and for the cadet himself. Moreover, the trigger had to be pulled in 3 seconds (counting “twenty-two, twenty-two, twenty-two”) - no more and no less. This developed the rate of fire. The cadet remembered with the sensations of living flesh the force on the descent and the degree of its increase, and the visual connection of the increase in this effort by moving the cap-pointer in the 3 seconds allotted for the descent put all this into the subconscious. Therefore, at the right moment, the trigger was pulled automatically according to the muscle memory of the firing finger and did not require distraction. The shot formula (sequence of actions) was as follows: after the shooter lay down, peered into the sight (the visual apparatus was accommodated to the optical system), “tied” the aiming element to the aiming point with muscle tone and held his breath, the shooting finger began to move on the descent muscle kinesthetic memory and performed the descent in exactly three seconds independently in the mode of muscle automatism. Visual attention should not be distracted from the sighting picture. The signal to trigger the trigger finger was the beginning of holding the breath.

Sniper at the starting position

Many snipers experience an unpleasant moment when the finger “does not pull” on the trigger. The reason for this is not only the incorrect grip of the neck of the stock or pistol grip, but also in deep neuro-physiological processes. In this case, the following happens: the struggle for stability - and, consequently, for the immobility of the shooter-weapon system, in the central nervous system The center of inhibition is in charge, and the work of skeletal muscles (respectively, the muscles of the fingers) is in charge of the center of excitation. In many individuals, the inhibition center so suppresses the excitation center that, roughly speaking, it turns it off. That's why the finger doesn't pull on the trigger. In such cases, both sports shooters and practical snipers use the so-called pulsating trigger method with great practical effect. It consists in the fact that the shooting finger, even before holding your breath, begins to make pulsating movements along the trigger: press lightly - release, press - release at a speed of about two presses per second. Such clicks are performed especially well on the SVD rifle, which has a long free travel of the trigger. These pulsating pressures keep you in good shape, do not allow the guard points in the center of excitation to turn off and do not allow it to turn off completely. In addition, they adjust both the nerve pathways and the muscles necessary for descent. This preserves the functionality of the trigger finger with limited motor activity. The pulsating descent method works especially well when sniper shooting against moving targets, when attention is overly focused on aiming, and the trigger finger not only “turns off”, but sometimes becomes firmly fixed.

There is a very correct and apt expression: “A sniper thinks with his eyes.” The eye is the main working organ of a sniper and must be protected. Working with any optical instruments imperceptibly but inevitably tires your eyesight. Why? In any optical device(binoculars, periscope, stereo scope and optical sight) there will always be parallax, that is, a mismatch of the optical axes of the lenses. Depending on the quality of workmanship, the parallax will be greater or less, but it will definitely exist. If you are working with an optical sight and suddenly have pain in your eyeball, it means that the parallax in this sight is increased. Even when working with a well-made optical sight, the eye will become tired and eye pain will still occur. But when pain appears in the eyes, it means that 15–20 minutes before, the “targeting” eye was already tired. Tired eyesight hardly notices errors in aiming! Therefore, the sniper needs to “rest his eyes” more often. To rest your eyes, lower your eyelids (but do not close your eyes completely) and roll your eyeballs. This will increase blood flow to the eye apparatus. Then do the same with your eyes open, looking at green or light gray. Periodically train your vision accommodation: look at the raised thumb outstretched arm, then focus your gaze on some object distant at a distance of 200–300 meters and then focus your gaze again on the finger.

Police sniper job

When shooting from a sniper rifle in any position, you must position your head so that the aiming eye does not squint - neither horizontally nor vertically! A “squinting” eye quickly gets tired, which causes involuntary trembling, while the nervous stabilization of static stability reflexively decreases, and, as a result, shooting accuracy decreases. Static load reduces the mobility of the visual analyzer, which is restored only after 25–30 minutes. Therefore, do not be surprised if during shooting practice, after static work on stationary targets, you are unable to hit a moving target. This is a standard situation on training camps. Visual acuity in professional shooters after static loads does not decrease or change. And for those with little experience, at distances of 300–400 meters, visual acuity changes towards farsightedness, and at short distances – 25–50 m – towards myopia. This natural physiological phenomenon is not considered a medical defect. With systematic shooting training, the field of view naturally expands. But with prolonged shooting, vision gets tired and recovers more slowly, and the field of view narrows, especially in the “aiming” eye. A very interesting psychophysiological phenomenon: with active muscular work with pleasure, sensitivity and visual acuity increase noticeably!

A sniper is not allowed to smoke! After just one cigarette, the field of vision narrows, visual perception is inhibited, visual acuity and sensitivity decreases, and parts of the visual field are lost! This is the main reason for inexplicable and distant “breaks” among smoking shooters. A sniper's job is to remain motionless. But, as already mentioned, when focusing on inactivity, the reaction decreases. Therefore, a sniper is a cat dozing near a mouse hole with the active attention guard on duty. Before any shooting, it is highly advisable to warm up for 15–20 minutes - click empty. But the sniper is on combat line can't afford it. There is only one way out - a kind of kinesthetic warm-up. A sniper in a motionless state reproduces the sensations separate groups muscles when working on a shot. And this constantly keeps the sniper on his toes. By the way, if pain or numbness appears in immobile muscles, it is useful to take one or two aspirin tablets. But this is as an “ambulance” - you should not abuse aspirin. When shooting quickly at several suddenly appearing targets, you should not delay the first shot! After the shot, regardless of whether the target is hit or not, be sure to move your gaze to the next target before the aiming element reaches it. Get used to doing this reflexively, using muscle kinesthetic memory. In a combat situation with a lot of stimuli, do not get distracted and do not react to nearby targets appearing. Leave them to the machine gunners. Work according to a pre-developed ideomotor program against distant targets - grenade launcher, machine gunner, sniper, observer and enemy commanders. They are the most dangerous for you and your comrades.

A police sniper works from a helicopter. Honolulu

As you can see, the training of professional snipers is static, monotonous and boring. The above material is incomplete and limited in scope printed edition. Here only part of the special psychophysiological potential is presented, which is practically not used in our time either here or in other countries. Once upon a time, due to the cruel need for this method, the instructors of the USSR, Finland and Nazi Germany harshly rebuilt the bodies of sniper cadets. Therefore, at the front, both of them, and the third, shot quickly, far and without missing.