Learn › Track 03 · Fundamentals
Breathing & heart rate
Every breath moves your chest, and your chest moves your shoulder, your arm and the pistol. So when, in all that movement, should the shot go?
Think first: At which point in the breath should the shot break?
- At the top of a full breath, lungs packed
- In the natural pause after letting out part of a breath
- While breathing slowly in and out
- After pushing every bit of air out
One breath, one shot
Breathing for a shot is a short, repeatable sequence. You do it on every shot, so it becomes part of your routine.
- Take 2–3 slow, deep breaths with the pistol down. Slow, not forced: don't hyperventilate.
- Inhale while raising the pistol to slightly above the target.
- Let out part of the breath (about ¼ to ½) as the sights settle down into the aiming area.
- Aim and release in the natural pause.
- Follow through, then exhale and lower the pistol.
Between shots, keep taking deliberate, deep breaths, all the way through the 60 shots.
The pause has a limit
The pause is not a contest. Holding the breath for about 8–10 seconds is the practical limit, and your eyes are the first thing to suffer as oxygen runs low. If the shot hasn't gone by then, lower, breathe, and start the cycle again. More on this in Eye dominance & focus.
What your heart does
Researchers have recorded shooters' heart rates second by second in the run-up to each shot.
Think first: In the seconds before the shot, what did expert shooters' hearts do that novices' didn't?
- Speed up, as adrenaline builds toward the shot
- Slow down gradually, then speed back up after the shot
- Nothing: heart rate stayed flat in both groups
An older and smaller study (nine shooters, 1987) found that champions tended to fire between heartbeats, while beginners fired at random points in the heart's cycle.
Nobody aims by counting heartbeats. Think of these results as signs of a calm, practised shot rather than a technique to copy. The breathing sequence above and a steady routine are the parts you can control.
Beta-blockers, drugs that slow the heart, are banned in shooting both in and out of competition. If you need one for medical reasons, you must apply for a therapeutic use exemption (TUE). See Anti-doping essentials.
Other things push your heart rate up: dehydration, and caffeine at high doses. One study found 5 mg of caffeine per kg of body weight raised heart rate and lowered scores. More in Food, water, caffeine & sleep.
Slow breathing training
Some shooters train with heart-rate-variability biofeedback. The idea is to find a breathing pace that makes the heart's rhythm swing smoothly with each breath.
Think first: This ‘resonance’ breathing runs at roughly how many breaths per minute?
Small studies report better scores and calmer stress markers after resonance-breathing training. The evidence is promising but preliminary. Treat it as an experiment, not a proven fix.
- 2–3 slow breaths, inhale while raising, let out ¼–½ while settling, fire in the natural pause, exhale after the follow-through.
- The pause lasts about 8–10 s at most. Vision fades first. Then lower and start again.
- Experts’ hearts slow before the shot and rebound after it. Champions tended to fire between beats.
- Beta-blockers are banned in shooting in and out of competition.
- Resonance breathing (~6/min) is promising but the evidence is still preliminary.