When I first started working on this article, I was reminded of the progression Bruce Lee talked about regarding his fighting style: "When I began, I had no technique. Then technique became everything. Now, I have no technique."

When we started IPSC way back when, we didn't have any style for one-handed shooting. Well, we did, but the two options were both bad: bullseye and the FBI. Eventually we had to learn the subject all over again.

Let's start off by getting one thing straight: There is almost no wrong way to do shoot one-handed. Some methods are better than others, and some ways are better for you than they are for others.

If someone tells you "This is the only way to do it," then he or she is probably really saying either "This is the best way for me" or "This is the only way I know how to do it." I'm not being harsh nor dissing anyone's technique, but I truly believe there is no one best way that works for everyone in every situation.

Why shoot one-handed, when decades of competition and defensive shooting have amply demonstrated the superiority of a two-handed hold? Simple. Sometimes you just won't have both hands available. You might be wounded. You might be holding onto something (or someone) and can't let go. Plus, you might need a hand to fend off an attack (see "Close Quarter Combat" elsewhere in this issue). And you might, as a few people I know, not have the use of one hand due to injury.

And for the purposes of this article, I am not the least bit concerned with "weak hand/strong hand" or any other descriptor. We're talking simply of using but a single hand to hold, aim and fire a handgun.

There is one part of this that is absolute, and that is how you grasp your handgun. You want your hand as high as possible, and if it is a semiauto, you want the web of your hand wedged up as hard as you can against the tang.

When developing this skill, the first thing to do is forget about the traditional bullseye shooting position, as seen up and down the line at places like Camp Perry. The stance is immobile, and it does not concern itself with the effects of recoil. In bullseye, you're standing upright, letting your skeleton bear the weight of your body, and locking your joints. Your shooting hand is relatively soft, to be as consistent as possible, and your nonfiring hand is deep in the trouser pocket on that side.

To keep mobile as you need to be in a defensive or combat situation, you have to keep a less rigid stance. To maintain control of the handgun, in recoil and movement, you need a firmer grip. The two questions you'll have to explore and decide for yourself are: Do I keep the pistol upright, and which foot do I have forward?

Some shooters advocate an upright hold, others an angled hold. If you hold a handgun out in front of you and rotate your arm slightly inward, you'll find a point where your hand and arm are much stronger. We aren't talking of the "gangsta" sideways hold but a tilt of 10 degrees or so.

Stronger is stronger, but as with all things, strength comes at a price. Your brain can process the image of a pair of sights upright and level a lot faster and more precisely than it can the same picture tilted slightly.