TargetTalk

I'm a rifle shooter trying to fine tune my equipment to give myself the best technical advantage I can as I develop my skills ahead of my last high school season. I recently came across an article on stability (https://www.ssusa.org/articles/2017/9/8 ... atic-hold/) that recommended looser laces for standing, and mentioned so-called "vertical lacing." I've been having some issues with sway parallel to the line in standing, and my solution has recently been tightening my laces. Is this wrong? And what is vertical lacing? I want to put my best foot forward (no pun intended) for college recruiting, and I'd be incredibly grateful for any help y'all can offer.

(I shoot in Sauer Perfect Style Flex boots, by the way)

I'd like to see more pictures of other's lacing style. (I also have the Sauer Perfect Flex)

I use a similar vertical lacing style as pictured in your link.

When I get home I will lace my boots and show how I do it. Basically, its standard lacing at the bottom half and vertical in the top half with the exception that I finish in the middle and tie down there. It seems to work for me but would be interested to see how others do it and if its better or not.

I do feel that standing (for me) is very good compared to my kneeling.

In kneeling my lacing only goes up one hook on the ankle for my roll foot in order to allow for flex of the ankle to allow for more comfort.

Brhsfrench:

I wrote the article on stability and the discussion on looser lacing for standing and Hap Rocketto is posting it for me.

First, vertical lacing is the idea of lacing your boots very tight. You start by bending your foot up, and then lace your shoes three holes up and then two down. You do this for the all of the way to the top of the shoe. This forces your foot in a position where your foot is pointed toward the sky (dorsiflexed position). At first this seems perfect, because when you stand up, it makes it difficult to rock back and forth. But that turns out to be to the extreme edge of your stability. When in reality, the typical advanced shooter only sways about 3-4 mm during the last second of their hold. That is far from the extreme edge of their balance.

Flexing your foot and lacing your laces tight, inhibits your foot to sense sway. So the sway is longer and bigger than it would be if it were to be able to sense the weight shift earlier. Having loose laces or no laces at all, allows the foot to sense the weight shift faster and allows the body to automatically adjust the tensions in your muscles to compensate for the weight shift and minimize the sway.

In principle looser lacing is better. But the improvement would be only a few % points. You may not even see the improvement because it is so small. But every % adds up, and after a while, you will notice an improvement in your hold (sway).

Since you said you are having sway issues heel to toe, I suggest you adapt a new shot process. Try when you get into the standing position and come down onto the target, don’t cut your breath off immediately. Rather look over your sights or through them and take shallow breaths while at the same time paying attention to your sway. You can feel your sway in your body, especially your feet, as well as seeing the side to side movement in your sights. Continue to take shallow breaths while working on relaxing and minimizing your sway.

Once you get to the point of minimizing your sway to the best of your ability, you are ready to start your firing process. Cut your breath off and look through your sights and determine if the target is in your front aperture. If so, perfect your sight picture and activate the trigger without disturbing the rifle and have it go off as a surprise. Follow through by calling your shot as well as seeing if the recoil returns to the center of the target. If so, you probably fired a quality shot.

If you have any questions, please contact me.

v/r
GO BEARS,
Rick Hawkins, PhD
Rifle and Pistol Coach
US Coast Guard Academy

Wow, how's that for TargetTalk service? :)

Wow, thank you so much, sir! I'll be sure to incorporate this into my shot plan.

And as a current Academy applicant, Go Bears!

This is what my lacing looks like:

Ben, send a message to Mary and ask her to take pictures of hers... she's done a ton of research on it.