Grip Strength, Gender, and Shooting Performance

[Clusterfrack]

Some people’s grip strength is remarkable. My martial arts instructor can grip an arm hard enough (without obvious effort) to cause heavy bruising. I wish I could do that because while it might not improve my shooting, it is an awesome superpower.

[runcible]

Never having been exposed to the "quarter-panel" method formally, I must reserve some opinion on it.

Though, while I can appreciate it getting bone-structure in place behind the grip and that makes sense; it does seem like it shares some overlap with the "cover all of the exposed grip with skin" methodology that is pretty common in shooting instruction. My concerns with that latter body of ideas is that it's a passive method for managing the recoil impulse, and thus is unlikely to be at its best when not buttressed with active muscular engagement; and in that it requires the support hand to drift rearwards on the grip to enable such, which for many (particularly those of small hands) also requires bending the wrist in accommodation and lowering the overall position of the support-hand so as to place the meaty portion of the thumb behind the grip's prominence. Lowering the support-hand shifts any active muscular pressure away from the boreline where recoil occurs, reducing the leverage involved and the efficiency of the engagement. Bending the wrist reduces the expressed grip strength, potentially below the threshold of the shooter being able to demonstrating an enduring grip through-out a full magazine of fire. Together, those two modifications would have me looking at the method askance.

For me myself and my specific work-gun, reduced in profile as it is from the stock configuration, I would be unable to maintain a cohesive shooting grip through successive firings; Lord knows I was made to shoot in such a manner across a few ten-thousands of rounds, and my grips have served me well in other pursuits. (Though, I'll be damned if Glen Stilson in AZ doesn't have tremendous grips, himself...)

[hiro]

My search fu is weak.

Can someone please link me a description of the quarter panel grip or is it a TPC proprietary technique?

Thank you

[GJM]

My search fu is weak.

Can someone please link me a description of the quarter panel grip or is it a TPC proprietary technique?

Thank you

https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....-Mastery-class

[randyflycaster]

What do you mean by 45 degree angle? Thanks,

Randy

While I don't game, I do shoot pistols - a lot.

One thing I have experienced over the years is figuring out exactly what type of grip is most necessary for effectively using a pistol. The main factor has always been consistency. Years ago there was a trend of "crushing" the gun for the sake of grip and then that went away because it wasn't working (and largely doesn't). Consistently putting pressure on the grip of a pistol to provide you with the same, expected, results is the best practice in my opinion.

For example, when shooting two hand freestyle at 25 yards for accuracy, I have found that using the forward thumb of your non-trigger hand to push slightly on the frame in a 45° angel while you are pressing the trigger provides a huge accuracy benefit. I have consistently seen improvement in anyone whose tried this and it has nothing to do with crushing grip strength.

The trick, in my opinion, is to find your personal level of grip required for pistol shooting and then work to evolve that. It's never completely loose or crushing the grip, it's usually somewhere just tighter than center.

[CCT125US]

I think it is a valuable technique that makes a ton of sense mechanically. My problem with it is that I can't execute it, barely with a slow deliberate placing of my hands on a gun and never with a speed draw. The size of my hands, the ergos of my guns, where my strong hand goes on a gun all lead to inability to make my support hand to go around that corner.

Based on my understanding of the technique, this was my observation as well. It works extremely well for recoil control, but for me, did not lend itself to ease of transitions, or accuracy at distance. For example on my hit factor test, or the TPC 24, it worked very well based on the target size. However, something like the iHack or even the Garcia dot drill was a different story. I didn't have fluid movement. Shooting B8s at 25 yards was also a challenge for me while using the quarter panel technique, at least based on my understanding of it. I have since moved on.

[randyflycaster]

Here's Mike Seeklander's description of the quarter-panel grip. What I am again confused about is that he advocates locking the elbows. Many top shooters, Julie Golub included, advocate not locking the elbows.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xl1u...ature=youtu.be


Also, some top shooters, as far as I know, do not use a death grip.

Randy

[randyflycaster]

P.S. I tried the quarter-panel grip in my house. I don't see how I can keep my support hand palm on the rear quarter panel of the gun. It slides forward when I apply forward pressure.

Randy

[Clusterfrack]

There are a lot of people who don't really know why what they do works, and some of these people are very accomplished shooters. After spending serious time down Hwansik Kim's rabbit hole, I think there is:

1) Confusion between gripping hard and locking the wrist. It is not obvious that these can be done independently unless you work on it.

2) Confusion between gripping the gun hard and returning the gun after recoil. These are not the same thing, and aren't directly related unless the gun is slipping inside the grip, or the grip is coming apart.

3) Confusion between how everyone needs to grip guns, and how a particular gun fits one person's hand.

[GJM]

There are great teachers, great shooters, and sometimes both come together in one package. There are also shooters who shoot well because of their technique, and some who shoot well despite their technique. There are also a lot of ways to skin a cat, and what works for you may or may not work for me.

Go put the work in, keep an open mind to different methods, and most often you will improve.