Well said.
Originally Posted by Clusterfrack
Well said.
A very good video on grip . Well worth watching .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNmnk-Ya8WQ
The worst thing I ever did to my shooting skill was to listen to a guy who did shoot great and grip the gun in a way I just didn't like. He kept wanting me to grip harder, almost to the point of shaking, and it screwed me all up, accuracy went to hell and after I would shoot 100 rounds of 9mm out of a full sized steel gun my hands just killed me later on. My hands have had a lot of wear and tear, fights as a bouncer/security guard, working on cars, and being over 60 have made them sensitive to cold, and gripping anything in a death grip is just asking for pain. After I abandoned his teachings, it took me a long time to get back to the lousy (Compared to when I was 40) level I was before I tried to improve with his methods. I learned to shoot basically alone, by myself, and there are things that I disagree with that seem to be "canon" and the "crush" grip is one of them. Even when I was 22 and had the strongest grip of anyone I knew, I shot better holding a gun comfortably, not more than 50% of what I could have, and not squeezing it to the point of pain like a friend's brother in law does when he shakes your hand. He loved shaking hands with guys and really laying it on. I decided at a party to do a preemptive strike and smash his hand as hard as I possibly could. He didn't find it amusing when it was done to him. Not at all. I was a hit at that party though, and was offered a lot of congrats on making him whine.
Jerry Miculek has said if your hands aren't sore after a shooting session you weren't gripping hard enough.
well, I guess he would know best, but if it makes it hard to go to sleep without taking pain meds, that's too much. And that's what the guy supposedly helping me wanted me to do. I can shoot okay. Not great, but okay, and that's about as good as I can hope for at this point. I have high confidence that I can defend myself if I need to with a handgun. I know I'll probably never be any better than I am right now. If I can keep that, I will be thrilled.
I think that "crush the gun" is an overly simplistic answer that may harm a lot of people. I have tried to do this for some time until recently attending a Stoeger class. His description is a "firm handshake" of the gun hand, and everything you have with the support hand. After him repeatedly cuing me to relax my gun hand a bit my nasty habit of low and/or left self corrected quickly.
That feeling of firm handshake/as much as you can is my current focus in live and dry fire. I find that this not only helps with not pushing the gun with the strong hand overgripping with the press, but also my splits are a touch faster as my trigger finger is more free to move.
Why would a firmer grip with your dominant hand be the cause of a pre ignition flinch?
Low/low left isn't necessarily a flinch. Crushing the grip with your dominant hand can cause problems with trigger finger control and isolation. You end up with a sympathetic squeeze and aren't moving just your trigger finger.
Not saying that's what Slalom was doing, but it's something that can happen.
If you're crushing your grip, how can you have a sympathetic squeeze when you're already at max? That's one of the benefits of a crush grip.
If you are maximally gripping with your dominate hand it is much more difficult to isolate your finger for a straight back press of the trigger without side pressure or the effort causing the "sympathetic squeeze" mentioned.
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