Sports (Athletes)

This ebook, An Alexander Technique Approach to Target Practice with a Rifle, is published on this website in a PDF format. It is very detailed and practical, and it will give you the physical tools you need to take the limits off of your ability to shoot with ease, power, pain-free, and with accuracy without locking your neck and shoulders.
This ebook is also for sale on all AMAZON websites in a KINDLE format.
Located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A. (MOVEMENT THERAPY)

When I began this ebook on the Alexander Technique and target practice, I intended for it to be just about the Alexander Technique principles of good body use applied to target practice with a rifle, with the marksman using these principles to hit the bull’s eye. I very quickly realized this isn’t the only reason I wanted to write this ebook.

I’m going to address the basic Alexander Technique principles of good posture and great technique, but I’m also going to look at some psychological and spiritual components of target practice. I bring all of these elements together in target practice in the same way I did as an aspiring concert guitarist, when I incorporated faith, trust, spirit, and extraordinary accuracy into my guitar performing in my twenties.

I am also writing this ebook from the standing position in shooting a rifle. It is in this position that the marksman needs to fully integrate all of the Alexander Technique principles of good use to hit the mark. Throughout this ebook I’m alternating between hitting the target, hitting the bull’s eye, and hitting the mark, as all meaning the same thing.

The Alexander Technique makes it possible for marksmen to use the rifle without pain and wear and tear to their bodies. An Alexander Technique teacher shows the marksman how to use the rifle with a sense of power, poise, and ease. What is it exactly that an Alexander Technique teacher does for the marksman that makes it unique? We teach the marksman to find the most effortless way to use the rifle.

We teach the marksman that his or her whole body uses the rifle. If the whole body is balanced, and the marksman’s technique makes personal sense, the marksman will use the rifle without sacrificing his or her body. In the Alexander Technique the marksman’s well-being is paramount, so we teach the marksman to hit the bull’s eye without paying a physical price.

Alexander Technique teachers believe the means will take care of the ends. This means if the marksman puts his awareness on his posture and technique and chooses to find the easiest way to use the rifle with the least amount of work and with high energy, he will not wear his body out. High energy means using the body without collapsing his head, neck and torso. He will also not create compression in his joints trying to maintain poor posture and simultaneously use too much muscle, tension, to shoot the rifle.

This combination of using too much muscle to hold up a body off balance and using too much muscle to maintain the inefficient parts of his technique, makes it nearly impossible to trust his body to give him what he wants from the target practice daily. This muscling of his body and the rifle will eventually cause his body to hurt and potentially end his ability to do target practice without pain.

A marksman needs a set of tools to be able to use the rifle in the zone every day. What are these tools? They are conscious control, inhibition, orders, direction, renewing the thought, opposition, balance vs. position, grounding, and troubleshooting.