I'm a relatively new shooter. Fired my first instructed shots last August, rented guns weekly, and then bought my first firearm (Glock 19) last November.
Pre-ignition push is a bit of a constant battle for me with the classic low and left flinch just before the bang. I've been doing the dummy round thing just about every shooting session (once per week live fire with at least every other string having a couple dummy rounds) and have been getting some gradual improvements.
Recently I've been experimenting a bit more with stance and have noticed a big effect it has on my pre-ignition push issues. Nose over toes, pressing out with "aggression" and driving forward back on target to handle the recoil has been most of my novice focus in the past in this area. Lately though (past couple of weeks), I've been trying more of a neutral stance though and notice my live fire shots grouping tighter and noticeably less pre-ignition push (although still present with the slight but obvious flinch when the surprise dummy round hits).
By "more neutral stance" I mean more of the classic old school martial artist "horse stance" just not as deep and with one foot ever so slightly forward. I grew up with many years of the classic McDojo squared stance, squared shoulders short punches straight out to center of mass TaeKwondo drills of the 80's. I realized recently I'd been using a very similar style of gun handling to this lately. I'm wondering though if the more neutral stance is a beginner's crutch to cover the deeper issues of my shot anticipation here.
As nose over toes and weight shifts forward it makes sense that it exaggerates the effect of the pre-ignition push.
So I'm wondering, is my more neutral stance a cover up for my deeper errors and only showing temporary improvement on the target or is a more neutral stance perfectly acceptable and maybe nose over toes in my novice mind was leaning out too far. I've definitely noticed that nose over toes tends to leave me rolling my shoulders forward and turtling a bit while a more neutral stance tends to leave me 'head up, proud shoulders'.
In case it's relevant, I dry fire 1-2 hours daily, and live fire weekly ~100 rounds (ammo budget is limited). The pandemic has put in person coaching and signing up for matches on hiatus for now so I'm hoping some of the pistol-forums experts might take pity and shed some light.
Thanks for reading my new shooter's amateur hour take on things, any help will be much appreciated and practiced daily.
*edited for spelling and grammar errors.