Often times we focus on our two-hand, or freestyle shooting, but we neglect our one-handed shooting, that’s with either our strong hand or our support hand or weak hand.  

This is a good skill to practice for competition and self-defense, and it's what we are going to be talking about in today’s Pro Tip, but we are going to start with grip.

The first thing is how important it is to get nice and high grip along the back of the gun. The lower you are, the more that gun is going to recoil in your hand and when you are shooting with one hand you’ll definitely feel it. So get nice and high along the back of the gun.

Now, let's extend out onto the target. A lot of people like to keep their front sight straight up and down and vertical and this is fine for a great sight picture, but it makes your wrist a pretty significant week point, and that recoil is going to snap straight up and down.

If you employ a little bit of a cant, you can engage the muscles in your forearm and your shoulder.

Finally, what do you do with the empty hand? You can’t leave it swinging around, because it is going to affect your sight picture on target.

Bullseye shooters will stick it in their pocket, maybe at their waist, but I like to bring mine straight to my chest.

Now let's talk about stance. I’ve been using my strong hand this whole time. You’ll notice my right leg is forward. Right hand, right leg. I’m leading and driving into the target just like so.

It’s the opposite for your weak hand, and while we are talking about the weak hand, let's talk about transfers. First and foremost, you want a nice high grip on the gun, keep it maintained with your trigger finger straight and off the trigger. The same is going to apply for this hand as well keeping it open and ready to receive the pistol. Again straight trigger finger.

I’m going to transfer the gun focusing on a good grip, finger straight, until I am on target. When you practice hand-to-hand transfers, remember it is not a speed drill.

Your focus should be on safety and a smooth transfer with a secure grip every time.

Looking at the target can give us a lot of insight into what’s happening while we are shooting. Regardless of whether you’re a right handed shooter or a left handed shooters, when you’re shooting with your right hand and you see the hits on the left side of the target, or if you’re shooting with your left hand and see them on the right side of the target, that’s going to indicate a problem with your trigger control or even a flinch. So the target is going to give you a lot of feedback to help you diagnose those problems.

When practicing target to target transitions you will want to move the gun towards the center of your body. When I am shooting with the right hand I will shoot right then left. When it's left, I'll shoot left then right.

You will want to practice these skills along with all of the others that we have addressed in this Pro Tip to be more proficient for both personal protection and in competition. Until next time be safe and have fun.

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