Chris Sajnog - Nerual Zen Training

AShooting Journal ^ | 11/24/2015 | J Oliver

[w1n1]

When the opportunity presented itself to interview one of the lead Navy SEAL firearms instructors who is also an internationally known law enforcement and military trainer, we jumped at the chance. Meet Chris Sajnog, former Navy SEAL sniper instructor, author and founder of Center Mass Group. Sajnog not only has over 20 years of expertise with one of the most elite military teams in the world, he is willing to share his skills and insight with everyone willing and open to learning them. Our own John Oliver spent some time with Sajnog and here is what he had to say:

John Oliver Hello, Chris. Thank you for taking the time to talk to us. Let's start at the beginning. Tell us about your background, where are you from and how you became a Navy SEAL?

Chris Sajnog I was born and raised in Wisconsin and grew up there with one brother. I didn't get along with my parents and ended up leaving home early, by request. I worked full time because I had to pay for a place to live, and then I joined the Navy when I was 19. At that time, I didn't even know what a SEAL was, and learned about them later. Initially, I was a Navy diver and did diving medicine, or undersea and hyperbaric medicine (UHB), and often supported the SEALs in that role. After working with them for a few years I decided that what they did was pretty cool, so I went to SEAL training. I had already been with the Navy for four years before I joined.

JO You've written a few books, and your first one was titled How To Shoot Like A Navy SEAL. What compelled you to write a book?

CS I truly love teaching other people. I used to run the sniper course and our marksmanship training for our SEAL qualification course, so I'd been teaching quite a lot and I wanted to continue. When I got out of the Navy, I started writing articles and in 2011 founded a training company called Center Mass Group. I received really good responses and a friend suggested that I transition one of my blogs that focused on marksmanship, and turn it into a book. With a little editing, expanding and adding extra chapters I was able to create the first book. This one covers the fundamentals of combat marksmanship, and boils down to being able to shoot under stress. That book did really well and was the number one shooting book on Amazon.com for a really long time.

JO It sounds like you haven't stopped since your Navy days. Tell us a little about the courses you teach at Center Mass Group.

CS I'm actually getting away from running physical courses, although I still teach the military and law enforcement, and have started teaching online. The way I run training is very different than anyone else I've ever seen because I really focus on what I call "the new rules of marksmanship." It's a way of training where, to me, it's more important how you train than what you're training or how many rounds you shoot. Often, I'll have a student shoot one round and if it's not perfect, then I correct them immediately. I think every time you make a mistake you're building neural pathways in your brain to recreate that movement again. It kills me to see people simply shooting to get better when it just doesn't work that way. That's one of the reasons I'm getting away from hands-on training, and moving to an online format where I present the information and teach people how to train on their own. It's hard to run a course and have people shoot one round at a time. Nobody wants to pay to do that. I can offer a much less expensive way to learn by giving them the information online and the students conduct the repetitions on their own.

JOFrom what I have read you are a strong believer of dry-fire practice. Why do you feel this is such an important component?

CS Definitely! Going back to building neural pathways, every time you do something, whether it's right or wrong, you are building these pathways so that your body can do that movement faster and better the next time. Any time a gun goes bang, that's a stressor. It may be a small stressor, but it's the one thing that increases how ingrained those neural connections become. If you can first train perfectly without stress, you build up these neural pathways and insulate them with myelination (process of forming a myelin sheath around a nerve to allow nerve impulses to move more quickly), and that protects you from the chemical stimulus you're going to get from stress. So when those hormones come rushing into your brain, that neural pathway is protected and you'll be able to do it perfectly. Read the rest of the interview here.

[w1n1]

sorry gang, I missed spelled the word “neural”, should be:
Chris Sajnog – Neural Zen Training

[Captainpaintball]

This is a very interesting concept.

[Captainpaintball]

Bflr

[moovova]

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