I know I’m about to ruffle some feathers with this one, but hear me out because I’m going to present something that may help you out later on down the road if you ever need to defend yourself with your gun.
And as a disclaimer, this only applies for people who carry a gun or would use a gun in their home for self-defense.
That thing, is this: Your shooting stance won’t matter in an incident where you have to defend your life with your gun. It doesn’t matter because you may not have the time to get into it properly.
And because it won’t matter, because you won’t have time to adjust your feet, you need to practice shooting outside of your “shooting stance.”
You know the shooting stance, right? It’s the one we’ve all been told with your feet shoulder width apart, knees slightly bent, squared up on target (or one foot slightly back depending on how you were trained).
While this is good to practice and do, it has almost zero application to a real world self-defense scenario. The reasons why are hopefully obvious, but in case they’re not, let’s go through them right now.
Before I move on, I have to give credit where it is due and these are not my thoughts. These are actually the thoughts, or the paraphrased thoughts, of one named Chris Cerino. Cerino is a friend of mine and many people know him as the two time runner up on History Channel’s Top Shot shooting competition.
I’ve taken a class from him in the past, and these insights are basically his with some of my own thoughts sprinkled in. Trust me when I say this guy knows what he’s talking about.
Shooting outside of your stance:
Because you cannot guarantee that you’ll be able to get into your shooting stance in a defensive scenario, you should strive to practice at least some of the time without being in it.
The reason why, is because you need to get used to not being able to stop, make the (sometimes conscious) effort to separate your feet, and then begin to defend yourself.
The problem is that you never know when you’ll have to defend yourself. You cannot dictate to your attacker that he or she must wait so you can get into the right shooting position.
How to do it:
Next time you go to the range, put your feet together, draw your gun from your holster, and put some rounds on target.
Or, if you’re used to squaring up on your target, try shooting with one leg behind you.
Another thing you should practice, is shooting from cover or concealment. Or, at least simulating this the best you can if your range doesn’t allow for it.
Start to train your body that it doesn’t need to get into a specific position, because it may not have the time to get into that position on the day it actually matters.
What I’m not saying:
I’m not saying that you should stop using your shooting stance altogether. I still think that most of the time you should shoot the way you were trained because it helps to build upon your skills and shooting fundamentals.
What I am saying, is that sometimes it is beneficial to your training to train outside of your shooting stance.
Because, after all, each situation is going to be different, and you need to be as prepared as you can.
