by US Army Biathlete Sean Doherty

This winter I have made long holds in standing position the core of my dry fire training. I will do 3-4 sets of a 5-minute hold. I find this very helpful in maintaining my shooting base as we spend much less time on the range and in position in the winter. To stay on task while in position I implement various other technical elements such as 10-20 rebolts while staying on target, controlled breathing without disrupting the barrel, and 10-20 shots where I hold the trigger at a very high pre-pressure. Many other working tasks can be incorporated into a long static hold. It is simple work but you never escape the fundamentals.

The workout:

First, check you rifle and magazines for any ammunition

Then, draw 5 small black dots on a piece of paper and place it on a wall that is safe to point your rifle toward (usually an external-facing wall or one you know no one could be standing behind). Determine the correct height to place your target using natural point of aim.

3 x 5-minutes standing hold (1-2 minute break)

For each 5 minutes, spend approximately:

• 5 x 20s of controlled breathing aiming at each target

• 2 min alternating 20s of rebolting (with shooting breathing rhythm) with 10s of controlled, continuous breathing on a single target

• 15 x 5s hold on each target with extremely high trigger pressure (the dryfire “shot” may or may not go off), rebolting between each and moving to the next target