Monday, April 21, 2008 Rama: Keeping that beautiful, jealous muse By Karlon N. Rama Stage Five
I HAD the pleasure of spending a few hours on the range coaching a friend last Saturday and the incident gave me the chance to revisit and relearn the basics of shooting.
Like any other physical skill, shooting is a beautiful but jealous muse who stays with the committed but readily leaves when not attended to. And having other pressing needs to contend with—from the wife and from the boss—my muse has many times threatened to leave.
Shooting, whether in sport or self defense, isn’t simply about squeezing the trigger and letting the gun go off. Unfortunately, this is how many firearm owners see it.
Shooting is the summation of many independent acts that begin with the awareness of the target (or threat in defensive shooting), adjusting the position of the body in relation thereto, assuming the proper stance, executing the draw stroke, achieving proper grip, attaining correct sight alignment, performing proper trigger control, quick recoil recovery and the follow through.
Being aware of where the target is and how to adjust one’s body position to gain advantage, tactical or otherwise, is fairly easy in IPSC competitions. The rules let competitors review the course of fire. It’s a bit trickier in the streets because one doesn’t get to choose where to get bush-whacked.
Stance. Conversely, the issue of stance depends on what the circumstances demand from the shooter.
In IPSC matches, shooters are often required to simply begin standing or sitting with their hands hanging naturally by the side while waiting for the start signal. In defensive shooting, the stance is dependent on what position one finds himself in—lying prone from behind cover or ducking behind a wall.
The generic stance, however, is one that is upright, relaxed and neutral. I prefer that the feet be placed apart but remain in line with the shoulders; the knees should be unlocked but not necessarily bent.
Drawing, likewise, is dependent on body position and the rig from which to draw the gun from. Nevertheless, the generic draw simultaneously involves both the support and shooting hands.
Although it is the shooting hand that goes for the gun, the support hand should move together with it. From hanging loosely on the side, the support hand moves up into the abdomen as the shooting hand snatches the gun up from the holster. Both hands then meet to form the standard two-handed grip to complete the presentation.
Moving the support hand while performing the draw stroke countermands the slight shift in weight and posture that is experienced when the shooting hand goes for the gun.
Moreover, by having the support hand on the abdomen as the gun clears the holster, the shooter can immediately initiate the process of properly gripping and presenting the gun.
Proper grip, on the other hand, is crucial to shooting. Whether sitting, standing or prone, the grip must be neutral and consistent.
By neutral and consistent, I mean that the amount of tension exerted by both hands on the gun grip must be the same all the time.
Some instructors say 60-40—in that the support hand should exert 60 percent of the effort in gripping the gun while the shooting hand exerts only 40 percent. I don’t agree even though I understand the ethos: so much tension in the dominant hand will hamper its ability to control the trigger.
In my experience, having the support hand exert more tension on the grip makes the gun somewhat align towards the support hand when shot.
Besides, the tension the shooter is expected to give isn’t much anyway, much like one is not required to hold the handle of a hammer so tightly for it to be capable of driving a nail through a piece of wood.
Making the shooting hand give as much pressure on the grip as the support hand therefore, provided that only the proper amount of equal tension is given, will not necessarily hamper a shooter’s ability to control the trigger. What a budding shooter should instead make sure of is that his or her hands completely cover the grip’s backstrap. By making the heel of the support hand buttress against the heel of the shooting hand, the shooter achieves a locked grip from which the gun can recoil on but without any excess tension.
