“How We Learn, and Why Dry Fire Is Necessary”
By George Emanuel
Infants are cute and very good at filling up diapers. But, if you are looking to them for guidance in your shooting, it’s just not their forte’.
A toddler on the other hand is a case study in the type of learning we are about in shooting, and in all other such physical endeavors.
“You can’t run if you can’t walk!” And there is a reason we learn to walk first. But we need to look further back in our development to truly illustrate our journey.
“To get where you want to go, you have to know where you are now, to plan a route.” Not a novel idea, but I’ll take credit for verbalizing it.
“George, what are you talking about?”
Let me explain why the relationship between loaded diapers, potty training, orienteering, shooting skills, and your brain, and how all of these are connected.
Come on, walk down the path with me.
We often hear our instructors admonish us to dry fire. They will encourage us by stating that it takes thousands of repetitions to train our bodies to perform the various steps needed to shoot at a high level of competence, and precision.
They exhort us with chants, like the omnipresent, “Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast” A rather cryptic phrase that is as confusing as it is enlightening. Can we all agree that it is not very inspirational? It seems to put the reward before the work. This is an unworkable juxtaposition of reality. But let’s give them credit for expressing part of a technique for learning which is greatly ignored because its explanation can be boring. It is made even more so when no knowledge is conveyed as to why it is necessary.
Also before proceeding, we need to debunk a very common maxim used throughout our society regularly.
“Practice makes perfect”
I call bullshit! Can we practice the wrong thing over and over? Look at the government, and then answer. Often, it can’t seem to get anything right. Only in the world as it appears to be today could wrong be perfect!
But with understanding, achieving our goal of increased competence will be made easier, or at least more tolerable. Understanding specific things is one of the requisites that leads to maximum achievement. No progress in humanity has ever occurred without a thorough understanding of first, where we want to go, or what are we trying to do, followed closely by, here we are, and what must we do to get there.
OK, bring in the baby. As an infant, the child can only lie in their crib on their belly or back, where they will remain until someone comes along and moves them. They can sleep, cry, eat, crap, and cry usually in that order over and over until the parents’ patience is stretched tighter than the string on a guitar, at which point they know someone will tend to them.
After many torturous days and nights, the parent approaches the child who is now lying on the mattress opposite the way they were placed as the parent left them last.
An amazing puzzle is before the parent’s eyes.
Who flipped the child over? No, it wasn’t the devil. (Well, maybe) It was the child’s brain. It decided it wanted to be lying in a different position, and after many very clumsy attempts, it figured out how to flip the kid like a pancake. Over and over calculating, making corrections, and improving the technique, the brain worked its magic until the parent caught it in the act. It wasn’t a mystery, or was it? We will get to the explanation that the parent likely will never know in a little bit.
Sometime after this initial attitude adjustment, the child learns to pull their knees up under themselves, inclining their butt in a very comical pose. A short time later the arms are under the chest and with a mighty heave and a huge grunt, (uh oh) up on all fours they are!
Next comes crawling as they stumble and do comical nose-planting like they are practicing for the Olympics. But they eventually get it. Now they are scooting all over the house, and Mom and Dad will spend the next several years moving things out of reach and hiding them so well even they forget where they put them. Ah, the joys of child-rearing.
After a few months, we see the youngster trying to drag themselves into a standing position. They pull and pull and get themselves part way up, and boom they tumble over. Do they quit, hell no, they try again and again. One day a parent walks into the nursery, and there they are with a big grin on their face standing in the crib. With a diaper that is ripening by the minute.
After a short while, they get quite accomplished at getting up and standing with no issues at all.
Somewhere on one side or the other of a year, having seen adults move about while standing, they decide to mimic them by walking. They try a step and Boom! Down they go. But they get back up and try again. Crash, crash, crash, boom, down they go again and again. Do they quit, hell no! Babies never quit! ( Another lesson we should take from their example. We learn to quit, we are not born to quit.)
Trying, trying, and filling diapers is what babies are all about. Mom, and Dad, well they just smile blissfully through the experience.
They can only hope they see the first step because this is a big deal. The kid, however, is oblivious to any anxiety they may have over missing the event; the kid just wants to get going. There is much mischief they can get into now, but the potential for tomorrow is boundless. “Just look at all that stuff out there to explore.”
Then it finally comes to pass, they are out of the playpen walking and standing in the middle of the room pounding on their chest like King Kong and screaming “Freeeeeedom”
Mom and Dad are now in a race for the Advil.
Then, before they know it, Mom and Dad are now Grandmom and Grandpop!
The baby is the story of our learning, the difference is that its determination leads to success. OUR determination often leads to failure. Not because we can not succeed, but because we won’t. Can’t is an animal that won’t. Be a baby, and don’t ever quit!
As adults having free will often obstruct their own success. The baby doesn’t yet know what free will is, nor do they care. They just do what must be done! “Take a lesson adult!”
When we are born, our brains are empty. (some of us with skill and alacrity manage to preserve them in that state throughout life, but I digress) This is why a baby simply lays in the crib, crying, sleeping, eating, and well we’ve had about enough crap by now.
The brain begins to awaken, the child rolls over as the brain has now learned to make the necessary connections to cause the muscles to “flip the kid.”
As the brain continues to learn, up on all fours is followed by crawling.
Next comes standing. The brain continues learning, it attempts to get the child erect, on two feet, and boom, down goes the kid! But the brain persists and is ultimately successful. From this point, it is more trial and error with success for each new task coming at shorter and shorter intervals. Learning is now occurring rapidly, building on previous experience, and parts of the movements no longer require the conscious participation of the brain. The brain just adds the new ones.
All of this brings smiles to Mom and Dad as the efforts to learn are clumsy and we find them comical. What we don’t understand is the brain attempting to make millions of connections until it finds an acceptable combination. This combination becomes more fluid as it learns and repeats them, soon the erratic clumsiness disappears.
If you have stayed with me this far, hopefully, you will stay until the end. I believe that even if you have heard what I am about to teach you, you may not fully appreciate its implications for your success. Trust me it means EVERYTHING in your continued progress, both in content and in quality.
We are going to briefly, I hope, explore three medical terms that we apply in every movement we execute.
Let me make a statement which will contradict everything we are commonly taught. “Your Brain is Stupid” I’ll come back to that a little further on.
Neuroplasticity refers to the brain’s ability to learn new things or to accept reorganization as it relearns things or new ways of accomplishing an old thing. The latter is the more difficult as “unlearning” must take place before “new learning” can occur, or at least occur somewhat simultaneously.
Proprioception and Kinesthetics, two closely related but unique participants in the electrical ballet that trigger and guide the body’s movement are the “information gathers”, of movement.
Proprioception tells the brain where the various parts of the body are now, (at the beginning of the movement, and throughout as it is executed)
Many things stimulate this neuroplasticity making it healthier and more resilient. A few of these are diet, learning new skills, reading, problem-solving, critical thinking, and many more contributing activities we normally engage in throughout life. In short, using our brain to figure things out consciously helps keep us mentally sharp. The stimuli that we are concerned with now are “repetition and practice.”
Kinesthesia is the brain’s ability to sense the position of our body parts in all aspects, the force in use, and the effort required to move the various muscles and parts of our bodies to arrive at the particular arrangement dictated by the task.
Without Proprioception and Kinesthetics, the brain is just a lump of billions of electrical connections (synapses) in our head awaiting orders to fire.
The electrical signals sent to the brain from the body are gathered in the cerebellum. Using the information received about body part angles, muscle tension, and the items provided by kinesthetics, it develops a plan to move the required body parts to the new position.
These are the first two components of our triad. The third and perhaps most important, certainly the one that has the most influence in the required interval (efficiency) to perform is the neural pathways.
Think of a neural pathway as a wire through which electricity flows. (which it is)
Now consider that the brain has perhaps tens of thousands of potential permutations or combinations of nerves available to perform the desired task between initiation and execution.
Remember the “brain is stupid.” This is why the baby goes boom and falls so much while learning. The brain had not yet figured out a connection to execute its desired action. But the kid kept going and the brain “slowly” learned.
Task by task, failure by failure the brain learned and built itself a little internal reference library which allows it to perform a new task with less effort by incorporating lessons from similar tasks or even parts of those tasks from past learning.
Now we also mention “repetition” earlier as increasing the health of our neural pathways. It also leads to their semi-permanent nature. I say semi-permanent as they can be changed or altered later, but with much greater difficulty than they were learned initially.
These pathways are made permanent or semi-permanent as with each execution a substance called myelin wraps itself around each of the nerves in connecting the path from the brain to the involved muscles. Intially we may see hiccups and errors in fluidity, which are normal as the brain learns. Over time with repetition, this myelin deposit forms an insulation around the “wire” until the electrical impulse can go nowhere in the body other than the desired location, through the insulated pathway. It can’t be hijacked inadvertently and is essentially relegated to the subconscious. When was the last time you had to think about walking across a room? The way we teach our brain is the way it will learn a skill. Teach it wrong and ………..
I have tried to keep the science part short so as not to glaze your eyes over. But you need to understand and remember it as we move forward toward the conclusion of this exploration.
“Practice makes perfect” No it does not! You have a great deal of influence on how your brain tells your body to move. While I explained above the mechanics, I did not explain the conscious initial input which we very much control. Remember the brain is stupid. Here is a very far-fetched example for illustration.
We want to draw our firearm from our holster and shoot the target with maximum efficiency. This consists of two unique components accuracy and speed in our defensive world. So, we begin the draw stroke while simultaneously beginning a 360-degree body spin as the draw progresses until the shot is fired with extreme precision. With repetition, we can continue to shrink our time until we reach the point where potential speed and accuracy are exhausted.
But, did we do it efficiently? Did this accomplish our goal? Did we properly define our goal for the brain by giving it the most accurate information? NO, WE DID NOT. Practice, minus “perfect” execution only leads to faster execution, it does not lead to “perfect execution”, which is the fastest, and, most accurate. Your BRAIN IS STUPID, it will do the wrong thing if you tell it to do so. It will do the right thing if you tell it to do so. It doesn’t much care, but it is obedient.
There are two potential reasons why you are not getting the result you desire. One, and perhaps the biggest reason is that you only THINK that you know the right way. Two you are either consciously or unconsciously not communicating the correct way to the brain.
Either of these can be corrected with proper instruction and sufficient dedication to the task. You can do it, IF, you are willing to put in the effort. (end of commercial, rant, or admonishment, your choice.)
I don’t know about you, but I hope we both want to survive a defensive situation. I submit we’d like to be perfect which gives us the best chance of executing in as timely a manner as possible. Agreed?
Again, in another article, I am going to seem to contradict myself, but we’ll deal with that there.
Can we agree that there is a practical human limit to all three of these characteristics? Can we agree that if any of the three are lacking in execution our overall performance as measured by score will suffer?
Can we finally agree that we can learn or change and do things more efficiently if we know what to learn, or change and how to do or change it?
OK, now you are going to have to concede the following, for the sake of brevity at least.
It can take approximately 5,000 repetitions of an action to be able to execute it using the subconscious. Something less to ingrain its correctness into the conscious brain. ((you know that little voice that says, “you blew that knucklehead!!”) ( it’s your brain’s way of saying, Hey, are you trying to confuse me?))
We call this repetition dry fire! And yes, it sucks! UNLESS you understand why you need to do it and how it works. Then it sucks a little less!
“Your Brain Is Stupid” and will quite agreeably allow you to teach it the wrong lesson. Remember spinning 360 degrees on your draw, and losing every match? (OK I know, you would have been asked to leave rather than being allowed to lose)
When you are learning a new skill, you need to be shown or taught, or you need to study what it is that you are trying to do and how to do it to get the efficiency factor to contribute its maximum benefit to the effort. Remember, we are trying to achieve speed and accuracy, which is a balance, too much of one negatively impacts the other.
Let’s examine as an example the draw from holster to sights on target, shot, and follow through.
I have written an extensive description of how to draw from a holster and a drill to accomplish confirmation on the range that you are doing it correctly in dry fire. Read it and follow its instructions in dry fire before going to the range. It will be a tremendous advantage to you and shorten the learning curve for those of you who may be new to this technique. You will find It here: LINK TO THE DRAW DRILL
We should have our support hand going to a position on our sternum with palm toward us at the same instant the strong hand is moving rapidly to the holster, we grip the pistol with a correct full firing grip, pulling it straight up from the holster and in one fluid motion rotate it so the muzzle is now leveled with the fleshy part of the hand touching the side of our pectoral muscle, and canted slightly outward from our body, (this would be the retained ready position which could be employed to fire in a very close defensive encounter.) Continuing with the draw the gun is brought up in a STRAIGHT LINE to the final firing position as the support hand meets and joins the grip 6”-8” ahead of the sternum, The slight upward angle of the path allows the gun and sights to enter our peripheral vision, as the gun path begins to flatten out sights come into our line of sight on the target, the sights on the target, the decision to fire is made, the finger is brought to the trigger and pressed rearward such that the sights are not disturbed and the shot is fired, the gun recoils under control and the sights settle back on the target where the next shot is ready to be fired as necessary/desired. All this in 1 second give or take a fraction.
Do you see any place, anyplace at all, in that description where you might screw up?
Every last one of you creatures out there had better have your hands reaching for the clouds as if I had asked, “Who wants Ice Cream?”
If you are new to all of this, I have good news for you. If you have been at this for years, I have some encouragement (good news) and some bad news for you.
Both groups are to get a full-length mirror, or video yourselves as you practice and dry fire until this becomes automatic.
Newbies, 500 repetitions before going to the range.
Old guys who have issues at least 500 reps before you go for live fire.
Feel and mentally acknowledge each part of the draw, the texture of the grip, the amount of tension in your hands, and the speed at which you are moving. Pretend that little voice within your head is you talking to your brain’s ears and tell it everything you feel or sense as you move. GO VERY SLOWLY. From initiation to completion use a 1 Mississippi, Two Mississippi, to 5 Mississippi cadence. No faster, no faster, no faster.
Now, not to be a total killjoy, you can go to the range, you can shoot from high ready all you want, but you will not draw from the holster until you have completed the above reps according to my companion article “This would be a good time to work on your accuracy. Go slow, and feel the shot. Byron Fergusson, an archer of great reputation wrote a book he titled, “Become the Arrow”, we need to borrow that and re-coin it as “Become the bullet.”
“Slow Down Become Efficient, and Get Better Times”
Read that article, follow its instructions of the drill implicitly, and I guarantee a good result and improvement.
Hopefully understanding why, while not motivation in and of itself, will equip you with the necessary resolve to dry fire a little more cheerfully knowing why improvement is assured.
How far can you go, I honestly don’t know, but I am reminded here of Gary Anderson, a US Olympic Gold Medalist in Rifle many times over in the 1960s.
After his most recent Olympic win he eclipsed the previous record, (and I believe still holds) for the total number of medals by a single individual in those events.
In an interview with Sports Illustrated, he was asked what he was thinking as he broke the shot that broke the record. Gary’s answer was “nothing.”
You see, Gary had already done all of the hard work and the preparation for the shot, and all that was left was to “perform.” As he prepared himself to the level of the subconscious. He stepped onto the stage on Legend and Performed.
Now I am no Gary Anderson. But, I have cleaned many targets and shot many ‘perfect’ scores, in various disciplines. On more than one of those occasions, I did experience that “out of body” that has been described by many. In a couple of cases, I was standing back watching myself. It was a very surreal experience.
The subconscious is not obvious, but it is far more powerful than we will ever understand.
Practice my friend. Make each element a perfect movement. Only if each minute part is perfect can we say “Perfect Practice made me Perfect”
Best of Luck
George