Tension

[mas]

I've been pondering what this word means quite a bit lately. When I first read Brian's book, I read "no tension," so I stood up to the line with noodle arms and watched the gun go flying! I then went to the opposite extreme....very uncomfortable. Then I read about using "positive forward tension," and noticed that it seemed to help a little. Examining my own technique, I notice tension in the support hand arm, little, but positive, tension in the shooting arm, and lots of tension in the forearms (and at times, the shoulders). My guess is that that's a lot of tension! So, what is meant by losing one's tension? Rather, what does it mean to you?

[BigDave]

When I read and use the word tension in regards to shooting, the word that comes to mind is excess. When I'm shooting, I try to do only those thing necessary to grip and index the gun and hold myself in my stance. Anything more than what is necessary is, obviously, excessive. I try to think more along the lines of eliminating what I don't need to do get get off an accurate shot (or shots). And I think of it in terms from my head to my toes. Lately, and not only in shooting, I am very aware of tension in my face, specfically my eyes. I have found when I am shooting (spec. NRA Action Pistol) the sharpness of my vision increase dramatically when I discard the excess tension in my face. This is just one example.

To recogize excess tension is not easy. You must be very aware.

Just my $.02

[bountyhunter]

I recall that Brian's definition of tension was something like when the muscles got tense enough to affect performance negatively. I think you should try to keep as relaxed as possible and only use the muscles needed to support and fire the gun. I never subscribed to the techniques where one intentionally forces opposing muscles to push against each other to increase "rigidity" of the stance or hold. I think that just tires you out quickly and doesn't help anyway.

I have seen some shooters using a "forward lean" stance when shooting a gun rapidly to use body weight to offset recoil. problem is, when you lean the center of mass forward it requires your legs and feet muscles to compensate for this so that muscle "rension" is required to keep upright when the CM is moved off the balance point.

[mas]

well, i'm inspired to try shooting relaxed again with only enough tension to bring the gun up in front of me....it's such an interesting process of going from both extremes to find what works. I think the tension in my support arm may be what's causing me lots of problems....because there is tension, the gun is just stripped out of my support hand at times; i.e., i'm not letting it go with the gun....

I always like to say that you have to let the pendulum swing far in both directions before it comes back to center.

[eric nielsen]

Mas

The best way to see what relaxed and behind the gun looks like is to watch Ron Avery's video series. He really gets down to the smallest components of an athletic action shooting stance. The tapes are worth the money, so is attending his class.

He goes over the ways that you can let POSITION and tendon strength get you behind the gun, and all the places where you don't need to clamp down with muscle strength. A video can say what a thousand words can't. Try & see.

[mas]

i have his video series....helpful, but i guess i still need more help. also, i'm so busy that it's hard to find time to travel.

[Flexmoney]

Forget about applying tension...focus on tracking the sights.

Relax as much as possible (then relax some more)...and let the "seeing" take over.

[mas]

yeah, it does happen that when I relax I can track a bit better, but I have grip problems...w.hen I apply tension with my thumbs (see the other post) in a slight downward fashion, the gun stabilizes but tracking suffers......I hope in time I get it figured out.

[Rocket]

It's a good question, what is tension, what is too tense? Tension is a sinister little thing, seemingly with a life and will all it's own. I can only say that if you tense up at the wrong time you will miss the shot. If in the process of breaking the shot you involuntarily move the gun off target and miss, you are too tense or have the "wrong" tension . If you can keep the sights rock solid on your point of aim, break and call the shot, hit what you are aiming at, and have the gun recoil and quickly return perfectly then you are ok. Let your results tell you if you are too tense because there is really no other way to describe it. Tension is subjective and different for everybody. One thing you might try is tensing up your grip and arms as much as you can at max effort, then back off about 50% , and that should be about right , but others may say more or less. The real trick is of coarse keeping the tension constant as you are releasing the shot. The first phase of Matt's timing drills focus on this - finding the right tension that is. It's a great exercise. I'd love to hear Brian's thoughts on this. I bet he would say back off 75%.

Bill