11/12/2022
Over on Larry Correia's page (I'm not tagging him because he requests that people knock it off :) ), he posted a couple of videos of him shooting standards on a timer, and there was a discussion about physical stress and how that helps you train. Another person asked a question, and I wrote a bit, so I though I'd post it here also, because some people might not know this.
Here's the original question:
"I'm curious, I thought the whole idea of shooting after running, or pushups, or some other form of physical exertion was because it somewhat replicated the effects of adrenaline on shooting? Am I misinformed?"
My response:
As Larry said, there is a difference between "physical fatigue" and "stress."
More specifically, there is a difference between physical stress and mental stress.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with training to physical fatigue and then working on fine control with weapons---not at all. It makes you focus on good fundamentals, and continual practice at working fundamentals will make you better. Plus, if your job/life/situation is such that you might need to use weapons when physically fatigued, it'll make sure your competency level is much higher in those situations.
But...the reactions of your bodies to fatigue versus _stress_ are very, very different. Mental stress situations literally cause different hormone dumps (which is a horribly simplistic way to phrase it, the reality is significantly more complicated but I don't want to type a book 🙂 ) and for the vast majority of people, they will only need to use weapons in a situation of significant mental stress---not physical fatigue. (Unless you are MIL or LEO, it just won't happen that way. Unless you get attacked on your way out to your car from a good lifting day at the gym.)
And as Larry said, your mind really doesn't care what KIND of mental stress you are feeling--it will cause those body changes (to a lesser or greater extent) in a similar fashion no matter what.
So running things on a timer, in front of people, with something on the line (whether a trophy or a bet with buddies, or perhaps just embarrassment at being bad) is, weirdly enough, actually decent training for reacting well when someone is trying to kill you, due to the mental stress.
That doesn't mean that shooting competitions are tactical training. They aren't about tactics. (No matter what they claim, and that's coming from the perspective of someone who shoots USPSA, IPDA, Steel Challenge, and Multigun.) But they ARE one way to get some stress training going. Not the only way, and not the most-stressful way. (Force-on-force training with sim projectiles that actually hurt are MUCH more stressful, especially if you include monetary losses for bad shots on hostage/non-threats---and especially if screwing up will get you hurt, and people are actively trying to hurt you. Working against fear stress helps inoculate you against _fear_ stress, IN ADDITION to helping you deal with the body changes that occur due to stress. Fear inoculation is a different topic, though.)
Compared to anything mental-stress-related, physical exertion just doesn't do the same thing, either mentally or physically.
