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Natural point of aim

You probably have heard about NPA or Natural Point of Aim at some point in your career. One thing that people don’t talk a lot about is, your NPA can and will change over your shooting career. It is dependent on a lot of factors, muscle tension, flexibility, and so on.

To test NPA, simply close your eyes, and raise your shooting arm to eye level. It may help to do some light stretching ahead of time.

With your shooting arm held at eye level, open your eyes, and look down your arm towards the “v” formed at the web of your hand. The point of the “v” should be left and right aligned to the bullseye of the target.

If it is not, then lift your rear foot and pivot in the appropriate direction so the “v” aligns up left and right.

As you get more experienced, you may even notice small NPA changes throughout the course of a match.

Ideally, your raise and lower should be direct to the bullseye with no left and right struggling.

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Breathing for precision

This is a huge topic, but let’s jump to a few practical examples I’ve used over and over in my shot routine.

In 10m Air Pistol and 25m Pistol Precision stage, I have a two stage settle:

  1. Lift gun and breath in deep to the belly.
  2. Lower gun and breath out fully (but don’t force it) until just above black.
  3. Take a small breath in.
  4. With the small breath in, lift a little tiny bit, and breathout half way.
  5. As I breath out slowly, I do my final settle into my area of aim.

Key take aways

Use your inhale to help you raise

Use a controlled exhale to slow your lower

Use your held breath in your belly to support your hold