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Training the other hand

Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2017 2:58 pm
by Kifsif
Whatever I have read about training the other hand is about physical training.
For example holding a pistol in the other hand (2-3 min x 4-5 times).

But what troubles me is whether there is a resource for the training of the brain here.
I mean that if we perform ordinary shooting exercises holding the pistol in the other hand, we can train movement co-ordination, fine motor skills, and maybe the vestibular system. And then the trained central nervous system will better act during our ordinary shooting.

In other words whether we should include dry fire and 60 shots to the target for the other hand?

If it can develop a sportsman, I'd made another grip - for a leftie.

Re: Training the other hand

Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2017 3:37 pm
by AlexFromPardini
Kifsif,
It does in fact help. Though training it to the full extent as you are mentioning will be a waste of time. For my training, for every 5 lifts I do, I do one with the left hand. There is definitely a benefit in terms of coordination.

Beyond that I would not recommend going too much in to it. Imagine, doing exactly the same shooting for both arms is just taking away time from your dominant hand. When doing the non-dominant hand, make sure you are giving the exercise your full attention, not just lifting and not thinking about it.

Re: Training the other hand

Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2017 4:02 pm
by Kifsif
Should I make a grip for a leftie? Or just holding my ordinary grip in the left hand will be enough?

Re: Training the other hand

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2017 4:36 pm
by AlexFromPardini
Kifsif wrote:Should I make a grip for a leftie? Or just holding my ordinary grip in the left hand will be enough?
Definitely have a grip for the leftie so you can shoot it as you normally would.

Re: Training the other hand

Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2017 8:22 am
by DFWdude
Just call me old school (or even very old school). But my non-shooting hand gets zero shooting training (on the trigger). At most, I do train it to repeatably find it's place in a pocket, or hung on a belt loop, then fall limp, while shooting.

I fully understand the value of balancing muscle tone between the arms. If that is the goal, then simple hand weights can help. But teaching your off-hand to shoot the pistol doesn't make a lot of sense to me, since you are not actually training a "mirror image" by using ALL the attributes of same, such as mirror position training, non-dominant eye training (to be dominant), etc.

I'm the first to admit that (overall) muscle tone training is important. But I don't see it as an interchangeable goal.