Proctor’s elbow suspension technique

Going to revisit this mainly from competition but obviously applies to shooting in general. So apologize if this has been re-hashed already. How many of you competition shooters use this technique that Frank Proctor advocates in terms of bending the elbows and removing tension from the shoulders, elbows, and triceps.

https://youtu.be/5V2boY2Lmbw

I use what I would consider more of the “traditional” way if there is such a thing, probably closer to the way Vogel advocates, and the way I first learned from more of the tactical shooting side.

Hope to give it a try and compare later this week at the range but was curious to hear from competitive shooters if this may be a better approach. Had a buddy who burned it up at a USPSA match this week and he attributed 100% to changing over to the Proctor method. Seems sight transitions where quicker and easier due to the way the head is positioned more upright and recoil was easy to manage by just letting it happened and getting back on target. Thoughts on this?

Good topic. My opinion is that it depends on personal preference (and whether you're shooting an Open gun with a comp), but some positions make it easier than others.

Personally, I don't like any grip or arm position that requires too much muscular effort. I grip the gun hard, and support it with locked wrists, and mostly extended arms (but definitely NOT locked), but it doesn't feel like I'm trying very hard. It's funny that my avatar picture appears to show the opposite, but that was taken as I was moving out of position.

Proctor looks like he's contracting his muscles pretty hard. Vogel obviously is very successful, but I've tried his grip and arm mechanics and it really doesn't work for me.

Repeatability of index in various positions, predictability of sight tracking, and being able to shoot without getting fatigued are more important than 0.15s splits. Interestingly, my current stance produces the fastest splits for me, the most vertical sight orbit, and the least flip.

Spending some serious time and ammo exploring this is a good idea. Here's a link from another thread that's related.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Clusterfrack

You need to use your muscles to return the gun to the target after the first shot. This should happen after the first shot is fired and before the second one. So, there's some critical timing that has to happen. That gets tricky when you try to shoot fast splits, like in the doubles drill. As you're learning to do this, sometimes the timing is wrong and you fire after you push the gun down, or you fire before the gun returns. This isn't a flinch. It's part of the learning process. As you develop your grip, stance, and relaxation, the amount of force needed gets smaller, and it starts to feel like "just letting the recoil happen".

Here's a quote from Hwansik: "Most pistols have a high bore axis. Mixing in physics, when we fire the gun, there will be an upward force created by the leverage related to the bore axis and the grip axis. If the operator doesn’t push the gun down, the gun will stop higher than the original spot after a shot."

There's some really good info about this on the PSTG, but it's behind a paywall.
https://www.practicalshootingtrainin...urement-drill/

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