Measuring the effect of physiological tremor on accuracy in competitive pistol shooting

Even perfectly healthy people suffer from a slight, uncontrollable shaking of their extremities.

Even perfectly healthy people suffer from a slight, uncontrollable shaking of their extremities. Such shaking is known as physiological tremor and is a normal involuntary side effect of muscle contraction. Tremor makes difficult the execution of precise body movements, for example in the aiming of a pistol. This article describes one method of measuring tremor to determine its effect on an individual's shooting performance. Tremor was measured by attaching accelerometers to the barrel of the pistol. The investigation provided quantitative data on the effects of various types of stress on hand tremor in different competitors. Results show a clear relationship between tremor intensity and shooting performance.