The Best of SOFREP: Get the Memory of a Navy SEAL Sniper

Every week we like to take a look back at past topics on SOFREP to see how things have changed since we published it, or ‘where are they now’, or just to re-introduce those topics to our new readers.

Today we’re revisiting Eric Davis’ post, Limitless Memory: Performance Secrets of Special Operations. In this post, Eric wrote about a memorization technique that he learned while on deployment in Kuwait. He writes, “A day later I had memorized all of our presidents, a deck of cards, in order, and the periodic table.”

Eric goes on the write: “Though I was getting pretty good at it, I really didn’t do or use my new memory for anything particularly useful. That is until I went to Sniper School.

There’s a game that snipers have played for a very long time called “KIM’s games.” These games are designed to develop a sniper’s ability to both remember and observe a variety of objects, the idea being that the better your ability to remember things, the better your ability to see more things. In a simplistic way it made sense, and it was effective.

Basically, they would lay out 10 objects, give you a couple of minutes to observe them, and then test your ability to recall them. Since we were graded, the name “Kim’s games” is a bit of a misnomer. They were more like ‘Kim’s tests,’ but with the memory trick I had learned in Kuwait, I was able to ace every one of them.”

Take a few minutes to read Eric’s post and learn how you, too, can get the memory of a Navy SEAL Sniper.