There’s a popular saying in the firearms world that shooting is 80% mental and 20% physical. So is it? Is that statement true? Can we really determine how much of our shooting successes — or firearms failures — are attributed to one or the other?
Obviously, a host of physical activities must work together in certain sequences in order for someone to accurately shoot a target. The individual must activate specific movements of the fingers, hands and arms along with controlling upper body coordination and strength, balance, body position, head movement and vision. But I don’t think that any of us have a proven, scientific method for defining what percent of the overall activity is comprised of physical movements versus mental activities. It’s going to be different for all of us, anyway, since we are built differently and think differently, and we all have a wide variety of experiences and skills.
Of course, the numbers don’t have to be 80% and 20%, exactly. After all, the 80/20 rule is just a rough guide about typical distributions. And this whole idea is loosely based on The Pareto Principle (also known as “the law of the vital few”). The key point here is that most things in life (such as effort, participation, output or reward) are not distributed evenly; some elements contribute more than others. And while the physical is most certainly essential to effective shooting, we can’t overlook what’s happening “behind the scenes.”
From what I have learned, observed and experienced, I believe that shooting IS more mental than physical … no matter where we are in our skill levels. For example, we ALL have to keep the safety rules at the forefront of our minds at all times. There is no turning off the brain and becoming too comfortable or complacent when it comes to safety. Second, we must think through and use the fundamentals of shooting and correct ourselves when we’re not doing something right. While this process should become easier with practice, I know that I still have to remind myself to focus on that front sight or check myself on how much pressure I’m using on my support hand to grip the firearm. Third, we sometimes have to think through how to overcome what our bodies naturally want to do. We are programmed to flinch and to blink, but those reactions are not helpful for good shooting! Finally, we always have to keep in mind that we must have both intent and justification whenever we shoot, whether that’s for competition, for training or for self-defense. In other words, we have to thoroughly think through every situation and make a conscious decision to shoot or not to shoot, since we are responsible for every bullet that leaves our gun.
In addition to all of those things, many shooters also deal with mental hurdles and have to consciously work to manage stress, anxiety and/or self-doubt. In this case, even though these individuals have the physical skills and the abilities to shoot well, the mind often creates distractions (“internal noise”) that interfere with these natural abilities. Unfortunately, I can’t count how many times my inner voice has gotten the best of me during a shooting match. And many students have told me they’ve struggled with putting debilitating thoughts or memories of terrible experiences aside in order to focus. Once the mental blocks were controlled or overcome, these shooters’ targets improved dramatically. Their physical abilities hadn’t changed miraculously in those moments, but they were able to fight the internal noise and get the mental side in check.
We can’t overlook the self-defense scenario, either. Hopefully good physical training is locked into muscle memory, because under duress, adrenaline will kick in and likely cause a variety of snags (increased heart rate, sweating, impaired vision or hearing loss, to name a few possibilities). Meanwhile, the mind will have to work through a barrage of problems and questions. “Am I in immediate danger of death or great bodily harm?” “Can I escape?” “Is this worth dying for or going to jail over?”
All in all, whether shooting is 80% mental and 20% physical — or if it’s 75/25, or even 55/45 — there are countless levels of mental activities and physical processes that take place during the shooting process. And because of this, the learning and the training should never end.
