Starting and Stopping Your Movement

At PDN, we’re always interested in what we can take from the world of competitive shooting and apply to improving our defensive shooting skills. In this video, world-class competitive shooter and Team Glock member Tori Nonaka demonstrates some techniques for starting and stopping movement, which she is one of the best at.

Shooting From a Stable Platform

Whether for competition, shooting drills, or defensive scenarios, it is to our benefit to stop and shoot from a stable platform if possible, as opposed to the unstable platform we are in while moving and trying to shoot. Rob Pincus asked Tori how does she get out of a stable platform, move, and get back into a stable platform as quickly as possible?

Top Gun Tori

Tori’s frame of reference is for shaving tenths or even hundredths of a second off her times in competition. She shows a few ways to do this involving starting and stopping movement. What can we take away from this for defensive shooting?

Tori advocates removing one hand from the gun as soon as possible after taking a shot, and using that hand to push off the leg that is going to move first. This is valuable in defensive shooting: Rob has observed that during handgun training and practice, shooters often try to run with both hands on the gun, which is not a natural movement. Instead we should drop one hand and use it to push off the leg — this is a natural movement for running.

Moving in the one-handed ready position is faster than moving in the two-handed ready position. Take it from Tori — she knows speed!