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Shooting Stance.....Does It Matter.....

For me, the farther I get from the gun, the more I can compromise.

The bullet will go where the sights go.

[ The amount of wobble-room for the sights is actually quite large, where it comes to defensive-type shooting: https://tacticalprofessor.wordpress.com/2015/02/06/89081/ ]

If I disturb the sight package as I complete the trigger path, I won't be as precise/accurate.

If my grip isn't good, my recoil control will suffer tremendously, and this includes setting the wrists. Improper indexing of the gun and/or lack of domination coming out of the holster are both problems here, too.

[ A dominating grip can offset trigger path precision: how Rob Leatham "sweeps"/"slaps" the trigger as well as the screwdriver demo --->
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=818668861544903
^ by John McPhee both testify to the truth of "The Grip" - https://www.thearmorylife.com/forum/threads/is-your-grip-why-you-miss.477/#post-7952]

If my upper body presentation isn't solid, I'll have to fight for my natural-point-of-aim, and I will also need to battle more for recoil control. Even if I've got a great grip and have set my wrists properly, if my elbows or shoulders aren't set, that's where I will start to give up recoil control. My breathing/core can affect both the ability to deliver that single shot with-precision as well as the ability to control successive ones at-pace.

Stance is pretty far down there, so that's where I can compromise quite a bit - https://www.thearmorylife.com/forum/threads/is-your-shooting-stance-wrong.146/#post-3819 . But in an ideal world, this will be both the solid base on which I would build the rest of my shooting platform as well as derive my power and drive from, whether it be for the flight or for flight.

For an absolute beginner, I'm going to build him/her from the ground up.

Once those fundamentals have been ingrained, it's then time to start taking it apart, to show the relative importance of this chain.
 
A proper stance builds foundation, and unless you were taught a foundation, you are chasing ghosts. Adapt and overcome all you want, but a proper stance foundation is the building block
 
Every situation is different... Prepare by training and firing from many different positions as possible. I don't care much for indoor ranges for this reason and the lighting seems to mess with me lol. I am blessed with 100+ acres and can shoot all I want to outdoors in different scenarios.
 
OK, back to the topic at-hand. :)

It's no secret that I thought one of my favorite local instructors' demos was awesome, in demonstrating the role of stance ( https://www.thearmorylife.com/forum/threads/is-your-shooting-stance-wrong.146/#post-3819 ). The following with "Super" Dave Harrington is yet another:


I completely agree that one of the key fundamentals is stance. Furthermore - and this comes from my martial arts background, not just from shooting - I firmly believe that having a good stance will help any shooter shoot better.

When I fell apart at-distance (25+ yards) in one of my first beyond-the-basics classes, I asked the instructor, Chris Costa, if he could give me a critique as to why.

Guess what?

One of the things that he listed was that my stance was inconsistent.

So guess what I do, now, every time I need to make that low percentage shot?

I consciously build it from the ground up.

That said, "stance" as it relates to the defensive shoot (or competition), as discussed in the article cited by Annihilator above, is a luxury.

I'll take it if I can get it. I'd love to be able to get in to my favorite "stand and deliver" stance.

But if I can't get that opportunity, I need to know what to do to otherwise maximize my chances of success. I need to understand the role that stance plays in the fundamentals of marksmanship so that I can properly compensate for what may well be my less than optimal stance at the moment that I need/want to shoot. What little I've done of integrated combatives and force-on-force has demonstrated to me that in the vast majority of cases, the defensive shoot is a dynamic one: there's lots of movement - both on my part as well as that of the opposition's. I have to consider that in the fight, I may not be able to stand and deliver in the "belt-buckle-to-belt-buckle" manner, as the late Louis Awerbuck notes.

And in those moments, be it I'm mid-step in a full-out-run or bladed completely to the side as I drop-step lunge or even if I'm in urban-prone on the ground...I have to understand what else I need to accomplish in order to make up for the fact that at that split second in time, my stance is compromised or even non-existent.
 
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Stance does matter but what matters more is the concept of grip, sight alignment and trigger control. We taught the basics to recruits when I taught firearms at the police academy. The last week we concentrated on close quarters combat, moving and shooting as well as shooting from less than optimum positions. This included shoot on your back. A perfect stance is great but in a real life situation you work with what you have.

One of the other instructors had trained his whole career using the Weaver Stance. He was involved in an officer involved shooting in which he was the victor. Looking over his patrol car video after the incident revealed he went into the Isosceles Stance without realizing it. The thing is he did retain was the muscle memory for the basics that he had learned.
 
The stance is a key for the beginning shooter. Finding a repeatable stance allows for improved stability and accuracy then confidence. Once a person becomes proficient and confident then a stance is only a minor part of sending a message down range.
 
TSiWRX said:
OK, back to the topic at-hand. :)

It's no secret that I thought one of my favorite local instructors' demos was awesome, in demonstrating the role of stance ( https://www.thearmorylife.com/forum/threads/is-your-shooting-stance-wrong.146/#post-3819 ). The following with "Super" Dave Harrington is yet another:


I completely agree that one of the key fundamentals is stance. Furthermore - and this comes from my martial arts background, not just from shooting - I firmly believe that having a good stance will help any shooter shoot better.

When I fell apart at-distance (25+ yards) in one of my first beyond-the-basics classes, I asked the instructor, Chris Costa, if he could give me a critique as to why.

Guess what?

One of the things that he listed was that my stance was inconsistent.

So guess what I do, now, every time I need to make that low percentage shot?

I consciously build it from the ground up.

That said, "stance" as it relates to the defensive shoot (or competition), as discussed in the article cited by Annihilator above, is a luxury.

I'll take it if I can get it. I'd love to be able to get in to my favorite "stand and deliver" stance.

But if I can't get that opportunity, I need to know what to do to otherwise maximize my chances of success. I need to understand the role that stance plays in the fundamentals of marksmanship so that I can properly compensate for what may well be my less than optimal stance at the moment that I need/want to shoot. What little I've done of integrated combatives and force-on-force has demonstrated to me that in the vast majority of cases, the defensive shoot is a dynamic one: there's lots of movement - both on my part as well as that of the opposition's. I have to consider that in the fight, I may not be able to stand and deliver in the "belt-buckle-to-belt-buckle" manner, as the late Louis Awerbuck notes.

And in those moments, be it I'm mid-step in a full-out-run or bladed completely to the side as I drop-step lunge or even if I'm in urban-prone on the ground...I have to understand what else I need to accomplish in order to make up for the fact that at that split second in time, my stance is compromised or even non-existent.
Click to expand...

Another nice informative article. I am afraid I don't possess that level of skill which was impressive.
 
^ And that's no joke!

Definitely, physical limitations from either age and/or previous (if not outright active) injuries comes into play, here.
 
Stance is important for target shooting. Self defense is another thing entirely. That's not to say I don't think you should be consistent in your grip and your stance.
 
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