Practice Shooting: Beyond Fundamentals [Paperback]

The name Brian Enos is familiar to anyone with even a cursory knowledge of the action shooting sports. In the late 1970s and early '80s, Enos and his good friend Rob Leatham revolutionized competitive shooting by developing techniques allowing high speed pistol control - and a level of performance - previously impossible. They did this by questioning everything, throwing out many of the sacred cows like the Weaver Stance espoused by the experts of the day, and embracing anything - no matter how unconventional - that worked. The techniques they developed (for a few years, until the other guys could adopt the same methods to catch up) didn't just put Leatham and Enos ahead of the rest of the best in the world - they were in an entirely different CLASS.

Beyond Fundamentals has been called by those who've read it, "Zen and the Art of Pistol Shooting." It's also been called, "A book written by an IPSC Grand Master that you have to be an IPSC Grand Master to understand." There's a certain amount of truth to that. Most books on handgun marksmanship tell you that truly high-level shooting really has very little to do with equipment and technique, it's 95 percent mental...then spend 95 percent of the rest of the book talking about equipment and technique! Enos tells you shooting is 95 percent mental, then spends 95 percent of the rest of the book talking about mental states of consciousness.

The reason no one had ever written a book like this before, and why some people find it impenetrable even today, is because it's just damn hard to describe a mental state of consciousness so that someone who's never experienced it can understand what you're talking about. This is definitely a book that benefits frequent re-reading as your skill level improves. The first time I read Beyond Fundamentals I was lost throughout most of it. "What the hell is this guy talking about?" I thought. A few years later, when I read it again, I found it much more comprehensible because, in the intervening time frame, my skill level had improved to the point I could just barely brush the edges of a lot of the stuff Enos describes. Then I found the book going by fairly fast, and absolutely fascinating reading. "This is so cool. I'm already 40 pages into this thing and he hasn't said anything I don't understand yet."

Enos takes ideas from sources as far-flung as bull's-eye shooting, golf, martial arts, even motorcycle racing, and synthesizes them. At times this book seems more a tome on Buddhist philosophy or some Eastern fighting system than a shooting manual. Not to worry though, for those who want instruction on technique it's here in abundance: in-depth discussion on the biomechanics of shooting, written by one of the best shooters in the world. But while reading that may certainly improve your performance, if you really want to excel it's the "hard to understand" portions of the book - the discussions of mental states - that will over the long term prove the most invaluable, and eventually take you the farthest.

Enos does not discuss self-defense tactics in his book - it's about pure shooting skill. Some folks of the "martial artist" persuasion might opine, "Well, I don't have anything to learn from a guy like Enos. I'm a combat shooter and he's a gamesman." Frankly, in my opinion, any defensively oriented handgunner who honestly believes he has nothing to learn from an IPSC Grand Master is a freakin' idiot. IPSC Grand Masters are the GODS of fast and accurate handgunning. No one knows more about how to fire a handgun fast and well than these guys - and that's definitely a skill that could come in handy in a real-life emergency. This is a classic text that should be part of every serious handgunner's library.

If Jedi Master Yoda wrote a book about pistol shooting, this would be it. Enos wrote this book to help intermediate level shooters become advanced level shooters. This isn't a book about self-defense or tactics. It's a book about shooting . . . Mostly the inner, mental effort involved in shooting.

Some of the writing in this book becomes esoteric. How do you describe how you think? Enos works very hard to try to convey the mental processes involved in championship level shooting. Just as this would be a difficult book to write, it takes some effort to read. Unlike many gun-books or gun-magazines, this isn't shallow reading.

Enos doesn't spend very much time writing about the mechanics of gun-handling or marksmanship ( if you're looking for that, then I'd suggest looking at Gabriel Suarez's Tactical Pistol Marksmanship and Tactical Pistol) but when he does, pay attention. He has some neat training exercises that will help you move beyond the intermediate skill-level.

The prices listed for these used copies ($76.00 as of this writing) are a bit steep considering Brian still publishes the book, and sells it at brianenos.com for $19.00

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