Right-Hand Pistol Flinch: Twelve years of Indoor Target Pistol Shooter Training & E.L.P. Digital Slow Motion Video Results. This data also includes over 1200 students from highschool to agency professionals.
Attachment
Right Hand Only Shooting Issues, By 'O-Clock' Sector Locations
12 O-Clock; Front Post / Gun Rise and/or Rear Sight Lowered.
- Front Post Rise: Sight alignment becomes even more important as the distance between the front and rear sights get closer. During the shooting process, keeping the front sight in the same position shot after shot becomes even more difficult; however the primary reason for a rising front sight is due to the shooter loosing focus on where the front sight is in relationship to the rear sight, so this becomes a tendency to tip the gun back to see the front sight better. Unfortunately at that point in the aiming process the trigger travel is typically already almost complete causing a premature discharge with the front sight still too high.
- Gun Rise: This is not the same as the front post rise, instead this is where the entire gun is raised as part of a knee-jerk reaction to a tired –arm or drooping-arm over correction.
- Rear Sight Lowered: This is simply the reverse of the Front Post Rise as part of the pre-fire sight alignment during the final portion of the trigger travel sequence.
- GENERAL NOTE: As the illustration shows, the Severity of these shooting issues is typically the least from center target. All of these issues are also common evidence of the shooter having week and/or tired arms, and in several cases caused by vision issues where the shooter is focusing on front to rear sight alignment as it relates to the target. This has become even more notable with the new blended multi-focal or bi-focal glasses even more than simply shooters with poor eyesight. Vision problems are best solved by working with an optometrist, and vision verification testing at pistol sight distance clarity. As for Gun Rise, weight practice to strengthen those arm muscles is the simplest way, and consciously increasing handgrip resulting in arm mussel tension when aiming.
2 O-Clock; Trigger Finger Pull and/or Grip Fingers Loosen.
- Trigger Finger Pull: In most of these cases this issue is caused by the trigger finger being too far into / onto the trigger itself rather than having just the trigger finger 'pad' on the center of the trigger. This results in the natural movement of the trigger finger to the right, or to the palm, as it must do when it squeezes closed to pull the trigger. A good thing to see/try is to hold your hand in the gun holding position (NO GUN) and observe what happens when you point then close your first finger (trigger finger); then in the same position, try and move the trigger finger straight back representing the process of pulling a trigger. This is unexpectedly hard, yet you can see it is much easier to move just the 'pad' in a straight line and even easier if it is resting on a fixed trigger travel.
- Grip Fingers Loosen: If the shooter's primary gripping fingers (Upper Set) are notably loosened from a stronger grip at the time of firing, the physical reaction is to cause the gun to rise toward the 2-o-clock position: However a very controlled slight release of pressure to find that 'steady hand' squeeze point is part of expert shooting practices, yet an uncontrolled fist release at the wrong time will ensure a miss at 2-o-clock.
- GENERAL NOTE: As the illustration shows, the Severity of these shooting issues is typically the least from center target. Some other actions affecting the lower left portion of the pistol, and poor vision can also effect a miss at 2-o-clock, but these are not the place to start correcting and are solved as part of several other issues noted here.
3 O-Clock; Thumbing and/or Grip Loosen and/or Arm Drift.
- Thumbing: The effect of Thumbing can be very subtle, or all the way to significant. The first thing to notice has the most affect on shooting is what is lovingly called the 'Thumb-Brake'. The Thumb-Brake is where the thumb is almost pointing up and called the 'High-Thumb', also in some cases the shooter's thumb actually touches the slide on an automatic pistol enough to cause miss-feeds and stovepipes. Why is the High-Thumb the worst of all the thumbing issues, simply stated the higher the thumb on the side of the pistol the greater leverage/fulcrum it has on the position of the pistol during the firing/shooting process.
- Grip Loosen: If the shooter's lower gripping fingers (Lower Set) are notably loosened from a stronger grip at the time of firing, the physical reaction is to cause the gun to travel toward the right 3-o-clock position: However a very controlled slight release of pressure to find that 'steady hand' squeeze point is part of expert shooting practices, yet an uncontrolled fist release at the wrong time will also ensure a miss at 3-o-clock.
- Arm Drift: The physical strength of an 'un-trained' right arm in the pistol shooting position is to the right because all the forearm muscles are on that right/outer side. As the handgrip is loosened, so is the forearm muscle strength causing the right arm to drift to the right. No mater how fast the shooter treys to compensated the pistol sight alignment; the drift will win as the process of visual drift begins to amplify the original arm drift problem just making it worse. This is common for physically week shooters, and shooters with eye and/or balance issues. This can be verified and isolated for the specific root cause by having the shooter lean only the hip or back of shoulder against an upright steady post of any sort.
- GENERAL NOTE: As the illustration shows, the Severity of these shooting issues typically has a notable but low stray from center target. Sever Thrumming is rare and obvious if the trainer watches the shooter and NOT the target, also is verifiable by a secret loading of, or not loading the pistol without the shooter knowing if the pistol is loaded or not. This should be done often without removing the round. And, if the trigger has a notable 'post fire' release over-travel; that sudden free trigger travel will jerk the barrel to the right, the resulting miss will be to the 3-Oclock sector if the grip is not strong enough to mute the movement.
5 O-Clock; Tighten Lower Grip Fingers and/or Wrist Flinch.
- Tighten Lower Grip Fingers: In extreme cases this can also be caused by flinching the lower grip fingers during the trigger pull process and the severity of the 'out-of-center location of the shot will reflect this, although most of these misses are the result of tightening the lower gripping fingers, especially if the pistol grip allows for the little finger gripping opposed to some of the short grip pistols. As part of extreme target training, shooters with this issue are taught to hold the pistol with only the upper two set of gripping fingers leaving the little finger out loose.
- Wrist Flinch: Two primary reasons were found for this issue. The first is simply a shooter flinching with the wrist to the 5-o-clock direction rather than the typical 7-o-clock direction: The second primary reason is the physical relationship of the shooters hand angle and the shooter's body, very similar to the preferred physical position of a golf club to the golfer is different between golfers.
- GENERAL NOTE: As the illustration shows, the Severity of these shooting issues typically has a notable but middle of the road strays from center target.
6 O-Clock; Front Post Lower and/or Lower Grip Tighten With Palm Slip.
- Front Post Lower: In most cases this is the result of vision issues involving the focus between the three sighting alignment points, the rear sight, front sight and of course the target. The shooter is trying to see more of the target and the front sight simply gets in the way so the automatic mental tendency for the shooter is to lower the front sight and eye-bounce between the rear sight and the target for clarity. A typical verification of this is when the freehand standing shooter is very good with an open sight rifle hitting targets at hundreds of yards; and the shooter has not had an eye exam for several years.
- Lower Grip Tighten With Palm Slip: A number of shooters do not grip the pistol the same way, or proper way, resulting in the shooter adjusting the pistol hold during the shooting process. Even more detrimental are those shooters that change their grip during the trigger cycle as they tighten their grip strength causing the lower portion of the pistol grip to slip down in their lower palm and causing the trigger to move and fire the gun while the gun and bullet go down. Like the golf club spinning in the golfer's hand resulting in the ball goes the same way the grip spins.
- GENERAL NOTE: As the illustration shows, the Severity of these shooting issues is typically very notably from center target and hard to catch because it is inconsistent as is the shooter's hold.
7 O-Clock; Full Flinch and/or Tighten Upper Grip Fingers.
- Full Flinch: A flinch is the frightened anticipation of the shot, although understanding that there are two primary reasons for flinching.
1) The first flinch is the result of what has been called the 'Snake in the Jar' flinch as part of
human nature. Even though you may have done this for the first time most people flinch, and
did you know that if blindfolded and know nothing about why, when your hand is placed ageist
a jar you don't pull back till the snake hits the jar; at that point auto flinch takes over because
of the shock of something hitting the jar, because the physical muscle flinches. This kind of
flinch is frequently caused by shooters that have been given a larger caliber gun before they
have worked up to it. This is especially notable when a shooter familiar with small caliber
target shooting is given, for the first, time a larger caliber because the first shot has no flinch,
yet the second shot does.
2) The second flinch is caused by the shooter trying to 'Catch The Target' as the sights pass over
or by the target (Or the target passes by the pistol sights). Several reasons are responsible for
this 'Catch The Target' flinch with the biggest one being simply the lack of practiced training
with the pistol in question. The 'Catch The Target' flinch is followed closely by a combination
of the wrist or arm muscles simply going limp or tightening as if a small 'Turrets Jerk'. The
'Turrets Jerk' can be solved in most cases by adjusting the position of the pistol as it relates to
the body angle, and/or weight lifting in the pistol shooting position cycle over time at twice
the pistol weight.
- Tighten Upper Grip Fingers: When done quickly as part of the shooter's realization that the grip on the pistol might be too light combined with the body's nerves system's 'Snake-In-A-Jar' defensive reaction at the instant, or just before, the pistol fires is the definition of a true flinch. T
his issue is best countered in the same way a musician gets to play at Carnegie Hall, practice. Practice with live ammunition when you can afford it or primed only brass one at a time to cost less yet get the best bang for the buck.
- GENERAL NOTE: As the illustration shows, the Severity of these shooting issues can typically be the furthest from center target. An assumption must be noted here, and that is that the shooter has been taught how to properly hold (tight) the pistol no matter what caliber. A general solution for this category, and will only help all others, is to force fire more and more rounds as much as possible. If this is a center fire pistol and to save the cost of massive shooting, load primers only into clean brass loading and shooting one hand inserted round into the barrel at a time.
9 O-Clock; Trigger Finger Push and/or Grip Tighten and/or Arm Drift.
- Trigger Finger Push: In most of these cases this issue is caused by the trigger finger being too far into the finger joint onto the trigger itself rather than having just the trigger finger 'pad' on the center of the trigger. This results in the natural movement of the trigger finger to the left away from the palm, as it must do when it squeezes closed to pull the trigger the second joint pushes the pistol away from the hand.
A good thing to see/try is to hold your hand in the gun holding position (NO GUN) and observe
what happens when you point then close your first finger (trigger finger); then in the same
position, try and move the trigger finger straight back representing the process of pulling a trigger.
This is unexpectedly hard, yet you can see it is much easier to move just the 'pad' in a straight line
and even easier if it is resting on a fixed trigger travel.
- Grip Tighten: The natural tendency, when the grip on the pistol is tightened is that the pistol twists counter clockwise to the left. If this tightening takes placed in a jerky manner during the shooting cycle, specifically at the point of the trigger firing.
- Arm Drift: As part of the 'Grip Tightening' process, the physical control of an 'un-trained' right arm in the pistol shooting position is to move to the left; and so the opposite effect of '3-o-clock Arm Drift' caused by loosening the grip on the pistol.
No mater how fast the shooter tries to compensated the pistol sight alignment; the drift will win as
the process of visual drift begins to amplify the original arm drift problem just making it worse.
This is common for physically week shooters, and shooters with eye and/or balance issues. As with any 'Arm Drift' This can be verified and isolated for the specific root cause by having the shooter lean only the hip or back of shoulder against an upright steady post of any sort.
- GENERAL NOTE: As the illustration shows, the Severity of these shooting issues typically has a notable but middle of the road strays from center target.
10 O-Clock; Healing and/or Trigger Finger Jerk Up.
- Healing: The term healing is simply a term resulting from grip tightening at the point of firing the pistol. The natural effect of tightening a strong hand when gripping a pistol results in the pistol aim rising to the left and is reflected in the 10-o-clock section of the target.
- Trigger Finger Jerk Up: The trigger finger is too high on the trigger, and this can be observed/noted by the trigger finger sliding down along the trigger face. T
his also is amplified by the trigger finger being placed too far into the trigger and causes the trigger finger joint coming in contact with the trigger that magnifies the push into the upper left 10 o-clock section of the target.
- GENERAL NOTE: As the illustration shows, the Severity of these shooting issues is typically the least from center target.
Attachment
Right Hand Only Shooting Issues, By 'O-Clock' Sector Locations
12 O-Clock; Front Post / Gun Rise and/or Rear Sight Lowered.
- Front Post Rise: Sight alignment becomes even more important as the distance between the front and rear sights get closer. During the shooting process, keeping the front sight in the same position shot after shot becomes even more difficult; however the primary reason for a rising front sight is due to the shooter loosing focus on where the front sight is in relationship to the rear sight, so this becomes a tendency to tip the gun back to see the front sight better. Unfortunately at that point in the aiming process the trigger travel is typically already almost complete causing a premature discharge with the front sight still too high.
- Gun Rise: This is not the same as the front post rise, instead this is where the entire gun is raised as part of a knee-jerk reaction to a tired –arm or drooping-arm over correction.
- Rear Sight Lowered: This is simply the reverse of the Front Post Rise as part of the pre-fire sight alignment during the final portion of the trigger travel sequence.
- GENERAL NOTE: As the illustration shows, the Severity of these shooting issues is typically the least from center target. All of these issues are also common evidence of the shooter having week and/or tired arms, and in several cases caused by vision issues where the shooter is focusing on front to rear sight alignment as it relates to the target. This has become even more notable with the new blended multi-focal or bi-focal glasses even more than simply shooters with poor eyesight. Vision problems are best solved by working with an optometrist, and vision verification testing at pistol sight distance clarity. As for Gun Rise, weight practice to strengthen those arm muscles is the simplest way, and consciously increasing handgrip resulting in arm mussel tension when aiming.
2 O-Clock; Trigger Finger Pull and/or Grip Fingers Loosen.
- Trigger Finger Pull: In most of these cases this issue is caused by the trigger finger being too far into / onto the trigger itself rather than having just the trigger finger 'pad' on the center of the trigger. This results in the natural movement of the trigger finger to the right, or to the palm, as it must do when it squeezes closed to pull the trigger. A good thing to see/try is to hold your hand in the gun holding position (NO GUN) and observe what happens when you point then close your first finger (trigger finger); then in the same position, try and move the trigger finger straight back representing the process of pulling a trigger. This is unexpectedly hard, yet you can see it is much easier to move just the 'pad' in a straight line and even easier if it is resting on a fixed trigger travel.
- Grip Fingers Loosen: If the shooter's primary gripping fingers (Upper Set) are notably loosened from a stronger grip at the time of firing, the physical reaction is to cause the gun to rise toward the 2-o-clock position: However a very controlled slight release of pressure to find that 'steady hand' squeeze point is part of expert shooting practices, yet an uncontrolled fist release at the wrong time will ensure a miss at 2-o-clock.
- GENERAL NOTE: As the illustration shows, the Severity of these shooting issues is typically the least from center target. Some other actions affecting the lower left portion of the pistol, and poor vision can also effect a miss at 2-o-clock, but these are not the place to start correcting and are solved as part of several other issues noted here.
3 O-Clock; Thumbing and/or Grip Loosen and/or Arm Drift.
- Thumbing: The effect of Thumbing can be very subtle, or all the way to significant. The first thing to notice has the most affect on shooting is what is lovingly called the 'Thumb-Brake'. The Thumb-Brake is where the thumb is almost pointing up and called the 'High-Thumb', also in some cases the shooter's thumb actually touches the slide on an automatic pistol enough to cause miss-feeds and stovepipes. Why is the High-Thumb the worst of all the thumbing issues, simply stated the higher the thumb on the side of the pistol the greater leverage/fulcrum it has on the position of the pistol during the firing/shooting process.
- Grip Loosen: If the shooter's lower gripping fingers (Lower Set) are notably loosened from a stronger grip at the time of firing, the physical reaction is to cause the gun to travel toward the right 3-o-clock position: However a very controlled slight release of pressure to find that 'steady hand' squeeze point is part of expert shooting practices, yet an uncontrolled fist release at the wrong time will also ensure a miss at 3-o-clock.
- Arm Drift: The physical strength of an 'un-trained' right arm in the pistol shooting position is to the right because all the forearm muscles are on that right/outer side. As the handgrip is loosened, so is the forearm muscle strength causing the right arm to drift to the right. No mater how fast the shooter treys to compensated the pistol sight alignment; the drift will win as the process of visual drift begins to amplify the original arm drift problem just making it worse. This is common for physically week shooters, and shooters with eye and/or balance issues. This can be verified and isolated for the specific root cause by having the shooter lean only the hip or back of shoulder against an upright steady post of any sort.
- GENERAL NOTE: As the illustration shows, the Severity of these shooting issues typically has a notable but low stray from center target. Sever Thrumming is rare and obvious if the trainer watches the shooter and NOT the target, also is verifiable by a secret loading of, or not loading the pistol without the shooter knowing if the pistol is loaded or not. This should be done often without removing the round. And, if the trigger has a notable 'post fire' release over-travel; that sudden free trigger travel will jerk the barrel to the right, the resulting miss will be to the 3-Oclock sector if the grip is not strong enough to mute the movement.
5 O-Clock; Tighten Lower Grip Fingers and/or Wrist Flinch.
- Tighten Lower Grip Fingers: In extreme cases this can also be caused by flinching the lower grip fingers during the trigger pull process and the severity of the 'out-of-center location of the shot will reflect this, although most of these misses are the result of tightening the lower gripping fingers, especially if the pistol grip allows for the little finger gripping opposed to some of the short grip pistols. As part of extreme target training, shooters with this issue are taught to hold the pistol with only the upper two set of gripping fingers leaving the little finger out loose.
- Wrist Flinch: Two primary reasons were found for this issue. The first is simply a shooter flinching with the wrist to the 5-o-clock direction rather than the typical 7-o-clock direction: The second primary reason is the physical relationship of the shooters hand angle and the shooter's body, very similar to the preferred physical position of a golf club to the golfer is different between golfers.
- GENERAL NOTE: As the illustration shows, the Severity of these shooting issues typically has a notable but middle of the road strays from center target.
6 O-Clock; Front Post Lower and/or Lower Grip Tighten With Palm Slip.
- Front Post Lower: In most cases this is the result of vision issues involving the focus between the three sighting alignment points, the rear sight, front sight and of course the target. The shooter is trying to see more of the target and the front sight simply gets in the way so the automatic mental tendency for the shooter is to lower the front sight and eye-bounce between the rear sight and the target for clarity. A typical verification of this is when the freehand standing shooter is very good with an open sight rifle hitting targets at hundreds of yards; and the shooter has not had an eye exam for several years.
- Lower Grip Tighten With Palm Slip: A number of shooters do not grip the pistol the same way, or proper way, resulting in the shooter adjusting the pistol hold during the shooting process. Even more detrimental are those shooters that change their grip during the trigger cycle as they tighten their grip strength causing the lower portion of the pistol grip to slip down in their lower palm and causing the trigger to move and fire the gun while the gun and bullet go down. Like the golf club spinning in the golfer's hand resulting in the ball goes the same way the grip spins.
- GENERAL NOTE: As the illustration shows, the Severity of these shooting issues is typically very notably from center target and hard to catch because it is inconsistent as is the shooter's hold.
7 O-Clock; Full Flinch and/or Tighten Upper Grip Fingers.
- Full Flinch: A flinch is the frightened anticipation of the shot, although understanding that there are two primary reasons for flinching.
1) The first flinch is the result of what has been called the 'Snake in the Jar' flinch as part of
human nature. Even though you may have done this for the first time most people flinch, and
did you know that if blindfolded and know nothing about why, when your hand is placed ageist
a jar you don't pull back till the snake hits the jar; at that point auto flinch takes over because
of the shock of something hitting the jar, because the physical muscle flinches. This kind of
flinch is frequently caused by shooters that have been given a larger caliber gun before they
have worked up to it. This is especially notable when a shooter familiar with small caliber
target shooting is given, for the first, time a larger caliber because the first shot has no flinch,
yet the second shot does.
2) The second flinch is caused by the shooter trying to 'Catch The Target' as the sights pass over
or by the target (Or the target passes by the pistol sights). Several reasons are responsible for
this 'Catch The Target' flinch with the biggest one being simply the lack of practiced training
with the pistol in question. The 'Catch The Target' flinch is followed closely by a combination
of the wrist or arm muscles simply going limp or tightening as if a small 'Turrets Jerk'. The
'Turrets Jerk' can be solved in most cases by adjusting the position of the pistol as it relates to
the body angle, and/or weight lifting in the pistol shooting position cycle over time at twice
the pistol weight.
- Tighten Upper Grip Fingers: When done quickly as part of the shooter's realization that the grip on the pistol might be too light combined with the body's nerves system's 'Snake-In-A-Jar' defensive reaction at the instant, or just before, the pistol fires is the definition of a true flinch. T
his issue is best countered in the same way a musician gets to play at Carnegie Hall, practice. Practice with live ammunition when you can afford it or primed only brass one at a time to cost less yet get the best bang for the buck.
- GENERAL NOTE: As the illustration shows, the Severity of these shooting issues can typically be the furthest from center target. An assumption must be noted here, and that is that the shooter has been taught how to properly hold (tight) the pistol no matter what caliber. A general solution for this category, and will only help all others, is to force fire more and more rounds as much as possible. If this is a center fire pistol and to save the cost of massive shooting, load primers only into clean brass loading and shooting one hand inserted round into the barrel at a time.
9 O-Clock; Trigger Finger Push and/or Grip Tighten and/or Arm Drift.
- Trigger Finger Push: In most of these cases this issue is caused by the trigger finger being too far into the finger joint onto the trigger itself rather than having just the trigger finger 'pad' on the center of the trigger. This results in the natural movement of the trigger finger to the left away from the palm, as it must do when it squeezes closed to pull the trigger the second joint pushes the pistol away from the hand.
A good thing to see/try is to hold your hand in the gun holding position (NO GUN) and observe
what happens when you point then close your first finger (trigger finger); then in the same
position, try and move the trigger finger straight back representing the process of pulling a trigger.
This is unexpectedly hard, yet you can see it is much easier to move just the 'pad' in a straight line
and even easier if it is resting on a fixed trigger travel.
- Grip Tighten: The natural tendency, when the grip on the pistol is tightened is that the pistol twists counter clockwise to the left. If this tightening takes placed in a jerky manner during the shooting cycle, specifically at the point of the trigger firing.
- Arm Drift: As part of the 'Grip Tightening' process, the physical control of an 'un-trained' right arm in the pistol shooting position is to move to the left; and so the opposite effect of '3-o-clock Arm Drift' caused by loosening the grip on the pistol.
No mater how fast the shooter tries to compensated the pistol sight alignment; the drift will win as
the process of visual drift begins to amplify the original arm drift problem just making it worse.
This is common for physically week shooters, and shooters with eye and/or balance issues. As with any 'Arm Drift' This can be verified and isolated for the specific root cause by having the shooter lean only the hip or back of shoulder against an upright steady post of any sort.
- GENERAL NOTE: As the illustration shows, the Severity of these shooting issues typically has a notable but middle of the road strays from center target.
10 O-Clock; Healing and/or Trigger Finger Jerk Up.
- Healing: The term healing is simply a term resulting from grip tightening at the point of firing the pistol. The natural effect of tightening a strong hand when gripping a pistol results in the pistol aim rising to the left and is reflected in the 10-o-clock section of the target.
- Trigger Finger Jerk Up: The trigger finger is too high on the trigger, and this can be observed/noted by the trigger finger sliding down along the trigger face. T
his also is amplified by the trigger finger being placed too far into the trigger and causes the trigger finger joint coming in contact with the trigger that magnifies the push into the upper left 10 o-clock section of the target.
- GENERAL NOTE: As the illustration shows, the Severity of these shooting issues is typically the least from center target.
