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weak hand woes


OUshooter

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I dug around with the search, but couldn't find that which I seek.

I went out today to punch some holes and decided to run the Three Sixes (9 of diamonds) drill from the DR Performance deck. If you are not familiar it's basically 15yrd bill drill.

My weak hand strings were just awful. I've never done well with my left hand so I'm trying to really improve that aspect of my game. When running the WH string all my shots were low right. Even when I slowed down the shots where good elevation wise, but they were still going way right.

I tweaked the drill and did it head shots only. Again WH was terrible. I had to hold off to the left of the head to get good hits. It started raining so I didn't have enough time to keep working to figure out the problem.

I was starting to wonder if I'm tightening my grip as I break the shot. Would very much like to hear constructive input.

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Check your trigger control. You can do this dry firing with an empty weapon at home. It works best if you have a camera and tripod you can set up behind you and to the left, and then again in front of you to the right. (assuming you are right handed) If it's not your trigger control, the video should help you diagnose the problem.

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Check your trigger control. You can do this dry firing with an empty weapon at home. It works best if you have a camera and tripod you can set up behind you and to the left, and then again in front of you to the right. (assuming you are right handed) If it's not your trigger control, the video should help you diagnose the problem.

Thanks for the tip. I will post them up on YouTube and let you all see if you can diagnose the issue.

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Bury your strong hand in your upper chest for support. Cant the gun inward to stabilize the gun and control recoil. Not tilted like a gang banger but canted in 30-45 degrees.

This is how I was taught to shoot weak hand. Also, bring the target in to 7 yards to build confidence then move it out.

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Bury your strong hand in your upper chest for support. Cant the gun inward to stabilize the gun and control recoil. Not tilted like a gang banger but canted in 30-45 degrees.

This- and I usually aim a little high and in the direction of the magazine. I'm no wizard or anything, but I usually get my hits WHO. Only practice will tell you exactly how much hold off is required.

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All great tips. Bracing your unused hand, canting the gun inwards, and dry firing.

It sounds like you are milking the gun a little. Try a few excercises on a squeeze ball, but only flexing one finger at a time into the ball. work each finger out of order, not sequentially, so the tendons start working as an independant unit, and not trigger finger linking either #2/3 fingers together.

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Bury your strong hand in your upper chest for support. Cant the gun inward to stabilize the gun and control recoil. Not tilted like a gang banger but canted in 30-45 degrees.

This- and I usually aim a little high and in the direction of the magazine. I'm no wizard or anything, but I usually get my hits WHO. Only practice will tell you exactly how much hold off is required.

That is good advice, I have met few guys that are exceptional at this in competition, however I found this was the worst shooting position for me in USPSA limited, or single stack,...I was doing very well across the board but would lose horribly on the stage that required WH, or SH to WH transtions, I found that starting with the IPSC target in close and moving out slowly showed me that my shots hitting on the right hand of the target (D-zone or misses) were from over gripping in an attempt to control recoil, once I let the sights rise and fall as if in freestyle (trigger control) I was bringing shots in on the paper at least, I also jammed my right fist just under my ribs, turn body slightly and barely canted the gun, after practicing this way at 7-10-15 yards I became very confident, I used shoot-n-C targets so it was very clear to me where I was hitting ....however I still have to hold just on the inside left edge of the D zone, and my shots are right in the A-C zone regularly,.....this may not be acceptable to some master levels shooters, but for this B shooter I do not have to think about where I am aiming, left edge and go,....shots fall to the right on average 4-6 inches....acceptable for me, same method on plates as well...

Practice, practice what you are weakest at and become well rounded, its very easy to work on freestyle and strong H, but few want to work on the PITA stuff,.....however anything you encounter in a match you can enter with confidence instead of anxiety, knowing... "I got this"...

O1

Edited by Ofishl1
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Check your trigger control. You can do this dry firing

I was practicing my WH and realized I was NOT controlling

the trigger ...

Still terrible at it, but breaking the trigger pull down into

small discrete portions stopped me from jerking the trigger -

along with other ideas here - helped quite a bit.

Plus practice ... have to keep at it. :cheers:

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Practice up! I need to work on this too. It was suggested to me from a squad member :

"For strong-hand only shooting - try this:

Close your eyes, make a fist with your right hand out in front of you as if holding the gun, but make sure your arm feels natural and not torqued at all.

Open your eyes and see the angle your hand is at...that is your best shooting angle for strong-hand only shooting. Some people will be angled more than others (gangsta style)."

I'm gunna handle an airsoft for practice to get used to sight picture and just holding the gun in general, and then practice on the range for recoil control

Edited by TommyD
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SH/WH stages tend to be my better finishes. At least 50% of my dry fire practice is, and always has been, SH/WH. Draw and reload practice can be combined with SH/WH to maximize progress with minimal reps. I draw to freestyle, reload, SH, reload, WH. Repeat. Many times. With good sight alignment, trigger press, etc.

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Thanks for the input folks, it's much appreciated. I'm gonna print this thread and take it to the range one night this week. I'm just B so I've got tons of room for improvement, but having such an obvious gaping hole in my skill set really bugs me.

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Practice a lot, live and dry. And make it regular but not far between. I always incorporate it in any live and dry fire practice about 10-20 of 100% ratio. Doing it regularly gives me a lot of input on whats, whys and hows to do it w/ good results. In time I became confident and comfortable w/ it that who and sho match cofs are not stressful anymore. In fact Im more relaxed and enjoy it as I observe the competition being intimidated by them.

Eta: I pull the trigger smooth and straight to the rear as soon as my trigger finger moves w/o any pause and observe the sights thru out. This way I dont give myself any chance to anticipate and react to the blast and recoil.

Edited by BoyGlock
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First, be sure that you are taking an extra .25 of a second to get a PERFECT grip. Grab the barrel of the gun with your strong hand and bury it in your weak hand. Next, as Brian and BoyGlock said, pull the trigger straight to the rear, but I'll add this: at the same tempo through the entire trigger pull. You don't want any sort of staging or slack-taking with the weak hand because your brain is too wired for the speed of your normal trigger pull. This leads to anticipation. Instead, start your trigger pull and then get your mind off of the trigger pull and onto the sights. If you think about the break you will almost always anticipate and pull the gun.

I'm also of the opinion that you should use much more force on your ring and pinkie fingers and let your middle finger ride fairly loose. This will prevent you from overloading your medial nerve and getting a sympathetic response from the trigger pull that moves the gun.

Edited by Matt Griffin
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Bury your strong hand in your upper chest for support. Cant the gun inward to stabilize the gun and control recoil. Not tilted like a gang banger but canted in 30-45 degrees.

I find that that makes recoil control actually worse, shooting weekhand only, the gun natural tendency is to move up and in towards the centerline of your body. If you hold gun straight up, turn your head slight to the left so your eye domainance will pick up front sight a little better (if your right eye domainant), it is easier to manage recoil straight up and down instead of up and to the right. Regarding your grip, make sure you get your thumb around and try to grip with just the bottom 3 fingers firm and let your trigger finger be relaxed. When possible try to shoot the targets from outside in to your body, your arm is stronger pulling inward than trying to go outward.

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Bury your strong hand in your upper chest for support. Cant the gun inward to stabilize the gun and control recoil. Not tilted like a gang banger but canted in 30-45 degrees.

I find that that makes recoil control actually worse, shooting weekhand only, the gun natural tendency is to move up and in towards the centerline of your body. If you hold gun straight up, turn your head slight to the left so your eye domainance will pick up front sight a little better (if your right eye domainant), it is easier to manage recoil straight up and down instead of up and to the right. Regarding your grip, make sure you get your thumb around and try to grip with just the bottom 3 fingers firm and let your trigger finger be relaxed. When possible try to shoot the targets from outside in to your body, your arm is stronger pulling inward than trying to go outward.

For me thats it. The thing that helped me the most was watching John Pride at bianchi. He does what HoMiE stated above and looks like he is going to punch a hole in the target with the gun barrel. Very aggressive, body weight way forward on left leg with his elbow under the gun.

I need to practice this alot so I use a .22.

Edited by toothguy
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I had surgery on my right shoulder last year, arm in sling for 6 weeks. During that time, I learned to shoot fairly well left hand only, but only by practicing and learning what we already know to do from shooting strong hand--move the trigger without moving the barrel. I did a lot of shooting with a 22 to train the left hand to release a shot without changing grip tension and moving the gun to the right and low when shooting weak hand only. It took a few trips to the range before I even felt comfortable, and now I have to shoot 10-20% of the time weak hand and weak hand only during training and dry-fire drills to shoot well weak hand. I use a laser pointer during dry fire to see the gun movement. This was very effective, for me at least.

After 6 weeks I was shooting well WH and WHO out to 25 yards. Not 1.5" groups, but sub 5". You can get most of the way there with dry fire if you have a laser device of some kind.

Joe

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What worked for me - stick your shooing arm out straight and not too tense, sights straight up, and smoothly pull the trigger straight to the rear.

be

Manny found the exact same results on the clock-- no cant = better and quicker hits.

Just like someone who is cross-dominant, the trick is to bring the gun to your eyes and not so much the other way around. A lot of folks are inclined to cock their head when shooting WHO, but it does funky things to the vision.

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What worked for me - stick your shooing arm out straight and not too tense, sights straight up, and smoothly pull the trigger straight to the rear.

be

Manny found the exact same results on the clock-- no cant = better and quicker hits.

Just like someone who is cross-dominant, the trick is to bring the gun to your eyes and not so much the other way around. A lot of folks are inclined to cock their head when shooting WHO, but it does funky things to the vision.

Saul Kirsch has a great youtube video on this, check it out for free.

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I went out today and just ran WH drills. I did find that little to no cant worked better for me. I've been dry firing quite a bit and have tried to really keep the sights perfect. I keep finding myself trying to rush. It's like the freestyle part of my brain takes over and I can't stop it. I did get better recoil management from adding grip to the bottom fingers and less from the index. Seems counter intuitive to me but if it works......

I will continue to build until I can run 15yr bill drills at only a tick slower than my SH.

Thanks a ton for the advice so far, and hope to see more.

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What worked for me - stick your shooing arm out straight and not too tense, sights straight up, and smoothly pull the trigger straight to the rear.

be

Manny found the exact same results on the clock-- no cant = better and quicker hits.

Just like someone who is cross-dominant, the trick is to bring the gun to your eyes and not so much the other way around. A lot of folks are inclined to cock their head when shooting WHO, but it does funky things to the vision.

Saul Kirsch has a great youtube video on this, check it out for free.

OK that was good freaking stuff. THANKS!

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Bury your strong hand in your upper chest for support. Cant the gun inward to stabilize the gun and control recoil. Not tilted like a gang banger but canted in 30-45 degrees.

What Sarge said, generall referred to as the quarter-homie, or the half-homie. :devil:

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