Firearms Stack Exchange Archive
What are the different pistol shooting stances?
- posted by: Greg Bahrey on 2011-11-10
- tagged:
pistols,technique,stance - score: 18
What pistol stances are there and what situations should they be used in?
Answer 503
- posted by: Bryson on 2011-11-10
- score: 18
#Isosceles
Named because the shooter’s arms, shoulders, and chest form an isosceles triangle. Most new shooters will take this stance instinctively, with the caveat being that they’ll lean back. Friends don’t let friends fire pistols leaning back. You do them a huge disservice by not correcting this before they ever fire their first round.
##Execution
- Shooter fully extends both arms toward target
- Shoulders are kept perpendicular to the target
- Both elbows are straightened, but not solidly locked out
- Shooter centers their weight neutrally
##Benefits
- Simplicity, speed
- Helps alleviate issues caused by your dominant eye being opposite your dominant hand
- Adds mobility: shooters can engage targets to the left or right of their initial target equally
##Negatives
- If not wearing armor, the shooter’s front is presented as a larger target
#Modern Isosceles
Currently the most popular fighting-gun pistol stance. Every professional LE/Mil trainer I know teaches it. This is for a reason: it’s an outstanding stance to use for firing a pistol. Also has the benefit of placing your armor plates perpendicular to the target, providing a wider area or coverage than a plate that is angled, and giving you a better chance to stop incoming rounds.
##Execution
- Shooter shifts their weight forward and stands more on the balls of their feet.
- Upper back and shoulders roll forward
- Shooter’s arms are in line with their shoulders
- Shooter’s head is more forward than in the traditional Isosceles
- Shooter must relax their shoulders to help in recoil absorption
##Benefits:
- Creates a strong support to help control recoil
- With the head forward, balance is further shifted forward, and the shooter is given a clearer view of the sights in relationship to the target.
- Solves the “problem” of muzzle flip associated with the Isosceles Stance.
- Simpler than the push/pull dynamic of a proper Weaver Stance
#Weaver
Kickin’ it old-school.
Weaver was developed by Deputy Sheriff Jack Weaver in the late 1950s. The intended purpose is to create isometric tension which should lessen and help to control recoil. This stance is definitely old, and has been dropped in favor of the isosceles for race guns and the modern isosceles for fighting guns.
##Execution
- Shooter’s strong-side elbow is straight, but not locked
- Shooter’s support-side elbow is bent straight down
- Shooter pushes forward with the strong-side hand, pulls with the support-side hand
##Negatives
- Shooter must maintain the push/pull to manage recoil, which will tire them more quickly
- Shooter presents a target on the oblique, which if wearing armor presents the unprotected, or “soft” areas of the sides and shoulders
- Shooters lose range-of-motion when transition to targets on their support side, as their feet are offset and their body is already turned
- Shooters must move their entire body to engage targets on their support side
- Shooters with differing dominant hand/dominant eye will never find a comfortable shooting position: you will either have to adjust the position of the gun to one side if you put the proper arm forward, or you will have to shoot with your strong side in support to line up with your dominant eye
#Chapman or Modified Weaver Identical to the Weaver but with one important difference: in Modified Weaver, the shooter locks their strong-side arm strait.
Answer 502
- posted by: Chris Upchurch on 2011-11-10
- score: 5
The more I shoot, and especially the more I teach people to shoot, the further away I move from the idea of ‘stance’, at least in terms of Weaver/Chapman/isosceles: a “put your feet here, hold your arms this way” sort of thing.
Rather than prescribing a specific stance, let’s look at what we need to effectively fight with a pistol (I primarily teach self-defense shooting, so that’s the lens I look at this through).
- Feet shoulder width apart, maybe a little wider
- One foot a little further forward than the other
- Knees bent to lower the center of gravity
- Lean your upper body forward a bit to absorb recoil and perhaps a physical impact from your adversary (not a radical lean, just enough to put your shoulders over your toes)
- Grasp the pistol in a proper two handed grip (a subject for another question)
-
Extend your arms and bring it up to eye level.
- Exactly how your arms are positioned is going to vary depending on your body type and the length of your arms - some folks will find it more comfortable to extend both arms as in the isosceles stance, some will lock their primary arm but keep the support bent as in the Chapman stance and some will leave both arms bent as in Weaver.
The goal is to provide solid support to the gun and eliminate tension as much as possible.
As you practice and get good at this, you should be able to flow to whatever shooting position is best for the situation at hand. For instance, as I do an angular search of a corner (sometimes called slicing the pie) I might start out in isosceles, which will gradually blend into more of a Chapman type stance to expose as little of myself as possible. As the angle gets more extreme, it will start to look a lot like Weaver, and if the space is really constricted I may end up in a modified version of Center Axis Relock. Then after I’m done with the corner, back to isosceles to address the next problem.
Answer 501
- posted by: Chris Agocs on 2011-11-10
- score: 1
This is a good article on the topic of stances. Your major stances are going to be the Weaver (and modified Weaver), and the Isosceles. The Weaver stance is all about using dynamic muscle tension to lock the pistol in place, and is going to be a little better for running and gunning (IDPA, ISPC, etc.). The Isosceles stance is a lot more about locking your joints in place, and will probably be better for target shooting.
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