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View Full Version : Critique my draw



MDS
07-30-2011, 12:33 AM
Maybe we should have a whole forum section for critique requests. I know I've gotten a lot out of reading critiques of others' videos on here. In that spirit, here's a video of my draw from earlier tonight. This was the last of about 20 reps at 1.8s par time, drawing to a 4" circle at 4yd. Thanks in advance!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTe8tAzxHwk

ToddG
07-30-2011, 07:09 AM
I find it a lot harder to "see" things in video than in person. But rough thoughts:

Be careful about hanging your support hand so far out front before the gun gets to it... can lead to muzzling or even shooting your hand under less than perfect circumstances.
Your weak hand grip isn't finalized until you're about 2/3 of the way to full extension. I prefer not to extend the muzzle forward until I've got the best complete grip on the gun possible.
You don't get the gun level until it's at full extension. That means you can't get a sight picture (aligned sights on the point of the target you want to hit) until at full extension.

SLG
07-30-2011, 09:37 AM
Mario,

All of what Todd said plus I'd kill that slide racking technique. It looks cool, but it's asking for trouble. Call me old fashioned, but keeping all of my fingers away from the muzzle is high on my list.

It's very hard to tell what your trigger finger is doing, but it seems (I could easily be wrong) that improving your pressout would drop some time. it looks like the pressout is the slowest part of your draw. That would be fine on a low probability target, but on a 4" circle at 4 yards, I'd work on pressing out faster.

It also looks like your strong thumb is digging behind the holster for the grip. That will work, but no one who is really fast does that, to the best of my knowledge. Flagging the thumb will be slightly faster, as well as allow you to more easily transition to other pistols, if needed.

Finally, though very hard to tell from the video, it looks like you're riding the gun in the holster a little longer than needed. This is probably partly because you're digging the thumb, which tends to tighten you up and slow you down, as well as take more time to accomplish. It's also probably partly due to not pushing fast enough. As Todd likes to say, sometimes you just have to go faster. Or something like that.

Shave looks good too:-)

MDS
07-31-2011, 10:06 PM
First, thanks for the advice.


Be careful about hanging your support hand so far out front before the gun gets to it... can lead to muzzling or even shooting your hand under less than perfect circumstances.

Holy @#$%^&*!!! I need to fix that before anything else.




Your weak hand grip isn't finalized until you're about 2/3 of the way to full extension. I prefer not to extend the muzzle forward until I've got the best complete grip on the gun possible.
You don't get the gun level until it's at full extension. That means you can't get a sight picture (aligned sights on the point of the target you want to hit) until at full extension.



it looks like the pressout is the slowest part of your draw.

Yaar. You just made me realize that mentally, I really start my press-out one-handed, and add in the support hand after the press-out's well in progress. I think it's an artifact of doing most of my dry-fire SHO and WHO. Obviously, it's harder to get the sights accurately aligned one-handed. I'll be spending some quality time with my SIRT for a while, just doing press-outs, and increase the percentage of dry-fire I do two-handed.


I'd kill that slide racking technique. It looks cool, but it's asking for trouble.

You're right, of course. I've taken to checking the chamber every time I holster the gun. In live fire to get in the habit of making sure I holster a loaded weapon, and in dry-fire to recock it as well as to verify empty chamber. I used to do it overhand, then I saw some high-speed guys do it this way and I thought I wanna be cool, too! I'll go back to doing it overhand...


It also looks like your strong thumb is digging behind the holster for the grip.

[...]

Finally, though very hard to tell from the video, it looks like you're riding the gun in the holster a little longer than needed. This is probably partly because you're digging the thumb, which tends to tighten you up and slow you down, as well as take more time to accomplish. It's also probably partly due to not pushing fast enough. As Todd likes to say, sometimes you just have to go faster. Or something like that.

Totally spot on. I'm not pushing speed at this point, because I feel like I need to ingrain some good habits first. I'll practice flagging the thumb instead of digging it in, as well as all the other advice you guys have, and get a comfortable with a better-looking draw. Then I'll start speeding it up and see if I can post another video in a day or two. BTW, I realize that my upper body is moving quite a bit. I'll see about keeping it steady.


Shave looks good too:-)

Hey, my draw might suck, but a man's got to have his priorities. ;)