By Mr J. Burtin. Published in the 4th Edition of the NZ Army Journal 2018.
The shooting culture within 5/7 Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment shooting team has gone from strength to strength since the 5/7 team originally won the Freyberg and inaugural Army Shooting Competition in 2012, breaking a 25-year drought.
This was hugely significant as it had been 25 years since a Reservist Unit had won the competition. Prior to 2012 however, 5/7 had some very notable individual successes with two Queen’s Medalists and a few individuals who had been heavily involved in the Army shooting team and had won medals and trophies overseas. Since then the team has won the Freyberg and overall Army Shooting Competition in 2012, 2015 and 2016, and came a very close 2nd in 2014.Further to this, 5/7 has every year since contributed a large amount of firers to the Army shooting team who have competed internationally and have regularly come back with multiple medals and trophies. More importantly though, the experience gained from competing internationally has been very successfully used to further grow our shooting capability within 5/7 and go full circle. This has occurred as a result of the culmination of three major factors which all make up a successful shooting culture: Coaching, Training and Support.
Coaching
The coaching culture includes carefully pairing experienced firers, who are keen and willing to pass on their experience, with junior firers, who are also keen to learn and apply themselves. This system benefits both firers where they develop through the interaction with one another – the junior learns to master the basics of marksmanship from the coach, and the senior firer broadens their repertoire in how to effectively coach. Using this approach we have learnt that some techniques for shooting may or may not work for individual firers and some coaching techniques may or may not work for individuals. The key revelation has been that in understanding and working effectively as a pair, the best results are achieved; by finding the way the firers learn best and also what coaching techniques achieve the best results. This, at times, can be a frustrating process, but by applying commitment and comradeship, world-class results will be and have been achieved. Being a good marksman and being a good coach are two very different aspects, but the combination of both is what has given the 5/7 the winning edge for the past four years.
Training
The training culture of a successful shooting team is also paramount to success. It all starts well in advance of firers stepping up to the mound, with comprehensive battle-prep. This is done by HQ, the shooting management team and senior firers, and includes booking ranges, sorting ammo, stores, communications, shooting aides, drumming up interest at annual weapon qualifications (AWQs) and getting soldiers interested and keen to develop their shooting. By the time the team arrives in Waiouru to start the build-up training, they hit the ground running. Everything is ready to go, junior and senior firers are paired off, jobs are assigned, equipment is handed out, Point-of-Aim books are fresh and ready to go… Everyone in the team has their role to play to ensure the team functions as effectively as it can, with a strong focus on quality training, as opposed to quantity.
Where applicable, every shot fired is disked or observed, marked and recorded, building on the want to continuously improve individual shooting as well as coaching effectiveness, rather than trying to smash people through practise – as with anything, if you practise doing it wrong, you will only reinforce the wrong way to do it! Each firer strives to better their counterparts in every practise, and it is common to see little individual competitions occurring between firers. This also helps in instilling the competitive drive needed to succeed during the competition.
Support
The support from the unit is the third key aspect which enables a successful team.This encompasses having strong support from HQ to provide the appropriate resources to allow the team to train and compete to the best of their ability. The other key area of support, which often goes unmentioned as it is unseen, but is just as critical, is that of the individual firer’s family and partner. They support the individual whilst they are away for extended periods of training and competition by looking after the kids and keeping everything in order on the home front.A supportive culture within the team is also a standard and crucial component for success, with everyone working collaboratively towards the common goal of being professionals in the discipline of shooting and winning the Army shooting competition. The 5/7 shooting team members always look out for each other: it is clearly communicated and understood that it is a “champion team that will win and not a team of champions”. To further facilitate this, a calm and respectful environment is created and maintained during training by the Coaching and Management team, so that the normal yelling and hurrying up of firers to get through the serials is not by default but the rare exception. This reflects itself in the high standard of professionalism that is instilled into the team and is always commented on by high-ranking officials during the competition itself.
Summary
Overall, the combination of good coaching, quality training and consistent support is essentially what has enabled the 5/7 team’s consistent success in marksmanship. Looking forward, 5/7 is making continued efforts to support the ongoing success of the 5/7 shooting culture by growing it within the battalion so that it becomes a norm across the unit, rather than being confined to the shooting team.This is well on its way now. It can be seen during AWQs where individuals of all ranks who have been on the shooting team are on the line coaching, running the butts, and passing on their knowledge. The key emphasis and outcome desired is quality training not just getting a pass, and this is again the key principle for training. The proof that the culture is growing and effective is in the results that the soldiers of 5/7 are achieving in their AWQ scores, ex-members of 5/7 now posted to other areas are actively making themselves available to come back and coach in their free time to continue to be part of and give back to the culture. The soldiers are becoming actively interested in improving their shooting as opposed to just wanting to get a tick in the box and forget about it until next year, and all are improving on their previous shooting scores significantly. The combination of the little changes in behaviours eventually all add up across the unit and create the overall successful culture.For the strong shooting capability that 5/7 has developed to be sustained in the future, it will be essential that the coaching, training and support aspects are maintained, and that the culture is allowed to continue to grow and thrive. Further to this, the active use and combination of the coaching training and support should also be applied to all training aspects to further enhance the success of the unit overall
Support
The support from the unit is the third key aspect which enables a successful team.
This encompasses having strong support from HQ to provide the appropriate resources to allow the team to train and compete to the best of their ability. The other key area of support which often goes un-mentioned as it is un-seen, but is just as critical, is that of the individual firer’s families and partners. They support the individuals whilst they are away for extended periods of training and competition by looking after the kids and keeping everything in order on the home-front.
A supportive culture within the team is also a standard and crucial component for success, with everyone working collaboratively towards the common goal of being professionals in the discipline of shooting and winning the Army Shooting competition. 5/7 shooting team members always look out for each other: it is clearly communicated and understood that it is a “champion team that will win and not a team of champions”. To further facilitate this, a calm and respectful environment is created and maintained during training by the Coaching and Management team, so that the normal yelling and hurrying up of firers to get through the serials is not the default but the rare exception. This reflects itself in the high standard of professionalism that is instilled into the team and is always commented on by high ranking officials during the competition itself.
Summary
Overall, the combination of good coaching, quality training and consistent support are essentially what has enabled the 5/7 team’s consistent success in marksmanship. Looking forward, 5/7 is making continued efforts to support the ongoing success of the 5/7 shooting culture by growing it within the battalion so that it becomes a norm across the unit, rather than being confined to the shooting team.
This is well on its way now. It can be seen during AWQs where individuals of all ranks who have been on the shooting team are on the line coaching, running the butts, and passing on their knowledge. The key emphasis and outcome desired is quality training not just getting a pass, and this is again the key principle for training. The proof that the culture is growing and effective is in the results that the soldiers of 5/7 are achieving in their AWQ scores, ex members of 5/7 now posted to other areas are actively making themselves available to come back and coach in their free time to continue to be part of and give back to the culture.. The soldiers are becoming actively interested in improving their shooting as opposed to just wanting to get a tick in the box and forget about it until next year, and all are improving on their previous shooting scores significantly. The combination of the little changes in behaviours eventually all add up across the unit and create the overall successful culture.
For the strong shooting capability that 5/7 has developed to be sustained in the future, it will be essential that the coaching, training and support aspects are maintained, and that the culture is allowed to continue to grow and thrive. Further to this, the active use and combination of the coaching training and support should also be applied to all training aspects to further enhance the success the unit overall.
LCPL James Burtin
