Best training / Drills during injury recovery?

I am going to have shoulder surgery on my left (support hand side) rotator cuff / collarbone and will be confined to shooting one handed for a while.

What would be a recommended drill / practice technique to use during that period so that I don't have to re-build completely once I'm fully recovered? I thought about trying to complete dot torture one handed?? (But that's a challenge two handed!)

Any thoughts or recommendations? If anyone else has been through something similar, what did you do?

FYI - I'm shooting a SW 9mm M&P (stock) and my skill level is relatively green. I've only been seriously shooting pistol for about 5 months.

Thanks for any help you can give.
-Kurt

Not a pro shooter, but to me it sounds like a good time to work on as you said strong side shooting, ie dot torture, in addition to SHO draws, malfunction drills etc.
Hopefully more knowledgable folks will be along soon with more ideas and insight.

Depending on the severity of the surgery I might just do dry fire drills during the recovery process and lessen the chance of injury during recovery. If it's something routine and you'll be on the mend quickly then I'd concentrate on fundamentals such as sight picture and alignment and trigger control, if you can spend some dedicated time on those you will be that much farther along once you are fully healed and can do more.

I might also pick up a .22 if you are going to get some recovery time away from work and just plink away cheaply, the fundamentals are exactly the same no matter what caliber you are shooting. The controls and trigger will be different but that's fine.

Oh there will definitely be time away from work. I need to have a bone graft (yuck) to fix my collarbone, and there is some muscle damage that needs to be repaired. Because of that, my support hand was not supporting anymore. It was just hanging on because I have no muscle strength in my left shoulder. Developed a bad habit of aiming to the right to compensate for the pull from the left hand. I would consistently shoot about 1/2 - 1" left of center depending on distance.

You know now that you suggest it, working on the basics might be the correct thing to do. I can at least get rid of my shifted aimpoint and back to normal one handed so I don't keep that habit after recovery.

Part time - You mention a 22lr. Anything in particular I would need to be aware of that would not cross over to full size shooting? I've already developed one bad habit because of the injury, I don't want to get another by shooting a 22lr. If there were things to watch out for, it would be helpful to know.

Thanks guys!
Kurt

I would not concern myself with shooting any live rounds until you are at least 8-10 weeks post op. If you want to see if shooting can un-do what your surgeon did, then have it. Going to the range and shooting live rounds with the belief that you are somehow going to improve is lying to yourself, and will only delay in recovering from your injury.

Once you feel up to it, quadruple check your pistol, and spend those hours on the couch working the basic fundamentals of having a proper grip, sight alignment/sight picture, and dry fire trigger press. You can do an awful lot of good pressing the trigger in the proper manner dry fire for several weeks, for hours each day out of sheer boredom and limited entertainment options.

Once you begin rehab, overcome the urge to go out and start shooting live rounds. Rehab is designed to get your shoulder and arm back to functioning the way it is suppsoed to. If live fire firearms practice/training were going to be beneficial to that process, there is a good chance your rehab person would include it in the rehab regimen. Having had two shoulder rebuilds with aftermarket parts installed, I can tell you that particular exercise is not, in fact, on the list of rehabilition exercises. You can feel free to ask how I know this, or why that shoulder got the second rebuild if you must.

About the time the rehab person and doctor start telling you to add daily routine activities to that arm, and to increase weight and load bearing, you can start to think about getting out for some one handed shooting with the .22LR, or even your standard pistol. But again, overcome the urge to shoot with both hands. Take that opportunity to put into live fire practice all of those dry trigger presses, proper grip, SA/SP, etc. Focus on the fundamentals, proper point of aim, trigger press, front sight tracking.

When you are able to lift 20-25 lbs straight out in front of you with your repaired joint, then look at applying the second hand to your practice routine. Push further or faster when you are not ready, and you will not only delay your recovery, and risk re-injury, but you are likely develop and reinforce some very bad habits in the process while you compensate for your physical limitations.

Sean,

I was hoping someone who has been through a similar situation would reply with a "been there" point of view. Thanks for the reality check, and the advice. I really don't want to have another operation to correct something I caused.

If you don't mind me asking, how long was it before your shoulder felt normal? Not in shooting, but in everyday tasks?

I don't remember exactly. It was probably close to 3 months before I felt confident enough to try to lift anything over about 10lbs. But I used that excuse to perform high repetition exercises with ultra light weight (about 12-16oz was good)with my repaired arm.

Following your rehab and doc's advice and sticking to the rehab program will get you where you need to be. It will be different for everyone, since no two injuries or people are the same.

It was a good 6 months before I was really able to get out and shoot, and another 3 months before I could push into regaining the same strength and conditioning, though I was "normal daily activities" by about month 4.

But it has been almost 8 years, and it still bothers me from time to time, performing certain tasks or motions.

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Originally Posted by Creeper9

Part time - You mention a 22lr. Anything in particular I would need to be aware of that would not cross over to full size shooting? I've already developed one bad habit because of the injury, I don't want to get another by shooting a 22lr. If there were things to watch out for, it would be helpful to know.

Thanks guys!
Kurt

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I'd be super careful with rehabing that shoulder after a bone graft, that's gonna be a bit sore for a while to say the least. With that level of surgery I'd stay couch bound until your physical therapist gives you the ok to move it much. But after they do I'd get back to working on the fundamentals. For dry fire I'd figure out how to reset the slide one handed or not mess with an auto, as resetting the slide after dry firing an M&P is a two handed task, normally. You can reset it between your knees when lounging on the couch.

If you just have to get to the range from terminal cabin fever I'd think about a 22 revolver so you don't have to work the slide or load magazines, a revolver would be much easier to run with a bad wing. I'd slow fire bullseyes one handed with the 22 until you are getting solid center hits with each round. Use a dot torture target, you can get them on the pistol-training.com site as a pdf and just print them on your home printer. When you can put a full cylinder in a single dot move it back a few feet and keep going.

Your pulling shots down and left sounds more like a trigger control issue more than the shoulder pulling the shots. Right handed? The dry fire and the slow fire practice will fix that and give you a nice consistent trigger press that will translate back to your M&P when you are able to go back to shooting it.

That actually sounds like pretty good PT to me, it beats picking up marbles and doing 500 reps with the giant rubber bands you'll come to hate.

Good luck with the surgery and have a speedy uneventful recovery.