TargetTalk

Hey everyone,

I have been diving into 10m air pistol shooting for a bit now. But I have hit a bit of a wall with my accuracy & I want to hear any advice.
Are there certain drills or exercises that you have found especially helpful for mastering these aspects? Also I have noticed my hand can get a little shaky on longer practice sessions is that something I just need to work through, or are there strategies to manage this better??

I am curious about equipment too. Would a slight adjustment in grip size or pistol weight make a difference in control and precision or is it more about building up technique over time?

Also i have check this article and resorese; https://targettalk.org/viewtopicblue-prism.php?t=44635 witch is good still need your advice

Thank you.

My first guess is that you may be gripping too tight and trying to CONTROL the pistol. That will make it move around a lot more than it should. This is a game of finesse, not strength. Do some dry firing and see just how light a grip you can use. If nothing else, it will be less tiring. We had a student whose pistol was jerking around very fast. We measured his grip force at around 9 pounds. When we got him to chill out, his groups were INSTANTLY cut in half.

Your grip should be relatively relaxed (~ 2 lbs of force). You want all the pressure parallel to the barrel, from the front strap into the heel of your hand. You do not need or want your thumb & fingertips applying pressure on the SIDES of the pistol. Any variation there will move the pistol sideways. The most consistent pressure you can apply with those is ZERO. Have someone watch, and it's quite likely your finger tips are turning white from the pressure.

For a month at least dry fire on a blank wall and shoot at blank targets and don't shoot at a target card, get that shot process to begin to be engrained and your brain used to just looking at the sights, Then when you do put a card up shoot exactly as you did on the blank stuff, then go back to dry fire and blank targets and get it into your subconscious even more. As above light touch on the grip, don't tune the second trigger stage too light and squeeez, squeeez and follow through 100% every shot, the progress is slow but it falls away fast if you do not keep at it, the road is long!

Go for it

I found useful information here.

https://www.champchoice.com/book-pistol ... 13-5000204

how do you lock the wrist if you don;t squeeze the grip?

Gwhite wrote: ↑Fri Oct 25, 2024 7:38 am My first guess is that you may be gripping too tight and trying to CONTROL the pistol. That will make it move around a lot more than it should. This is a game of finesse, not strength. Do some dry firing and see just how light a grip you can use. If nothing else, it will be less tiring. We had a student whose pistol was jerking around very fast. We measured his grip force at around 9 pounds. When we got him to chill out, his groups were INSTANTLY cut in half.

Your grip should be relatively relaxed (~ 2 lbs of force). You want all the pressure parallel to the barrel, from the front strap into the heel of your hand. You do not need or want your thumb & fingertips applying pressure on the SIDES of the pistol. Any variation there will move the pistol sideways. The most consistent pressure you can apply with those is ZERO. Have someone watch, and it's quite likely your finger tips are turning white from the pressure.

There are on the internet diagrams showing what the errors can be based on where your shots are landing. They are usually in the form of a circle representing the target and showing the reasons why shots are landing at the various positions around the circle.

Azmodan wrote: ↑Fri Oct 25, 2024 1:42 pm how do you lock the wrist if you don;t squeeze the grip?

I didn't say "don't squeeze the grip." You only need a light grip pressure (all our best shooters grip around 2 pounds, or even less) applied between the forestrap and the area at the base of your thumb. I shoot with my finger tips and thumb completely OFF the grip, even with .22.

As for locking your wrist, you only need enough muscle tension to immobilize the bones & joint. Hold your forearm horizontally with the palm of your hand facing down. Relax your wrist completely so your hand in dangling down. Now, use your wrist muscles to lift your hand so your palm is now horizontal. THAT is all the muscle your need to lock your wrist.

With air pistol especially, it's not like you need to lock your wrist super tight to fight recoil and shoot a quick series of shots. It's all about consistency. It's hard to be consistent when you are squeezing the pistol so hard you are introducing tremors. Besides, trying to crush your pistol is a waste of energy, and over 60 shots you will wear yourself out a LOT faster than you need to.

I do a lot of strengthening of my wrist, forearm, hands, and shoulders. Here are a few things I do:

-- I do exercises where I hold the gun on target for up to a full minute at a time. I built an app to use as a timer to hold the gun on target and build my shoulder muscles and my stamina.

-- I use a gyroscope exercise ball to strengthen my wrist and forearm. About 15 minutes a day is good.

-- I use a hand gripper to improve my grip strength as well as my trigger pull strength. About 15 minutes a day is good.

-- I have small hand weights (3-6 pounds works -- when in doubt, go lighter) and do exercises where I slowly raise the weights to the side, hold them at arm's length, then lower them. I have a watch with a metronome and make myself take four seconds to lift, four seconds to hold, then four seconds to lower.