[seeds76]

I'm not sure what the correct position is for my shoulders in IDPA and IPSC shooting. Should I roll them forward and lean forward into the gun or are they supposed to just be relaxed and neutral?

[Duane Thomas]

I'm not convinced there's any one correct answer to this one. Just experiment and find out what works best for you. I will say that if you have your arms slightly bent so the recoil energy doesn't actually reach your body, you don't need nearly the amount of forward lean that a lot of people think you do to avoid being pushed backward by cumulative recoil during rapid fire. Of course YMMV.

[Sam]

Hi seeds76!

If you keep your chin tucked down, your head and shoulder position will probably adjust naturally.

[Sam]

Oh yeah, Ditto on everything Duane said and WELCOME TO THE FORUM!!

[Duane Thomas]

I have actually found major advantages lately to not tucking my chin down, and keeping my head much more upright, face flat to the target. That makes it much easier for me to track the front sight through its complete arc of recoil. With my head down it's hard if not impossible to do that because under recoil the front sight will actually pop up out of your cone of vision which is cut off at top by your upper orbital ridge. Bring the head more upright and suddenly you start seeing things you've been trying - and failing - to see for years. At least I did.

[JThompson]

Right here:

http://video.google....332856867071363

[Alan550]

Duane Thomas, on Aug 17 2009, 04:22 AM, said:

I have actually found major advantages lately to not tucking my chin down, and keeping my head much more upright, face flat to the target. That makes it much easier for me to track the front sight through its complete arc of recoil. With my head down it's hard if not impossible to do that because under recoil the front sight will actually pop up out of your cone of vision which is cut off at top by your upper orbital ridge. Bring the head more upright and suddenly you start seeing things you've been trying - and failing - to see for years. At least I did.

+1 Especially if you wear corrective lenses. That will either give you double-vision or induce some parallax in your sight picture as you'll be using the upper portion of the lenses where the image gets skewed.

Alan~^~

[bagdrag]

Duane Thomas, on Aug 16 2009, 06:22 PM, said:

I have actually found major advantages lately to not tucking my chin down, and keeping my head much more upright, face flat to the target. That makes it much easier for me to track the front sight through its complete arc of recoil. With my head down it's hard if not impossible to do that because under recoil the front sight will actually pop up out of your cone of vision which is cut off at top by your upper orbital ridge. Bring the head more upright and suddenly you start seeing things you've been trying - and failing - to see for years. At least I did.

Awesome tip. Thanks Duane.

[Sam]

Cool observation, Duane.


I guess tucking the chin works for me because my front sight does not have much of an arc in recoil. On a sub 2 Bill Drill with major .45 loads my FS lifts about 3/4" and I'm able to clearly see the top edge before each trigger press. I wear prescription lenses, but not bi-focals. The fronts sight movement looks more like a momentary vibration than an arc. Funny how different things work for different folks.

[Jake Di Vita]

I personally recommend a tucked chin and shoulders "active" in the shooting. This helps to raise your aggresiveness a bit.

If you're an Open shooter - it's really easy to get lazy at this.

[teletiger7]

Find whats comfortable and efficient for you.

[Duane Thomas]

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Awesome tip. Thanks Duane.

Yet welcome. :}

[Duane Thomas]

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Cool observation, Duane.

Thanks, Sam

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Funny how different things work for different folks.

Different things do work for different folks. That's why, the more I learn, the harder I find it to answer questions like "How should I hold my shoulders?", "What's the best arm position?", etc. As Matt Burkett said to me once, everyone has different bodies, different muscular systems, different nervous systerms, different skeletal systems, and mostly importantly, different minds.

It's struck over the years that a lot of firearms instructors take it as sort of an article of faith that there is one, best set of shooting techniques, and it is their job - actually their moral responsibility - to figure out what those best techniques are and teach them. The more I learn, the more I realize that simply isn't the case. At the basic level, I think that what an instructor owes the student is good, solid technique that, if the student can execute it, will swiftly give them a decent level of shooting skill. But if you ever want to be great, eventually you're going to have to start figuring things out for yourself. That means an immense amount of experimentation, of false starts and blind alleys and backtracking. That's all a lot more work than simply adopting a pre-packaged set of "best" techniques, that's for sure. The Path never ends. But when all is said and done it results in a MUCH better shooter.

[BSeevers]

Try Ears in front of your shoulders Shoulders in front of your ankles

[benos]

Like others said - experiment and find what's best for you.

For me - stand up straight. Didn't "do anything" with my shoullders or head. And raise your arms until the sights are lined up.

You'll see more and keep track of things better if your eyes are looking straight out of their sockets, just like if you were standing there talking to someone (your same height).

be

[bagdrag]

Well said Duane. I think that's the true beauty of USPSA is that there isn't one exact way to accomplish something. Sure it's helpful to know the basic tools but ultimately it's up to the shooter how best to execute for them and not anyone else.

[Duane Thomas]

Thanks!

[Sam]

I like how we get to discussing something here and then I start to notice it almost everywhere I look. On the cover of the latest issue of the Tactical Journal there are 3 photos of guys shooting, 1 guy sitting and 2 standing. (I don't know who these gentlemen are and I don't think it would be polite to critique their styles.) But, it caught my eye because we are talking about it here.


After reading Brian's post, I realize that I don't stand up all that straight any way.

I just don't balance very well standing straight up. So naturally, I'm not going to just straighten up so I can shoot. For better or worse, if you are looking at me shooting from the side, you ain't gonna know if I have a goatee. Yes, people who tend to naturally stand up straight are going to shoot better standing naturally!


You know that drawing of evolutionary man, where there are these 3 cave-dudes walking? I'm like the first guy in that line.



Yeah, my dinosaur is tied up to a big hitching post just out of the picture.

[Duane Thomas]

And here I thought you rode an iron horse.