If you intend to hit what you’re aiming at with a handgun you have to practice good solid fundamentals. While it’s great fun to run around the countryside with a former Navy S.E.A.L and learn all kinds of fancy high speed-low drag techniques there is no way to implement those techniques if they are not based on solid basics.
Like any building is only as solid as its foundation your shooting platform is only as solid as your stance. Throughout the years, the latest and greatest in shooting stances has come and gone. On every corner you can find an expert who will tell you their stance is the best and the only one to use if you want to be accurate. What is the best stance? The one that works you. This may change based on the circumstances you find yourself shooting in.
There are a multitude of different shooting stances and they all have their advantages and disadvantages. It doesn’t matter if you shoot weaver, isosceles or the Belgian wheelbarrow there are some things all good shooting stances share.
Body Neutral
There are a lot of things going on when you shoot. It doesn’t matter if you are shooting precision slow fire, competition or defending your life your body is sending your brain a lot of information. Your brain then has to analyze that information and decide what it means. The brain then sends messages out to the muscles. The fewer things the brain has to control the better. The more muscles your body has to use to keep your weapon on target the harder it is to do. The easiest way to remove a large number of these muscles is a body neutral position. In other words your body should naturally point to the target. The easiest way to show this is place a target of some kind on the wall. Point the toes on both feet toward the target. You will find that your body stays on point. Raise your hands into a shooting position. You don’t need to be holding a weapon just raise your hands. With your hands raised, close your eyes and slowly move one of your feet backwards. When you open your eyes you will see that your hands have moved off target. Now move your feet until your hands are back on the center of the target. Close your eyes and take a series of five or six deep breaths. After the last deep breath open your eyes. I think you will find that your hands have stayed on target.
Weight forward
Your shoulders should be in front of your hips. This brings your body weight forward. With your weight forward your body becomes a shock absorber. Having your weight forward does two things for you. One it reduces felt recoil. Anything that reduces felt recoil reduces flinch. Anything that reduces flinch increases accuracy. The other thing it does is it brings you back on target faster. Having your weight forward means the gun moves less under recoil. The shorter distance the gun moves the faster it returns to the target making follow up shots faster and more accurate. The heavier caliber you are shooting the more this applies. There is a simple home test for this as well. Put your hands together and extend them out away from your body. Move your shoulders in front of your hips. Have someone push against your hands. See how stable you are and how much your hands move. Then move your shoulders back until they are directly above your hips and repeat the experiment. Finally move your shoulders behind your hips and try it one more time.
Even weight distribution
You want your weight evenly distributed between both feet. This makes a more stable platform. It allows you to shift your aim by turning your upper body. It also allows you to move more easily in any direction. There is a simple experiment for this as well. Get into your shooting stance and make sure your weight is even between both feet. Have someone point of call out a direction. Move in that direction. Then shift your weight toward one foot and have them call a direction. How well can you move?
It doesn’t matter if you build your shooting platform out of straw, sticks or bricks start with a strong foundation and you will keep the big bad wolf away from your door.
Next time “follow through, what is it and why do I care”.