John McPhee on Trigger Control

[breakingtime91]

I am just really interested in some of the things i have been reading about grip recently. I was coming in and "crushing" my grip with my support hand including my support hand thumb pushinto the frame. I have been having issues throwing shots right and believe this is because the unequal force I'm putting onto the gun. After reading that more then a few people just have a thumb forward grip but the thumb does nothing force wise on the frame, I am quite certain that was my issue. So I have been trying to do more side to side pressure on the pistol and have noticed that if I bring my elbows in towards each other I get the side to side pressure described but am curious if this is something worth trying..

[Luke]

Ive never heard of this guy till now. Looks pretty cool! Deffinatley going to take a class or two from him. I just hate I'm just now hearing about him, he had 3 or 4 classes in my home state earlier in the year!

[Chance]

I was coming in and "crushing" my grip with my support hand including my support hand thumb push into the frame.

I would be curious to hear about this as well. Given that my hands are so sweaty, I try and overcompensate with all the strength I can muster. In some circumstances, I've found that if I don't hook my support hand index finger underneath the trigger guard, that my support hand will actually be knocked off of the pistol during recoil, due to the absence of traction / purchase on my strong hand. I've devolved into pushing out as hard as I can with my strong side arm, and pulling in as hard as I can with my support side, all the while keeping my elbows straight.

This has not been an especially successful technique, but I don't know how much of that is due to the inherent flaws in the technique (which I'm sure are many), and the complications resulting from my sweaty hands (which I'm sure are many more).

[Pup town]

I am just really interested in some of the things i have been reading about grip recently. I was coming in and "crushing" my grip with my support hand including my support hand thumb pushinto the frame. I have been having issues throwing shots right and believe this is because the unequal force I'm putting onto the gun. After reading that more then a few people just have a thumb forward grip but the thumb does nothing force wise on the frame, I am quite certain that was my issue.

You may have figured out your problem. Brian Enos floats his thumbs and doesn't have them touch the frame for the reason you mentioned.

(I've always thought stippling up around the thumbs was stupid. You can't put enough force there to do diddly squat towards reducing muzzle flip, but you can sure cause other problems.)

[John Hearne]

You may have figured out your problem. Brian Enos floats his thumbs and doesn't have them touch the frame for the reason you mentioned.

Years ago, I took a private tutorial with Jim Crews. As part of the class, he videoed me shooting and pointed out that my thumbs were pushing the gun around. At the time, I was shooting a thumbs forward grip. I now shoot a thumbs high grip and just keep the thumbs out of the shooting equation. It has the nice side benefit of keeping my thumbs off the slide catch lever of my Sigs.

[scw2]

So I have been trying to do more side to side pressure on the pistol and have noticed that if I bring my elbows in towards each other I get the side to side pressure described but am curious if this is something worth trying..

I think I saw a video that recommended bringing your elbows up, so that your elbows are more pointing to the side rather than pointing down at the ground. I think if you do that while thinking of pressing in you'd get good pressure, especially higher up on your gun. Plus, I would assume the recoil would be better managed than if you bring your elbows down and in. I will try to play around with the side-to-side pressure today, but unfortunately can't help test on the potential impact on recoil.

[Luke]

If you watch some more of his videos on YouTube he advocates elbows down.

[breakingtime91]

If you watch some more of his videos on YouTube he advocates elbows down.

I noticed watching guys like Proctor that they have their elbows pointed down when demonstrating grip, still isoceles but not the "costa" extension

[Peally]

I would be curious to hear about this as well. Given that my hands are so sweaty, I try and overcompensate with all the strength I can muster. In some circumstances, I've found that if I don't hook my support hand index finger underneath the trigger guard, that my support hand will actually be knocked off of the pistol during recoil, due to the absence of traction / purchase on my strong hand. I've devolved into pushing out as hard as I can with my strong side arm, and pulling in as hard as I can with my support side, all the while keeping my elbows straight.

This has not been an especially successful technique, but I don't know how much of that is due to the inherent flaws in the technique (which I'm sure are many), and the complications resulting from my sweaty hands (which I'm sure are many more).

I feel your pain in regards to hand traction. Pro-tip: dirt. I felt stupid first realizing it but one day when I went to dust my hands a little with some gravel powder on the range (to get rid of sweaty ass hands) I went to draw the gun and my grip was so much like glue I actually ended up fumbling them all until I brushed all but a little off. It was like realizing I was standing on a 100 yards of free liquid-grip.

Dirt/gravel is like glue to me, might work for you. Not practical for everyday use but in a pinch it helps at a match. I still grip the snot out of the gun though (torquing in with each hand instead of push/pull).