Free pistol arm/head positioning

[Invictus87]

I've noticed while watching some of the Olympic and World Cup videos, there seem to be two basic forms. One has the head upright, with the arm angled up slightly, to bring the sights up to eye level. The other seems to keep the arm straight out, with the head tilted down and forward. Is there an advantage to one over the other?
Also, most seem to keep the arm closed slightly to the chest, maybe 165 degrees, as opposed to straight out (180 degrees).
If my elbow was a hinge, I shoot with it where gravity has it locked open, with the "hinge pin" parallel to the ground. Maybe it's just the camera angle, but they seem to keep it more upright. Am I all wrong? The only people at my range who shoot free pistol are the guys who think mine look cool, and I let them try a few rounds through mine, so it's not like I can get any advice there. I've only shot one free pistol match, that was the Lobster Match in Scarborough, ME. I think I got a 453 or something like that, which is not where I want to be.

[ScottSimmonds]

My approach... Stand comfortably, feet under shoulders, arms at sides, raise both arms up as if to hug a child. Drop your non-shooting hand. Where your shooting hand is now is roughly your natural point of aim. Shift rear foot to put you on the target. Grip gun, raise up onto target. Hold comfortably. Close eyes for count of 5 - open. If you are still on the target you are set. If no, adjust with rear foot.

I too have noticed that most of the top shooters are almost perpendicular to the target. When I push myself into that position I fatigue faster and miss more often.

Others will correct me - helping invictus and me.

[RobStubbs]

You are right in that there are two distinct styles. In general you'll see either the straight style or the head down shoulder up style. My feeling is there's minimal difference between the two and the shoulder up head down is more to do with better recoil absorption. So you may well find the shooters (and nations they come from) shoot a lot with bigger guns as well and in rapid fire or rapid style events where they need to get back on aim as soon as possible after shot release. People generally then use a very similar stance for all their shooting.

The same with most things in shooting, there are some technically better positions, but over riding that is shooter comfort and ability to adopt said positions. Your skeletal anatomy dictates what you can and cant do, and of course you need to take into account all other aspects of your physiology to come up with the best settings for you. It's no good for example standing sideways on if your head and neck cant move to that position, as you'll just end up looking through the side of your eyeball or worse still do yourself an injury !

You really need to work with a competent coach to work out exactly how best to stand and then how to get the best out of you.

I should add if you look at the ISSF academy, e-learning stuff, there's some great advice on all things pistol shooting.

Rob.