Shooting Stance Doesn't Matter
Rob PincusDescription
When it comes to defensive shooting, your shooting stance doesn’t matter. It’s important to understand why that is true. But it also does matter that you do not make your shooting stance matter when you are training and practicing. Confused yet? Let Rob Pincus explain.
Defensive Shooting Stances
At the moment you need to defend yourself, you may be standing with your left foot forward, or with your right foot forward. You may be off balance with your body weight toward the back, perhaps even holding onto something. Maybe you’ve been knocked down and need to shoot from kneeling, and with your shoulders either far forward or far back. Perhaps you are even in an ideal shooting stance, with feet shoulder width apart and your body squared off to the target. It doesn’t matter — draw the handgun, drive out, and take the shot.
Variations in Practice
Because of the variables of all the different realistic ways you may need to apply your defensive shooting skills in a self-defense situation, you also need to think about the fact that you need to be practicing in a way that lets you have your feet in a normal range of motion, and that lets you have your shoulders not always aggressively forward nor leaning back.
The reality is that your shooting stance doesn’t matter in a fight, but it does matter that you not condition yourself through handgun training and practice to always be standing in a bladed stance with your strong foot back, or always standing with your feet squared to the target, or always standing perfectly upright and squared off, which is a very unrealistic position in terms of your fight athletics but might be the most comfortable way for you to shoot, especially if you’re going to be transitioning from one target to another target.
Summary
Your shooting stance doesn’t matter when it comes to applying your skills in a defensive context, but it does matter that you vary your stance in your handgun training and practice.
You may have heard already that your shooting stance when it comes to defensive shooting, really doesn't matter. And it's important to understand why that's true but it also does matter that you not make your shooting stance matter when you're training and when you're practicing. Now, that might all sound way more confusing than it needs to be but here's the important point. A lot of people will quite rightfully point out that you may be standing with your left foot forward when you have to defend yourself. Be in a position like this with the firearm in your hand. Maybe I was moving through the environment, I need to shoot, my left foot's over here. I don't move, I don't laterally get myself into a better position. I drive out and take a shot. Maybe I'm moving around this way. My right foot may be out in front of me as I'm moving around and I see a target. I drive out take that shot. Maybe my feet are perfectly squared off relative to that target. My body weight is forward just like it's supposed to be. And I'm going to need to drive out, take multiple shots. Maybe I'm in a situation where my body weight is backwards. For some reason I've lost my balance, maybe I'm even holding onto something and I drive out. I need to take a high level precision shot, take that shot. Maybe a head shot. You think about the different positions you could be in. You think about the fact that you could be knocked down to the ground, of course. And down on your knees and needing to shoot. And this position, if I drive out, I need to shoot, I could get my shoulders behind my body. I could have my shoulders in front of my body. Now, the thing to remember here is that because of the variables of all the different realistic ways you may need to apply your defensive shooting skills. You need to also think about the fact that you need to be practicing in a way that let's you have your feet in a normal range of motion. Let you have your shoulders not always aggressively forward, certainly not always straight up, and you know, as little as we can leaning back. The reality is that your shooting stance doesn't matter in a fight, but it does matter that you not condition yourself to always be standing in a bladed stance with your strong foot back or always standing exactly squared off perfectly to the target, or certainly always standing perfectly upright squared off which is a very unrealistic position in terms of your fight athletics, but might be the most comfortable way for you to shoot especially if you're going to be transitioning from one shot over to another shot very quickly. And the fact is you saw me shooting a lot of different ways. Shooting in a lot of different positions, I'm able to hit the high center chest, I'm able to hit those circles and I'm able to take that headshot. Your shooting stance really doesn't matter when it comes to applying your skills in a defensive context but it does matter that you vary your stance in your training and your practice.
One thing USPSA does is get you thinking outside the box and into more realistic environments such as shooting around barricades or going through doors, surprise poppers, etc. During a course of fire it's uncommon to be able to lock into a certain stance unless you're just wanting to lose time. Why do they call it practical shooting? Another good video Rob. Still want you to watch that muzzle and your left hand bro. Don't sweep yourself. Again, the camera angle could be playing tricks.
Interesting, when I was shooting for my annual requal, the range officer always referred us back into weaver stance. Glad to see some out of box thinking.