Recently, I decided to get back into shooting my long guns. They’re just sitting in the vault, I’m not gonna get rid of them, and they cost too damn much to let them sit there. When I didn’t have to keep data on three guns at a time any more, I was a little burned out on the ass-pain of long range shooting. I loved it, but to do it right was a huge commitment. Your sniper rifles are like kids, they require constant attention or they’re not gonna turn out right. I was a little rusty to say the least, I had forgotten some steps in terms of maintaining the system as well as developing firing solutions to record for future use. Just a few short years ago, all of that stuff was second nature. Not so much any more, as I’m learning. A lot has happened since I stopped being behind the gun every day, and there are a couple of things I’ve lost that aren’t an easy thing to catch back up on.

The first one is re-learning the basics. When you let a skill go unattended for too long, the foundation all your hard work was built on has crumbled. It comes back, sure enough, but I never would have though I’d have to break out the SOTIC manual to remember some of the basic firing formulas and ballistics information. When I rebuilt my guns, I had to reference the torque values for all the screws that I used to know by heart. It’s pretty annoying to have to re-learn old stuff instead of learning the new stuff (more on that later). This isn’t exclusive to long-range shooting, although that is an exceptionally technical skill set. Maintenance of those skills is something I’m really wishing I had kept up right about now, and it wouldn’t have been that hard to put a little time into retaining those skills. Fortunately factory loaded ammo is pretty good today or the big Dillon press would have to be re-assembled. At least I haven’t had to fight that fight again yet…

Secondly, I have found out how far behind I am in new technology and employment techniques. The advances in reticles, night vision systems, new optimized calibers and bullet designs, suppressors, and operating systems are keeping me pretty busy right now. So, not only had I lost the base I did have, I got left behind on all the new stuff over the last few years…and there has been a lot of it. In terms of buying new equipment I’m trying to sort through all the new stuff and I’m fortunate enough to work with a true expert on this stuff so I can call him for advice. Still, walking around the USASOC Sniper Comp vendor tent last week, I was a little intimidated by how far state-of-the-art has progressed. Apart from the equipment, the skills and techniques have made a lot of progress in the last couple of years. As I reach out to buddies who are still active snipers, I’ve lost a lot of relevance by not staying current with TTPs used in current operations. So as I am taking the time to re-learn the stuff I knew, I am also trying to play catch-up on all the stuff that’s happened since my priorities shifted. That’s what your constant attention to your skills buys you, a degree of relevance that you won’t have to play catch-up on later.

My situation is kind of specific, but I think the concept applies to everything we might need and let go for some reason. We all see the fat guy in the gym who “really let himself go”. Right now, I’m that guy, but with a sniper rifle, and I really wish I hadn’t let myself go this much. The moral of the story is, all of our skills are perishable. They take the time and effort to maintain and further develop, and they’re never as good as they used to be once you pick them back up and knock the dust off without significant effort.

Laziness is pretty much the scourge of America these days. People want all the benefits of hard work without, well, the hard work. There’s one circumstance I can think of that laziness pays dividends though, and in fact improves the gains of the hard work you just did. The rest day, which is often overlooked. I took a quote from the Gym Jones website a few years ago that stuck with me. I had been training with a partner for an upcoming multi-week event. I was in most likely the best shape I had ever been, knocking out a 1400+ UBRR score and a sub-2 hour 12 mile ruck time. Religious adherence to a great diet, never slacking on workouts. Unfortunately I fell into a trap of being overtraining and a week before the event I tore a tendon in the arch of my left foot on a Saturday morning, which pretty much sidelined me for nearly 6 months. That one stupid rest day I decided to cram a little extra work into caused career implications that haunt me to this day. One damned Saturday morning on Fort Bragg that I wasn’t smart enough to take a break. Like the song says, “If you’re gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough.” I promise you, you’re better off being smart and tough. Afterwards I found this:

Commenting on a disappointing performance at the 2010 World Championships Mark Cavendish said, “It takes balls to rest and do nothing and I didn’t have the balls.” The hard work is easy, but it takes courage to rest. In an era when everyone thinks that more and harder is better few are brave enough to step back, to tell friends, “I’m taking it easy today.” I can hear the jibes from here. But one of my maxims is, “when in doubt, rest” and I admonish with it frequently.

The T-Shirt Gym Jones sells sums it up with “don’t do the work if you don’t have the balls to rest.” Recovery is a wonderful thing, it allows you to actually take full benefit of your hard work, mentally and physically. A lot of the high-stress activities we engage in are fatiguing. The body needs time to rest, rebuild, and prepare for another round of punishment. If not, it cannot grow to accommodate your workload. We plateau. We get complacent and lazy. We lose motivation. Exercise is a common example to relate to. You need to rest to build! Your body needs to heal to get stronger! When you break yourself off every day, you’re damaging yourself to a degree. Your body builds it’s capabilities to compensate for your workload. It needs the time to do that or not only will your results slow to stop, you’ll fall prey to injuries. Nobody wants to work that hard to flush it down the toilet on a strained muscle or torn tendon. One day of rest to save 6 months of cumulative work, or one more day of work for 6 months of rest…the choice is yours.

Plan rest into your activities. If possible, I like a 3/1 ratio of work/rest days on my training schedule. I use that for shooting, workouts, and other activities requiring a lot of physical activity or concentration. I know some animals that do 2/1 and still get by better than the rest of us. Get some sleep too. If you’re the guy that hits the bar or eats bad food “cause I worked out extra hard” today, it was all for nothing. A good night’s sleep is a rest day all its own for every day you’re on the job. Not only will a lack of rest and recovery stop muscle growth, but it will decrease your energy levels, and possibly testosterone production, and convinces your body to decrease muscle and store fat to feed itself. Don’t do the work and throw away the benefits.

Rest is important, arguably as important as the work you do to need it. Be man (or woman) enough to take that rest day when you need it. Plan on it! Don’t worry about your friends calling you a pussy. You’ll get to mock their “weak genes” when they’re on crutches or at the gym twice a day every day and can’t get any stronger.

Take it easy folks.