Natural and Neutral Foot Position: Handgun Shooting Stance

Here comes another important tip from the Personal Defense Network. I use the term, natural and neutral, a lot when we talk about stance. One of the ways that we really wanna make sure that we're very neutral when we train, is in the alignment of our feet. I see a lot of people on the range that have a preference for one foot forward or the other. And while, of course, normal human beings would have a preference for one foot forward or the other, the fact is that we shouldn't train so that we become only confident when we have our strong foot back, or even our strong foot forward, for example. Now, usually what we see, is people wanna shoot with their strong foot back when they're shooting with two hands, and with their strong foot forward when they're shooting with one hand. Of course, we know it's likely that our feet are gonna be relatively squared-off to the threat. If we think about orienting towards a threat, our feet naturally come within what I call a foot-length. Now that's not 12 inches, but actually the length of the foot. What I look for on the range is that, if I'm looking straight down the line, I don't see a gap of light, or a gap of space between the feet. In other words, if my feet are staggered so much that there's a space here, between them when I look from the side, I'm staggered too much. I don't wanna be here; I don't wanna be here. I wanna have my feet relatively aligned. Now I don't need to put my toes right on this exact crack in the pavement every single time. I don't need to be perfectly aligned. I want to be natural and neutral. If you have the habit, if you are very used to shooting with one foot or the other back, what I suggest you do, for a little while, is just the opposite. Put that foot really far forward and try to shoot. What you're probably gonna feel is that it's very awkward. It feels very off-balance. And that's exactly the point. If you spend all your time training with your foot back, and then you find yourself in a fighting situation with your foot forward for whatever reason, which of course we know is possible, could happen. If I'm here and my body just isn't used to being in this position, if this is incredibly awkward, that might affect my balance, and speed, and precision. That might affect my ability to defend myself or others. If I'm in this position in training, and I'm comfortable with it, and I'm in this position in training, and I'm comfortable with it, then I'm okay. But rather than force myself into every conceivable position, what is much easier to do is just be natural and neutral. Stay within this range. And then, what you're gonna find is if you do all your practice here, when you actually end up in this position, or when you actually end up in this position for some reason, it won't be dramatically different from the natural and neutral position that you've been training in anyway. Try to keep your feet relatively neutral and remember that little tip when you're working with your training partners, of looking down the line and making sure that there's no gap or space between the feet. That'll insure that you're both natural and neutral in your foot position, and you'll be prepared to fight, regardless of whatever position your feet end up in, in that worst case scenario. Be sure to check out the Personal Defense Network for more important tips just like that one.