Originally Posted by
Dan Lehr
Sanch - if you are trying to sort yourself out pay attention to how you recover to the holster from full extension. Where does the support hand begin separating and detaching from the holster?
I kind of adopted/adapted D.R. Middlebrook's thoughts on the draw. In his book FIST Fire Middlebrook explains that he bought raw footage from just about every camera man at the nationals one year with the idea of developing his draw. What he found was many variations of the draw, but, almost universal duplication in the way competitors recovered to the holster. Middlebrook's theory was that if that's the most efficient way back to the holster, it ought to be a pretty sound way to get out of the holster. Here's a description of the process, as I saw it:
Stage 1: Grip, Release, Ground
The first stage starts with the weapon locked into the holster with all retention devices engaged. The officer should be standing as they might be if caught unaware. This means that the officer should practice with their hands in different locations: hanging naturally to the side, up and moving as if speaking to someone, etc. The idea here is that the officer shouldn’t begin in a gunfighter's crouch with their hand hovering over the weapon.
~ Grip and Release. The goal is to get a shooting grip on the weapon while it is in the holster. At the same time the shooting grip is obtained, the retention device holding the weapon in the holster should be released. Many shooters reverse this process and release the retention strap on their holster before gripping the weapon without ever realizing they have done so. This adds time to the process while doing nothing to increase the efficiency of the process. At this point the shooter’s trigger finger should be outside the holster, off the trigger. (Properly designed police holsters should not allow the trigger finger to contact the trigger while the weapon is in the holster.)
~ Elbow to the rear. The officer should ensure that the elbow of the strong hand is kept tight into the officer’s body while the officer is gripping and releasing the weapon. This ensures the officer does not torque the weapon sideways in the holster, causing it to bind. Additionally, as the weapon clears the holster the elbow is located directly along the desired axis of travel for the weapon. This will allow the weapon to punch to the target with no sideward deviation.
~ Ground. At the same time the actions described above are taking place the shooter grounds their support hand onto the chest, thumb up, heel of the hand contacting the sternum, approximately nipple height.
Stage 2: Clear, Lock, Rock
The second stage of the draw is where the weapon is actually drawn from the holster. The weapon should be drawn straight up until the end of the barrel is clear of the holster. As the muzzle of the weapon clears the holster, the movement of the weapon should naturally continue upward, and the wrist should lock straight. As the arm continues to draw the weapon upward, the shooter should rotate or rock the arm level. At this point the weapon should be slightly below the armpit and the weapon should be level and indexed on the target or adversary. If the shooter were practicing in front of a mirror and stopped at this point, they should see the muzzle of the weapon indexed on their image. The support hand and strong hand should also be level with each other.
Stage 3: Index
During the third stage of the draw the shooter establishes a two-hand grip on the weapon and indexes the weapon under the dominant eye. This is accomplished as the strong hand is moved forward along the rib cage and into contact with the support hand which is moving toward the strong hand from its (support hand) grounded position on the sternum. This may sound awkward but go through it slowly and you will see how the hands seem to naturally find each other helping to establish a proper two-hand grip.
Traditionally this position has been called the ready position. This terminology has been used to describe a stage of the draw and also to describe the position in which the officer covers an subject. The ready position to cover a subject in no way corresponds to the position described above in Stage 3: Index. The weapon should be at least sternum height and should be centered under the officer’s dominant eye.
In his book, Fist-Fire: Defensive Speed Shooting, D.R. Middlebrooks calls this a high retention position and explains that the shooter should check three indexes in this position:
1) Vertical index. Centerline of the weapon positioned directly under the centerline of the dominant eye;
2) Horizontal index. The bore of the weapon is level to the ground;
3) Optical index. The axis of the bore pointing directly where the dominant eye is looking.
Stage 4: Press-Out
As the hands come together and a two-hand grip is established in the high retention position the weapon is punched straight to the target. If the weapon has been properly indexed, shots can be fired with accuracy as the weapon punches straight out to full extension. At full extension the weapon is interposed between the dominant eye and the target. If the weapon has been properly indexed the sights should be aligned with little or no movement of the hands, wrists or arms.
Reply With Quote
