Being coachless since 1976, I have spent years shooting and striving for my own description of my shot process. Turns out I am just repeating what has been said by the greats all the time. What I have gained, is my own understanding of what they always have said.
The late great Don Nygord has a good article "Releasing the Shot"
http://home.comcast.net/~k2a/nygord.html
Piddubnyy - For me, aim and stability are one and the same thing. The best shooter is a vise - if we steady the pistol in a vise, the problem of aiming disappears. The shooter must turn into a vise, but this is not possible and we go back to the idea of compromise.
Blankenship - The experienced shooter has many shots break when the gun is almost motionless, and this is what the new shooter must be striving for in his performance. But when the gun still moves slightly he must accept this movement, always attempting to hold the weapon as still as it is possible for him to do so. As the new shooter progresses in his training, he will learn what movements he can expect and those that will cause a bad shot. The important thing to remember is that the shooter must always be trying to hold the weapon as still as he possibly can, with perfect sight alignment.
AMU - The greatest possible degree of equilibrium and stability of the shooter's body and weapon with the least possible strain on the shooter's muscular system, and the smallest movement possible of any part of the body, the shooting arm and the pistol.
Joyner - The theory of shooting is simple: You create a machine rest with your stance, grip and breath control. Then with the gun in the machine rest, you apply pressure directly to the rear until the hammer falls. In practice we sometimes find our machine rest wobbly because it has a brain and can count scores and anticipate wins. Through experience and practice you must make the brain machine-like also. …..The pistol arm should be extended directly toward the target. The wrist is locked without strain, (this requires practice), the elbow is locked also but with no sense of strain or tenseness. The gun and arm supported by the muscles on top of the shoulder, (the trapezius group). Try holding a ten or fifteen pound weight out in the firing position and feel the top of your shoulder where the arm joins and you will find the small hard muscles that support your gun arm. You should feel that the pistol is hanging from above, and not that you are pushing it up from below.
McMillan - When the pistol comes up on target, the wrist, elbow and shoulder of the shooting arm should be locked into one piece.
Toney - Hold this sight alignment as perfectly as possible and bring the complete sight picture to bear on the point of aim.
Young - Trigger control to me is the most difficult in the good shooting process as ideally it is the only movement one wants in firing a shot with all guns.
Reeves - You’ll that they boil down to basic marksmanship theory. Good sight alignment, steady aim, careful control of trigger movement and honest scoring. …..Consistent, uniform, scrupulously exacting sight alignment, building up the human being so he can hold that sight alignment against the smallest possible aiming point or area, and moving the trigger enough to fire the pistol with no practical amount of disturbance to the alignment of the pistol itself, these things are what count.
Tony ? - Two different mentors of mine have said that the (proper) grip is the entire foundation of any pistol shooting….. An excellent grip takes a lot of problems out of play and allows you to focus on trigger control. …..When you have a relatively fast and deliberate trigger pull, with a lot of other distractions out of the way, it's amazing what you can do by letting your subconscious go on autopilot. Master a good grip and it'll allow you the time and opportunity to experiment with different types of trigger executions.
Poppe - Don't jerk, don't flinch, don't heel, don't look at the target, and so on. Its no wonder that by the time we get done with the don'ts we can't pull the trigger. Just to touch on one point. Grip can go a long way to over come many of the problems. A list of the things a good firm grip can do for you.
1. Sight alignment
2. Maintain control timed and rapid fire
3. The firmer your grip the less wrist movement you have.
Steinbrecher - The main goal of a proper stance is to provide stable and consistent support for the entire body so that it can hold the gun as steady as possible as well as recover from recoil quickly with little movement. …..Like some other fundamentals, finding the stance that works for you is not given enough attention. But once found and habitualized, a proper stance becomes natural and automatic and leaves you free to concentrate on other things.