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Thread: My weak hand shooting sucks

  1. #21
    The four adaptations that I offer shooters for one-handed shooting are:

    1. Match the shooting hand with a same-side leading foot (e.g. left-hand-only shooting has the left foot leading).

    This is a stance modification during static shooting practice; it provides for the shooting itself to borrow from boxing or epee work, if we were to liken the pistol held at a compressed high-ready to a ready lead-hand fist or an epee en garde. Significantly, it reduces the abdominal torsion that contributes to an exaggerated and diagonal\across-body recoil characteristic, as seen when one shoots with a mismatch of shooting hand and leading foot.

    If transitioning from movement to static\near-static shooting, then the matched lead-foot reaches and sets in advance of the shooter extending outwards for firing, ensuring a minimum amount of forward travel has been satisfied. This may be contextualized as working near\around teammates, deconflicted no-shoots, and\or confining microterrain; such that the shooter has the opportunity to meaningfully demonstrate safe-practices for supporting fires (e.g. "don't shoot from behind teammates," "if you want to join the party, get on-line.").

    2. Drive the shooting-side shoulder behind the gun, as if a lead-hand punch frozen at full-extension. (This is the range of motion involving the serratus muscle.)

    Driving the shoulder forward provides for more linear alignment of the weapon, wrist, elbow, and shoulder; and reduces the lateral offset between shoulder and spine. The greater the lateral offset between shoulder and spine, the greater the turning of the shoulders under recoil; the lesser the offset, the more the recoil is received as a linear and vertical impulse, sans lateral\diagonal component. That allows for the sights to be better tracked through a narrow vertical arc of movement overall, and for the weapon to be more readily returned to the eyeline through pre-loaded isometric tension and as supported by bone support.

    3. Flag the shooting-hand's thumb upwards and attempt to press the second joint or second segment through the frame and touch the trigger-finger's base-knuckle.

    The support-hand thumb pressing actively into the side of the frame provides for majority opposition to the trigger-finger's pressing during two-handed firing; reducing or eliminating that trigger-finger's ability to deviate the muzzle-line prior to firing. With one-handed firing, the thumb being upcocked and pressed into the frame provides for an equivalent function, albeit with less mechanical leverage (pressure applied behind the trigger rather than afore the trigger) and with fewer muscle groups involved.

    4. When shooting with an asymmetry of shooting hand and dominant eye, turn the chin towards the shooting-side sufficient to move the dominant eye behind the sights of the pistol at full extension and in accordance with the preceding three adaptations.

    I expand upon the aphorism of "bring the sights to your eyes, not your eyes to your sights" into "bring the sights VERTICALLY to the plane of your eyes, and your eyes HORIZONTALLY to the eye-line." Drifting the weapon laterally to enter the eye-line can only be accomplished by moving the wrist and elbow off of the line drawn between shoulder and target, exacerbating the expression of recoil after firing. More so, it requires a bend in the wrist, reducing expressed grip strength and reducing the finer capability of the trigger finger to operate in a deliberate manner as the operative tendons are now working through the complication of a bent wrist rather than unimpeded as with a neutral wrist.

    Errata:

    Keep the gun upright and vertically aligned.

    Eliminating articulation of the wrist and elbow are difficult sans a second hand on the gun; but reducing them remains desirable.

    Both shoulders still must be forward of vertical alignment with the hips.

    Recoil is ultimately grounded out through the trailing\far-side foot.
    Jules
    Runcible Works

  2. #22
    One of the local pistol matches I shoot has a weak hand only stage every month. After a couple of years, all of us have improved our weak hand shooting.

  3. #23
    Site Supporter JohnO's Avatar
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    You will always do better if you concentrate on sight alignment no matter how many hands are on the gun.

    Weak, Support or Other Strong Hand shooting is no different. Shooting support hand only tends to magnify inherent problems. Shooters will target fixate trying to superimpose sights that are not as stable as they are typically used to seeing. In other words they can't hold the gun as still as with two hands and this messes with the cognitive process. This will tend to induce the "shoot now" syndrome at the expense of perfect sight alignment.

    It all goes back to the basics. Only in this case you need to accept a larger amount of Wobble. The average person will not hold the gun as still with one hand and less so with a non-dominate hand. Accept the fact that the gun is not as still as you are used to seeing. Focus on keeping the sights properly aligned during the trigger press.
    Last edited by JohnO; 11-07-2019 at 10:42 AM.

  4. #24
    Quote Originally Posted by JohnO View Post
    You will always do better if you concentrate on sight alignment no matter how many hands are on the gun.

    Weak, Support or Other Strong Hand shooting is no different. Shooting support hand only tends to magnify inherent problems. Shooters will target fixate trying to superimpose sights that are not as stable as they are typically used to seeing. In other words they can't hold the gun as still as with two hands and this messes with the cognitive process. This will tend to induce the "shoot now" syndrome at the expense of perfect sight alignment.

    It all goes back to the basics. Only in this case you need to accept a larger amount of Wobble. The average person will not hold the gun as still with one hand and less so with a non-dominate hand. Accept the fact that the gun is not as still as you are used to seeing. Focus on keeping the sights properly aligned during the trigger press.
    Proper sight management is the determinant that contributes the most to a shot striking desirably. Trigger manipulation is the last opportunity to disturb or not disturb the sights prior to firing, predicated on the breathing cycle being synced to the shooting process. An optimized shooter's grip enables desirable trigger manipulation. A conducive shooting stance allows for these preceding virtues to be expressed cyclically and with reduced time and as a less diagnostic\reactive process.

    Shooters can build their stance first, whether they have gun in-hand or in-holster; establish hard eye-contact with the target and take a deep breath in;

    ...grip-strength to maximum with that up-flagged thumb, press outwards and upwards from the compressed high-ready;

    ...shift focus from the target to the sights as the pistol intrudes into the visual plane (, driving the shoulder forward and behind the pistol and chin-wagging as necessary);

    ...at full extension, with an ideal sight-picture and empty lungs: press the trigger from front to rear in a singular motion;

    ...quick breath in under recoil while resetting the trigger in your preferred manner;

    ...quick breath out while rebuilding a sight picture;

    ...with an ideal sight-picture and empty lungs: press the trigger from front to rear in a singular motion;

    ...(repeat the preceding 3 lines until the Rx is arrived at.)

    However we count or define the fundamentals of marksmanship, it's a lot to do all at once. A mono-tasking sequence progressing from rest and through the establishment of each aspect makes the overall task-load manageable and intuitive; and desirably fills the head space of the student eventually to the exclusion of self-consciousness and emotional preoccupation with the outcomes.
    Jules
    Runcible Works

  5. #25
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    If I had a year or so and a bunch of ammo I would work mirror image on alternating quarters, both dry and live fire. The first month of the quarter standard strong hand to maintain skill levels. Doing TLG's dry fire routine will also keep the support hand exercised.

    Then for the next two months of the quarter convince yourself that your support hand is your strong hand. Buy a cheap Blade-tech holster for your wrong hand, or go full monte and get an identical to carry setup. When your drills, dry or otherwise, call for strong hand, use your off hand. When the drills call for weak hand use your strong hand to keep it in the game. Reloads, malfunction clearences, braced positions, even your drawstroke and reholster are all done wrong handed.

    My reason for this is that you start your off side out with as much support as possible, i.e. firm two handed grip to teach the off side to control the trigger. Then you take the training wheels away.

    My practical experience with this concept is shooting the state instructor shotgun pre qualification strong hand, the getting an injury and having to shoot the actual shotgun instructor's course wrong handed. Then I had to do remedial training with an officer who was a southpaw. I showed up to the session with a cheap paddle holster (Blade-Tech injection molded) on my left hip and was able to demo all drills left handed to a reasonable standard, and it helped the officer quite a bit.

    If you had damaged your right hand that took you out of ops for more than a couple of months, or permanently, you would likely go through this process on your own....

    Just a thought, and worth the $0.00 that you paid for...

    ETA: locked arm, cant the gun or not based on what works for you, and if you are treating your support side as your strong side, adjusting your stance is necessary.

    pat
    Last edited by UNM1136; 11-07-2019 at 01:02 PM.

  6. #26
    Chasing the Horizon RJ's Avatar
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    Jan 2014
    Quote Originally Posted by RJ View Post
    Came here specifically for one handed shooting advice. My USPSA qualifiers have recently involved strong and weak hand strings, and I lost points due to poor performance,

    I’ll try a pair of 5” circles at 7 yds as a benchmark next Range trip. May have some follow up questions.

    Good thread; thanks @Greg.
    So my current "best" of 2 5" circles, at 7 yards, Left hand only, and Right hand only, is 4/10 Left, and 8/10 right. Which is kinda weird because I appear to shoot better with my right hand? Not sure what that means.

    Attachment 44541

    Will keep practising in dry practice sessions. At least now I have a goal and will include this metric in my shooting sessions. Thanks all.

  7. #27
    RJ

    IMHO your better shooting with other strong hand may be due to more focus. Fundamentals are essential however shooting is such a mental game, so to speak

  8. #28
    Banned
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    I shoot about the same as the OP with definite pull to the right with my weak (left) hand.

    My dominate eye is my right eye, but I use my left eye when I shoot with my left hand. I have tried shooting with my right eye and my left hand and that just doesn't feel right, and I don't shoot any better with still pretty much the same result of most of my shots pulled to the right. I shoot with two hands, left handed and shoot just fine with my left eye.

    What eye do others use with different one hand shooting ?

  9. #29
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    I went to a training course here a couple months ago, and one instructor (there were several) had everyone use an Isosceles stance vs Weaver, which is what I utilized since I started shooting pistols. There was some solid evidence, at least as far as I am concerned, to the strength of standing square to the target vs slightly offset. Then one block was set on shooting with the non dominant hand, and it was incredibly educational, but the biggest thing I took away was using my dominant right eye to shoot with my left hand.

  10. #30
    I think 80-90 percent of missing with one hand shooting is due to trigger.
    Likes pretty much everything in every caliber.

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