When it comes to recoil management and shooting stance with a shotgun, few speak with as much authority as Lena Miculek, a 10-time shooting champion. In a recent training session, she broke down the biomechanics behind stability, efficiency, and how body positioning directly influences your performance.
Start With Your Feet: Control Begins From the Ground Up
Lena emphasizes that your body responds instinctively to recoil — often in subtle ways you don’t notice unless you pay close attention.
“We can see that pretty immediately — your toes start to come up in your shoes. I want you to do what I call Eagle Talon Toes. Literally grip the Earth with your toes to keep that weight in the balls of your feet.”
– Lena Miculek, 10x World Champion
By actively engaging your feet and shifting your weight forward, you create a more stable platform. This foundation is key when managing the directional recoil of a shotgun.
Recoil Isn’t Just Backward — It Turns You
Unlike handguns that recoil straight back into both hands, shotguns recoil into a single shoulder. Lena explains how this changes the dynamic:
“The more square we are to target, the more the gun is going to want to turn us. If we already start turned, the gun can only push us directly back — which we can fight with our stance.”
– Lena Miculek, 10x World Champion
To counteract the turning effect, she advises a bladed stance — turning the body slightly sideways rather than facing the target head-on. This allows you to engage your bone structure and muscle mass more efficiently.
“By keeping my body sideways, it allows me to take all of my muscle mass, my bone structure, and lay it into recoil,” she explains.
– Lena Miculek, 10x World Champion
Think “Turret” — Let Your Body Follow the Gun
Lena Miculek stresses that wherever your shotgun points, your entire body should follow. Attempting to shift the gun without adjusting your stance causes instability and ineffective recoil absorption.
“I’m like a little turret,” she says. “Wherever our shotgun is pointing, that’s where our body weight follows.”
This principle applies especially during dynamic stage movement or rapid target transitions.
Elbow Position Matters
Another key technique Lena teaches is about support-side elbow positioning.
She explains that, because a shotgun is heavier and often requires aggressive transitions, elbow placement impacts your ability to push and pull effectively.
“When I have my elbow out to the side, it gives me the most ability to push and pull aggressively,” she says. “Imagine your elbow is an arrow — those are the directions you can push and pull.”
– Lena Miculek, 10x World Champion
Unlike aerial shotgun shooters who keep their elbows low due to vertical motion, for tactical or 3-gun shotgun stages, elbows should be high and out — much like pistol shooting.
Lena demonstrates how she points her support-hand finger along the shotgun’s side, using it almost like a directional guide. Shotguns are intuitive, and this technique enhances quick target acquisition and movement fluidity.
Putting Theory into Practice: JJ Racaza Takes the Shot
Next, JJ Racaza performed two custom drills based on the grip and stance adjustments mentioned above.
These drills were created using the Drills App and timed with the SG Timer 2 to track progress accurately.
What’s clearly visible is that within just a single drill session, his shooting speed consistently increased with each run. As his recoil management improved, he was able to shoot faster and more efficiently.
What started as skepticism quickly turned into full belief. JJ Racaza — a world-class pistol shooter with over 30 years of experience — was surprised at how much difference these small adjustments made when applied to shotgun shooting.
“In my head, I was thinking, ‘No freaking way this works.’ But the results were undeniable. My first few shots looked totally different from the last few. The gun was steady. Easier to track. I feel like I could sneak into the shotgun world now and actually do some damage.”
– JJ Racaza, World Champion production optics
Final Thoughts
This training session was a masterclass in shotgun fundamentals from one of the best in the game. Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned competitor, Lena’s approach offers a clear takeaway:
✅ Build a solid foundation
✅ Don’t fight recoil — prepare for it
✅ Lock your structure before the shot
✅ Trust the small tweaks — they add up to big improvements
“Shotgun shooting is not about fighting recoil — it’s about being prepared for recoil, ’cause it is inevitable. If we’re fighting it, we’re reacting to it. If you’re not preset for it, it’ll push you around every time.”
– Lena Miculek, 10x World Champion
Ready to take your shotgun game to the next level? Start with the stance and track your progress. The rest will follow.
Tags: Drills app, 3Gun, jj racaza, sg timer, SG Timer 2, Shooters global, shooting timer, shot timer, Lena Miculek
