The Definitive Article on Fixing the Pistol: Part 2 – Stability, Practice and Accessory Work

Probably not the first step in building a foundation for solid pistols. Steve Cotter is a monster by the way…

Last week we spoke about mobility for the pistol.  Now that you’re all mobility wizards we can get down to the fun stuff, actually practicing pistols.

Super Important Side Note: It’s very important to understand that building stability safely in the pistol is going to take months to years depending on how strong/mobile/stable you currently are.  Doing too much too soon is a great way to end up in my office complaining of cranky knees.  Just looking at a pistol can tell you that it’s going to place high stresses on the knee.  I generally recommend performing some pistol work 1-2 times in a 7-10 day cycle.  I’m also mindful of how much accessory work we’re doing that also stresses the knee in the current cycle.  (i.e. how much squatting / lunging / oly work is currently in my program, and how much volume of these exercises)  Again, too much too soon is a sure fire way to hurt yourself.  

There are 3 things I think are vital to mastering the pistol

1) Mastering the short foot and tracking the knee over the toe properly

We all know just how important it is to keep the knee tracking over the toe during squatting movements.  The amount of valgus I see during pistols sometimes makes me feel like vomiting.  I can’t tell you how often I end up treating this at my clinic.  Now, valgus can happen for a large variety of reasons.  I’ve written about this extensively HERE.  The idea is that we’ve got to promote people …read more

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