Double-Tap Breakthrough

[02doooce]

Great info

[ClayK]

Going to have to put this back into my head... A break for a couple months and it's easy to forget some of these fundamental things. Good reminder!

[45dotACP]

The toughest part for me is not rushing it. I see the sights settle down and I bum rush the trigger, resulting in a jerk. But the more practice, the better it gets and I've heard a couple very knowledgeable shooters say that a very strong grip can make up for a slightly less than stellar trigger press.

[davidwebb]

Nice insight. discovered it too recently.

everytime I shot a match, I would do great on my first 2 to 3 stages then suck on the last 2. It was only recently that I figured out that as the adrenaline rush from the first stages subsides and boredom steps in from waiting, my weak hand grip goes weaker.

Now, prior to shooting a stage, "left hand strong" has become my mantra. the left hand being in a 45deg angle gives bone support and locks the wrist making the gun recoil backwards instead of upwards. It gives me faster and more accurate double taps and, at the same time, eliminate strong flinch reactions from recoil.

[kirbinster]

Nice insight. discovered it too recently.

everytime I shot a match, I would do great on my first 2 to 3 stages then suck on the last 2. It was only recently that I figured out that as the adrenaline rush from the first stages subsides and boredom steps in from waiting, my weak hand grip goes weaker.

Now, prior to shooting a stage, "left hand strong" has become my mantra. the left hand being in a 45deg angle gives bone support and locks the wrist making the gun recoil backwards instead of upwards. It gives me faster and more accurate double taps and, at the same time, eliminate strong flinch reactions from recoil.

I found out at a knock down steel match that I am having the same problem. I sort of knew it, but a friend pointed out to me that as the stage went on my left hand was getting looser and looser. I have to make an extra effort now to make sure this does not happen.

Edited October 24, 2013 by kirbinster

[davidwebb]

Nice insight. discovered it too recently.

everytime I shot a match, I would do great on my first 2 to 3 stages then suck on the last 2. It was only recently that I figured out that as the adrenaline rush from the first stages subsides and boredom steps in from waiting, my weak hand grip goes weaker.

Now, prior to shooting a stage, "left hand strong" has become my mantra. the left hand being in a 45deg angle gives bone support and locks the wrist making the gun recoil backwards instead of upwards. It gives me faster and more accurate double taps and, at the same time, eliminate strong flinch reactions from recoil.

I found out at a knock down steel match that I am having the same problem. I sort of knew it, but a friend pointed out to me that as the stage went on my left hand was getting looser and looser. I have to make an extra effort now to make sure this does not happen.

got to figure it out through a video that a buddy caught. I noticed that I was pushing hard to do everything faster and that because of this the gun was just flying all over. worse is I could't hit a plate within 10 meters.... all because of a "weak weak hand"

[motosapiens]

One of things I *really* focus on in dryfire is grip. The idea is that I hopefully won't have to think about it in live-fire.

[armas]

As a side note this grip has led me to hold my support arm almost straight with only a slight break at the elbow, while the strong arm has a little more bend to it because the WH is further forward.

I noticed that I developed the same style more than a year ago when I was shooting almost every week in my unsuccessful run to be an A shooter. But I deliberately tried to correct this back to both arm slightly bend thinking that this is a flaw in my shooting form. Now reading your post its know clear to me that I have impeded instead my growth as a shooter stopping myself to developed and evolved positively. I have stopped my inner self on what it's trying to do, it have found a solution unique to myself but I didn't listen.

[TroyB]

From what I read in a recent Blue Press article arms slightly bent is another option chosen by top shooters. It allows the arms to absorb some of the recoil, it was also stated that Phil Strader takes the approach of squeezing the gun from both sides, I guess much like a vise which keeps the gun from rotating in his hands. He'll squeeze it that at the end of his practice sessions his chest will be a little tired. I hope I didn't get that wrong, especially around here, no telling who might be watching. I've been trying this approach in my dry fire, I haven't been able to focus on it during live fire just yet because when I read it I was close to a couple of matches and I didn't want to change at that time. Changing to this type of form has almost felt like starting over during dry fire, I hope it pays off.

[Jshuberg]

As a side note this grip has led me to hold my support arm almost straight with only a slight break at the elbow, while the strong arm has a little more bend to it because the WH is further forward.

I've gone back and forth on this a few times, and honestly haven't discovered which variation seems to work best for me. There seems to be 3 schools of thought on this:

1) Support arm straight, but not locked, and weapon arm slightly bent to account for the support hand being slightly forward.

2) Both support and weapon arms straight, but not locked, and a slight turn at the waist to account for the support hand being slightly forward.

3) Both arms slightly bent, elbows pointed mostly outward to absorb recoil directly rearward.

I used #3 for several years, and it works really well but requires the shooter to engage their elbow muscles to absorb recoil. The downside being that muscles can weaken, fatigue, flinch, etc. Shooting with straight arms transfers the recoil energy through the skeletal structure to the body, and requires a minimal of muscle strength.

I've most recently been using #1 which also works very well, however, I've been experimenting with #2 a little bit. You only have to turn the upper body slightly, your support side shoulder should be forward of your weapon side shoulder by the same amount your support side wrist is forward of your weapon side wrist, around 1.5" or so. Finding the position is easy, just straighten both arms and turn the upper body until you line up with POA. Your hips and head don't move, they remain perfectly square to the target, just turn your upper body until your target lines up with both arms straight. For all practical purposes, you are still square to the target, with just the slightest upper body turn to the right so that both arms are straight.

In theory, turning the body slightly so that both arms are equally straight results in a more correct and uniform isosceles triangle of the arms, which should result in better control of the weapon during recoil. The difference is mainly that the weapon side elbow would require less muscular support, and there would be more uniformity in your arms as a support structure for the weapon. So far though, I haven't noticed much of a difference in practice yet. I think it's worth trying, as in theory it should result in greater and more uniform recoil control, but as I said I haven't personally noticed much improvement with it yet. YMMV.