An interesting article, and I believe there's much to be said for the competence of the enthusiast/amateur. I do think he misses on two points, however.
Sargent Satterlee:
...lambasts the commonly repeated advice that shooters should “squeeze” the trigger in such a way that they feel surprised when the weapon goes off.
He is also critical of:
... idea that the shooter should keep their focus on their weapon’s sight as they aim. “That’s good for bullseyes or a stationary target,” he says....
While there are several schools of thought about trigger control, and there is the continual tension between advocates of using the sights and the point shooters, many of the top USPSA and IDPA competitors and other, similar enthusiasts he seems to believe the military could learn from in fact use the compressed surprise trigger break and their sights.
Here's an interesting video in which Jeff Cooper explains the compressed surprise break. The idea is that if you apply a smooth, continuously increasing pressure to the trigger, the gun will eventually fire without jerking off target. Applying that smooth, continuously increasing pressure to the trigger you are not trying to make the gun fire at a particular instant in time. You will not know exactly when, as you increase pressure on the trigger, the gun will fire.
But as you practice (perfectly) and develop the facility to reflexively (without conscious thought) apply a smooth, continuously increasing pressure to the trigger the time interval between beginning to press and the shot breaking gets progressively shorter until it become indistinguishable from being instantaneous. And that is the compressed surprise break.
As for the use of the sights, as Clint Smith wrote in the January/February 2008
American Handgunner:
It's always argued that in a fight shooters will not look at their sights. I strongly agree -- if no one has ever taught them otherwise. To say that people don't, or won't, look at their sights is wrong. People have, they will in the future, and they'll hit the...target too. The correct alignment of the sights is a learnable skill. Is a textbook perfect sight picture available in every fight? Of course not....In fairness, the sights are only part of the issue -- the jerked on the trigger doesn't improve anything.
And as Greg Morrison describes the flash sight picture (Morrison, Gregory,
The Modern Technique of the Pistol, Gunsite Press, 1991, pp 87 - 88, emphasis added):
...The flash sight-picture involves a glimpse of the sight-picture sufficient to confirm alignment....The target shooter’s gaze at the front sight has proven inappropriate for the bulk of pistol fighting. However, the practical shooter must start at this level and work up to the flash, which becomes reflexive as motor skills are refined. With practice, a consistent firing platform and firing stroke align the sights effortlessly. This index to the target eventually becomes an instantaneous confirmation of the sight-picture.
...Using the flash sight-picture programs the reflex of aligning the weapon’s sights with the target instantly....There is good reason for sights: one needs them to align the barrel with the target reliably....
