Fundamentals of Handgunning... Bottom to Top Gun.

                       Okay, so here I was in deep conversation on shooting with a friend, when he stops me in the middle of a fundamentals explanation and says " Is sitting a stance?" ...  Sooo, here it is, and why it matters...

         There are five fundamentals of shooting: Sight alignment, trigger control, stance, grip, and breathing. As a Weapons Training Officer for NYS Corrections, we perpetually pounded these fundi's into our officers, with prescribed terminology and in accordance with the approved lesson plan. Part of selling this course of training to others is having faith in the fact that what you say is true, AND it works. I have always agreed that as a basic set of fundamentals, the DOCS Lesson plan was very good, in as much as the course works according to planned. It gives the average trained shooter enough information to qualify and function safely on the range when the guidelines are followed.
       Having said that, I have a few points that are possibly valid as well concerning those who may wish to improve upon their shooting skills. To do so, I think covering the fundamentals from my point of view may shed some light on things.
       Fundamentals... breaking things down by priority we'll go with two groups breathing, stance, and grip; then sight alignment, and trigger control.

• Breathing- Some will discuss a pause... some will suggest holding your breath. I pose this question to you, prior to my explanation: You're driving down the road in your car, and you come to an intersection at which you need to turn left in order to get to your destination. As you enter the intersection, do you take a breath and hold it prior to steering through the turn?? Did you ever notice that while writing a letter, you manage to get all the letters and words in a row, without pausing your breathing to do so... I guess you may see where I'm headed with this... While breathing is a fundamental of shooting, you need to allow your body to function normally, and focus on mechanics.
• Stance- Again, there are many ways to stand that are considered stable, I will use the term balanced. Be balanced. If you want to stand with your outer ankles pointed forward, and your big toes touching, knock yourself out as long as you are balanced. If I walk by and push you, causing you to fall over in your stance; you are NOT balanced. P.S.- for those who would play devil's advocate here... YES, stance includes facing the direction you intend to shoot...
• Grip- General consensus is that two hand grip is always stronger than one. I agree, regardless of which two handed grip you prefer. Here however I will recommend that you strong hand surround the grip, and be overlapped one for one with you middle, ring and pinky fingers. This grip when properly applied, allows the shooter to relax their strong hand. The purpose of this is to allow the muscles of your trigger finger to dominate the muscle movement in that hand during firing. Grip pressure is applied by the weak hand, and controls the weapon without causing undue muscle movement and tension in the strong hand.
• Trigger control- Truly simple in that we apply continuous rearward pressure on the trigger initiating the firing mechanism of the handgun. Continuing that pressure momentarily until the weapon has fired, prior to fully releasing the trigger and allowing the given mechanism to reset, regardless of the action type. The amount of pressure necessary to smoothly move the trigger rearward varies dependent on the mechanical pressure necessary, however if we continue applying pressure until that rearward motion escalates, we are hardly likely to jerk the trigger.
• Sight alignment- As described by DOCS lesson plan ( in reference to plain old open sight) - The top of the front sight, level with the top of the rear sight, with equal light on either side of the front sight. The front sight remaining crystal clear in your primary vision, the rear appearing slightly out of focus... This is the simplest form of logic, and it works when applied exactly as described. I have not found a better explanation...

        There you have it, the fundi's.

Now you here the rest of the story... Why am I so vague on the first three fundamentals?? Why do I make trigger control such a mechanical movement??

       Well, it's like this: When you look at all five fundamentals, which is the only one affected by all the others? Does trigger control affect breathing? Does stance affect grip? Sight alignment affect trigger control?
      No, no and no. The only fundamental which is physically affected by all the others is in fact sight alignment, and by way of this logic, IS the fundamental of shooting that requires your 100% focus. All other fundi's can be taught to your muscles, to become repetitive and less reliant on your attention, however, you are required 100% of the time to focus on that front sight and make sure that sight picture remains throughout the firing process.Where the sight points, the bullet will go, pretty much without fail ( forgoing any malfunctions). Teaching your body to do all of these things on their own requires lots of practice and repetition. But that's what it takes, and that's how the Best of the Best get it done.
     This is a lot of information to take in at once. In another post we'll talk about how you get your head in the game, and what you can do to improve you shooting by thinking about not thinking...