The goal of practical shooting is to hit what you are aiming at, as fast as possible. Lately, I have been thinking about the relationship of grip to trigger control and trigger speed. It seems complicated, and likely different, depending on where you are in your development process.
In the beginning, we just want to hit what we aim at. As Rob Leatham demonstrates, if you have good trigger control, it doesn’t matter how you hold the pistol — it can be upside down with two fingers, and you can hit your target. Unfortunately, trigger control doesn’t come in the box with the pistol, and as shooters we are or should be working to improve and retain our trigger control, as long as we are serious about shooting. When our trigger control is less developed, it helps to grip the pistol firmly, so a less than perfect press has less chance of moving the pistol out of alignment with the target. This is especially so with a lightweight pistol with a relatively long and heavy trigger pull. I believe shooters can do pretty well, hitting what they are aiming at, if they have a very strong grip on the pistol. That may break down when they go to shoot with just one hand, and that might be a reasonable diagnostic test of pure trigger control.
The other advantage of a strong grip is recoil control. All things equal (meaning technique), the harder you hold the pistol, the less the pistol moves in recoil. As you grip the pistol harder and harder, though, it can become more difficult to move the trigger quickly. At that point, you need to try to understand how your grip is interrelated to your trigger control, trigger speed, and recoil control. The obvious way to measure this is points per second.
I got to the point where holding the pistol too hard became a major problem for me. I didn’t need that grip to help trigger control, and the tension impaired my ability to shoot fast splits. My pistol was very flat in recoil, but my splits were slower than they should be. The first thing I did was experiment shooting 25 yards groups with much less grip force, and I noticed no degradation there. Actually, what I did notice was it was easier to shoot tight groups quickly because there was less tension in my strong hand. Then I tried to assess how the gun moved in recoil. Not surprisingly, since there is generally no free lunch, the pistol moved more in recoil. What I was surprised to discover was while the pistol moved more, it also returned quicker, making it ready to shoot earlier. Finally, less tension, especially in my strong hand, made it easier to move the trigger quickly. An unintended benefit was it improved my draw, because I have so much less tension in my arms.
I am now at the point of doing those 10,000 repetitions, or what is required, to burn less grip tension into my subconscious. It might be worthwhile to think about your own grip and how you think that interacts with your trigger control and trigger speed.