Transition with your hips or your shoulders?

[WrxGuy90]

I like the "follow you eyes, let your body catch up naturally" idea. I think your body will perform fairly well when its all natural. but I've found that if I do not practice using both my hips and shoulders, that if its a long spread of targets, ill start to throw rounds towards the end. I end up squaring up the first target, and by the end I'm in a odd angle. Then that throws my recoil off slightly. I think in the end it all comes down to practice.

As far as up and down goes, I cant say I've come across a stage where I have had to worry about that. So I personally have not practice for it in any manor. I would guess though, that leaning back could only be done but so far without compromising a well planted stance.

[waktasz]

If possible keep your arms and shoulders and head locked in position and rotate at the hips knees and ankles. Then there are the "other" targets "THEY" set to force you into impossible positions. You must practice these too and learn to shoot all wrapped up. I shot one low port at the Nationals last year lying on my back, shooting between my feet.

Maybe for targets very close together, but for the most part, this isn't correct.

[Rob D]

If possible keep your arms and shoulders and head locked in position and rotate at the hips knees and ankles. Then there are the "other" targets "THEY" set to force you into impossible positions. You must practice these too and learn to shoot all wrapped up. I shot one low port at the Nationals last year lying on my back, shooting between my feet.

Maybe for targets very close together, but for the most part, this isn't correct.

I disagree. Keeping the geometry of your eyes, shoulders, and gun uniform throughout an array will make your shooting platform much more stable and will allow you to drive transitions from your legs, which is infinitely faster than trying to turn with your shoulders or arms. Aside from that, it makes you much more consistent and makes it easier to acquire the front sight. Stage designers will put targets in places that MAKE you shoot from uncomfortable positions, but you'll be faster and more consistent if your upper body positioning stays the same for every target.

Do a youtube search on vogel, sevigny, Nils, Leatham, or strader. All of them treat their upper body like it's a turret and use their lower body to turn the gun towards the targets.

[waktasz]

Their head is not locked into position above the gun though

[Rob D]

They're not stuck behind the gun riding the sights from target to target, but every time they shoot their head and shoulders are in the same position behind the gun. If you imagine an isosceles triangle with the sides being your arms and the base representing your shoulders and head position, the triangle should(ideally) be exactly the same every time you shoot. In a transition, your head is going to swivel to the next target first, then the rest of the triangle should follow, driven by your legs and hips.

We may be debating semantics.

[waktasz]

I was disagreeing with this part "If possible keep your arms and shoulders and head locked in position and rotate at the hips knees and ankle"

I have taught shooters that do that. They lock their eyes on the sights and transition the gun and their head as one solid unit. It can be hard to break them of that habit

Edited April 15, 2015 by waktasz

[Rob D]

Agreed. I've always heard that referred to as "riding the sights." It's definitely slow.

[BeerBaron]

Do you turn your body and keep your arms in the same position?

For most every transition, nothing from the waist up should move.

The movement initiates from your feet, in contact with the ground. Sitting in my office chair (that swivels), with my feet floating in the air and my arms in a freestyle shooting position, it's not possible to transition.

Definitely. Leading from the head, and the whole body is following lead by the feet. I just watched a vid of eric grauffel at a match in st tropez last year. You can see he keeps a very stable platform, knees bent, arms locked out, head is snapping to the target and his whole body is transitioning with it.

You can really see from the POV footage his head moves to the target, gun follows. Transitions with the whole body can clearly be seen on this stage. https://youtu.be/jj_kfU8yoCY?t=1m46s

Obviously on the smaller transitions or those not obstructed his feet are not necessarily moving on the ground but you can see he's driving his body from the feet up.