I had an ER nurse in a class. I noticed she kept taking all head shots. Her response when asked why, "'I've seen too many people who have been shot in the chest putting up a fight in the ER." Point taken.
Any changes to guard/low ready?
@jbg270Originally Posted by jbg270
Good question. Yes.
Not everyone needs to modify their low ready but I do in order to more consistently acquire the dot. We work it in my classes.
If you can visualize this (or work it dry), ... go to a traditional guard/low ready. Keep the pistol in the same angle/orientation, break (or bend) the elbows, and then retract your arms back to where your triceps just hit your torso. It is not a tremendous amount of distance, just inches, rather than bringing the pistol in against your upper torso. To bring the pistol into action, raise the pistol up by rotating at the shoulders, visually pick up the dot/optic, extend/push out onto the threat/target.
This came about from a sidebar conversation with a retired senior NCO from an SMU about pistol-only work & clearing they did.
Caveat - Low ready is my default position because of what it allows me to see, where it is in realize to where we generally find BadGuys; however, it is not the be-all, end-all position. The above integrates well, I think, with Spaulding's arc of ready. In the first video, I did with Lee I talked about ready positions, in/correct decisions, and shot times - things like that re-affirm where I go with ready positions.
If it will help, I can (and should) get some photos tomorrow.
Please let me know if I conveyed this well enough.
Erick
I think I’m following but two dumb questions to confirm…
1. Once I “raise the pistol up by rotating at the shoulders” I essentially have the same few inches to extend that I retracted at the low ready. Correct?
2. If I maintain wrist and elbow angles and rotate at the shoulder, the gun comes up with an elevated muzzle which means I don’t see the dot, just the optic body. Is that your experience as well?
Thanks for your time on this.
1) Yes. It is "just enough" for me to pick up the dot and then begin extending it;
2) Not for me. The dot is a "hair" high in the glass but it's still in the glass - for me.
Really interesting discussion. Thanks gentlemen.
A very good discussion, and worth a careful listen.
Of particular interest: Erick’s mention of being able to carry dot technique back over to irons is something I have been working on for the past few months- as I can no longer get a sharp, hard front sight focus except in daylight, I’ve been supplementing my dot work with quite a bit of iron shooting using target focus.
My dot work, and confidence with irons/target focus, has seen continuous improvement since last October, when I got essentially a week-long custom dot lesson from Erick during a Gunsite 499 class. (Having my back pretty much healed up has also helped- I was practically one-legged that week).
Reply With Quote