Most people just shoot from the bench at a paper target, but the snipers in SniperWeek are shooting a little differently. This sounds a lot like the Top Sniper program that aired on the History Channel, but this one has training involved. I wonder how many people actually train like this.

PINELLAS PARK - To Cassio Cardosi, a police officer from Sao Paulo, Brazil, the most difficult sniper position was the one that required he roll onto his side before shooting his target 50 yards away.

He couldn't use the small stand that holds his rifle in place. And his rifle scope was thrown out of whack with the off-kilter stance.

Cardosi, 46, hit his target only three out of 15 times.

"It was very difficult," he said.

Welcome to SniperWeek, four days of the latest in sniper instruction, with two days in the classroom and two days on the range, including a competition. Now in its 18th year, the event is being held at the Wyoming Antelope Club gun range.

Derrick Bartlett, director of Snipercraft, the Sebring company running the class with the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, said two-man sniper teams from roughly 40 law enforcement or military agencies across the country are taking part. Brazil is the only foreign country represented.

This year, there is a team from the U.S. Army and one from the National Guard. Bartlett said soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are increasingly finding themselves in intense urban confrontations where snipers are needed.

Each year, SniperWeek instructors put their charges through new scenarios, often based on real-life situations.

Take that stance Cardosi - and many others - had trouble with. It was developed after a sniper in Sarasota County had to squeeze himself under a car and take a shot while lying on his shoulder, Bartlett said.

Pinellas sheriff's Cpl. Bryan Bingham, a SWAT liaison, said instructors make the snipers roll from their right to left shoulders, switching trigger hands and holding the rifle barrel because the sniper's stand, the bipod, can't be used.

Then there is the so-called "cranium vault" exercise, where snipers have to hit, from 100 yards, a terrorist pictured hiding behind a female hostage. The "cranium vault" refers to that part of the terrorist's head that must be struck with a .308-caliber bullet.

The exercise grows increasingly difficult, as the sniper has to do 25 pushups between each shot and the part of the terrorist's head that is visible after each set of pushups becomes smaller.

As Bartlett was discussing SniperWeek, two snipers in camouflage ran up to him and asked him to make a ruling on a competition. One thought his bullet had gone through a hole in the terrorist's head that had been created by the other sniper's bullet, making it look as if it were one shot. Bartlett looked at the single hole, and agreed.

Contestants lose points if they miss their target, or if they hit a hostage.

Bartlett said the "cranium vault" exercise was designed after a suspect was holding a hostage in a California high school, and the sniper didn't have the luxury of setting up as normal. The pushups were included so snipers can make accurate shots when their hearts are pounding.

In another real-life situation, Bartlett said, a sniper team wasn't able to set up before they saw a man on a second-story balcony point a shotgun at a helicopter. With only seconds to spare, one sniper rested the barrel of his rifle on the shoulder of the other team member before taking a shot.

"These guys have to be ready all the time," Bartlett said.