Rifle Target Practice and Competition – Inhibition in the Alexander Technique (Pain)(Strain)(Posture)(Injuries)(Albuquerque)

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)

INHIBITION is one of the most powerful tools in the Alexander Technique. It gives the marksman a tool to change any aspect of her rifle shooting technique and posture that doesn’t work with what works. Inhibition helps the marksman identify what is interfering with the marksman shooting with the most user friendly rifle technique and posture possible, and then to be able to change what isn’t working.

INHIBITION ALLOWS THE RIFLE MARKSMAN TO LET GO OF WHAT ISN’T WORKING, AND TO REPLACE IT WITH WHAT DOES WORK IN HIS OR HER SHOOTING TECHNIQUE.

Inhibition is what you do after you’ve identified what is not working in your marksman technique. Let me explain. By the time a marksman has discovered, after years of shooting a rifle, that there are aspects of the marksman’s technique and posture that are interfering with the her ability to shoot without wear and tear and with accuracy, these destructive habits are as central to the marksman’s habits as the productive ones are.

So, how do you throw out the bath water, without throwing out the baby? You identify and list what is compromising your shooting a rifle, and you also make a second list of what it is that works as you shoot, and you only keep the good list.

There are the typical big postural problems – a slumped or over-arched back, obvious tension throughout the body, from hands to legs. Then there are the much more subtle problems, which may be a matter of degree. What I mean, is there may be postural and technique things that you do that are not obvious to anyone but an Alexander Technique teacher.

Ex: If right before the marksman shoots, she locks her neck, then this can be pretty invisible to most people. If the marksman locks and narrows her shoulders as she shoots, this can be pretty invisible. If she shortens her spine as she sights the bull’s eye, this can put pressure on the nerves that originate at the spinal cord, and this can be hard to see.

So, what is the act of inhibition or inhibiting? If right before you do what you have always done just before you shoot, you stop and choose to do something new, then you have just inhibited what isn’t serving you.
Ex: Just as the marksman is about to pull the trigger, she notices she locks her neck. The marksman stops – doesn’t shoot yet. She now chooses not to lock her neck, and right after that new choice, she then pulls the trigger on a released neck.

What I have just described is inhibition or inhibiting a habit. It very subtle and very powerful, because for the first time, the marksman has chosen not to lock her neck and pull the trigger with an unconscious bad habit.

She has chosen to shoot without unconscious tension and compression of the neck/spine. Bringing this into the marksman’s awareness is moving shooting a rifle away from being something you fix, to being something where you are truly experiencing all of your subtle habits, good and bad, you have shot the rifle with. Now you have the tool, INHIBITION, that will allow you to perceive and choose which habits you want to keep or release.

THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE DOES TWO EXTRAORDINARY THINGS. IT TRULY RAISES YOUR AWARENESS OF WHAT YOU ARE DOING WHEN YOU SHOOT A RIFLE AT A BULL’S EYE TO A LEVEL THAT SHOWS YOU HOW YOU COMPROMISE YOUR SHOOTING TECHNIQUE, AND IT GIVES YOU THE TOOLS TO STOP DOING THIS.

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An Alexander Technique Approach to Target Practice with a Rifle

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Ethan Kind

AUTHOR, TRAINER "When you change old habitual movement patterns with the Alexander Technique, whether in playing a musical instrument, running, weightlifting, walking, or typing at a computer, you create an ease of body use that moves you consistently into the zone." - Ethan Kind Ethan Kind writes and is published extensively on all of the above activities. He teaches musicians, athletes, and computer operators how to stop hurting themselves, by showing them how to use their bodies with ease and coordination. He brings a unique perspective to his work, having been a musician and athlete all of his life. After training for three years at the American Center for the Alexander Technique (New York, NY), Ethan received Professional Certification credentials.