Psychological Aiming: A Respiratory Pause

 Greetings,

One of they problems that causes some issues, or at least used to in a big way, was Sleep Apnoea. I have not only Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA) which is the common variant where the soft palate tends to block the airway when I sleep, but I also have Central Sleep Apnoea (CSA) my lungs sometime decide they want some time off and just stop. Needless to say, without my sleep machine, I don't get much sleep and it could cause some catastrophic health issues.

My snoring as a child was described as me taking a breath, breathing in, and in, and in, and then holding it for a while, then letting it out, and out, and out, and out, then stopping. Then finally breathing back in again. It was the stopping, the 'respiratory pause', before breathing back in again which used to scare both my mother and also my sister if they ever had the misfortune of being awake when I wasn't. 

Interestingly, for another project, I have been reading through some pistol training manuals. I read all sorts of things all of the time. It is amazing the things you can find on the internet. Anyway, I came to a part which deals with breath control, and it advises the shooter to fire when, during the 'respiratory pause' the natural gap in the breathing where the person is most relaxed. I got to thinking...

My mother shot pistol when I was a child, and I have no doubt that I would have been around when my mother was being taught to shoot. She actually ended up being a better shot than my father. Further, all of us in the family were eventually taught how to shoot. I held my first rifle at the age of 8 years old. 

The first lesson I was taught was not to point a weapon at anything that you don't want to hit, a rule which follows for all weapons. I teach the same rule to my fencing students in regard to their swords. The second rule was to assume that any weapon that you have not checked yourself is loaded. But I digress...

So you have a family who was taught how to shoot, how to control their breath while shooting to ensure that the rhythmic motion of their bodies did not disturb their aim. Further you have a child who has breathing difficulties to start with. I suffered horribly with chest infections when I was a child. This was the part of my chronic asthma that bothered me the most. 

Maybe in the back of my mind I was not only extending my 'respiratory pause' so I could aim better, so I could shoot better, but also taking the whole idea of breath control to another step along. Slowing your breathing down when you have breathing issues is sure a benefit, and it has been mostly a benefit since then, though it has scared some nurses in hospitals, seems it keeps you heart rate a little slow. Not really helpful for their parameters for "normal," but great for calming yourself and other benefits.

Cheers,

Henry.