Lateral movement while engaging targets

[Danny]

I'd like some tips about lateral moving while shooting. In the police world we train to never cross our legs/never have one leg behind the other while moving laterally. The result is usually a step-drag or gallop motion that seems horribly inefficient and slow. I tried just walking forward normally and turning my upper body towards the targets, but it doesn't seem to allow me to fully extend my arms.

What works for you?

[Kyle Reese]

I'd like some tips about lateral moving while shooting. In the police world we train to never cross our legs/never have one leg behind the other while moving laterally. The result is usually a step-drag or gallop motion that seems horribly inefficient and slow. I tried just walking forward normally and turning my upper body towards the targets, but it doesn't seem to allow me to fully extend my arms.

What works for you?

I use the turret technique (which you described) and depending on the circumstances, sometimes opt to shoot one handed, as I can get better extension while moving laterally.

[Danny]

I use the turret technique (which you described) and depending on the circumstances, sometimes opt to shoot one handed, as I can get better extension while moving laterally.

I hadn't even considered trying it one handed. I'll give it a shot tomorrow.

[DNW]

Also try opening up your stance by pointing the foot closer to the targets towards the targets, if that makes sense. This should help open your hips towards the target a little more.

[BehindBlueI's]

I'd like some tips about lateral moving while shooting. In the police world we train to never cross our legs/never have one leg behind the other while moving laterally. The result is usually a step-drag or gallop motion that seems horribly inefficient and slow. I tried just walking forward normally and turning my upper body towards the targets, but it doesn't seem to allow me to fully extend my arms.

What works for you?

In our police world we're taught to just walk if it's further than one large lateral step. It's one less thing to think about, it's what you want to do naturally, etc. You will likely not be able to extend your arm closest to the target fully, but we also understand that in a confined space we may not be able to and we must adapt to the circumstances that present themselves.

We also tend to have horrid flexibility. Sitting in a car/desk chair and the duty belt means most of us have really tight lower backs, hips, etc. As un-manly as it sounds, try yoga and you'll find it easier to "tank turret" turn. I personally am much to manly to do yoga, but if I weren't as manly I would say it helped me quite a bit.

[JHC]

Lateral is about as hard as it gets. Lots of folks smarter than me have questioned the real point of it.

When trained by Proctor (somebody here or on FB got me sensitive about saying "trained WITH Proctor") his emphasis was not so much about evading incoming rounds as it was a technique that could be used to accomplish the work to be done more efficiently i.e. get through a stage or clear a room and get to point B when your team expected you to.

I'm not sure I've seen too many that move and shoot as smoothly. I'd watch all the vids of his moving that you can find. He basically said walk pretty much as you normally do with only the lightest more knee flexion. Here is a short clip of him demo'ing this to my son and I when we trained . . . were trained by him.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/780361...posted-public/

[Redhat]

What would be the "real world" application vs a quick movement off-line?

Thanks

[Mr_White]

There are two methods of shooting on the move that I like to practice.

I think the way TLG teaches shooting on the move, which is to maintain best upper body shooting platform with shoulders square to target, bend knees, get low, body weight forward, and just move the feet without trying to conform to some stylized method of foot movement like the shuffle step or groucho walk, etc., is pure gold, particularly for confined and cluttered spaces, or when the top priority is the shooting, but I'd also like to move at the same time. This is the way I generally shoot on the move in USPSA, because of the relatively large number of targets that often have to be engaged within a pretty short span of movement.

Shooting on the run, pointing my feet perpendicular to the target direction is how I like to do it when there is space available and the top priority is the movement, but I'd also like to shoot at the same time.

Those two ways can also flow back and forth to each other very well.

Two quick videos of the second method:

[JHC]

I don't think I've ever seen anyone moving that fast while hitting low prob targets. That's pretty sick.

[Dagga Boy]

Ditto...