Shooting Stance From a Movement Guy’s Perspective
Keep It Simple
To be clear up front: I’m not a firearms instructor.
I’m a physical therapist who specializes in movement.
Short and simple: Stand like an athlete. If the situation or environment doesn’t let you start there, get used to getting there fast.
Now the longer version...
Ever been given an overly complicated list of instructions on how to stand?
Feet wide and square, rigid triangle between arms and chest?
Staggered stance, back leg locked out for recoil control?
Shoulders shrugged, elbows locked, head cranked down on sights?
Depending on what you were taught, you might be running through a mental checklist before your brain even starts processing vision, grip, and trigger.
Let’s simplify it. The action is now — you need to be in an athletic stance, period.
Ben Stoeger refers to this as the “shortstop stance.” I think of it like playing safety in football: knees slightly bent, feet at a comfortable width and slight stagger, shoulders relaxed, head up. This might look different person to person based on your own build (leg length, etc.).
Either way, it’s pre-loaded — think potential energy — ready to move in any direction. Not rigid or robotic, just ready.
Train this until it feels automatic. It’s powerful and gives you more movement options, faster. Now for some nuance: This stance is great for quick, reactive movement… but not so much if you’re holding security for 30+ minutes. You’ll burn out trying to stay loaded the entire time. You’ve probably noticed your body naturally shifts upright, stacks the bones, and offloads muscular tension — that’s smart. It conserves energy so you’re not smoked just from standing. But when things go dynamic? Athletes drop their hips (lower center of mass), load their tissue (potential energy), and explode out (kinetic energy). That quick plyo step you see? It’s not wasted movement — it’s a prep step to generate force fast. So bottom line: Stand like an athlete.
In this video, we were primarily focused on shooting fundamentals. What you can see is on entry a breakdown into a tall shooting posture. Could we cue settling into a more athletic stance? Yes, but that wasn’t the priority cue on this drill at the time of filming. What you can gather is on the exit of position. He drops his center of mass, puts energy in the system to powerfully get out. Because he is transitioning from a high to low position, you can see his back leg utilizes that plyo step.
What are your thoughts?
