The representative design of combat shooting methodologies from an ecological dynamics perspective: A scoping review

Abstract

Combative military environments are ambiguous, uncertain, and dynamic, which certain tactical populations (military and law enforcement) must operate, whilst maintaining survivability by being mobile, situationally aware, and lethal. Training and performance evaluation, using the ecological dynamics framework, and constraints-led approach, can facilitate these operational requirements. This scoping review sought to investigate the representative design of combat shooting methodologies in the current body of literature. The search was conducted on SCOPUS, Military (ProQuest), Medline, and PubMed databases, providing 4450 articles for screening. Peer-reviewed articles (n = 105) were included for review, with populations including military, law enforcement, and cadets. The review concludes that methodological designs of combat shooting literature typically do not represent constraints of combat shooting contexts, rather implementing static designs, single-target engagements, pre-planned protocols, lack of friend-or-foe discrimination tasks, and limited use of temporal constraints. The validity of conclusions drawn in the combat shooting literature may be questioned for lacking action fidelity. Future studies could enhance skill transfer by including dynamic and multi-target engagements, unplanned protocols, friend-or-foe discrimination, and temporal constraints within training and assessment designs.