This is something i've given some thought to. While I don't have a true left handed holster, I do have a couple VG2's for my Glock's and always take one with me when traveling with the thought that I could reverse the strut for a left handed holster if I needed too. A true left handed set of my carry gear may not be a bad idea.
Definitely agree.
One of the things I found interesting when I had to carry my gun on the wrong side for a few days recently was how a simple task that I've done a jillion times over the years, putting a gun away in a behind-the-hip Summer Special type holster, suddenly became a tremendously complicated task when done with the other hand. (And I'm a natural lefty, so it's not like my left hand is less dextrous than my right or anything; I just have hardly any practice performing that chore on that side.)
The Milt Sparks #88 Mirage is ambidextrous. Very compact too. Nice for packing along.
Rosco
As always, Tom makes some good points. Back when I was in the business of training others at a higher level than I do now, I made it a point to cycle through a series of handguns during the year, and one of those cycles was a few months carrying off-side as the dominant position. I felt it made me a better shooter and a better instructor.
"PLAN FOR YOUR TRAINING TO BE A REFLECTION OF REAL LIFE INSTEAD OF HOPING THAT REAL LIFE WILL BE A REFLECTION OF YOUR TRAINING!"
This is quite unusual from my experience with the guys that I have had as NRALE instructors. The past couple of times I updated my NRA certs I just sent in my ongoing training hours and payment so I haven't really seen any classes since that time first hand. My employer hosts and I can jump in to get the re-cert, but I feel it is more beneficial that others get those slots instead of myself.Originally Posted by Tom Givens
So I have not been to an NRA course in about that 6+ years but I have been to many including the same ones as a re-cert guy. Having said that I took the tac shooting instructor course for the first time around the late 99' to 2000' time frame. It was 2 week course with handgun / shotgun for week one, followed the next week which was tac shooting instructor. I did another re-cert around the 2003 and another around the 2006 time frame to update my certs. Both of these years, we did nominal or normal support side shooting / manipulations and definitely no two holsters.
In the 2006 courses we again brought in the NRA for two weeks, but I only did the first week which was handgun and patrol rifle this time around. I skipped the second week of tac shooting. Both instructors that I have had in the past, just not the two of them together. This time as a natural right hander, I shot the 3 day handgun course as a complete lefty. When we hit the rifle class I switched back to right hander. I remember being asked the question, wasn't I a lefty? I said no, just that it was IMO important to be proficient from both sides, from a critical standpoint and as an instructor, they took it with mixed feelings initially and a healthy discussion followed. At least one of the two had mixed feelings. The other guy was much more "open" as a shooter and instructor in general, but he was always a very cool fella. The other guy, well he means well but dogmatic and lack of progression is not your friend.
I have a LE student base that is Local, State and Federal plus Military, so I try to own and be highly proficient with most of the weapons that I tend to encounter from this make up. I feel that it is important to be highly proficient with their weapons in manipulations and demos from either side. I haven't been to an NRA course in a few years but it is nice to hear that they are taking that stand point. I must admit and no knock on them as they really are the base line for new instructors, and even in LE I know they have to cater to the common denominator, but I have always felt that their methodology was pretty dated and I know an organization of that size and change does not happen over night.
As a lifetime benefactor member, I am a supporter and I am one of the 5 million. I am the NRA. /commercial.
The quality of the NRA LE instructor courses is largely a crap shoot. It all depends upon who you draw as the instructors for that particular course. I have taken a number of their courses, and they ranged from very poor to pretty good.
I run my BUG weakside -- mainly for a situation that won't let me continue to (or get the) used in a fight.
For folks running a ballistic shield the ability to shoot from both sides is a mandatory requirement - and can explain why some folks choose to run a second handgun for non tube requirements.
I've never bothered to get my main handgun a left holster, but it is indeed food for thought.
Kevin S. Boland
Director of R&D
Law Tactical LLC
www.lawtactical.com
kevin@lawtactical.com
407-451-4544
Years ago when FATS training first began to take hold, I noticed how often during the replay of the incident that shots went toward the suspect's gun and/or gun hand. Also, if a person falls and tries to block their fall with their hand, the tendency is to use your dominant hand to block the fall. This hand or wrist could become injured during the fall. The concept of your dominant hand becoming injured got me thinking about weak hand shooting more.
My agency has done some inservice training over the years requiring the officer to disable the retention mechanisms of the holsters at the time with the weak hand only, then draw the gun. Depending on the generation of holster, this can be a challenge. The safari land 070 series wasn't as bad with the duel snaps. But our currently issued ALS holster has the accessory hood meant to keep your coat out of the way. It covers the rotating hood of the ALS mechanism. This same hood makes it extremely difficult to get the rotating hood forward.
It's this concept that drives me to carry my BUG (Shield 9mm) set up for a weak hand draw. I qualify with the Shield as if I were left handed (I'm not). I've found that working on ambidextrous pistol skills forces me to concentrate more on the basic things I take for granite when shooting dominate hand. But sometimes concentrating on the basic skills isn't a bad thing.
Useful discussion! A few years ago, I broke my wrist, sprained ankle and ribs. I was signed up for a class on injured shooters at Karl Rehn's. By then I had a cast up to just below my elbow on my dominant hand and my ankle in a rig. Thus, I took the class as the real deal of injured shooter! Well worth the experience. I was also signed up for Ayoob's Stress Fire class while still in the cast. I learned to appreciate shooting with the nondominant hand, manipulation, etc.
I don't recommend breaking yourself though for training.
As far as being shot in the gun hand - my first FOF - shot right in the top of my gun hand. I think folks look at the gun - that's what the weapon's memory research demonstrates and I think they shoot there. I lent a SW revolver to another student and it came back with a paint splash on the front of the cylinder.
While not guns - I took a knife class awhile ago and somehow managed to break the blood vessels in my hand. The hand doctor put it in some rig. So went I went to work, folks asked what did you do to your hand? Knife fighting class - liberal arts college! TX kids thought is was cool, faculty not so much (isn't he strange).
We run nondominant hand stages at the IDPA matches, and it isn't that much of a challenge.
While I understand the thought process that leads to this conclusion, I think it's based on inadequate examination of all the facts.
First, when we do FOF, we shoot the way we've been taught. That means we're aiming at high center chest, and we're holding our guns at high center chest. Thus, it's pretty easily expected that we'll hit each other in the hands or guns. As someone who's been a role player in countless scenarios, I can tell you that if you hold your gun at your waist or above your head sideways gangsta' style you're far less likely to get hit in the hand. Also, if you get untrained "students" who are just going to point shoot blindly, even if your gun is at high chest height you're far less likely to get hit in your gun or hands.
If you examine data from a statistically significant number of LE two-way exchanges you see that hand/gun hits are the exception rather than the norm, and that hand/gun hits which disable the primary hand but still allow the gun (or shooter) to keep fighting are exceptionally rare. I remember Kyle Defoor discussing this at the last class I took from him, where he said in his experience people will continue to fight with broken/shredded dominant hands if the hand was still responding to brain commands... purposely choosing to go weak hand only was all but a myth.
I'm not arguing with the initial post or its conclusions. I think a well-rounded shooter should be reasonably proficient in WHO skills and have WHO gear (ask me how I know). But I've taught at major LE agencies where recruits weren't even taught WHO draws and reloads, hadn't been for decades, and even the instructors weren't familiar with the techniques... and in all those years after countless ballistic exchanges it had never been an issue. I was amazed and more than a little disappointed that it wasn't at least covered in training. But I also see far too many people who put far too much of their limited time/ammo into working on very outlier skills when their more likely & necessary skills aren't up to par yet.
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