Starting from low ready position

[SeaTact]

I saw this post from about 2 years ago, but I'm interested in some more opinions. Using flexmoney's quote:

"- Being used to working from the holster and making that efficient, I am better at going from bent elbows and pressing the gun out to the target. (I'll call this "arms bent")

- Others are used to starting with the gun on a rail/table in front of them. They seem to just rotate at the shoulder joint, keeping the elbow position intact. (I'll call this "arms straight.")"

Which method works better for people? I'm still trying to figure out which one is faster for me.

[NatNat]

On my range we have to start low ready (and can't run or shoot on the move) for the first 6 month till we get some experience.

I always have my arms slightly bent, and just pivot in my shoulders. Worked for me so far.

[centermass]

On my range we have to start low ready (and can't run or shoot on the move) for the first 6 month till we get some experience.

[Corey]

I do not do much shooting from a low ready poistion but heres $.02 anyway. The quickest way from A to B is the shortest distance traveled. It would seem to me that bringing the gun in/up and then out would be more movement (and more time) than just lifting the arms/gun up to a normal firing position.

The only real way to tell for YOU is to run 20 of each with a timer and see what the first shot to A-zone/steel plate/whatever actually is. See if one way has an advantage over another. If time is equal, do whats more comfortable. If time is different, practice the faster way.

[leas327]

I prefer arms bent. I started out with the straight arm approach and would find that I would run the gun past the target then have to let it drop back down to get it back on. I have noticed this a lot watching other shooters as well. When I changed to a more up then out approach I felt I could find the sights faster and when shooting a gun with a dot it gives you a split second more to find the dot. When starting from low ready I am pretty much standing straight up facing the target I want to shoot. The insides of my forearms are touching the sides of my beer gut and the muzzle is resting on the table/barrel. At the buzzer it is a slight move up then poke my arms out to my shooting position. I also try a similar approach from the draw. The right hand is getting the gun out and the left forearm is touching my belly. The right hand brings the gun out and to the left hand then a slight move up and out. I have stuck with this for a while. It might not be faster than a straight up approach but my first shot accuacy is greatly improved and i know it is faster than a miss and a follow up. I am not super fast but from a low ready I can consistently hit an A at 10 yards in 1.0 second. When I push it in pracice I can do .8 but the accuracy starts going south quick.

[wgnoyes]

I do not do much shooting from a low ready poistion but heres $.02 anyway. The quickest way from A to B is the shortest distance traveled. It would seem to me that bringing the gun in/up and then out would be more movement (and more time) than just lifting the arms/gun up to a normal firing position.

...

It's not. If you bring the gun straight up and then push out, you can be acquiring your sight picture and possibly even breaking the first shot before you're fully extended. (That's how sub-second draws are accomplished.) It works for either low-ready or drawing from a holster. If you arc the gun up, then you're waiting for the sights to hopefully come up on the first target, then you have to acquire the sights after you've completed 99% of your presentation and you also have to deal with the fact the gun and your arms are unavoidably going to wobble up and down a small fraction after the sudden stop when fully extended. All that costs time. We sometimes call the up-and-out an "inverled L" because that's the path the gun is following.

On the signal, as you're looking at the first target, bring it up to face level where you can immediately begin to get your sight picture, and then as you're pushing out, you can refine the sight picture and break the shot even before you've finished the forward motion.

[KungFuNerd]

Up and out for sure.

Otherwise you don't get the benefit of the natural Point.

[Sin-ster]

+1 to up and press out.

The momentum of the swinging gun tends to pull me over the target as well, leading to some hesitation as I try to drive the pistol back into place. I'm also slower finding the front post with this method, which has to happen before I can even correct my overswing.

That said, I probably do a hybrid of my true "up and out" press, like I use to draw from the holster. I can tell this because it never felt right/as fast to start from the low ready. My guess would be that I swing it some on the way up before pressing out-- so call it 25% swing, 75% press. (It's not something I ever practiced, and only used "seriously" for my first 2 attempts at our local steel plate match, before moving on to the draw class.)

[csr556]

I used to just pivot at the shoulders and it seemed to work well for me. I did have a tendency to "overshoot" the target and need to pull my pistol back down to acquire properly.

Since then, I have been to some classes and will say the natural point method works better for me now. I tend to align the sights and target faster and don't have to bring the gun back down onto a target.