Scientific Paper:The influence of muscle tremor on shooting

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SylCarry87
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Scientific Paper:The influence of muscle tremor on shooting

Post by SylCarry87 »

I stumbled upon this when looking for something. Its a scientific article about shooting performance in relation to muscle tremor and cold versus warm muscles.
Its very long and the interesting bits are near the middle and end. But it does have a few graphs and they do several interesting experiments. I liked the bit about the olympic biathlete's.

http://ep.physoc.org/content/95/3/441.full
"The influence of muscle tremor on shooting performance"

Abstract

Shooting ability is compromised by involuntary movement. Some of this movement is physiological tremor. Tremor size has a demonstrable inverse correlation with shooting performance. Consequently, factors which affect tremor size should affect shooting ability. Adrenaline and local muscle warming markedly increase tremor size, whereas local muscle cooling reduces it. The physiological mechanisms behind these changes are not well understood, but they have the potential to affect shooting performance in subjects who exercise heavily and/or are exposed to extreme environments. The Olympic biathlon is an event in which vigorous physical exercise alternates with rifle shooting and it often takes place in a cold environment. The possible impact of exercise, temperature and other factors on the Olympic biathlete is considered here.
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Re: Scientific Paper:The influence of muscle tremor on shoot

Post by BobK »

So, if I get the general idea, if someone has the shakes they won't shoot as accurately.

I wonder how many millions of dollars our government spent to fund that little nugget. :roll:
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Re: Scientific Paper:The influence of muscle tremor on shoot

Post by Mrs. Daspirate »

BobK wrote:So, if I get the general idea, if someone has the shakes they won't shoot as accurately.

I wonder how many millions of dollars our government spent to fund that little nugget. :roll:
Why do you think they spent any at all? Besides, a lot of times people research things that seem obvious in order to get the data on the extent, not necessarily to prove or disprove the point - and in a few cases the obvious turns out to actually be wrong. In this case, I suspect the conclusion was less to prove anything than it was to get data about how athletes perform and use that to figure out how to counteract the drop in ability during hard exercise, which has implications for use in the armed forces perhaps.

ETA: given the study was done in the UK, I doubt any funding from OUR government was obtained.
Last edited by Mrs. Daspirate on Sun Dec 09, 2012 4:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Scientific Paper:The influence of muscle tremor on shoot

Post by sodbuster95 »

BobK wrote:So, if I get the general idea, if someone has the shakes they won't shoot as accurately.

I wonder how many millions of dollars our government spent to fund that little nugget. :roll:
Don't forget the part about adrenaline and muscle fatigue make you shake which, in turn, decreases ability. That's good scientifical stuff right there... :roll:
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Re: Scientific Paper:The influence of muscle tremor on shoot

Post by TSiWRX »

Mrs. Daspirate has a very good point - it's not about proving/disproving the obvious: rather, to be able to quantify it so that we may be able to come to a better understanding.

Look at the Tueller Drill. It's obvious that someone who is standing "close enough" to us should be able to do us bodily harm before we can draw and shoot: but just how close? More? - look at what The Force Science Institute has illuminated over the course of the last decade.

Yes, it's painfully obvious - and nothing more than common sense - that if we've got the jitters, we won't shoot as well. But starting to quantify the phenomenon is the first step necessary towards true understanding. Basic science research often isn't very glorious...but it helps us achieve more understanding. :)
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Brian D.
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Re: Scientific Paper:The influence of muscle tremor on shoot

Post by Brian D. »

I'm pretty sure this type of study has been done in the U.S. already. Seems like one of the firearms/defensive training schools used epinephrine as part of some dynamic exercises. Ayoob maybe had blithered written an article about it. Also sorta hazily recall another similar experiment done and reported on many years before. Like, when Stu was young, obviously well before my birth.

But if the Brits will fund the Ministry of Silly Walks it's no surprise they'd underwrite this study on jitters.
Last edited by Brian D. on Sun Dec 09, 2012 11:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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SylCarry87
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Re: Scientific Paper:The influence of muscle tremor on shoot

Post by SylCarry87 »

One Point is does bring up is that expert shooter have less muscle tremors than others. Either they suppress it or they're born with it.
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Re: Scientific Paper:The influence of muscle tremor on shoot

Post by Mrs. Daspirate »

Brian D. wrote:I'm pretty sure this type of study has been done in the U.S. already. Seems like one of the firearms/defensive training schools used epinephrine as part of some dynamic exercises. Ayoob maybe have blithered written an article about it. Also sorta hazily recall another similar experiment done and reported on many years before. Like, when Stu was young, obviously well before my birth.

But if the Brits will fund the Ministry of Silly Walks it's no surprise they'd underwrite this study on jitters.
Did you read it? There have been many experiments done - and the study references a bunch of them. They also include explanations of why some do not apply to the particular area at which they were looking, and how some did not understand the precise phenomena they were viewing, and how some adequately explain phenomena for the purposes of those studies, but which were not complete enough for what these people wanted to look at.
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Re: Scientific Paper:The influence of muscle tremor on shoot

Post by Brian D. »

Mrs. Daspirate wrote:
Brian D. wrote:I'm pretty sure this type of study has been done in the U.S. already. Seems like one of the firearms/defensive training schools used epinephrine as part of some dynamic exercises. Ayoob maybe have blithered written an article about it. Also sorta hazily recall another similar experiment done and reported on many years before. Like, when Stu was young, obviously well before my birth.

But if the Brits will fund the Ministry of Silly Walks it's no surprise they'd underwrite this study on jitters.
Did you read it? There have been many experiments done - and the study references a bunch of them. They also include explanations of why some do not apply to the particular area at which they were looking, and how some did not understand the precise phenomena they were viewing, and how some adequately explain phenomena for the purposes of those studies, but which were not complete enough for what these people wanted to look at.

Honestly Mrs. D. having seen the length of the article I skimmed it, meaning I read the first and last sentences of the paragraphs. Even at that it seemed too dang long like so much scholarly writing. What I saw was stuff that's been done here already, being we Yanks are so dang interested in competition shooting comapred to the U.K. While at the U.S. Olympic Training Center's air rifle classrooms several years I observed much text material that concerned itself with breathing, heart rate, tremors, blinking, etc.
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