The Study of Gabe White's AIWB Draw

[AsianJedi]

This video was taken at Gabe's class in Culpeper, VA on June 12,2017.

If I am not mistaken is it the first high(er)-res, slow motion video of his draw.

I am personally dissecting it and looking to incorporate features of it in my own draw.

Please post your observations! Mr_White


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsbEPsxeFno

[Prdator]

i think id want a few more samples of videos before basing a draw stroke off it.

[imp1295]

it would be cool to run that through coach's eye ala McPhee and others.

[Cory]

I think my draw is pretty similar, but I often wear button down shirts which can change the cover garment clearing some. I also don't have my foot on the gas as much as he does. I'm really glad you posted this. I'm going to see what I can learn from it.

I've been catching up on P&S stuff, almost forgot you were on here. Sub'd your youtube.

-Cory

[GJM]

What is extraordinary about Gabe's draw is not his method. It is his execution, and that is all about hard work.

[11B10]

What is extraordinary about Gabe's draw is not his method. It is his execution, and that is all about hard work.




GJM, I couldn't agree more. When you watch him, there is a "fluid" component to his movements that can only come from many, many repetitions.

[GJM]

My wife says (about Gabe), "it isn't just a draw, it is a lifestyle."

[Clobbersaurus]

I think the major parts of his speed are is his reaction time to the buzzer, which is insanely fast, his initial movement of both hands at the same time on the buzzer and his "up and in" SH initial grip on the gun. Oh, and his press out (which doesn't really fully explain what he does) is insanely fast as well.:D

IMO his draw is the definition of an overlearned skill.


https://youtu.be/9rc7s-z7RBw

[JHC]

What is extraordinary about Gabe's draw is not his method. It is his execution, and that is all about hard work.

No kidding! I have erred by implementing that explosive "burned fingers" flash to the gun based on hundreds of reps maybe, vs thousands and thousands. I tried to apply it far short of mastery and got burned by fouled grips and sketchy hits.

It is very challenging for me to change speeds from the burning blaze to the let up for the grip, then blaze the index presentation, then let up to confirm sights.

[Mr_White]

reaction time to the buzzer

Huh, I have always thought I am pretty average in reacting to the beep. I don't think I've actually measured my pure reaction time though. Where I think I profit on the draw, timewise, is in getting master grip without delay, and aiming and firing the shot while the gun is stopping at the end.


It is very challenging for me to change speeds from the burning blaze to the let up for the grip, then blaze the index presentation, then let up to confirm sights.

That oscillation from tension to fluidity and back definitely is challenging, but it's how the edges of movement get rounded so that minimal dead time is spent after each part of the draw is completed. And it's big in stopping the gun smoothly at the end.

[Clusterfrack]

From what I've seen Gabe's reaction to the beep is about as good as it gets, which is to say as good as practically every decent USPSA shooter. Unless you jump the clock (cheat), there really isn't much to be gained once you "get it". Limits of human performance top out.

Gabe's ability to modulate acceleration and deceleration is amazing. That's the holy grail of consistent, accurate, fast shots from the draw.

[Gio]

According to Google, the average human reaction time to an audible sound is .17 seconds. The reaction times of the top Olympic sprinters in the world range from about .12-.16 seconds. So even if you're an average Joe, you're only .05 seconds off the best in the world. Translated to shooting, the reaction time difference between two shooters will be such a small percentage of the overall time, even on short drills like draw and fire 1 shot, that it's not even worth worrying about.

A more common error I've seen shooters make with regards to reaction time, is they will wait until the beep is over to start moving rather than as soon as the beep starts. This will result in about a 0.50+ second reaction. This is an execution error on the shooters part and not caused by a lack of capability.

Like anything with shooting, it's all about efficiency/economy of movement. If you have wasted movement when your hands go to the gun, or when the gun is drawn from the holster, or on the path of the gun to the target, or after the gun is at full extension but before the shot breaks, you will be adding time to your run. You can see the person standing behind Gabe that is shadow-gunning has a significant amount of wasted movement throughout this process.

[GRV]

Mr_White

I know you run a single T-shirt model. From the video, it looks like the absurd efficiency with which you clear the shirt is enabled by its resting in a very consistent position.

How does your clearing technique carry over to drawing on the move and from less perfect start positions? Do you ever have issues missing the shirt?

[Mr_White]

I know you run a single T-shirt model.

I have a bunch of a certain Champion C9 t-shirt that was sold at Target a few years ago. (They are still sold there, but change a little bit each season.) You can see me wearing the t-shirt in a lot of my match and older shooting videos. It's a little over the line as concealment outside of a permissive gun environment, so now most of the time I use the Champion C9 polo shirt like in the video, which is a little roomier and conceals better (and takes a little more care to clear too.) That's what you see me wearing in almost all my videos other than those where I have the t-shirt. I also wear an unrelated black polo in some of them, which is my work shirt at the range, but pretty similar to the Champion polo.


Do you ever have issues missing the shirt?

Yes. I believe disaster factor is inherent to the use of concealment. It can be minimized through practice, but it's still there. I think I do a reasonably consistent job clearing my shirt, but sometimes I miss it, sure.


From the video, it looks like the absurd efficiency with which you clear the shirt is enabled by its resting in a very consistent position.

Well...I definitely pick the shirts that I do because I think they work well. However, practice is where I think I really get the efficiency from. I do want the shirt in a consistent position, but way more importantly, I want my support hand to reliably clear the shirt regardless of whether it is hanging exactly this way or that way. Specifically, I think clearing the shirt efficiently is facilitated by having my support hand a little curled/fingers already set to hook the shirt on the way up, having my support hand fingers in contact with my pant leg rather than floating out in space, AND having that start position be pretty natural and non-threatening looking and thus non-telegraphic.


How does your clearing technique carry over to drawing on the move and from less perfect start positions?

Drawing on the move: I think it translates just great. If my hands start below the hemline, I lift the shirt. If my hands start out above the hemline, I grab and bunch the shirt at the diaphragm area. Works great both ways.

Less perfect start positions: Not sure exactly what you mean. If I took you to mean "all the infinite start positions one could find oneself in", oddball positioning is something that comes up constantly in USPSA. I tend to work through those with the above-the-hemline bunching method. I certainly have screwed up my draw in matches, but it certainly hasn't been frequently either. I'll see if I can grab some draws from matches to show you.

[GRV]

Thanks!

What I meant about the consistent resting position was that it looks like the scoop technique relies on the shirt hem hanging out a little from your waist so as to create a handle you can lift straight up. And yea, as far as less perfect positions I just mean anything more awkward (bent over, leaning, sitting, etc.), anything that might not keep the shirt in that exactly that position.

I've gone back and forth between the above-the-hem bunching and a variation of the straight lift like that (actually more of a hem bunch on the way up). Recently I've noticed myself totally blowing clears in dryfire with the straight lift when I get too antsy and rush into reps. Somehow, I don't seem to screw that up on the buzzer as much, but it still bugs me and I was curious to hear your perspective on it as I've been gravitating towards the bunching approach and away from the straight lift as a way of having a more reliable technique.

ETA: Just ran some air draws. It looks like my variation of the straight lift is more of a scoop/semi-bunch hook a bit above the hemline. I run a consistent shirt, but it's longer than yours and the hem lays flat against my pants.

[Mr_White]

Thanks!

What I meant about the consistent resting position was that it looks like the scoop technique relies on the shirt hem hanging out a little from your waist so as to create a handle you can lift straight up. And yea, as far as less perfect positions I just mean anything more awkward (bent over, leaning, sitting, etc.), anything that might not keep the shirt in that exactly that position.

I've gone back and forth between the above-the-hem bunching and a variation of the straight lift like that (actually more of a hem bunch on the way up). Recently I've noticed myself totally blowing clears in dryfire with the straight lift when I get too antsy and rush into reps. Somehow, I don't seem to screw that up on the buzzer as much, but it still bugs me and I was curious to hear your perspective on it as I've been gravitating towards the bunching approach and away from the straight lift as a way of having a more reliable technique.

ETA: Just ran some air draws. It looks like my variation of the straight lift is more of a scoop/semi-bunch hook a bit above the hemline. I run a consistent shirt, but it's longer than yours and the hem lays flat against my pants.

When I miss it like you are talking about, it is almost always because I let my support hand lift further away from my body rather than staying tight to it. Everything you said there is why my I put my support hand fingers in contact with my pant leg on a hands-down start. It does help if my shirt blouses out. It does not always do that though, and sometimes it is flat on my leg. Still gotta make sure to get it with those fingers.

If bunching the garment from a higher position across the board on all draws helps you, go with it. Nothing wrong with that. For me, I like dividing it between hands-below-the-hemline starts and hands-above-the-hemline starts. Because of the infinite start positions in life, and the seemingly endless variations they manufacture in matches, there ends up being a great many subtle draw variations anyway.

---

My draw in movement and with varied start positions

Draws on the move:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaZwu-o5gdo

Draws in matches:

I isolated just the draws from all the match videos I had close at hand on the computer. I excluded off-body starts (pick up gun off table, etc.) There certainly are some straightforward draws with a hands-down start to a target pretty much right in front of me....but not many (looked like about 20% of them to me.) There are a lot of varied hand start positions - hands-up, hands-down, hands touching some specific spot on or off my body, hands holding something, etc. - and lots of turns, movement, and leans required along with the draw.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ck7S5EnrsvM

[Clobbersaurus]

Huh, I have always thought I am pretty average in reacting to the beep. I don't think I've actually measured my pure reaction time though. Where I think I profit on the draw, timewise, is in getting master grip without delay, and aiming and firing the shot while the gun is stopping at the end.
.

I seem to remember a post where Les compared your reload speed to his. I can't find the thread, but I believe he was saying your reaction time to the beep was crazy fast.

[MGW]

Gabe, can you talk about how you grip the pistol out of the holster? Why do you flag your thumb on the back of the slide instead of driving the thumb behind the pistol? Is it left over from your early work with appendix draws or is there another reason for it?

How much downward pressure do you put on the pistol as take your grip? I've always thought your draw had two distinct sounds. One as you acquire your grip and one as the pistol clears the holster. It's almost a double click. I've often wondered about how much downward force you put into the pistol during the draw.

What is your perceived path to the target? It looks like you bring the pistol very high and then drive very straight from your dominate eye to the target?

[BJXDS]

FWIW, my observations on the difference between Gabe and and a few high level technically skilled shooters and those of us with less skill, during the class. The reaction time, tempo, ability to transition between targets, time to first shot and the consistency in which they are able to do it . They make it look effortless, but I know it took a lot of effort to get to that point

Its hard to describe, but with multiple shooters on the line you can really see/hear a BIG difference. ie some draws looked really smooth and fast but then the gun was on target and I was thinkin, SHOOT SHOOT, dammm what took them so long to pull the trigger? I know I am guilty of doing the same thing at times.

[nycnoob]

Its hard to describe, but with multiple shooters on the line you can really see/hear a BIG difference. ie some draws looked really smooth and fast but then the gun was on target and I was thinkin, SHOOT SHOOT, dammm what took them so long to pull the trigger? I know I am guilty of doing the same thing at times.

I was once on the line with failure2stop shooting next to me.
I remember quite clearly hearing his gun fire while I was only at position two of my draw.

[Mr_White]

Gabe, can you talk about how you grip the pistol out of the holster? Why do you flag your thumb on the back of the slide instead of driving the thumb behind the pistol? Is it left over from your early work with appendix draws or is there another reason for it?

I make a little gun shape with my strong hand as it starts to move. Trigger finger is prepositioned to go straight into register and the other four fingers are a bit curled but mostly open, and the thumb is flagged so I can slam the whole hand onto the grip. I balance economy of motion with raw speed in order to maintain margin of error when there is tension. If I try to make the draw path as minimalist as possible, I feel like I get more errors from running my fingers into the belt, etc. when tension causes short-stroking. This is a lot like the argument against letting triggers out to the minimum reset point and no further. Tension leads short-stroking, and when combined with no margin for error sometimes you get trigger freeze. The speed/force involved also helps get the grip fully seated in my hand.

Flagging my thumb is part of establishing master grip that way. It certainly doesn't have to be done that way but that's the way I do it. Getting the hand into position for master grip to be established, but only then wrapping the fingers onto and around the grip, and getting the thumb dug down in between the body and holster, takes a little time IMHO. To whatever extent my draw is fast, I personally believe it to be hugely related to efficiency in establishment of master grip at the beginning and getting to a high level of certainly in aiming at the end. As you can see in the older high speed video that Clobbersaurus posted upthread, the flagged thumb starts dropping over to the left side of the gun just as soon as it starts to lift, and gets to its final left-side position before the muzzle clears the holster.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7400/15813907064_83f2e529ae_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/q6qpC5)20150203_083220 (https://flic.kr/p/q6qpC5) by OrigamiAK (https://www.flickr.com/photos/52790396@N08/), on Flickr
https://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7377/16435493552_af89042445_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/r3mcCu)20150203_082900 (https://flic.kr/p/r3mcCu) by OrigamiAK (https://www.flickr.com/photos/52790396@N08/), on Flickr
https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8576/15813911284_4cf577da63_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/q6qqSQ)20150203_082839 (https://flic.kr/p/q6qqSQ) by OrigamiAK (https://www.flickr.com/photos/52790396@N08/), on Flickr



How much downward pressure do you put on the pistol as take your grip? I've always thought your draw had two distinct sounds. One as you acquire your grip and one as the pistol clears the holster. It's almost a double click. I've often wondered about how much downward force you put into the pistol during the draw.

I think it has the two sounds you are describing too. The sound when I am getting master grip does indeed come from the force exerted, though my self-perception is that the direction is more out-then-in rather than up-then-down. There is a little bit of downward direction to it, but I think it mostly goes inward. It's pretty forceful. Sometimes I get little cracks on my index finger from it hitting and edge of the belt loop. Small price to pay though. ;)


What is your perceived path to the target? It looks like you bring the pistol very high and then drive very straight from your dominate eye to the target?

Gun path to target has changed for me over time as I started with a pretty conventional rising path from sternum area to eye-target line only at full extension, but moved to variations of the press-out, with more of an attempt to get the gun into the eye-target line earlier, and at this point back to a more conventional rising path from sternum area to eye-target line only at full extension. I think that path is pretty clear in AsianJedi's video from class a week ago. Many of the draws from the '51 Match Draws' video I posted are from a few years ago and you can see the press-out with the higher path in some of them.

[MGW]

If you come back to this Gabe, could you talk a little bit about how you do your press out now? I seem to remember you talking about it on Stoeger's pod cast but can't find the episode now. Do you try to time the trigger break and gun at/near full extension?

[Mr_White]

If you come back to this Gabe, could you talk a little bit about how you do your press out now? I seem to remember you talking about it on Stoeger's pod cast but can't find the episode now. Do you try to time the trigger break and gun at/near full extension?

I don't really do any kind of stylized press-out anymore. Index and coarse visual alignment along the way very much have the sights showing up basically in alignment at the end of extension. I don't try to get the gun into the true eye-target line until the last couple inches of movement, which is also where the gun is decelerated enough that I can see the sights. Even if I present the gun in the true eye-target line, I also have to artificially slow the presentation to see the sights along the way. Not presenting the gun in the eye-target line also gets rid of a lot of the wrist tension and resultant muzzle-tilting that often goes along with a true eye-target line presentation. I don't have a problem with the press-out and I still think it's a perfectly fine way to draw, but I'm not really doing it anymore as an overt, physical technique. I do still kind of think in press-out-like terms, in that I do finalize the sights and trigger while the gun is still moving (assuming the target difficulty allows it), but that is happening as the gun is decelerating in the last couple inches of movement, so from the outside, it just looks like a conventional draw path. I pretty much just draw and get the gun to its final position as fast as I can, and clean up the sights and trigger from there in accordance with the shooting problem at hand.

[Peally]

There's only a few things you need to take away from Gabe's draw that are the key to your own baller draw:

1. Performing an ocular pat-down of the target, he determines the precise location of his performance. His mind is prepared, a deadly panther*(1)

2. Like Fabio, watch as he casts away the garments hugging his bronze body as he begins his magnificent dance.

3. Notice the erotic way his supple yet masculine hand grasps the gun in his patented "master grip". Love the gun firmly, but fairly, and with all your heart.

4. Grasping his throbbing "other strong hand" on the gun, he strongly thrusts out with laser precision.

5. Like a sweet whispered nothing, he pulls the trigger with the respect a master ninja shows his opponent before honorable battle*(2)



*(1) How you should feel when mindset is properly prepared


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlMHz-eQdDA



*(2) Gabe at 2017 Oregon USPSA section match (stage 73). Use as needed for reference and review


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tKQQOne57E


See, clear, grip, draw, aim, shoot... see. Just like Patches O'Houlihan taught us.

[CCT125US]

I'm not judging in any way, but someone may need a cold shower....

[Clusterfrack]

...Unfortunately the tiger shirt is too tight and clingy to use as a proper match shirt for me, but it is good for sirt practice.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVFz-JEIu0g

[NickS]

Huh, I have always thought I am pretty average in reacting to the beep. I don't think I've actually measured my pure reaction time though. Where I think I profit on the draw, timewise, is in getting master grip without delay, and aiming and firing the shot while the gun is stopping at the end.



That oscillation from tension to fluidity and back definitely is challenging,

Would you please write in English? Thanks.

[Peally]

Would you please write in English? Thanks.

He grip gun gud an quik. Save time wit gud index, no waste time wit not lined up sites :D

[NickS]

He grip gun gud an quik. Save time wit gud index, no waste time wit not lined up sites :D


Thanks, perfectly clear now. Thanks.

[ER_STL]

I'd say that Gabe's draw - and his shooting ability in general - is the result of a tireless study of the art of pistol-shooting combined with efficiency of movement and perhaps some super-human vision and reflexes. :) It's an example of the abilities of someone who is considered a professional within their dedicated sport or activity.

I've been working on how to do this to shortcut the learning curve but have so far been unsuccessful...

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