Soft, then hard, then soft again...

[YVK]

Now that I hopefully got some attention with the title...

I've been working at relaxing my arms and the upper body during the weapons manipulations, specifically draw and reloads, lately. It is self-evident that one is able to move arms faster when relaxed, but shooting requires some amount of muscle tension, hands, pecs etc. to control and drive the gun. I wonder if anybody has any tricks, suggestions or exercises on how to stay relaxed throughout and only tense up when it is needed.

One of those things that I am sure is helpful is to build overall hand and upper body strength. Beyond that, I've been trying to concentrate on staying loose during dry-fire, but the dryfire is not super-helpful here since it is easy to stay relaxed when you know the gun isn't coming off (which is I think is a reason that par times with dryfire are substantially lower than with live fire where one tenses up).

Anybody has ever looked at this?

[BaiHu]

NOTE: I'm just an above novice shooter with inconsistent sub 7 second FAST drills, but I do know about muscle tension/relaxation through the study of martial arts for 25 years-so I hope this translates.

It is true that you do move MUCH faster when you are loose/relaxed, however, that is for striking power or blocking power. If you are engaged in grappling (I do standing grappling more, so you know where this is coming from), then you are using structural support so that you don't waste too much energy along with raw grip strength, bicep/delt strength for pulling and tricep/delt/pectoral strength for pulling for example.

That being said, when you are doing the first 3 parts of your draw stroke (grip, retention, married hands-NOT the press-out), I would consider that striking power. You have to stay loose in order to move your hands quickly to the gun, draw it out and get your support hand on the gun.

As soon as you get on the press-out, depending on your technique, you'd be doing a combination of dynamic tension b/w the hands using your pecs and some fine motor skill of the triceps, forearms, traps, etc to align the sights towards the end of your press-out.

So, when you approach your reloads, I would consider them striking speed again. It is very common for novice students to 'ride the brakes' when they are first learning these distinct differences of dynamic tension and relaxation. The difference b/w the race car and the daily driver is the ability of the race car to accelerate faster, brake faster and handle at peak performance during that bandwidth of 0-200mph. Same with the novice shooter and pro shooter-the pro shooter can multi-task at a faster rate and stop and 'gear change' faster than the novice. The skill set is still the same-fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals.

It is my opinion, that the exhale, the trigger press and the most amount of tension should be met at the moment you are at full extension and you have broken your shot. Again, I understand this from a martial perspective and not a gun perspective. I believe I know what to do, but I am not yet capable of doing it consistently. So WhyTF am I even answering this question? B/c a) I still believe that the mechanics are incredibly similar and b) I'm hoping that someone will agree or disagree with me so that I can continue to improve my practice along with my thought process.

Awesome question, btw, it is something that I've only thought about in my own head and have never engaged with someone on this until now, so I appreciate you starting this thread.

[senorlechero]

What he^ said. Your arms are relaxed during movement(watch Travis Tomasie do a speed reload) tension should build, like pulling a rubber band, as you extend the gun out and get a sight picture. Once you're at your full extension, you should have enough tension in your muscles to control the recoil.

Hope that makes sense. My draw times improved drastically once I learned to relaxe my upper body before performing the draw stroke.

[Mr_White]

Totally agree with what's been said.

I knew just what you were talking about when I saw the thread title.

My ability (whatever that is) to move fast and relaxed, increase tension to stop smoothly in minimal time and distance, to move smoothly between those extremes and everywhere in between is completely a product of various martial physical training earlier in life, especially Hung Gar Kung Fu as a teenager. That is generally considered a hard style, but it has soft elements too. One can move from soft to hard to soft to hard in very short time and distance intervals. Over the last couple of years, I've begun to learn to apply that character of movement to gunhandling - draws especially, and also reloads to a somewhat lesser degree.

[CCT125US]

@ OragamiAK ... I would be interested to here more about that "character of movement" either here or in a new thread. I know the difference between a good run and mediocre run by me, is the amount of tension/relaxation applied. Just never thought to pose the question. Everything from dueling tree, bowling pins, FAST, transitions, bill drills etc... seems to benefit from different levels of tension. It appears the application is the challenging part for more than just myself.

[YVK]

It is reasonably achievable to go from relaxed to appropriately tense ONCE in the beginning of a run for me. The in-out-in part is what gives me problems. Draw and reload sequence are a good example. My draw on 3x5 at 7 from AIWB/T-shirt is around 2 sec, +/- 0.25. My reload (the expected one, not surprise reload) is around 2.5, +/- 0.3, much more often on "+" than "-" side. The surprise reload, don't even go there (about to post in DOW thread). I feel like that somebody who can draw and hit under 2 sec, the reload should be faster. Whatever little time I dedicate to dry-fire, I almost always do some reloads and I can get them under 2 sec, accepting the limitations of dry-fire in measuring this. The only explanation I have is this: once I draw in a live fire, I clamp on that gun and don't relax enough even when I don't have to be tense.

This has got to be trainable. Conceptually, staying relaxed when you can and tensing up when you have to is something that's seen in many sports and disciplines. Often it is a separation line between amateurs and pros. Pros don't seem to be working as hard as amateurs do 'cause pros know when they need to work hard and when they don't have to. I am probably too old for a Kung Fu and martial arts, but I appreciate the suggestions. Keep them coming.

[Mr_White]

It is reasonably achievable to go from relaxed to appropriately tense ONCE in the beginning of a run for me. The in-out-in part is what gives me problems. Draw and reload sequence are a good example. My draw on 3x5 at 7 from AIWB/T-shirt is around 2 sec, +/- 0.25. My reload (the expected one, not surprise reload) is around 2.5, +/- 0.3, much more often on "+" than "-" side. The surprise reload, don't even go there (about to post in DOW thread). I feel like that somebody who can draw and hit under 2 sec, the reload should be faster. Whatever little time I dedicate to dry-fire, I almost always do some reloads and I can get them under 2 sec, accepting the limitations of dry-fire in measuring this. The only explanation I have is this: once I draw in a live fire, I clamp on that gun and don't relax enough even when I don't have to be tense.

This has got to be trainable. Conceptually, staying relaxed when you can and tensing up when you have to is something that's seen in many sports and disciplines. Often it is a separation line between amateurs and pros. Pros don't seem to be working as hard as amateurs do 'cause pros know when they need to work hard and when they don't have to. I am probably too old for a Kung Fu and martial arts, but I appreciate the suggestions. Keep them coming.

@ OragamiAK ... I would be interested to here more about that "character of movement" either here or in a new thread. I know the difference between a good run and mediocre run by me, is the amount of tension/relaxation applied. Just never thought to pose the question. Everything from dueling tree, bowling pins, FAST, transitions, bill drills etc... seems to benefit from different levels of tension. It appears the application is the challenging part for more than just myself.

Well, I guess I'd say that although I think I know just what you are talking about, YVK, I'm not at all certain that I can explain it any better than I already have. For me, this has simply been an emergent quality of movement from lots of practice. No one in Kung Fu class back in the day told me to do it, and I was no pro. No one told me to do it with the pistol either. It just happened as I learned and practiced more and drove to be faster and smoother. BaiHu had a bunch of good points and observations in his post, and as a martial arts instructor (which I am not, except the pistol) he is probably better able to articulate that stuff than I.

I am really mostly thinking about gunhandling, as expressed in YVK's first post. Draws and reloads are where I experience this most. But he's also right that it applies to the shooting. No doubt I feel tension when firing rapidly, recovering from recoil forces, seeing the sights, driving the gun and working the trigger. That is a physically tense activity for me at least to a degree. I bet some people who know a lot might tell me that's wrong, but I think there are plenty of high-level people who experience this too. I've caught myself on video with a funny, screwed-up expression on my face when driving the gun in rapid fire, and I've seen the same thing on at least one pro shooter. This area - fine improvement to a high level of technical skill - is where I am much more a student than instructor.

Maybe the best way to demonstrate what I think I mean is to make a video. I was planning on getting out the video camera Sunday morning anyway. I'll try to do a brief illustration of the character of movement I am talking about and get it posted Monday or Tuesday. Hopefully it will help. Hopefully we are actually talking about the same thing!

[YVK]

Origami, you did provide a good answer and advice.

My thoughts on getting this ingrained so far has been:

- Physical strength and conditioning. If one needs 70 lbs of grip pressure (arbitrary number) and he can squeeze 100 lbs max, that 70% max effort he needs to provide. If he can squeeze 140 lbs, then he is at half max tension. This should be beneficial on multiple levels, and it should be easier to relax down from 50% max effort than 70% of whathaveyou.

- Mental relaxation. This is similar to trigger freeze, when you try so hard you freeze it. Race the hands, not the mind, if at all possible.

- The dryfire is a freaking false assurance here. As I said, we never tense up during dryfire 'cause we just had made triple-sure the gun is not going to come off. I've been trying to consciously create that tension during dry-fire to simulate live.

- As with anything else, start with slower par times and simple one-step tasks and concentrate on getting it right, then push harder and combine multiple tasks.

[Mr_White]

I've been trying to consciously create that tension during dry-fire to simulate live.

I've been doing this and I think it helps.

[RyanTheLion]

Do you have any suggestions for shooters that don't have a martial arts background?