Retired police officer and certified instructor Chris Schaefer says the same problems show up “every single class.” They drain attention, waste ammo, and keep students from learning the good stuff.
His message is simple. Fix these five before class, and you’ll retain more, shoot better, and spend less.
I agree with that order of operations. Fundamentals first, speed later – because smooth creates fast.
Stance: Your Recoil Control Starts at the Feet
Schaefer begins with stance, and he’s blunt: stance is situational. But when people try to shoot fast, he sees one thing missing – a forward center of gravity.
Grip alone won’t tame recoil. As Schaefer explains, the rearward energy still exists; your stance absorbs it.
His “what right looks like” is clear. Slight forward weight, knees bent, feet flat, a modest stagger, and a relaxed upper body acting like a shock absorber.
Think “let recoil flow through you, not fight against you.” That lets the gun track up and back to the same spot – quickly.
Schaefer adds a pro tip. Top shooters lean aggressively when speed matters, then stand more upright for deliberate shots to reduce tension.
That’s a useful cue. Let your stance serve the shot, not the other way around.
My take: film yourself from the side on a Bill Drill pace. If your nose isn’t at least a hair over your toes, you’re probably getting pushed around.
Grip Height and Leverage: Get “High and Tight”
Mistake two, Schaefer says, is low grip height – even a tiny gap under the beavertail bleeds leverage. He calls it an “escape hatch” for recoil.
The fix is tactile. Drive the web of the hand snug under the beavertail until you feel a small pressure point in the web.
Leverage plus friction equals less muzzle flip. Less flip equals faster sight return and tighter groups.
Schaefer’s rule is simple: get high and tight and keep that contact consistent. You’ll notice the difference immediately in follow-up speed.
My take: do ten dry draws with a coin resting on the front sight. If the coin skitters off as you build grip, you’re torquing instead of lifting straight into that high seat.
Thumbs and Friction: Stop Leaving Gaps
The third problem Schaefer sees is thumb placement that opens a gap. Many shooters pin the strong-hand thumb flat on the frame and then wrap the support hand around it.
That creates a void on the grip panel. Recoil energy will flow into that empty space and lift the muzzle.
Schaefer’s fix is easy to visualize. Lift the strong-hand thumb like a hitchhiker, then pack the meaty heel of the support hand into the gap before laying both thumbs forward, passive and relaxed.
The thumbs aren’t the workers here. Friction is – created by maximal surface contact and even pressure.
He also cautions against trying to “thumb-press the muzzle down.”
That’s a tactic, not a principle, and often causes more problems than it solves.
With proper contact, Schaefer says you’ll see the front sight rise lower and return truer.
Your dot or irons will come back to the same spot, again and again.
My take: after you build the grip, try to slide a business card between your support palm and the frame. If it fits anywhere, you’ve got a leak.
Sight Focus: When to Look at the Front Sight – and When Not To
Schaefer’s fourth common mistake is confused sight focus. He breaks it into two clean modes.
For precision, focus on the front sight – confirm equal height and equal light in the rear notch.
The target should blur a bit; your edges on the sight should be crisp.
For speed or close work, shift focus to the target. Let the sights live in your peripheral vision and trust a well-built presentation to keep alignment close enough.
Students always ask, “How do I know the sights are aligned if I’m not looking at them?” Schaefer ties that to kinesthetic efficiency – the body’s feel for a repeatable grip, index, and presentation built through reps.
Advanced iron shooters develop this naturally. They don’t abandon alignment; they earn the ability to confirm less at closer distances.
My take: add a simple rule to your training notes – Precision = Sight Focus, Speed = Target Focus. Then drill both intentionally instead of letting your eyes wander randomly.
Trigger Press: Constant Speed, Straight Back
Finally, Schaefer addresses the separator – trigger control. He sees a lot of slapping and jerking, which triggers sympathetic grip tension and yanks impacts low-left (right-handed shooters) or low-right (lefties).
His cure is two principles. Constant speed from first contact to break, and straight to the rear – not down, not sideways.
If it helps, he says, imagine touching your nose with your trigger finger as you press. That mental line keeps the press linear.
Do that and your sights stay stable through the break. Accuracy pops almost immediately.
My take: run ten-shot strings on a 2” dot at 5 yards with a strict metronome cadence. If shots walk low at the buzzer tick, you’re accelerating at the end – speed up the start of the press so the whole stroke stays constant.
How to Practice These Changes (Without Burning Ammo)
Schaefer’s theme is efficiency – fix fundamentals before class so you can learn faster during class. Dry practice is the perfect place to start.
Build five-minute circuits at home:
- Two minutes on stance and draw index from concealment.
- Two minutes on building the grip high and packing the support hand – no gun, then blue gun, then unloaded pistol.
- One minute of wall-drill presses with eyes closed, feeling “constant speed, straight back.”
Swap irons and dot practice. For irons, run ten slow “equal height/equal light” reps and then ten target-focus reps at arm’s length.
For dots, watch the dot trace.
You should see a small, repeatable return to the same window spot – if it’s scooping or fishing, your grip isn’t balanced.
Pro tip: record 10-second clips from the side and the front quarter.
Check nose-over-toes, knee bend, and whether the gun returns to the same visual index.
What Schaefer Gets Right – and Why It Works
Schaefer teaches principles first: center of gravity, leverage, friction, focal priority, and linear press. These scale across calibers, platforms, and contexts.
He also refuses to make stance or thumb pressure a religion. “Stance should serve the shot,” he says – upright for precision, forward for speed.
That flexibility is what students need most. Rigid rules break under pressure; principles bend and hold.
And he keeps the fixes tactile and testable. “Feel the web pressure.” “Fill the gap.” “Constant speed.” These are cues you can verify rep by rep.
Chris Schaefer’s list is short but consequential. Fix your stance so recoil has somewhere to go.
Raise your grip height to steal back leverage. Seal the thumbs gap to create friction.
Choose your focus on purpose – front sight for precision, target for speed. And press the trigger with constant speed, straight to the rear.
Do five minutes a day on each and you won’t just shoot better – you’ll learn better. Class time will shift from firefighting bad habits to building higher-level skills.
As Schaefer signs off: be well, be safe, keep training.
I’ll add one more – film it, fix it, and then go faster.
Gary’s love for adventure and preparedness stems from his background as a former Army medic. Having served in remote locations around the world, he knows the importance of being ready for any situation, whether in the wilderness or urban environments. Gary’s practical medical expertise blends with his passion for outdoor survival, making him an expert in both emergency medical care and rugged, off-the-grid living. He writes to equip readers with the skills needed to stay safe and resilient in any scenario.
