Week 97: Grip 300

[Mr_White]

Week 97: Grip 300

Results may be posted until February 28th, 2015.

For this drill, all you need is your holstered pistol – no ammo, target, or safe direction is required (for purposes of the drill, the pistol will remain holstered.)

When working for a faster draw, one of the areas where many people have an opportunity for gains is in more efficiently acquiring a master grip on the pistol. This is a very simple drill for use in working to acquire that master grip reliably and at the full speed you can move.

The drill is simply to acquire master grip on your holstered pistol, 300 times. Vary your hand start positions – hands at sides, hands at high torso, fence position, hands at surrender, hands straight in the air, hands straight out to the sides, hands on your head, hands touching a wall, hands in pockets, hands holding an object that must be dropped or thrown – there are endless possibilities. Trying several start positions is recommended.

It's not important that you do it exactly 300 times. Do more or do less as you prefer.

What is important: Explode into motion. Get moving as abruptly as you can and drive your hand to the gun at the full speed you can move. Acquire a clean and correct master grip. When you make a mistake, try to notice what you did wrong and pay attention to correcting it. If your holster has any retention devices, disengage them as part of acquiring master grip.

Please report the gun, holster, and concealment used (if any, concealment is optional), start positions you worked, and anything you noticed during the drill.

Using a timer is optional. If you have a timer and wish to use it so that you are reacting to an audible signal, go ahead. This part is optional because some people don't have timers and using a timer will also make the drill take much longer.

Training with firearms is an inherently dangerous activity. Be sure to follow all safety protocols when using firearms or practicing these drills. These drills are provided for information purposes only. Use at your own risk.

[SLG]

Good practice. The only issue I see is that with a timed/scored live drill, you either get the results or not. With a drill like this, everyone has a different idea of what the right way to draw is, and this drill does not show you why you might want to do it differently based on your "score".

Edited to add: didn't mean to come across as critical of the practice, just that the feedback isn't there the way it is with other drills.

[YVK]

Kudos, Mr_White, for bringing dry fire to the DOW.

I did it over a period of three days. 350+ grips doesn't seem like a lot, but it is if you're doing it thoughtfully. It also beats my hands.

P30, modded Shaggy, SME and strong side Blade Tech were used, first two concealed and last one mostly open. I did it with and without a timer. For a timed drill, a par time of 0.4 seconds was used, whether concealed or not. If I botched a timed drill, next five were done without a timer. I couldn't reliably meet that par time drawing AIWB from a surrender position. Surrender with 180 degree turn, I couldn't do it too: at that par, I was either turning or gripping but not both, and I then stopped using a timer for this particular draw.
There was a tendency to short stroke the cover garment on AIWB and there is absolutely no reason why that should happen. Easy fix though.
With an open draw, I concentrated as much on my support hand as on my strong hand.
I felt that it was important to throw in on occasional draw to be sure I was not cheating that grip.
I paid a special attention to getting the same grip whether drawing strong side and AIWB, and for about 50 iterations I had both Shaggy and Blade Tech on, alternating the position. In retrospect, I kind of regret using just one pistol for that part .

[olstyn]

for about 50 iterations I had both Shaggy and Blade Tech on, alternating the position. In retrospect, I kind of regret using just one pistol for that part .

I've been thinking about this exercise, and was considering doing something similar, albeit with an IWB (Crossbreed Supertuck [yeah, I know, it's not the best]) and an OWB (CCC TUF). I came to the conclusion that doing it that way wouldn't be valid for me because the holsters occupy roughly the same spot on the belt, and therefore the CBST would push the TUF farther from my body than it would normally sit. I guess I'll have to split it into two sessions, one with each holster. I may even make it 3 sessions, the third being putting the IWB hooks on the TUF and using it that way, which will probably make for an even better comparison to the CBST, as it's more apples to apples that way.

[Clobbersaurus]

Gun: Girsan Regard Compact 9mm
Holster: Blade-Tech OWB
Concealment garb: Stupid looking vest.

I just finished this drill. I specifically didn't use my timer as I wanted to focus on how I establish my grip. I was pleasantly surprised by the results. I should mention that I also just did a bunch of micro drills as instructed in Stoeger's dry fire book, and one of them was a drill to establish your master grip (.4 sec PAR) so that drill was fresh in my mind for reference.

For this exercise I established my master grip stationary, moving, seated, hands at my sides, hands behind my back, hands at surrender, going up stairs, going down stairs, backed into a corner, looking into a mirror, hands straight out at sides, watching the football game, and stirring dinner in the pot.

100 reps into the drill I realized I wasn't doing anything with my support hand. It was just hanging there like a limp dick doing nothing. WTF?? With my method of concealment I have to clear cover with my strong hand and then establish my master grip. My support hand should be moving at the same time, coming to just below my right pec, waiting to meet my strong hand as it clears the holster. But I wasn't doing that, so I started burst into motion with both hands and tried focus on what both hand were doing and why.

As I worked through this drill I noticed that though my master grip was very consistent, my support hand was woefully inconsistent in my placement and movement. It's just something I did and never really put much thought into. I've had problems establishing a clean two handed grip with my Beretta's, due to improper support hand placement as I draw, and I'm now wondering if my inconsistency with my support hand, as I'm establishing my master grip, may be the issue.

Interesting drill Mr. White, thanks for posting. I have Lots of stuff to take away and chew on here.

[GJM]

A nice thing about hanging out in rural areas, is it possible to practice this drill, acquiring the grip, many times daily. Gives experience with different cover garments, gloves, range of temperatures, etc.

[Chuck Haggard]

I'm running this, and badly need to. I will be back in uniform doing some road patrol again soon, and I haven't been in uniform wearing a duty holster since Dec 18th.

Running a Safariland 6360 quickly and efficiently means I need to get back to getting work in.

[Range1]

Switched between Glock 23 gen 4 in a Safariland ALS holster and a Glock 34 in a Comptac owb.
Everything from concealment wearing a hiking/photographer's vest.

Very good exercise that really helps to hone the basics. I felt like I was playing "Whack-a-Mole" much of the time as I would realize one problem I needed to work on then something else would pop up. When I would work that one another one would pop up and so on. Probably is an indication I need to work on my concentration even more. Also kept realizing I was tensing up and that caused problems of course.

These drills are excellent and a good way to make me do the dry fire I always knew I should but was not making myself complete. Have definitely identified some bad habits I have developed over time that I will be working to correct.

Hopefully will get to the range soon for the Accuracy Efficiency Rating drill.

[Jared]

Broken up in two sessions between last night and this morning.

Holster: JMCK IWB version 2
Gun: Beretta 92FS
Belt: Volund Gear Works with Cobra buckle
Concealment: Closed front (T-shirt)

I'm trying to get more acclimated to this holster and the steeper angle it has, so this was a very well timed drill for me. Started off working with the shirt tucked in and the gun butt exposed last night, then let the t-shirt cover the gun today.

I didn't use a timer on this yet since, again, I'm working with a different holster than I'm used to and just wanted to really focus on getting the grip right before adding the time element. I also changed it a bit by doing a full presentation to a sight picture every tenth rep to verify that I was indeed getting my hand on the gun correctly.

As with the previous Press 600 dry fire drill, I really liked this one and felt like I got a good deal out of it. It's also going into my regular dry fire routine.

I too am glad that there are dry drills in DOTW now. The conditions outside here, right now, just aren't conducive to a good live fire session, and I'm always on the lookout for good new dry drills to do.

[Mr_White]

Good practice. The only issue I see is that with a timed/scored live drill, you either get the results or not. With a drill like this, everyone has a different idea of what the right way to draw is, and this drill does not show you why you might want to do it differently based on your "score".

Edited to add: didn't mean to come across as critical of the practice, just that the feedback isn't there the way it is with other drills.

I think that comment is entirely fair and correct. That is one of the essential challenges of any dry drill. In this one, the practitioner must already know by feel what their master grip should be, must pay attention and be aware so they notice what they are doing, and disciplined so they make the practice itself useful.

-------

I'm very happy some people are trying these dry drills and enjoying them. This one is definitely in the 'micro-drill' category. Like GJM, I've made use of this drill when I've been in a place and time where I maybe can't be drawing the gun or doing dry practice, but have a private place where I can repeatedly execute count 1 of the draw.

I can see from a comment or two about the support hand that I didn't define that part of the drill well at all. My intention was that the drill encompass many reps of count 1 of the draw – focusing on master grip acquisition, but whatever you personally do with your support hand during count 1 should also be done in the Grip 300 drill. Just saying that to clarify - I think people are pretty much doing that already.