Sheepdog Tip of the Day, Before Combat tip 265
Linda gave Rory about 10 dry fires before his first live one. For every shot, she asked Rory to open his eyes wide and focus on the sight picture, keep his forehead smooth and clear, relax his face, and think about the perfect shot. She repeated "smooth" over and over and put her finger on his forehead over the crinkle to help him relax the muscles. Anytime it looked like a flinch was setting up, Linda would stop his shot and ask him to reset (start over). Whenever it looked like he might be able to shoot a perfect dry fire, Linda would let Rory click the trigger. Finally, after about 10 dry fires, she thought Rory had had enough success to risk giving him a live round. She quietly slipped the round into the chamber and noisily rattled a spare round in the tray as she had for all the dry shots. Then she closed the bolt. Rory squeezed the trigger with Linda repeating "smooth, smooth, smoo-oo-ooth" all the while. The rifle cracked and the recoil rippled through the length of Rory's body. He looked up from the rifle with an expression of total amazement on his face. He had fired a dry shot with a live round; that is, he was totally relaxed, totally focused on good shot execution, and totally surprised when the shot went off.
Linda K. Miller and Keith Cunningham, Secrets of Mental Marksmanship
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