BACK TO THE BASICS: BREATHING

     First off I would like to start todays post by wishing everyone a happy 4th of July.  I hope everyone has a safe and fun filled holiday.

     In previous posts I have been covering the fundamentals of pistol marksmanship with:

1. Stance
2. Grip
3. Sight Alignment
4. Sight Picture
5. Trigger squeeze

     Now we are here at #6 Breathing.  In my training in various shooting schools and training one of 2 thoughts have been driven in me.  The first being before squeezing the trigger exhale and during the natural pause between exhaling and inhaling squeeze off your round.  The other being that exhaling takes time in a stress situation and breathing being a muscle movement does not make a stable firing platform.  So just stop breathing and fire.  I also wanted to verify this so I gave a shout out to fellow gun slingers to make sure that I wasn't making anything up in my old age and basically with the answers that I received my train of thought was verified.

     With the above paragraph in mind I decided I was going to prove or reinforce the above.  So my plan was to create a stress environment for myself (To mimic what the body is doing in a situation where you might have to pull your weapon and engage a hostile) and test out the different breathing techniques both good and bad.  We have been getting thunderstorms in the afternoons here in Southwest Virginia. Which I hate being out doors while one is approaching, so I decided to do my testing while one was approaching.  Also stressing me out was getting it done before the rain came so I would not ruin my camera and then just as an extra precaution I walked a 50 yard circle briskly before firing.  All 10 shots for each iteration were fired with a SIG 229R at 8 yards (24 ft).  Position 3-4 were utilized in double action.  (From a chest ready position to a firing position.  This is so you don't fixate on your sights while moving) at a 3 inch dot.

     This first picture was while I was breathing.  Though if I was shooting at a person at 8 yards I would have killed them. An increase in Range may have resulted in misses.

This photo is of a shot group that was accomplished when I saw a lightning, or heard thunder I would take a shot.  Exhaling as i went from Position 3 to 4.  One thing that I noticed was again under stress I could feel and see my heart rate translating to the pistol and I felt my stress build as i was squeezing the trigger.

In this picture when I got to position 4 I stopped breathing and fired.  I again fired with the lightning and thunder to simulate a target popup or presentation.  There was a pretty good consistency but I still could feel stress in myself, and some heart rate translation to the sights.

Here is something that came to me while I was doing this test.  There is a natural pause when you are breathing in also vs breathing out.  Though I never heard about utilizing it I decided to put it to the test.  Again I fired with lightning and thunder, under stress and as I went from position 3-4 breathed in.  I actually felt calmer with  no heart rate translation.  I didn't believe this result so I tried it 3 more times and the result was the same each time, no throws and a tight consistent group.  This is the first one that I shot I had my front sight on the 10 in the later times I aimed at the 12, 3 and 9 0'clock positions with the same result.

In my humble opinion it seems to be better during a stressful situation before you squeeze the trigger take a breath first as you are going from position 3 to 4.