Learn to shoot with your off-hand

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Ninj500

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Just a thought for everyone that trains and doesn't take the time to truly learn to shoot with your non-dominant hand. All the training in the world is worthless if you can't shoot accurate with your off-hand. You may think - like I used to - that the odds of ever having your dominant hand incapacitated are slim. Not true.

I read all the posts and books that said to take the time to shoot left-handed and for the most part ignored them. My mistake, my foolishness, my ignorance. Not that I can't shoot at all left handed it is just not the level it should be.

So, two years ago I find out I have long term medical issues with my right arm/hand and shoulder and try to get my left handed shooting up to speed. Two years isn't enough time, even with weekly shooting sessions when I should have started 15 years ago.

I'm having surgery at the end of February and could lose the use of my right hand. It will take years to get myself truly proficeint in shooting again when it could have been a limited or even seamless transition to shooting left handed.

Don't think it isn't worth the time or isn't glamorous enough to learn to shoot with your non-dominant hand. Don't make the mistake I did.
In my mind it couldn't happen to me, just like many of you are there think ti can't happen to you. IT CAN.
 
I broke a couple fingers in my right hand about 14yrs back. (be careful when restraining a much larger opponent) :( I got to where at under 50' I could hit target most of the time before I got use of my right hand back. Just had trouble with safety and reloadeing. Now my left is weak arm. Shoulder 2X, humorous 1X and ulna 1X break Inproper plating of humorous and I refused second surgury (remove plate and cut bone to properly align) So left hand totally stinks. :(
 
I was fortunate, when I first got into "shooting" and "tactics," my first experience was with Ken J Good. Ken always taught a "bi-lateral" shooting platform. That means, whatever you do with your "strong side" you do with your "weak side." Handgun, rifle, and shotgun. So I am pretty much up to speed with my "weak side." However, your post is quite well taken.

You should learn to shoot just as well with your strong hand as well as your off hand.

http://www.strategosinternational.com
 
I also was fortunate. I am right handed and grew up shooting a pistol right handed but along about high-school senoir, became left handed pistolero.
Don't know why till this day.
:confused:
I can shoot equally right and left with the handgun but, prefer the left.
So, at the range, I am equally comfortable in practicing with both.
 
We were compelled to shoot with our non-dominant hand in the police academy. They reasoned that if your dominant hand was injured, you could still defend yourself with the non-dominant hand. Pretty good reasoning.

Even to this day I still practice one handed shooting with the non-dominant hand. I'm slower, but I can get hits.
 
I was told at Sigarms that arm and elbow hits were fairly common during Simunition drills. Definitely a good idea to practice one-handed/weak-handed shooting.
 
I certainly don't practice weak hand shooting nearly enough. Barely make a token effort at it. I agree that it is certainly a valuable skill to master. Hopefully this thread is a wake up call for me.
My problem is that I absolutely can not draw with my weak hand. I really didn't think I was that fat, but I guess I am. I am more often described as "thick". Maybe it is a flexability problem. I don't know if I can work on it and overcome it or not ?
 
I may actually be a better shot from my 'weak' hand with a pistol.

I guess lefty hasn't learned all the bad habbits of righty (flinching, bobing the dam gun up and down, shaking, etc.)

Still feels weird, and I may be a few tenths of a second slower, but I do fine thankfully.


Now, I haven't even thought of rifle and shotgun this way, but I will from now on!
thanks for the tip!
 
Mindset

Please don't say "weak" when referencing the non-dominant hand. You don't want to condition your mind that it is weak with implications that it is subject to failure. The hand works, perhaps not as well or as fast as the dominant hand does. In a survival shooting situation, you continue your engagement until you either can retreat to safety or neutralize the threat. You do that with either dominant or non-dominant hand.

Sorry about the soapboxing but I was taught to soapbox. :p
 
Hats off to those of you who have trained yourselves to shoot with your support hand only. It's a valuable skill and may very well be a skill that you have to use one day.

Not only should you learn to shoot support hand-only, but you should learn to do all your weapon manipulations with either hand and in the dark (is there a chance you'll have to fight in the dark? maybe with wet hands?)

Take a class and learn to draw, load, reload, chamber check, and clear malfunctions one handed, with both your dominant and non-dominant hands only. It's another tool in your toolbox, and there's no telling when you may need just that tool.
 
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There's another good reason to study off-hand shooting.

It is VERY common for people to get hit in the gun-hand, arm or even actual gun during a fight. People target-fixate on the threat (read: other guy's gun) and instinctively shoot at it. The raw statistics tell the tale, with that area being hit WAY out of proportion to any other area of the body for the same target area.

The Miami86 FBI gunfight was ended by an agent firing a 38snubbie with his off-hand.
 
Something that is left out of most off-hand shooting is actually drawing your weapon out with your off-hand.......You may not be afforded the opportunity to draw your weapon with your strong hand and switch it to your off-hand. People often re-think their holster placement when they realize that they may have to draw their weapon with their off-hand in case they are injured.
 
Here is a good idea ladies and gentlemen:

Take a basic, two day shooting course. A local one, so its not too expensive. Shoot the entire course in your off hand the first day, the second day shoot the entire course with one hand.

Also, Jeff Gonzalez does teach an off hand or single off hand only course. Its a one day course. Not too sure what his website is.

Its funny, because since I generally shoot "decently" with my off hand, when working in shoot houses, etc I will switch hands to go around a right hand corner. I generally get, from many instructors, DON'T DO THAT. You can't hit anything that way. Much better to just roll out and take the shot. I take the shot and hit my target. After that, they don't say much.
 
From tetleyb

"Also, Jeff Gonzalez does teach an off hand or single off hand only course. Its a one day course. Not too sure what his website is."

www.tridentconcepts.com

Jeff is an excellent instructor. Train with him if you get the chance.
 
Quote:
"Just a thought for everyone that trains and doesn't take the time to truly learn to shoot with your non-dominant hand. All the training in the world is worthless if you can't shoot accurate with your off-hand."

Logically, so long as your good hand is fine, whether or not you can perform well with the off hand only is a moot point.

It has been pointed out that folks are often shot in their gun hand. If you are using a 2-handed hold and your opposition fixates on the weapon and shoots, there is a good chance he will not only take out your gun hand, but you non-dom hand as well since the non-dom will be wrapped around the dom on the grip.

Also, if fighting, it may be just your non-dom hand that gets hurt. While the dom hand is often used for striking, the non-dom hand/arm is often used in the parrying of blows by an opposition with the same side dominance use as you. Forearm parry fractures are common on non-dom forearm when fending off blows from blunt force objects such as a club, hammer, etc. So all that non-dom gun training may be for naught from that sort of attack.

Don't get me wrong, we do need to be skilled with our non-dom hands. I am just poking a little fun at the logic and potential reality disasters that can occur.

Ken Hackathorn mentioned something in a class that intrigued me. He noted that we tend to train in our comfort zone. We often don't do much or any non-dom training because we aren't good at it, don't like the blows to our egos when we try to do it, and rationalize that we won't need to use our non-dom hands in a fight (as noted already). So we tend to train on what we can already do pretty darn good. If we were more fully concerned with defense, we would strive to train to remove deficiencies. After all, for combat shooting, most of us are not going to get hugely better than we are right now with our dom hand or two-hand holds because those of us who practice have probably reached a pretty good level of combat marksmanship and that is our comfort zone. Where we can see huge levels of improvement is working with our non-dom hands and on skill drills we don't often practice. Shooting 50 rounds a week with my dom-hand will do a lot less for my overall skill level than shooting 50 rounds with my off hand. After all, when shooting 200-500 rounds a week with the dom hand, 50 more means little. But when shooting 0-50 a week with the non-dom hand, 50 more is a substantial increase.

Many of us are strong hand Expert (generous evaluation) dom hand shooters, but Moron non-dom hand shooters. A vast improvement in overall defensive capabilities might be to have a more balanced skill level, such as to be a Very Good or Good dom hand shooter and a Functional to Pretty Good non-dom hand shooter.
 
Ninj500 -

Hope all goes as well as possible with your surgery. We'll be pulling for you!

R-Tex
 
DNS,

You are right on the money about our tendencies to train within our comfort zones. That is exactly the reason we should expose ourselves to training in the areas in which we are weak or inexperienced. How many shooters, those who faithfully go armed every day, have zero training in hand-to-hand defense? How many have no training in avoiding and de-escalating potential fights before they occur? How many have ever trained where they had to make shoot-no shoot decisions?

Being able to shoot a one-hole group is a far cry from being prepared to defend one's self. It's a mindset, people. Being responsible for your own safety is not a contest or a game. Prepare yourself as completely as you can.
 
Wish I could. I cannot shoot anything above a .32 with my left arm without sharp pain since I had my ulna, radius, and humerus all broken a few years ago.

But it is good practice for those who can.
 
Just the basic pistol course. I wasn't that bad. I got to watch the advanced course, and lemme tell ya...it was not something one would do to boost their ego!!! I plan to take them all eventually, but while the cost is not that high, it does require burning a week of vacation time
 
Looks interesting.
It isn't the time or money for me, it is the fact that it is on the other side of the country.
Any handgun course that requires 2500 rounds of ammo can't be bad.
 
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