Rapid-fire pistol shooting as a dynamic problem.

Abstract

The kinetic aspects of the aiming phase of a pistol-shooting task were examined in the light of the previous finding of relative timing invariance in the shooting phase of the same task. A single highly skilled marksman executed a total of 45 trials over three timing conditions in a normal competition setting. Data from a tri-axial accelerometer fixed to the pistol were used to produce phase plane trajectories of the movement in each of the three timing conditions. These trajectories showed marked consistency across timing conditions which indicated that the marksman applied a single kinetic solution to his motor problem.