The Great Butt Clench Technique

[Just4FunLP]

OK, I'm going to post this....   

Every once in awhile I'll stumble upon something that seems to make a significant improvement in my shooting, and this one may have promise.  For a long time now I've struggled with stopping quickly when transitioning to the next target.  Lately I've been having issues with patellar tendonitis in my knees and I'm reading up on how to rehabilitate.  A lot of it has to to with strengthening and utilizing other muscles, including your glutes.  I know this is kind of weird, but I've been experimenting with using my glutes more during day to day activities and it's seems to make quite a difference.  Try concentrating on keeping your butt tight when climbing a set of stairs and you'll see what I mean.   

The other day during dry-fire I tried tightening my a$$ while doing some transition drills and it seemed to make quite a difference.  I was actually stopping well short of my target rather than overshooting back and forth.  In the past I've found that simply shooting with intensity in my arms and shoulders seems to help.  The only problem is that this seems like tightening my glutes would be a hard thing to do while you're moving through a course of fire.  Please let me know how you guys are using your lower body, or if you've found that practicing anything particular with your stance seems to make a difference.  

I know a topic about clenching your butt may be a little too much for some of our less than mature forum members, so feel free to reply with all the snarky wisecracks you can come up with.  The more the better...   

 

[Hi-Power Jack]

I'm still thinking of a Grreat Snarky Wisecrack ....   

But, until I think of one, thanks for the tip - I'll give it a try.   

[Flatland Shooter]

I eat a lot of Mexican food.  Got that exercise covered.

Add a little cervaza to the dinner and we do the advanced exercise, running up the stairs.

Edited November 18, 2016 by Flatland Shooter

[DKnoch]

Im sure your boyfriend will enjoy your newly muscular butt. He could probably help you stretch it before the next match.
On a serious note, do you find it helping anything else, such as wide transitions too? I know when i do 90 or 180 degree transitions from Stoegers book, it seems to help when putting hips into it. Maybe adding butt power will help even more

Daniel K

[Jake Di Vita]

I'm glad to see this. If I had a nickel every time I coached someone to squeeze their butt while they're lifting, I'd have a shit ton of nickels.

Squeezing your butt cheeks rotates your pelvis into a neutral position. A lot of people that experience low back pain can trace their issues back to constantly overextending their lumbar. The glutes also act to help create external rotation of the thigh/hip socket (The most stable position of the hip in all ranges of flexion is external rotation). 

One of the most common squat faults is letting the knees buckle in. If you know how to use your glutes you keep the knees in a good position (above a stable ankle) which also helps keep the ankle and hip stable. So to answer your question of how to squeeze your butt when you're shooting, drive your knees out hard away from each other. You can test this by getting into your a relaxed shooting stance, push your finger in the side of your cheek, then keeping your finger there drive your knees out away from each other hard and you'll feel the glutes flex.

[Pistolpete9]

I'm still processing Jake's second sentence.  My brain moved the "a" one word farther back and it still kinda fit the topic in a weird way.  

Gotta say though, I'm gonna give this a try.  Just hope no one notices and accuses me of looking like Nacho Libre doing his butt clench.

[Jake Di Vita]

5 minutes ago, Pistolpete9 said:

I'm still processing Jake's second sentence.  My brain moved the "a" one word farther back and it still kinda fit the topic in a weird way.  

Gotta say though, I'm gonna give this a try.  Just hope no one notices and accuses me of looking like Nacho Libre doing his butt clench.

Tons of shit covered nickels. Perfect lol.

So if you stand tall and press your hips forward by clenching your cheeks as hard as you can (think prison defense) while at the same time squeezing your belly as hard as possible we'll call that 100%. That's the amount of stability I want if I'm doing a max effort lift. Good posture needs the same overall tightness, but at about 10% of max (all day all the time). When I'm shooting, I'm probably hovering around 50% of max squeeze. It's easy to hold and more than enough stability for shooting a pistol. The last thing I want when I'm doing something athletic is a physically relaxed body.

[Just4FunLP]

Ok.  Tried the butt clench in live fire practice today, but really didnt see the improvement on paper.  I think I was consentrating too much on my booty, and not enough on my sights.  

I did notice that simply pointing my knees out seemed to naturally tighten everything up.  I see people (really good shooters) shooting like this on YouTube, so perhaps this is what I need to practice this until it becomes a habit.

In videos in can definitely see that my a$$ keeps moving after I've transitioned to another target.  Maybe I need some Tactical Spanx. 

[johnbu]

The rest of the tip...

Tighten the glutes, tension the stomach to "pull the sides in", and tighten the lats and use the chest muscles to squeeze the elbows together. Plus, keep the head upright and the shoulders / neck loose - which will minimize harmful tension.   Doing all that will connect the shoulders to the hips so you will turn the entire upper body with large muscles as a solid unit.

while I am a noob at shooting, martial arts have been a 40 year adventure. The above is how to move in an efficient powerful manor.  just my 0.02.

 

 

 

 

[Reshoot]

I use my glutes mostly for push'n 

[MikieM]

The only time I ever thought a 'butt clench' might help was when I thought someone was sneaking up on me from behind.  

[EEH]

In videos in can definitely see that my a$$ keeps moving after I've transitioned to another target.  Maybe I need some Tactical Spanx. 

 

you  just want to see if anyone watches your video to wAtch your but,right

Edited November 25, 2016 by EEH

[Foxtrotx1]

This info will come of no suprise for anyone who has done any serious weightlifting or, wait for it, ballet. A user above covered it in more detail, but the gluts are a muscle that controls far more than most people think. In ballet it helps you engage your whole body, maintain proper posture, lift dancers without injury and maintain balance better. 

Squeeze the cheeks peeps. 

[joerenew]

You guys are too much lol thanks for the tip