Talking with joshs this evening, the issue of follow through came up. We agreed that like many aspects of handgun training, a lot of people talk about follow through but most don’t really understand it.
For example, many shooters (and too many instructors) will tell you that follow through is the act of bringing the pistol back down on target to get a second sight picture after the shot is fired. That is patently wrong. First, the proper term for bringing the pistol back down and getting a post-shot sight picture is called recovery, not follow through. Second, recovery is not necessary unless you intend to fire another shot… or at least want the ability to fire another shot as quickly as possible if necessary.
In this photo (right), I’m performing a reload during the Triple Nickel. You can see that I’ve brought the gun down and started the reload while two pieces of brass are still in the air. Obviously, there was no recovery after that second shot.
But there was follow through. All follow through is, after all, is maintaining proper alignment of the sights until the bullet has left the barrel. The way I teach this — stolen from my friend Todd Kennedy, F.A.S.T. Coin #03 — is to watch the front sight lift in recoil. If you see the front sight lift, you’ve done all the follow through you need to. At that point, absolutely nothing you do can affect the shot you just fired.
Using the front sight lift as follow through provides a lot of important information:
- If you see the sight lift, you’ve called your shot. Wherever that sight was when it started to move, that’s where your bullet hole is.
- If you see the sight lift, you know your eyes are open when the gun discharges.
- If you are watching for sight lift, you will see the front sight shift before breaking a bad shot. This may give you time to fix the error. If not, at least you know your shot went bad and know you need to fire another.
- If you’re not aware of the front sight lifting, you know you were off your sight as the shot fired.
- By watching for the front sight to lift, you’re beginning the process of sight tracking.
Follow through is certainly important, but it’s important that you use proper follow through instead of a misunderstood amalgam of follow through and recovery that may or may not be appropriate for a given application.
Train hard & stay safe! ToddG
Great description, Todd! A question on improving sight tracking / staying on the front sight – during the M&P torture test, you painted the front sight around the tritium insert with a high visibility (orange?) paint spot. I didn’t recall seeing it on the P30 or HK45 – any reason why? I had presumed it was to pick up the front sight better during follow through and sight tracking.
Thanks!
Pk
And that post, Todd, is perhaps the best explanation I’ve ever seen on this misunderstood, overlooked and extremely critical fundamental.
Thanks,
Wayne
Pk — The front sight on the P30 and HK45 are both painted. You probably just saw/shot the guns when they were really dirty. The HK45 in particular, like most .45s, has a real gift for blanketing the front sight in spent gunpowder.
Wayne — Thanks, dude! Coming from you, that’s quite a compliment.
Todd,
I noticed by looking at the “fast fundamentals”
class description you say no xs sights.
Wouldn’t they be similar to painting the
perimeter of a tritium sight? Or is the complete
sight set up an issue.
Thanks for any info.
Joe
Todd–
Great post, and extremely helpful. In the old bullseye world, the goal was to see the sights at the moment the shot broke, be able to call it from there, then bring the gun back down into alignment–clearly a slow process (even when done subconsciously). Too many other techniques talk about basically muscling the gun back into position, then re-acquiring the sights. This technique puts the focus back where it ought to be–on the front sight.
This post is already printed off and in my range bag–for live-fire practice to try to get this locked in.
Thanks!
Todd,
Found the “just say no” to xs sights article.
Thank you
joe — Just to be clear, XS sights aren’t forbidden, just highly discouraged. To be honest, if someone is at the fundamental-learning level but is already married to the idea of using a “special” kind of sights, he’s probably not going to have the attitude we want in class. And if someone really is dead set on using XS sights, there are instructors who advocate and teach them specifically.
Todd,
I agree with you about the attitude you want
in class.I just ask allot of questions.
All to improve my shooting.
joe — There’s nothing better than a student who has an open mind and lots of intelligent questions… because you know that’s the guy who’s really there to learn. Stay safe!
Todd,
I think there is a confusion here between defining follow through and a method for teaching people to follow through well. Some shooters, when they consciously or subconsciously know that it’s the last shot of a string, relax before the bullet leaves the barrel. Telling them always to get an additional sight picture forces them to maintain muscle tension in their arms, etc., for the last shot.
I understand and agree completely with what you say about calling the shot and seeing the sight lift to guarantee good follow through. However, new shooters can be taught to get a second sight picture before they master keeping their eyes open and tracking sights in recoil, helping them to follow through well from the get-go.
I still remember the first time I actually saw the front sight lift during practice, and the first time it happened at a match too. Very enlightening moment. It’s funny that it took me so long to understand what it actually means to “see” the front sight.
oh god, it’s like an Avatar moment, “I, SEE you”.
someone shoot me, quick.
Lincoln — I understand where you’re coming from, but in my experience the same benefit can be gained by telling a student to watch the front sight lift. I’d much rather teach someone the right way than have them perform some (possibly) unnecessary step. That becomes especially true when we start talking about moving beyond one shot, one target engagements.
I don’t want to teach someone that if he fires six shots, he only really “follows through” on the last one.
When we begin to talk about multiple targets, I don’t want a student to think that he only follows through on the last target. But neither do I want him needlessly bringing his pistol down to get an unnecessary sight picture on the first target when it’s time to move to the second.
“Front sight lift” is a consistent method and has the added benefits mentioned above.
Any competitive shooter will agree with Todd – the days that you can see your front sight lift on every shot are the days that you win matches and set personal records.
I’m reminded of how I was taught to hit a golf ball accurately. Focus on the ball and don’t take your eyes off it until you are conscious if it not being there anymore.
It just occurred to me – teaching a student to “watch the front sight lift” is a great way to de-program them out of a “flinch” or “pre-ignition push” by encouraging/habituating them to see the front sight move UP, rather than down and away in the classic “7-o’clock flinch.”
On the flip-side, teaching *RECOVERY* by encouraging/habituating a student to look for/re-acquire their sight picture is also a good way to de-program them away from an exaggerated muzzle rise, as seen in certain bad action/western movies and in some shooters habituated to “allowing the gun to rise in recoil”(slow-fire bulls-eye) rather than managing recoil effectively to quickly regain a sight picture for rapid multiple shots.
Todd,
I don’t disagree with you. Thinking how I’ve coached people who were relaxing too soon, I have explained to them what they were doing and then have admonished them later to stay on the sights, implying both keeping track of the sights in recoil and not being in a hurry to relax or reholster.
Telling someone to reacquire a sight picture after the last shot is among the techniques that one uses to help a less experienced shooter along, expecting that they will overcome their need for the technique as they progress. It’s like telling a beginner always to use a hard front sight focus, knowing that other types of sight pictures are acceptable–preferable in some situations. Another analog is telling a beginner always to maintain contact with the trigger, knowing that some advanced shooters lose contact with the trigger when shooting very fast.
This brings up an interesting question: is it always best to teach people to shoot the way that the best shooters shoot? Think of Jelly Bryce teaching FBI agents in training. He attempts to teach them to shoot the way that he does, which is largely point shooting based upon physical abilities that are so far beyond the normal that they are almost beyond belief and years of practice that almost no one else will replicate. The agents might be better served by sighted fire that doesn’t require as much talent and practice. This is the type of argument made by Fairbairn, who insisted that his shooting technique was the best way to teach someone when only a very short period for training, perhaps a day, was available.
I’ve always taught people to use the best techniques of which I know, never dumbing it down. However, I realize that, if they don’t practice, they’d be better off with a club.
Good post! I learned something, thank you!
Thanks, this sounds like a great way of mechanically insuring follow-through! I’ve always thought of follow-through in pistol shooting in terms of follow-through in a golf swing.
In golf, follow-through means you complete the swing properly despite hitting the ball, you don’t alter your stance or swing before, during, or after contact with the ball. You certainly don’t look up to see where the ball went; that’s your caddy’s job ^_^
Just like in shooting, if you don’t follow-through in a golf swing, you’ll probably affect the trajectory of the projectile in one way or another.
The Epiphany of The Front Sight improved my shooting 100%. The Epiphany of The Swing Follow-through did the same for my golf game.
I’ve read and heard about seeing the front sight lift, but I don’t understand how to do it. Maybe I’m looking too much into it, but when a shooter does this, is he/she actually trying to keep visual focus on the front sight throughout the recoil and back onto target, or is the point just to see the movement of the sight? This a great topic because I’m trying desperately to find a way to speed up my shooting and it feels like I’ve hit a plateau. Lowering my split times while maintaining good accuracy is something that’s eluding me right now.