Weak hand training technique....

[fastarget]

We ( wife and I) seem to always be struggling to shoot weak handed. Are there any recommended exercises and training techniques to help make weak handed shooting less of a handicap

[Jake Di Vita]

Make sure you get your center of mass lined up behind the gun, pull the trigger straight back, and do a shitload of practice.

Oh yeah...watch the sights too.

[Steve J]

Slow fire. Lots of slow fire. Isolate the trigger finger and break the shot without the sights moving. Read a little about what the bullseye guys know about how pressure here and there with other parts of your hand can effect where the bullet goes.

Dry fire. Concentrate on not letting the sights/dot move as you drop the hammer. Can't force yourself to do the boring task? Don't laugh. Seriously. Instead of a newspaper, take your blaster with you to the john in the morning. Great time to dry fire both SHO and WHO.

At speed cranking down on the thumb safety (something you don't want to do in slow fire training) will help control the gun, but you can't push or jerk the shot and the sights have to stay aligned.

edited for spelling: Jeez.

Edited September 13, 2008 by Steve J

[Aristotle]

LOL, I thought I was the only one that took my gun with me, even to the crapper. LOL

Anyhow, few more tips that seem to work for me. So give them an honest try and see what works, and won't work for you, everyone is different.

Lean into the shot, don't lean back...

Canting the pistol a little helps drive the gun and controls recoil a little...

Avoid fully locking your elbows, I notice I can control recoil better when my arm absorbs some of the recoil...

Find a spot for your strong hand and don't have it just flailing about.

I keep my thumb on my support hand high and almost pointed up, but away from the slide, as opposed to low and against the grip.

Integrate it into your dry fire, switching from strong to support. The shakes go away as the movement because more repeatable.

BTW, it's support hand, not weak hand. mindset

Edited September 13, 2008 by Aristotle

[ExtremeShot]

+1 on everything said above. Also, start using your weak hand with everyday stuff to strength it and get it use to doing the fine motor skill stuff....ie. brush your teeth with your week hand, use the computer mouse with your weak hand, etc. Also, use gym weights to train/strengthen your week arm. This will allow you to hold the gun more steady. Use a 10/15/20/25 lb dumb bell and do vertical raises in front of you like you would be raising your gun from the draw. Hold the weight out in front of you for several seconds and bring it down.

Darren

[fastarget]

Thank you for all the suggestions, I have been doing alot at the gym with weights. Also have been dry firing a little to get the sight pic correct ie find where the sights come up faster with the .........support hand. Noticed the slowest performance at the IDPA classifier , I was slow but accurate.

It seems it took forever to recover after recoil (strong hand as well). Will work on it much more for sure............

the help is very much appreciated.

[Lead slinger]

great topic fastarget. helped me out also

[fastarget]

gotta keep working on it, took my wife to the trap club today, but next week back to the support hand.....

[inkedshooter]

Weak hand is something I'll practice at the range. Since we are not alowed to double tap or rapid fire it works good for taking time and making shots count.

[fastarget]

Weak hand is something I'll practice at the range. Since we are not alowed to double tap or rapid fire it works good for taking time and making shots count.

Thanks inkedshooter,

Agreed, we have been doing that more regularly now than before, accuracy is there but not speed, but getting there.

So do you practice double tapping shooting strong hand or is that difficult to control?

[LPatterson]

Buy a cheap laser pointer to strap on the gun during dry fire, it is a real eye opener to see the dot move on what you think is a perfect trigger squeeze.

Great instructor training tool to explain wobble zone and how hard it is to maintain a perfect sight picture when you yank the trigger.

[Holshot]

I shoot strong and weak hand pretty well. I practice it every day I'm at the range. Here's how. Whenever I don't have enough rounds in the mag to complete the course I'm running freestyle, I use the rounds for SHO/WHO. Then occasionally have some SHO/WHO days but be careful and don't overtrain.

My opinion, never cant the gun...you spend all that time learning to follow your sights, call your shots, and get constant/instantaneous feedback from your front sight so why change the entire picture when shooting SHO/WHO. Get and stay neutral on the targets, don't blade. Squeeze the black off of the gun, extend your elbow fully, learn to drive the gun, call your shots, and then snap your eyes to the next target. The 800 lb gorilla in IPSC is recoil control so see your sights, don't let them come off the target otherwise its very hard to call your shots. Get your trigger control right. You can get to a place where, within limits of course, your splits and transitions are near your freestyle times. You can even get your SHO draw time the same.

Strength training is key. I use a pretty stout grip "thing" about 3 - 4 days per week, 200 - 300 reps. In the latest Mens Fitness there's some strength training exercises that look promising but I haven't tried them yet.

You will find varying opinions on this, and as with everything try them all, put the timer on, find out what works for you.

Good Luck!

[cyburg]

I bought a set of hand weights, they slide over your thumb and strap around your wrist. They come in 3 lbs each hand. I wear these to add weight so when I raise the gun it will add a little more weight for training. Then as you build up strength it will be easier to hold up the gun. How often do you just hold the gun and sight in strong hand, weak or both? I will work on draws in front of the mirror, I know make sure the gun is unloaded. I also place a 1 inch sticky as a reference point.

Repetition and working on everything from the draw, press and dropping the hammer.

Smooth is fast

[Matt Griffin]

.22 conversions are the cure for all weak hand practice. Nobody likes wasting match ammo practicing weak hand, right? Get a .22 conversion and you'll suddenly feel justified. Or maybe I'm just cheap.

H.

[gb32]

Add it to your practice routine. I shoot 3 five shot groups at the start of every practice FS, SH and Support hand at twenty five yds. Fortyfive rounds total. Support hand I grip the hell out of the gun, thumb tucked down under the thumb safety(saw a picture of TGO doing this, tried it and it worked for me). I also am pretty agressive on the trigger. Hold is not going to be good for very long so let's get 'em on the way. Make it important to you and you can turn a weakeness into a strength.

[MemphisMechanic]

So do you practice double tapping shooting strong hand or is that difficult to control?

In my opinion, the mindset of 'practicing the double tap' is a horrible one to get into. You NEVER want to practice ripping off two quick shots from the same sight picture. (You may bee seeing the sights SOME for the second round, but does it go wild 20% of the time or more?)

Simply focus on making each shot count, until you've learned to shoot those laser-beam-accurate slowfire shots really, really close together. That's what everyone who's winning is doing. Completely aim every shot. Always.

Edited March 2, 2010 by MemphisMechanic

[MR. ODDBALL]

Thanks for starting this Thread!! Lots of helpful techniques, cant wait to get to the range and pratice!

[kfd147]

Thanks for starting this Thread!! Lots of helpful techniques, cant wait to get to the range and pratice!

+1

Jason

[pjb45]

My W/SHO really improved when I start practicing with a .22.. This allowed me to put more rounds down range, cheaper. It allowed me to work on my mechanics and not having to deal with recoil management.

I do not cant the gun, I really try and have the same sight picture regardless of freestyle, weak or strong hand. I do not notice that I have a tendency to push the rounds alittle bit. I spend a lot of time working on this fact. It has gotten significantly better. If I am shooting with my left hand, I tend to line the sights on the left A line and the reverse for right hand shooting.

Another training item is to place a no shoot on the opposite side of the hand you are shooting. That is, if I am shooting with my left hand, I put a no-shoot on the right side of the A zone. It is a major wake up call. Another tip is to use small paper plates. I am a great believer in plate shooting. There is no forgiveness when shooting plates. The concept of no forgiveness has helped me, it helps prevent me accepting a less than accurate shot as being acceptable.

You might want to experiment with trigger finger placement when shooting with one hand. Notice how this affects the bullet placement.

The article in Frontsight GM Tips with Taran gives some additional pointers of what might work for you.

Again, I found the .22 being one of the greatest tools for improvement. I use a TS on my guns, it is amazing how much I noticed my trigger finger, I could tell when a shot was excellent and when it was not by the way my finger pulled the trigger. Certain feelings were automatically known to be hits, while some were grey, and others were definitely not in the A zone.