Chapter 778: The Breath-Holding School and the Breathing School

Chapter 778: The Breath-Holding School and the Breathing School

Dave raised his eyebrows, put down the gun in his hand, crossed his arms, and looked at Ouyang Ming with interest: "Oh? Then tell me, what are the benefits of holding your breath and shooting?"

Ouyang Ming straightened his back and spoke confidently: "Shooting while holding your breath can improve stability, especially at the moment of pulling the trigger. When aiming, snipers hold their breath to reduce body shaking, especially the rise and fall of the chest caused by breathing. In this way, the target in the sight will not float up and down due to breathing, and the shooting accuracy will naturally be higher. Moreover, holding your breath can make people more focused. At the moment of holding your breath, your attention will be completely focused on the target, and external interference will be almost blocked. This is especially important for snipers, because they often need to hit the target accurately at a long distance, and any slight deviation will lead to failure. The principle is that holding your breath can temporarily increase the adrenaline level..."

"Wow, baby, you know so much!" Liya praised softly from the side.

Everyone looked at Ouyang Ming in astonishment, wondering where this guy learned all this from.

In fact, Ouyang Ming has never touched a real gun. What he just said was learned from the movie "Sniper King" starring Chen Guandong.

In the movie, Chen Guandong used the breath-holding method, which made the instructor Ren Xianqi very annoyed.

This situation seems exactly like in the movie.

Dave was a breath-holding person. Upon hearing Ouyang Ming's words, he immediately snorted: "Shooting while holding your breath can indeed reduce the shaking caused by breathing, but it also has limitations. First, holding your breath for a long time will lead to hypoxia, affecting judgment and reaction speed. Especially in actual combat, snipers may need to shoot continuously or wait for the best time. Forcibly holding your breath will make people exhausted. Secondly, holding your breath will cause muscle tension, especially the muscles in the shoulders and arms. Although this tension can temporarily stabilize the body, maintaining it for a long time will make the movements stiff, which will affect the fluency of shooting. Shooting while holding your breath is only suitable for the moment of pulling the trigger, not the entire process..."

In fact, most people present could not understand the conversation between the two, only Chen Xi and Gou Zi were more familiar with it.

To be honest, if Chen Xi had not been reborn and was around 20 years old, he would definitely be the first to jump out and refute what Dave said just now.

Because he used to be a breath-holding person.

He had been accustomed to holding his breath since he learned fighting. The instructor did not talk to him about this issue at that time. Later, when he started to play shooting, he continued to use the breath-holding method.

Whether in fighting or shooting, his performance after using the breath-holding technique was far superior to others, but in return he suffered many side effects.

However, after he turned 30, Chen Xi's thinking changed dramatically. As his body function declined, he was not so good at holding his breath, and breathing became more convenient.

But the habit has been formed, how can it be changed so easily? He felt that what Dave said just now made sense. Holding your breath is only appropriate at the moment of pulling the trigger.

Chen Xi had discussed the issue of whether to hold the breath or not with some professionals before.

In the field of shooting, some professional shooting coaches and shooters support breath holding, just as Ouyang Ming said, holding your breath for a short time at the moment of pulling the trigger to reduce the body shaking caused by breathing and improve accuracy.

In military and police shooting training, holding your breath is one of the standard techniques, especially when shooting accurately at long distances.

There are relatively few people who are against holding their breath. They are all experienced veterans or competitive athletes who can maintain stability in a natural breathing state. They believe that holding the breath for a long time during high-intensity combat or continuous shooting will lead to hypoxia, which will affect reaction speed and judgment.

But it’s different in the field of fighting, there are more people who support breathing than those who hold their breath.

Fighting is a high-intensity, full-body sport that requires a continuous supply of energy and oxygen intake. Holding your breath for a long time can lead to hypoxia, which affects physical strength and reaction speed. Natural breathing helps keep muscles relaxed and avoids excessive tension that limits the flexibility and explosiveness of movements.

Of course, breath holding also has advantages. At the moment of punching, kicking or throwing, breath holding can strengthen the tightness of the core muscles and improve explosive power. This technique has been used in boxing and karate.

Professional boxers usually exhale when attacking to maintain the continuity of action and power output, and short breath holding is limited to the moment of heavy hitting. This is similar to what Dave just said about holding your breath when pulling the trigger.

Why was Chen Xi a breath-holding practitioner before? It was because he learned too many and diverse things, so he combined them into the instant-strike technique.

Holding your breath can improve your explosive power and reduce pain by boosting your adrenal glands.

However, the disadvantage is that if you cannot defeat your opponent in a short period of time and get stuck in a tug-of-war, the side effects of holding your breath will be quite serious, such as stomach cramps and abnormal heartbeats.

Some people may also experience dizziness, blurred vision, slow reaction, shortness of breath, increased blood pressure, muscle stiffness, anxiety, etc.

Especially for people over 30 years old, their physical functions have begun to decline, and using the breath-holding method is simply self-torture.

A long time ago, most fighters in the country regarded breath-holding as a heresy, and there were even cases of open exclusion. For example, the principal of a martial arts school, Master Liu, was once ganged up on so that he could not even run his school.

Ouyang Ming blushed a little after hearing what Dave said. He was just a theorist who had watched movies and had never even touched a real gun.

Dave walked to the wooden stake next to the shooting range and spoke again: "In 2009, in Kunar Province, Afghanistan, my partner at the time was Justin. The mission was to clear an enemy mortar position on the ridge line. After Justin locked the target 800 meters away, he suddenly cursed in a low voice on the radio. He said that there was a sentry hiding in the crevice of the rock opposite, wearing a black turban, which is usually the symbol of a senior commander.

Justin began to adjust his breathing. I watched through the scope as the magazine pouch on his chest rose and fell with his breathing, but he suddenly held his breath for more than 15 seconds, which I later calculated from the recording. His crosshairs were firmly fixed on the target's chest, but the target suddenly bent down to pick up a water bottle. He then fired, but the trembling caused by lack of oxygen caused the bullet to deviate a full 60 centimeters and shatter the stone at the target's feet.

The next second, a heavy machine gun line of fire exploded on the opposite hillside. In order to cover Justin, our machine gunner Thomas had to expose his position. Three days later, Thomas' body was found in the valley, his limbs tied with wire and his own military license plate stuck in his throat.

A month later, Justin said at a military hearing: "I heard my heartbeat when I held my breath, which made me think I could wait another half a second." But the image data in the sniper scope showed that his pupils could no longer focus due to lack of oxygen. That's why he misjudged the action of picking up the kettle as the target squatting and hiding.

After that, Wujiaolou specially added a clause in the revised version of the Army Sniper Manual, which required snipers who held their breath for more than 8 seconds to move to another position. This is because once the human body's blood oxygen saturation drops below 85%, the judgment error rate will soar by 400%..."

Chen Xi looked at the coach in front of him in surprise. He had heard this story before. Justin had become a famous negative example in the shooting world.

"You're just bragging. What's with the Afghan fighting in the war? I even said I was Ultraman!" Ouyang Ming muttered in Mandarin.

Liya laughed secretly in her heart, but still comforted her boyfriend.

Seeing that Ouyang Ming could not refute, everyone began to follow Dave's instructions and started shooting. The people who had never touched a real gun were very excited, and they started shooting one by one, which made the group of foreign coaches around them all curse.

This is just like learning to drive in China. When the instructor sees a novice, he will go up and complain. Especially if he sees the driver not behaving according to the rules, he might even curse your whole family.

"Dave, I'd like to ask you, if you have been used to breath-holding for several years, can you still change it?" At this time, Chen Xi walked over and asked.

"Having gotten used to it for several years? You just touched a gun, have you ever played shooting before? You don't look very old, so you can adjust. Human action patterns can form new muscle memory through about 300-500 correct repetitions. Even if you have a long-term habit of holding your breath for shooting or fighting, you can still cover the original habit through systematic training. Technology is still very advanced now. You can buy a blood oxygen ring to continuously monitor blood oxygen saturation, which can allow the body to re-adapt to the normal oxygen supply rhythm and relieve the dependence on holding your breath. Here is a real case for reference. Marine Corps sniper Mitchell Perry suffered from intermittent black vision many times during his service due to his dependence on holding his breath. He used the step-by-step breathing method to shorten the breath-holding time from 8 seconds to 3 seconds each time, that is, 0.5 seconds less every day, and forced a new breathing link to be established. There is also heart rate variability training. Through the 4-7-8 breathing method of yoga, that is, inhale for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 7 seconds, and exhale for 8 seconds, this can improve the autonomic nervous system's ability to regulate hypoxia..."

Chen Xi nodded when he heard this. He had seen a documentary interview some time ago in which former United Kingdom SAS sniper Carl Harris admitted: "I failed two missions in Afghanistan due to holding my breath too much. Later, I used a breathing metronome to retrain my shooting rhythm. Now I am a breathing control instructor for the official shooting course of the North Japan."

However, the interview did not mention how to train, it seems that Dave has the real stuff.

"Haha, it's so enjoyable! So enjoyable!" At this time, Yuan Shuai, who was not far away, shouted excitedly.

"Da da da--!"

The thunderous sound of gunfire echoed back and forth on the shooting range, and Yuan Shuai's roar was almost drowned in the metal storm. He held the trigger of the rifle tightly, and the empty shells rained down on the concrete floor, and the clinking sound made when they bounced was like a pot of boiling metal water.

"Cease fire! Cease fire! You are just trying to clean up the mess! Do you know how much a bullet for this gun costs? 5 Australian dollars! It's a waste to shoot blindly like you are!" The coach's face turned red.

Everyone was stunned when they heard this. Five dollars for a bullet, that means firing three or four shots is equivalent to one hour's salary!
"Fuck, so expensive?" Ouyang Ming opened his mouth and said.

The prices at shooting ranges in Australia are similar. Pistol bullets are a little cheaper, but not much different from rifle bullets.

The price of a single shot of common calibers such as 9mm Luger, .45 ACP, and .357 Magnum is about 2-3 Australian dollars.

The price of a single shot from a semi-automatic rifle is about 4-5 yuan.

This does not include the coaching fee, which is about 100 Australian dollars per hour in Australia. For veterans like Dave, the price is probably higher.

In addition to bullet fees and coaching fees, some venues also require ticket fees.

That is to say, you have to pay even if you don't shoot a single shot.

Chen Xi had also been to a shooting range in his previous life. He heard from the foreigners that the ticket price was actually the GST levied by the Australian government on ammunition.

Shooting ranges in places like Mo Village and Xi Village are actually relatively cheap because the transportation cost of bullets is very low.

If it is a remote area, the price of bullets will be about 20-30% higher.

Chen Xi remembered that American bullets were very cheap, with the same type of bullet costing only about 0.5-0.6 US dollars, while Australia charged several times more.

However, the most expensive bullets should be in the United Kingdom, where bullets cost about 2.5 pounds each, which is simply burning money.

At the same time, the public transportation systems in major cities in Australia suddenly became paralyzed.

The streets were crowded with people, and the teams holding signs shouted slogans: "Raise wages! Reduce workload! More holidays!" They were a parade composed of workers, drivers and other groups.

Pedestrians on the road were already accustomed to this, and they just glanced at it and continued on their way. However, today's strike came very suddenly, without any prior notice or warning.

Subway platforms were empty, buses were parked on the side of the road with empty seats in the drivers' seats, and in schools, classrooms were empty as students were forced to suspend classes.

This sudden strike not only caught the Liberal government off guard, but also surprised many senior executives of the Labor Party, who had not received any news about the action.

In the Mocun government building, Energy Minister Ryan was sitting in the conference room with a frown on his face. Norbert, who was sitting opposite him, was anxious and said in a hurried tone: "The investment in the new energy vehicle project is too huge, but the return is pitiful. The government must increase subsidies for electric vehicles, otherwise this project will be over!"

Ryan shrugged helplessly, and said with a tired face: "Norbert, you have to understand that Australia does not have its own electric car manufacturer. All cars are imported. If the government completely subsidizes consumers to buy cars, do you know how huge the cost will be? I am the Minister of Energy, not the Minister of Finance!"

Ryan heard the faint sound of a parade outside the window, and went to the window to check, his face looking very unhappy.

He came to the table and picked up the phone, while Norbert stood at the window looking out curiously.

A minute later, Ryan hung up the phone, patted Norbert on the shoulder and said, "See."

"Isn't it just a parade? It's a very normal thing! Don't these people ask for a wage increase every year?" Norbert disagreed.

"This is not a simple march. Those people are workers, teachers and other representatives of the middle and lower classes. Most of them are voters of the Workers' Party. Last year, our Freedom Party won the election. Now they are making this move again. What do you think they want to do? I just got the news that even many people in the Workers' Party didn't know about this march. Do you understand what this means?"

"I can't understand what you're talking about."

“You are such a political idiot!”

Ryan was speechless. He had said so much, but the guy in front of him didn't understand. (End of this chapter)