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Thread: Phraseology Demystification: "Lock your wrist"

  1. #1
    Member roblund's Avatar
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    Phraseology Demystification: "Lock your wrist"

    Disclaimer - this post is absolutely off in the weeds. However, gun nerdery is fun, and I'm perfectly willing to ask dumb questions.

    A phrase that is frequently used when describing modern pistol shooting is "lock your wrist." This is generally used to help explain how to set up your grip to mitigate recoil when firing. Often in short video clips or in articles it is glossed over as if this is just something you should already know how to do. I wanted to dig a little deeper. If a person "locks" their wrist, are they rotating their wrist to full ulnar deviation, or is locking the wrist simply increasing tension around the wrist joint so that it does not easily rotate? Said another way, is locking your wrist a skeletal position or is it phrase to explain the application of force? How do you determine this is a locked wrist position, and this is an unlocked(?) wrist position?

  2. #2
    Member orionz06's Avatar
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    I can't really explain it but I believe it to be something that people often screw up but it's still understood.
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  3. #3
    Member Peally's Avatar
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    To be frank, I don't understand what the hell it's supposed to mean, and I recall a recent Stoeger podcast that shared my opinion. I can apply pressure in different ways through my hands and upper body to the handgun, but there's nothing going on where I can latch and unlatch anything in my wrists. They simply do what I need them to do, keep my hands attached to my arms and not a whole lot else as far as I can tell.
    Semper Gumby, Always Flexible

  4. #4
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    My best results come from putting isometric contraction in my wrists. You flex the muscle without moving the joint from a specific position. I get that some amount of ulnar deviation is necessary for some grips, so it's not neutral per se, but I get wrist pain if there's too much ulnar deviation.

  5. #5
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    As a complete newbie, this one (and the even worse " lock your tendons " drove me nuts.

    I could never figure out if something specific was attempting to be communicated that I didn't get, or if it meant to use isometric tension in your forearm muscles, or to cant your west down as far as it could go.

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by roblund View Post
    If a person "locks" their wrist, are they rotating their wrist to full ulnar deviation, or is locking the wrist simply increasing tension around the wrist joint so that it does not easily rotate?
    The latter for me.

    On the account of ulnar deviation: for a long time I followed the teaching of doing that quite a bit, rotating or canting my support wrist forward. I rotated my wrist forward so much that my thumb was pointing down. One day I was working my grip strength out by squeezing a tennis ball and realized that the more I was canting my wrist, the harder it was for me to squeeze that ball. Later, when I bought CoC grips, I repeated the experiment. Same thing, the more rotated, the weaker my grip was. It is a simple enough test for everyone to try and see. I myself just stopped caring how much my wrist is canted, as long as it was canted some to place it high enough, with increased forward tension.

  7. #7
    We are diminished
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    I taught the ulnar deviation thing for years and still think it has merit. Although I understand the issue with its relation to possibly reduced overall grip strength, it has the benefit of using your bones (which should always be there) as opposed to muscular strength (which may be compromised due to injury). I've always been a big believer that having techniques that assume you haven't just been wounded is a bad idea unless your only concern is competition shooting.

    Having said that, the time I've spent with the 1911 has forced me to reexamine my grip quite a bit because achieving ulnar deviation forces me to give up a 360 degree grip which I also think has a lot of benefit especially when grip strength may be compromised. The 360 thing guarantees more contact patch with the grip surface which has obvious benefits in both keeping the gun in your hands and minimizing flip. When shooting the 1911, I've had to give up the ulnar deviation in favor of the 360 grip because of my hand size and my own limitations.

    As for the original question, I think the term is used to mean different things and originated when Glock needed something to blame for stoppages. "You didn't lock your wrists" was a vague but catchy mantra that people were quick to believe because it meant their precious new gun was still PERFECTION.

  8. #8
    Member Peally's Avatar
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    In that case maybe it just means the opposite of shooting with wet noodle hands in general, completely loose.
    Semper Gumby, Always Flexible

  9. #9
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    I think it can be useful when combined with a demo to get new or inexperienced shooters to be less floppy with their wrists when they grip the gun.

    I don't think it is particularly useful in the "shoot the gun with SCIENCE!" Context that I have often seen it lately.

  10. #10
    Leopard Printer Mr_White's Avatar
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    I think of the ulnar deviation thing as an aspect of grip structure. I think of 'locked wrists' as referring to tensing the muscles and tendons in the wrists/forearms so that the wrist is held stiffly in position, whatever that precise position is for a given person.
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