TRAINING TIP TUESDAY: How to Set Training Goals

Goals are an odd thing. If you don’t have them, you’ll never get there. If you do have them and they are not accurately set… you won’t get there that way either.

Goals in training are more complicated than we’d like to think. Often, we have “open ended aspirations” and less specifically: performance-oriented milestones. An example of the former would be to say, “I want to get better.” We can see where this may be considered indistinct. It doesn’t provide a path or really even a direction.

This is how we end up at the range “just shooting.” The problem with that is regardless of what we’d like to be true, our brain is always learning. So, if you aren’t doing something to improve, very likely you’re enforcing the inefficiencies of the skill level that you want to depart.

A better way to do this is to establish a system of goals. Your overarching long term goal will be fairly simple and broad. Let’s use the draw stroke as our model. It works well because the overall action is supported by many other and smaller individual actions. More importantly, each of these support actions are highly measurable.

Here is an example of a good overall training goal involving the draw stroke: “I want to draw and fire an accurate shot from concealment in 1.5 seconds, at 7 yards, on an 8-inch dot target.” While this seems pretty specific, it isn’t. It’s a well-crafted expectation of performance. Specifics come next.

Our next task is to analyze our process for component parts. The draw stroke can be broken down into a mind-bending number of these because it involves so many individual movements. Keep them simple enough that you can enumerate them but specific enough that you can install efficiencies directly enough to produce a change.

Let’s use “establishing the grip” as our first component part. On our first trip to the range working toward our goal, were going to work on this.

First, let’s get a good baseline. I like to do this with video. Being present in the shot is good and highly valuable but watching yourself work will show you things that you never thought you were doing. There is a reason very high-level athletes spend a lot of time “watching tape.” Figure out those inexplicable and unseen inefficiencies and remove them. Get to work on this immediately by slowing everything down enough to consciously “print” new biology (read that: make new skill).

(IF your goal involves a time, it’s probably a good idea to measure that too… just don’t let it be the commanding figure.)

Repetition is the mother of skill, and you owe it to yourself to do these correctly. Rushing into a new skill is akin to running through a house of mirrors. It makes little sense.

Leave the rest of the draw alone (in terms of improvement) right now. Just make this small, component part as perfect as you can. Biting off too much can result in being overwhelmed and confusing yourself into “just shooting.” Be measured here.

Speaking of which… at the end of your session, measure yourself again. See how the changes you installed improved you, or if they did at all. Time yourself if appropriate, and definitely video your process. See how it changed, look for signs that you are moving with less effort, less thought. Improvement comes in small doses, seldom in windfalls.

Do this with every part of the process that you are seeking to improve, and you will build a “bulletproof” skill based on steadfast goal setting and pursuit. On the day you arrive it will all be worth it, all the hard work and thought will feel like it has been built into a perfect, easy moment.

Until next time, set good goals and train smart.   all of this down) I can give is simple: find someone that can convert concepts to a “language” that you can understand. When you find that, it’s a fast lane to getting better.

Until next time, Train smart.

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Author Bio

Duane “Buck” Buckner

After spending 25 years in the USCG, Duane “Buck” Buckner is now the U.S. Director of Training for Aimpoint. The Aimpoint Training Division conducts training courses for military and law enforcement agencies up to the Federal level as well as for the prepared civilian. Buck is widely known for his emphasis on brain psychology as it relates to combat and survival.

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