RIFLE-BALANCING IN PRECISION SHOOTING - BEHAVIORAL-ASPECTS AND PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGICAL IMPLICATION

This study investigated sharpshooters' strategies to control their rif le stability during the aiming period. Six elite and six pre-elite sho oters completed a simulated realistic shooting task (laser rifle), and their performance was evaluated from behavioral and psychophysiologic al perspectives. The analysis of the rifle's barrel movement, indexing the shooter's behavioral performance, supported the view that rifle-b alancing is an essential determinant of superior shooting performance. The psychophysiological data, i.e. the brain slow potentials, suggest ed that the shooters applied different rifle-hold strategies; the elit e shooters concentrated primarily on achieving a stable rifle position using psychomotor regulation, whereas the pre-elite shooters were mor e reliant on the visual-spatial processing. The present study has impl ications for the understanding of psychological aspects in competitive precision shooting, as well as for the evaluation of the functional s ignificance of the electrocortical slow potentials in shooting-like cl osed-skill sports.