TargetTalk

A very recognised athlete in the country i live got me sceptical… its been 3-4 months im practising and in a conversation we had he told me that there is no need to follow through at this point which is totally opposite on what my trainer has told me…
But his arguments where strong….

Are you doing everything else right so you know your follow through is right too?
Do you know how to stand properly, how to raise your arm properly, how to pull the trigger properly…. So everything is ready to start training your eye to “follow through….” And create muscle memory on…..what? All the wrong things you are doing?

So he got me very sceptical…. I think he is right….

What do you guys think?

Doesnt he have a point when he says that you need to train everything else in a certain level and THEN start to train the following through procedure?

I would like to see what you guys think of that…thanks in advance….

This is my current level btw…

Try it and find out if it’s working for you.

If you're "ambushing" the bull as it wanders by, I don't think follow-thru will help much.
Some guys use a ridiculously long follow-thru: several seconds. That MAY help.
What you're looking for is steady hold with the shot breaking with no movement during that hold.
Analyze your shot during follow-thru, which should only take a short time.

If you don't follow through, at least a bit, you will end up anticipating the shot release and relaxing your locks and hold too early.

If you ever want to shoot sustained fire (like in standard pistol), you need to avoid relaxing as soon as the shot breaks. That muscle memory will be hard to break. We start students out with air pistol, but they are all expected to advance to shooting Standard & Sport. The recoil of an air pistol is pretty small, but you want to take at least as much time as is required to realign your sights as if you are going to take another shot.

The shots off to the left (assuming you are right handed) are most likely anticipating the shot and applying finger tip pressure.

"Don't need to follow through"... try that in golf, or baseball or hockey, or any sport and tell me how that works out. (did the sarcasm come through???)

You dont HAVE to follow through, but youll be a better shooter if you do.

No shot release was EVER improved by not following through!

Guys im not sure some of you understood what i wrote… i never said that follow through is not necessary… i said that maybe its not necessary at the first steps of a shooter cause he will train wrongly the muscle memory….

You ARE creating muscle memory with every press of the trigger regardless of if you are consciously focusing on it or not. I would argue that not being aware of it during training WILL create muscle memory. But it might not be the memory you want it to have.

I had a similar experience in my own shooting development. I was shooting "master" class scores in Bullseye. I took a clinic from a multiple time national champion and his coach. Thier methods were very different than what is traditionally taught. My thinking was similar to yours. "He wins so what he's doing must be right". I adopted his methods religiously for a year. At the end of the year my scores had dropped a full class and I was so frustrated I quit shooting for two years and almost sold my guns.

I decided to go back to the beginning with the "old way" and after a few years, I am now about to break into "high master" class.

My lesson... just because it works for someone doesn't mean it will work for anyone else. If you want to try it, your an adult, feel free. I have learned my lesson.

Guys..thank you for all your valuable answers… helped me a lot…

Following through can't possibly cause any cause any negatives, it costs you one second per shot. Seems foolish to "gamble" with eliminating the practice.