GET BETTER OR ACHIEVE MASTERY
People will only become better when they are made to see what they are like.” - Anton Chekhov
Consistency breeds accuracy, a mantra from my time training and serving as a Royal Marines Sniper. The premise was that the more we controlled, the more accurate we would be. Precision in all activities was key.
We diligently prepared our kit and ourselves, During the marksmanship phase, every detail of each round fired was recorded: not just the point of impact, but also the location, date, time, air temperature, firing position, wind strength and direction, range to target, and sight settings. At the end of each day, time was spent ‘dry firing’ to develop the muscle memory required for instinctive actions. The more automatic actions we created, the more capacity we had to deal with the things we couldn’t control, the firing or tactical problems that needed to be solved.creating routines and habits that became ingrained through repetition and practice. Practice makes perfect, right? Wrong! Practice reduces imperfections, that is all.
By being consistent, we got better at what we did. But getting better wasn’t good enough; we had to improve. To improve, we couldn’t just get better at what we knew, we needed to identify the gaps in our knowledge and enhance our abilities, to master the skills.
If you practice something, you will get better at that specific act. To improve, you need to adopt deliberate practice. There are various ways to do this, such as having a coach or people around you who can give you developmental feedback, which you openly accept and incorporate into your further practice. Critically reflecting on your performance is essential. Dry firing was boring, but it worked. I find the thought of role-play scenarios as cringe-worthy as everyone else, but it’s an incredibly effective method of practicing new skills in a risk-free environment.
Those wanting to become snipers have a training team. Their purpose is to develop every student to achieve that level of mastery. They are experts in the craft who share their knowledge through instruction, developmental feedback, after action reviews and coaching.
If you want to get better at something, then practice. If you want to master something, then identify those who can help you. Provide you the information you need to realise and understand yourself, then deliberately practice.
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