Bartholomew Roberts
Moderator
"Porpoising" is the phrase I use to describe a well-observed phenomenon among shooters working from the holster. You start your draw and bring your pistol up; but you get a bit overenthusiastic and overswing your target so that the muzzle goes high. In an attempt to correct quickly, you break your wrists and the muzzle dips below the point of aim, so that as you bring the pistol to bear, the muzzle is moving up and down like a porpoise jumping through the waves,.
Recently, I'd been watching well-renowned shooter Ron Avery suggesting that an overly robotic "kata" during the draw where you drew the pistol high and then thrusted it straight out was inefficient and a waste of time. I understood his argument to be that you should thrust the pistol out as you are bringing it up in order to save time and have maximum efficiency.
While Mr. Avery is a considerably better shooter than me in every way, I disagreed with his assessment. In my experience, what he suggests often leads to "bowling the draw." The shooter has very little time to acquire his sight picture in this method and often tends to bring the muzzle too high before dipping it back down to the target. While the draw high and thrust straight out approach might be a fraction of a second slower, it gives you more time to acquire the sight picture and more importantly, in my view, it lets you establish the experience the know how much you can cut corners in the name of efficiency. When you start shooting at Ron Avery levels, that method may not be as useful; but you'll have the experience to know. As a training routine, I don't think many shooters are able to make the shortcuts Mr. Avery suggests successfully.
As a result, I try to place a premium on drawing high to my pectoral muscle before rotating and pushing out. I find that gives me good results and a very acceptable time. However, recently when looking at video I noticed I was still porpoising. Not dramatically; but the muzzle was still coming in a bit high and then dipping onto the target. Listening to a recent podcast with Rob Leatham, he expressed his belief that one of the causes of this was a "Focus on the front sight" mentality. He stated his belief, which seems very rational to me, that a natural thing to do when trying to focus on the front sight is to elevate it a bit to get better contrast so you can see it better. This leads to a muzzle high approach for people who are looking hard at that front sight.
I was interested to hear what others' experiences with this problem were and how they approached them, as well as whether they agree with me concerning the potential to exacerbate this in Mr. Avery's approach or how they have overcome the problem described by Mr. Leatham.
Recently, I'd been watching well-renowned shooter Ron Avery suggesting that an overly robotic "kata" during the draw where you drew the pistol high and then thrusted it straight out was inefficient and a waste of time. I understood his argument to be that you should thrust the pistol out as you are bringing it up in order to save time and have maximum efficiency.
While Mr. Avery is a considerably better shooter than me in every way, I disagreed with his assessment. In my experience, what he suggests often leads to "bowling the draw." The shooter has very little time to acquire his sight picture in this method and often tends to bring the muzzle too high before dipping it back down to the target. While the draw high and thrust straight out approach might be a fraction of a second slower, it gives you more time to acquire the sight picture and more importantly, in my view, it lets you establish the experience the know how much you can cut corners in the name of efficiency. When you start shooting at Ron Avery levels, that method may not be as useful; but you'll have the experience to know. As a training routine, I don't think many shooters are able to make the shortcuts Mr. Avery suggests successfully.
As a result, I try to place a premium on drawing high to my pectoral muscle before rotating and pushing out. I find that gives me good results and a very acceptable time. However, recently when looking at video I noticed I was still porpoising. Not dramatically; but the muzzle was still coming in a bit high and then dipping onto the target. Listening to a recent podcast with Rob Leatham, he expressed his belief that one of the causes of this was a "Focus on the front sight" mentality. He stated his belief, which seems very rational to me, that a natural thing to do when trying to focus on the front sight is to elevate it a bit to get better contrast so you can see it better. This leads to a muzzle high approach for people who are looking hard at that front sight.
I was interested to hear what others' experiences with this problem were and how they approached them, as well as whether they agree with me concerning the potential to exacerbate this in Mr. Avery's approach or how they have overcome the problem described by Mr. Leatham.
