What are mental skills and which mental skills are useful for snipers? How do you deliver mental skills in an advanced sniper training course? Why is it better to offer options than solutions? Is there an ideal breathing technique when you are alone in the mud or sand, have to make big decisions yourself and are outnumbered and ‘unwelcome’? I speak about this with Christian Ytterbol. An experienced Norwegian soldier with many deployments in specialized units (NATO ISTAR) who is now writing his PhD on performance psychology in the military context. Thank you for your service on and off the battlefield.
Topics/timeline
Intro paper: Shooter ready? Integrating mental skills training in an advanced sniper course
Who is Christian Ytterbol
Becoming a (PhD) student
Studying performance psychology
Characteristic of sniper work (whe are not the best shooters, but …..)
The essence of sniper work (expand time horizon)
Difference between sniper and SWAT occupation
ABC model of analysis
Motor skills are important but not enough
The fallacy of generalizing training content from context to another context
Understanding training needs (exploratory case study methodology)
The sniper course study
How do you present and implement mental skills in an elite performance group?
Expertise versus competence equiped
Experiential learning approach and self-efficacy
The need for exposure
Recap part one
Options versus solutions
How do you teach adaptive behavior?
Cognitive control under pressure
How do you prepare for extreme scenarios?
What are mental skills?
Organic versus skill based mental skills
Mental skills are very individual
The 5 mental skills used in the sniper study
Being pragmatic (because it has to work in the dirt and it is different for different people)
Providing options, not solutions
Specific breathing techniques for snipers
Gettting control versus knowing the protocol
What is good breathing for shooting?
Becoming aware of the mental skills versus knowing protocols
What is self talk and how to teach this?
How to implement mental skills training in already busy training programs
Online and offline training
Relaxation training made practical
Recap part 2
Video
Sources
Ytterbøl C, Collins D and MacPherson A (2023) Shooter ready? Integrating mental skills training in an advanced sniper course. Front. Psychol. 14:1198986. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1198986
Ytterbøl C, Collins D and MacPherson A (2022) Sharpening the tip of the spear: Tailoring performance psychology for Special Operation Forces.
Front. Psychol. 13:1068896. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1068896