It is generally accepted that a person can consciously control no more than two actions or states at the same time. Yet while preparing and executing a shot, a shooter must control three things:
- The state of the muscles.
- Aiming, including the position of the front sight on the target.
- The action of the trigger finger.
Maintaining this control is especially difficult in events where the firearm has the least stability: pistol events and standing rifle. Even a brief loss of control over any one of these elements can result in a poor shot.
If a shooter limits control to the sight picture and the action of the trigger finger, the muscles enter a state of anticipation. At the moment of the shot, a muscular reaction occurs through the additional action of one muscle or a group of muscles. The muscle does not necessarily have to move or contract. A brief change in muscle tone is enough to alter the position of the front sight at the moment of the shot or change the way the firearm recoils. Shooters often do not notice this, and the shot lands in an unexpected place.
In such cases, SCATT is a very useful tool. During replay, the coach and the shooter can see the error because two indicators reveal it clearly: a disruption in the natural path of aimpoint movement and a sharp increase in the speed of that movement directly at the moment of the shot.
See Figures 1-1 and 1-2.
From the direction and speed of aimpoint movement, it can be confidently assumed that the shooter began to anticipate the shot. Muscle tone changed in the shoulder where it contacted the rifle buttplate, and a muscular reaction at the moment of the shot pushed the front sight far to the left. The graphs show that this happened with a sharp acceleration. When the shot was reviewed in detail, the shooter confirmed it and explained that he had not prepared himself properly for the first shot.
A loss of control over the sight picture leads to similar consequences. If the shooter concentrates on muscular state, controls muscle tone, prevents a muscular reaction at the moment of the shot, and also concentrates on the trigger finger so that it completes the trigger press smoothly, without a separate mental command or a jerk, the sight picture may deteriorate when left without control.
With a rifle, this can appear as a loss of concentric alignment between the rear aperture and the front sight hood, or between the front sight and the target. With a pistol, the error may appear as an incorrect position of the front sight in the rear sight notch or as a change in the aiming area on the target. In these cases, SCATT replay will show that the point or area of aim shifted in one direction before the shot.
See Figures 2-1 and 2-2.
Here it is clear that the muscles and the trigger finger were working correctly because they remained under control, and the finger acted without accelerating the movement of the front sight. This can be seen in the values showing the average speed of the front sight, or aimpoint, during the entire final second and during the final 0.25 seconds. They are practically equal. However, at some point during preparation for the shot, the shooter lost control of the concentric spacing between the rear aperture and the front sight hood, or between the front sight and the target, and the aiming area shifted far from the center.
The third possibility is a loss of control over the trigger finger. If the shooter concentrates on muscular state and the sight picture, the finger may begin to act independently. This usually happens as follows: the eye sees the correct sight picture and sends a signal to the brain, where it is directed to the center responsible for contracting the index finger flexor muscle. If the shooter has not programmed the finger's action and it is left without control, the finger tries to catch the moment when the front sight is in the desired area. It then acts in a forced manner and produces a jerk. Other muscles become involved, which almost inevitably shifts the point of aim at the moment of the shot.
Shooters with this technical problem are often described as trigger jerkers. Without discussing how this error develops, I will say that many shooters do not even notice it and insist that the shot was released correctly, at the right moment, without leaving the intended aiming area. They simply do not take into account the visual-motor reaction time of approximately 0.3 seconds. Their memory records the sight picture at the moment when the command impulse is sent to the finger, rather than at the moment when the bullet leaves the barrel.
Here again, SCATT comes to the rescue by recording the accelerated movement of the aimpoint as it leaves the intended area. From the movement vector, it is possible to determine which additional muscles became active at the moment of the shot.
My purpose here is not to explain the methods that a shooter and coach can use to avoid or correct the technical errors described above. That is a separate subject. Here I am showing how SCATT can identify these errors. Without identifying them, the rest of the training process may lose its meaning.
Author: Stanislav Lapidus, Coach
