In my earlier post I
discussed about correct positioning of your feet and the muscle involvement.
Well, there are many more points I will tell you about.
Left Arm and
hand are the most crucial parts that come in contact with the rifle
first. Mounting the rifle on your left hand and
the way you do it, matters a lot.
Our main focus is to create a stable platform to rest upon and keep our
body as relaxed as possible. Remember! The more muscles involved more movement
will be transferred over to the
rifle. Our left arm is a continuation of
support from our left foot, left leg and hip.
Your balance and your NPA (Natural Point of Aim) are the two main things involved for
maintaining the stability and relaxation. All that we need to think about is
that our rifle resting close to our centre of gravity shouldn't disturb the
balance more than required. Our elbow,
how & where we place it decides how the arm will be angled which can
also be changed by the hand and rifle
contact but eventually it starts with the elbow.
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| I keep my Elbow on my hip bone |
Placement of
Elbow When we place our elbow we find a point where its more comfortable to place it. Mostly it goes right on the hip bone or
just in front of the stomach. The more outer you go towards the stomach, the more
soft tissues get in contact to hold up the rifle. Well, In my opinion the hip bone creates more
stability than muscles. While under
stressed situations or during competitions, there is a chance of more pulse
reactions as we tend to tense our muscles. Lower NPA and backwards angle of the
arm is created with an upside placement of the elbow.
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| Abhinav in Olympics London |
Talking about NPA,
it can be controlled by moving your elbow up/down or sideways. Moving the elbow sideways for the sake of changing the
NPA should NEVERRR be done. The proper way is to move the whole position
starting from your feet. Moving your elbow up and down can temporarily fix your
height of NPA but adjusting your cheek piece and butt plate are a more
preferred option. Always make sure you don't tense your arm and shoulder when
in position. The downside for when the
elbow is higher than the hip is the same as placing it on the stomach giving
you less stability instead adjust your butt plate.
Hand position The
left hand holds up the rifle and aligns it with the target. Our hand is the last point of contact in the
chain holding up the rifle. The support column should be kept as relaxed as
possible. There are no rules as to how the hand should be holding the rifle
regardless of the fact, it shouldn't touch any other part of the body i.e.
Right hand, chest/ jacket. There are
three hand positions i.e. On the Fist (rifle rests upon the knuckles), Between
two fingers and On palm of the hand. Other
than these three there are several variant ways of holding the rifle but I will
not go so deep in this conversation because these three positions are the common
ones having no major disadvantages.
Between fingers Keeping the rifle between the fingers usually
the index finger and the middle finger is another high hand position. This hand
position was more commonly used with older rifles of Feinwerkbau 300 or 700 and
other similar models and it seemed comfortable because the rifles in earlier times had more
rounded front stock. You find wider flat
front stock of rifles these days and its nearly impossible to fit the rifle
between two fingers. People mostly don't use this technique because its more
painful and wobbly.
On the Fist Resting
your rifle on your fist seems to be more comfortable involving less muscle
contact. By folding your fingers backwards and resting your rifle on your
knuckles creates a stable platform. The wrist is still to be kept straight
because that position will require the least amount of tension to uphold.
Less Muscle Contact= Less Tension= Less Rifle Movements
While creating a
fist, don't tense the hand at all, just fold your fingers backwards and let the rifle rest on your knuckles
leaving your thumb free on the side and your fingers too. To use this position perfectly, your fingers
have to be able to bend enough that a horizontal surface creates when the wrist
is straight. If you can't, the wrist
will bend in place of your fingers accounting to
this which adds more muscle activation and
rifle movements. Coming from my
experience, my middle finger knuckle is higher than the index finger which
makes it easy for me to angle my rifle inwards, closer to my head. There are no
rules for where on the hand the rifle should be resting, place it where you
feel is comfortable. You just need to keep the tension levels intact how ever you place your hand.
Palm of the Hand Using your palm of the hand is
the lowest position one can use most preferably for those who have long arms.
This position doesn't really require a glove as it might even disturb the
stability because it acts like a sponge. Most shooters have opted for a thinner
glove or a worn out one. A low hand position like this does bring down the
overall CoG (center of gravity) of the position which theoretically would
decrease position oscillations. How to hold the hand varies highly between
shooters worldwide. Some keeping it on
the palm of the hand, some on the fist keeping their fingers inwards or
outwards. Angle the hand right instead and the rifle will rest on the thumb and
a finger or two. On ina larger angle; the thumb and the side of the hand
(reverse position from above). Depending on how you turn the hand, the rifle
will align with the target differently.
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| Campriani using the palm of his hand |
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| Hattie Johnson using the reverse of prone hand position. |
