Training and Shooting

Developing a Pistol Stance

Stance defines how you should stand to provide a stable and consistent support for shooting. You must be able to duplicate this naturally, or you'll have difficulty producing good groups (getting your shots to land together in one area.) Furthermore, your stance must be comfortable. Some matches can last up to almost 2 hours - you must be able to hold that stance during it.

Follow these instructions to develop a basic stance:

Stand comfortably and naturally with your feet about shoulder width apart.
Weight distribution should be equal on each foot (50/50) and slightly forward (about 55% on the ball of the foot, and 45% on the heels.) Furthermore, the feet should be turned slightly outward for sway control.
Knees should not be locked backward, nor should the thighs or calves be flexed. Relax the legs such that you feel a little bit of muscular tension.
Back and neck should be aligned straight. The shoulders should be relaxed. Keep your head up and stand tall.
Your non-shooting hand must be anchored; otherwise, it will swing (moving while shooting is 'bad') and throw off your stance. Place it either in your pant's front pocket or tuck it into your pants or belt. Don't stick it in the back pocket or in the back of your pants as I believe that this induces a twist in your spine, throwing off its natural alignment.
The elbow and wrist of your shooting arm should be locked during the lift and until you have completed your follow-through after the shot is released. A relaxed wrist will move about 5 degrees to the right or left during a shot; whereas, a locked wrist reduces the movement to only 2 degrees.
Keep both of your eyes open, looking as straight ahead as possible. Aim with your dominant eye which is usually the same eye as your shooting hand (not always so.) You may wish to put a translucent blinder in front of your non-aiming eye to help you focus on your front sight. Remember to allow equal light into your non-aiming eye. Clear tape on your lens takes care of this. In a pinch, place a piece of paper in between your lens and your non-shooting eye.

Adopting a Natural Pistol Position

Once you're in your stance, you need to know how to adopt your position. That is to say, you need to learn how to put yourself in front of a target and naturally point at it. Once again, consistency and comfort is the rule, so you can do this again and again over the course of many long shooting sessions.

Follow these instructions to adopt your position:

You should be turned about 45 to 90 degrees to the target.
Close your eyes, raise your shooting hand and point with your index finger. Don't think about trying to point at the target: just focus on finding the position that feels comfortable. This is the natural point of aim and you need to find it sub-consciously (hence: don't think about the target.)
With your eyes closed, comfortably turn your head toward your shooting hand and open your eyes. Ideally, your eyes and hand would align with the centre of the target.
If you are pointing elsewhere, move your rear foot in the direction of the error. (For instance, if I was pointing to the left of the target, then I would move my rear foot to the left, which in turn rotates my point of aim to the right.)
Once on target, repeat the process to ensure that your natural point of aim is truly on target, and adjust as necessary.
Finally, place your pistol in your hand and test that after the raise that the sights are on target. Adjust as needed. Remember not to lower your head during the raise: find your sights by lowering your eyes.

Gripping the Pistol

If you over-grip or under-grip the pistol, your shots won't land consistently on target. Here's a brief overview on how to grip the pistol:

Pick up the pistol with your non-shooting hand and place it firmly in your shooting hand.
The pistol is seated deep into the web of the hand (that fleshy area between the base of the thumb and the base of the index finger.) You're trying to make the pistol barrel a natural straight-line extension of your arm.
The thumb is loose and relaxed along the thumbrest.
The primary gripping pressure is produced by middle finger.
Secondary pressure is provided by third finger (the one beside the little finger.) Also this finger can produce tiny changes in front sight elevation by increasing/decreasing its pressure.
The little finger (or pinkie) is loose and not exerting any noticeable pressure. Essentially, it is just along for the ride.
The fingertips do not exert pressure on the pistol grip. Imagine that your fingers are tri-sectional: they are essentially 3 bones with two joints connecting them, attaching them to the hand with a third joint. Your fingers should be in contact with the pistol, gripping it with the second or middle section of the fingers. This ensures that you are pulling the grip straight back into the web of your hand, not pushing or pulling the pistol to the right or left.
The trigger finger must not be in contact with the grip at all.
Lastly, the finger must be able to flex at the middle knuckle without moving the pistol OR varying the pressure of any other fingers. This is important and demands lots of practise. You must be able to pull the trigger without moving the other fingers. Unfortunately, the hand is made to work this way: you must train to overcome it.

Comments on Grip Pressure:

Make sure the grip is firm but not to the point where your hand starts to shake (that is bad.) A firm grip and locked wrist tend to have about 2 degrees of movement right and left from the point of aim; whereas, a loose wrist has about 5 degrees of play. Obviously, a firm grip and wrist is better.
If your fingertips or nails whiten, you are gripping too tight. Back it off until colour returns to them.
Similarly, you can look at your hand after gripping the pistol: areas on the hand where the skin is flushed may indicate that you’re gripping too tight.
When you find a good grip (pressure), consistently maintain it.
Lastly, spend some time just working on your grip, learning how to easily and consistently seat the pistol in your hand and grip it. Learn how it "feels", so you can duplicate it that much easier.

An inconsistent grip is really bad for shooters. If you lack some strength, then overgripping will cause your hand to tire and your pressure may become inconsistent. It may also lead to tremours in your hold. When your grip is too loose, you won't be able to hold it on target. With practise, you can master this fundamental and essential skill.

Sighting (Pistol)

Sighting is terribly important in shooting and you need to devote alot of energy into coordinating your sights and the target. If you can't consistently aim your firearm at the target, you'll never be satisfied with your results. Here's a brief overview of sighting considerations.

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Targets and how they should look
/ What's wrong with this target? Easy: its crisp and the bull is defined and black. To see the target this way, you must be looking at it, which you should NEVER do when you're actually shooting. When you're aligning your body on the target, looking over your pistol hand, you can look at the target. Make sure that you are pointing directly at your aiming point. Once you're on target, and you've tested that your pistol is settling in wherever you aim, then stop looking at the target!
/ This is much better. The centre is grayed out and its not as sharp, preferably being nothing more than a gray blob down range. Why should it look this way? The answer is that you're not supposed to be looking directly at the target. Your primary attention should be focussed on the front sight and its relative position to the target. If you believe that you can see both the target and the front sight in sharp focus simultaneously, then you're mistaken. The eye cannot physically perform the act of focussing on 2 objects, one being close to you (the sight) and one far away (a target 10-50 metres downrange.) When it appears that both are in focus, your eye is actually focussing on one object, breaking back to the other object and re-focussing very quickly, and then back again. In other words, half the time you are not looking at your front sight and your shots will be all over the place. Focus on one thing: your front sight.
/ Let's look at sight alignment. This image is not the conventional view presented in manuals. Of course, the front blade is crisp and black. This is our primary point of focus. But, looking at your front sight doesn't guarantee a great shot. You also have to make sure that it is properly aligned in the rear sight; hence, the upper corners of the rear sight notch are black and sharp as well. (Unlike the target and the sights, your eyes are able to keep these two objects almost equally focussed because they are very close to each other.) Make sure that the top of the front sight is even with the top of the rear sight. Also, make sure that there are equal bars of light on either side of the front sight. If the light is too thin to accurately gauge its thickness, you may want to consider making your rear side notch wider, or decreasing the width of your front sight, if your pistol has these options available. BTW: the reason that the whole rear sight isn't black, is that you are looking through the rear notch to the front sight and you pay attention only to the upper corners of the notch. From these reference points, you determine that the tops are flush and that the blade is centered.

Now we finally get to put our sights in front of a target, so we can discuss sight pictures. A sight picture encompasses the sight alignment from above and establishes a relationship with the target. Essentially, when you point at the target, what you see is your sight picture.

There are three generally recognized points of aim on a pistol target: center-of-mass, 6 o'clock and sub-6. I haven't seen anything out there that definitively proves that one style is better than another, so try them out and see what works best for you. Make sure during your trial phase that you mark the results down in your shooting diary, so you can review and choose wisely.

Sight and Sight Pictures
/ Center hold, or center-of-mass, places the top of the front blade in the center of the target. If you shoot different courses of fire on different size targets, and possibly at different range distances, then this style may be best for you. Visually, you'll always be shooting at roughly the same "image". Some people feel that they lose some clarity on the front sight because they are looking at a black front sight in a dark background.
/ A 6 o'clock hold places the top of the front sight at the bottom of the black bullseye of the target. The belief here is that this gives the shooter a very tight point of reference which they can lock on to visually and shoot at. Some argue against this saying that the top of the sight blends into the target and causes them to shoot high. Other shooters say they jerk the trigger when the front sight finally crosses the bottom of the bull, causing shots to drop low. (This is a trigger fault and not a fault of the sight picture.)
/ A sub-6 hold places a bit of white space between the bottom of the bull and the top of the front sight. This allows the shooter to see the sight absolutely crisp and clear in higher contrast then in the center of the target. One concern that was raised is about developing a consist aiming point on the target: how do you consistently shoot on a blank area, off-center on a piece of paper? One solution is to aim such that the bars of light on either side of your front sight are the same distance (visually) as the distance between the top of the sight and the bottom of the bull. As kids (or as parents), we probably saw the children's puppet show that had the game and song "One of these things are not like the other." This highlights that people are trained to notice differences and similarities. The goal of sub-6 sighting is to make all light bars (sides and top) look the same for consistency.

General Considerations

Everyone has their preferences and nobody has the definitive choice in what the best sight picture is. Try them all out over several weeks and see what feels right for you. Measure your results and mark it all down in your shooting diary. Finally, when it comes down to making a decision, refer to your diary and make a choice.
Try to shoot with both eyes open - place a blinder over your non-dominant eye.
Lighting conditions vary from range to range and even between bays at the same range. This should be taken into consideration when choosing your sight picture and how you respond to variations at a match.
Always allow your sights to float in your area of aim, regardless of what sight picture you choose. If you don't float, you may not have the smooth, fluid trigger control that you desire.

Minimum Arc of Movement

I have some good news and I have some bad news. Good news first: you're alive and well, getting involved in the great sport of pistol shooting. Now the bad news: since you're living, you will never be able to stand absolutely still. More to the point: you cannot stand still and hold your pistol motionless. Why? Well to name just a few reasons, your heart is pumping, you're breathing (or wanting to breath), and your body is responding to a myriad of nerves firing throughout your body. Suffice it to say, there are alot of important things happening inside of you and you can't switch them off. As a result, when you look at your sights, you'll see them moving in front of your target. This is known as the arc of movement. Your goal is to minimise this movement and adapt your shooting to it. Here are some things to remember about minimum arc of movement:

You cannot force yourself to be motionless. Odds are that you will have the opposite effect. Accept the movement and shoot through it.
Minimum movement is usually achieved shortly after raising the pistol and lasts less than 6 seconds. As such, you should train yourself to get the shot to break within 6 seconds of your raise (that is, once you've raised the pistol into the firing position, not from when you start your raise.) Holding longer and trying to become motionless is counter-productive. Once you lose the minimum arc of movement, it does not come back. As such, abort and try again.
The movement that you see at the tip of your barrel isn't all that much. In most cases, its range of movement would be within the black, and could possibly be within the 10 ring. While you should learn to reduce the arc of movement, having an arc of movement isn't the worst thing. In this case, you'll probably deliver a good shot, if you adhere to all of the other basics.
More important than initially reducing your arc of movement is controlling how you respond to it. First, you must learn to keep the sights aligned as they float in front of the target. If you lose sight alignment, that error is multiplied many times over and you'll get wild shots. If your sights are aligned, you'll shoot within your arc of movement. If your sight alignment is poor, who knows where the shot will land!
Similarly, knowing that your sight is floating, some people think "Pull the trigger as it crosses the area of aim." Well, in theory that sounds good; but, in practice, it is very wrong. Pulling fast on the trigger as the sights move through the area of aim tends to destroy trigger control (resulting in pushing, pulling, snatching, jerking - you've heard them all) and disturb the alignment of the sights (here comes the error multiplier.) As a result, the shot tends not to land within your group. Accept that your pistol will move, let it float and shoot in an area. Squeeze the trigger while the sights are in that area and maintain sight alignment. Your shots will group very nicely.
You may perceive that the sight is moving alot because your attention is on the target and not on the front sight. Look at the sights! Your concentration must always be on the front sight which will, in turn, make the target look like nothing more than a grey blob down range. This will reduce the perception of your sights moving all over the place.
We know that you can't force yourself to stand motionless. However, you can work on your stance to reduce body sway and you can look into ways to enhance your core stability. Furthermore, you can look into footwear and balance (equilibrium) training.

Achieving a minimum arc of movement takes work and confidence in yourself and your hold. You must accept that a little bit of movement is inevitable and okay. Don't overreact to this movement and forget the critical basics of sight alignment and trigger control. You'll be surprised at how well you can shoot!