Posts Tagged ‘Target Practice with a Rifle’

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)

Primary Control is the basis of organized, coordinated, and accurate target practice with a rifle in the Alexander Technique. When an marksman is shooting a rifle with the most organized, elegant, and controlled movement possible, without tension, then the head is leading the marksman’s spine upward into lengthening, as the arms and finger move from a decompressed, vertically balanced, and aligned spine.

This means that all of the nerves that radiate from the spinal cord have no pressure on them. So, the nerves can send the signals from the brain for movement and/or muscular support, as you shoot, without being slowed down by the vertebrae and muscles pinching the nerves.

The brain and spinal cord always organize the movement that the body produces, but when the Primary Control is interfered with by muscular tension and compression and poor posture, then that organization is poor organization. THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE IS ALL ABOUT THE QUALITY OF A MARKSMAN’S POSTURE AND TECHNIQUE.

The Alexander Technique recognizes that a huge amount of wear and tear and physical pain in shooting a rifle is caused by how you use your body, not by how long you practice.

The assumption in the Alexander Technique is that we are born with an innate ability to move with beautiful Primary Control, and that babies crawl with the head leading a lengthening spine naturally, given that the baby is healthy in a healthy environment.

If you were to observe a 1,000 marksmen shooting a rifle, you’d be hard put to see one marksman with beautiful Primary Control (given that none of them had done any Alexander Technique work). What does shooting a rifle without a compromised Primary Control look like?

The marksman stands fully upright with a dynamically mobile body (not trying to stand rigidly straight). The marksman’s neck is free and the marksman is aware that the head is leading a lengthening spine upward, which means that the marksman is able to see the bull’s eye, as the head continues to lead a lengthening spine upward.

This means that the marksman is completely engaged in competing without being pulled downward. This fully upward mobile posture balancing on the free legs and grounded feet, gives the shoulders and arms of the marksman a balanced torso to float on, so that the marksman can effortlessly create the accuracy, without joint compression, that he or she wants from the rifle.

When the marksman’s shoulders are floating on a fully upright torso, then the shoulder girdle is free to back up the arms and hands as the marksman shoots with great precision, since the shoulder girdle doesn’t have to tense up to support itself to control the rifle.

When the marksman’s body is organized by the Primary Control, then the marksman is free to place all of his or her awareness on a shooting technique that isn’t being compromised by a compromised Primary Control. In other words, if the marksman’s body is collapsed or over-tense with poor head/neck/spine organization, then the pure specific target shooting of the marksman can never be what it would be, since it is not backed up by a balanced body.

WHEN THE FOUNDATION OF COORDINATED ELEGANT HUMAN MOVEMENT IS COMPROMISED, THEN THE SECONDARY TECHNIQUE OF A SPECIALIZED ACTIVITY, LIKE TARGET PRACTICE WITH A RIFLE, WILL NEVER BE AS EFFORTLESS OR AS ACCURATE AS IT COULD BE.