Why do Olympic air gun shooters grip their guns so awkwardly?

[PirateJohn]

Maybe post this in the rifle board and not the pistol board.

[Vadym]

Why

cause

Olympic air gun shooters

[seamaster]

He is shooting pistol as if shooting a rifle, cheek to the butt plate. Why don’t you try it out. You might like it enough to be your preferred hold. Make sure your eyes are looking straight forward though, not canted. Pistol UP to your eye sight, not eyes sight down to pistol line.

[Steevyg]

Looks like he’s stabilising his shoulder with his cheek!

[-TT-]

That's a free pistol, not an airgun. Free pistols are basically tiny rifles, and this makes perfect sense. It's problematic for rapidfire maybe.

Grip the way it works for you. Just remember, very few of us are 20 year old olympians. :)

[Vadym]

That's a free pistol, not an airgun. Free pistols are basically tiny rifles, and this makes perfect sense. It's problematic for rapidfire maybe.

Oh, really? Let's look closer

[william]

The more you can rely on bones, cartilage & ligament; the less on muscles & tendons, the better.

Of course if somebody is just looking for an argument, perhaps we can examine "What color is the sky?"

[PirateJohn]

That bottom picture looks like somebody assembled his body parts wrong

[william]

That bottom picture looks like somebody assembled his body parts wrong

I'm sure the Ukrainian team doctors are reassembling his elbow at this very moment. Wouldn't want good performance to get in the way of good looks, would we?

[sparky]

The more you can rely on bones, cartilage & ligament; the less on muscles & tendons, the better.

Of course if somebody is just looking for an argument, perhaps we can examine "What color is the sky?"

Which makes sense, but when I tried raising my shoulder to my cheek, I found that I was using a lot more muscle that I had to keep tense to hold my arm up in place that high. My shoulder would tire out much quicker than simply holding it out. Holding my arm out with out raising it seems to result in much less tension for me.

[High Left]

I've seen a US team shooter using a position like that. Looks incredibly awkward, and painful, but if you're young enough to manage it ...

Probably not reasonable with a 45? So those of us that want to shoot both disciplines, 'pistol shooting', and Neanderthal rock throwing, there's got to be a compromise.

[Xman]

I've seen a US team shooter using a position like that. Looks incredibly awkward, and painful, but if you're young enough to manage it ...

Probably not reasonable with a 45? So those of us that want to shoot both disciplines, 'pistol shooting', and Neanderthal rock throwing, there's got to be a compromise.

Jon Shue 45 pistol champion, the guy with THE beard.

https://thecmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2 ... etin_w.pdf