The Study of Gabe White's AIWB Draw

[Mr_White]

Gabe, can you talk about how you grip the pistol out of the holster? Why do you flag your thumb on the back of the slide instead of driving the thumb behind the pistol? Is it left over from your early work with appendix draws or is there another reason for it?

I make a little gun shape with my strong hand as it starts to move. Trigger finger is prepositioned to go straight into register and the other four fingers are a bit curled but mostly open, and the thumb is flagged so I can slam the whole hand onto the grip. I balance economy of motion with raw speed in order to maintain margin of error when there is tension. If I try to make the draw path as minimalist as possible, I feel like I get more errors from running my fingers into the belt, etc. when tension causes short-stroking. This is a lot like the argument against letting triggers out to the minimum reset point and no further. Tension leads short-stroking, and when combined with no margin for error sometimes you get trigger freeze. The speed/force involved also helps get the grip fully seated in my hand.

Flagging my thumb is part of establishing master grip that way. It certainly doesn't have to be done that way but that's the way I do it. Getting the hand into position for master grip to be established, but only then wrapping the fingers onto and around the grip, and getting the thumb dug down in between the body and holster, takes a little time IMHO. To whatever extent my draw is fast, I personally believe it to be hugely related to efficiency in establishment of master grip at the beginning and getting to a high level of certainly in aiming at the end. As you can see in the older high speed video that Clobbersaurus posted upthread, the flagged thumb starts dropping over to the left side of the gun just as soon as it starts to lift, and gets to its final left-side position before the muzzle clears the holster.

[img]20150203_083220 by OrigamiAK, on Flickr[/img]
[img]20150203_082900 by OrigamiAK, on Flickr[/img]
[img]20150203_082839 by OrigamiAK, on Flickr[/img]

How much downward pressure do you put on the pistol as take your grip? I've always thought your draw had two distinct sounds. One as you acquire your grip and one as the pistol clears the holster. It's almost a double click. I've often wondered about how much downward force you put into the pistol during the draw.

I think it has the two sounds you are describing too. The sound when I am getting master grip does indeed come from the force exerted, though my self-perception is that the direction is more out-then-in rather than up-then-down. There is a little bit of downward direction to it, but I think it mostly goes inward. It's pretty forceful. Sometimes I get little cracks on my index finger from it hitting and edge of the belt loop. Small price to pay though.

What is your perceived path to the target? It looks like you bring the pistol very high and then drive very straight from your dominate eye to the target?

Gun path to target has changed for me over time as I started with a pretty conventional rising path from sternum area to eye-target line only at full extension, but moved to variations of the press-out, with more of an attempt to get the gun into the eye-target line earlier, and at this point back to a more conventional rising path from sternum area to eye-target line only at full extension. I think that path is pretty clear in AsianJedi's video from class a week ago. Many of the draws from the '51 Match Draws' video I posted are from a few years ago and you can see the press-out with the higher path in some of them.

[MGW]

If you come back to this Gabe, could you talk a little bit about how you do your press out now? I seem to remember you talking about it on Stoeger's pod cast but can't find the episode now. Do you try to time the trigger break and gun at/near full extension?

[Mr_White]

If you come back to this Gabe, could you talk a little bit about how you do your press out now? I seem to remember you talking about it on Stoeger's pod cast but can't find the episode now. Do you try to time the trigger break and gun at/near full extension?

I don't really do any kind of stylized press-out anymore. Index and coarse visual alignment along the way very much have the sights showing up basically in alignment at the end of extension. I don't try to get the gun into the true eye-target line until the last couple inches of movement, which is also where the gun is decelerated enough that I can see the sights. Even if I present the gun in the true eye-target line, I also have to artificially slow the presentation to see the sights along the way. Not presenting the gun in the eye-target line also gets rid of a lot of the wrist tension and resultant muzzle-tilting that often goes along with a true eye-target line presentation. I don't have a problem with the press-out and I still think it's a perfectly fine way to draw, but I'm not really doing it anymore as an overt, physical technique. I do still kind of think in press-out-like terms, in that I do finalize the sights and trigger while the gun is still moving (assuming the target difficulty allows it), but that is happening as the gun is decelerating in the last couple inches of movement, so from the outside, it just looks like a conventional draw path. I pretty much just draw and get the gun to its final position as fast as I can, and clean up the sights and trigger from there in accordance with the shooting problem at hand.

[Peally]

There's only a few things you need to take away from Gabe's draw that are the key to your own baller draw:

1. Performing an ocular pat-down of the target, he determines the precise location of his performance. His mind is prepared, a deadly panther*(1)

2. Like Fabio, watch as he casts away the garments hugging his bronze body as he begins his magnificent dance.

3. Notice the erotic way his supple yet masculine hand grasps the gun in his patented "master grip". Love the gun firmly, but fairly, and with all your heart.

4. Grasping his throbbing "other strong hand" on the gun, he strongly thrusts out with laser precision.

5. Like a sweet whispered nothing, he pulls the trigger with the respect a master ninja shows his opponent before honorable battle*(2)



*(1) How you should feel when mindset is properly prepared





*(2) Gabe at 2017 Oregon USPSA section match (stage 73). Use as needed for reference and review




See, clear, grip, draw, aim, shoot... see. Just like Patches O'Houlihan taught us.

[CCT125US]

I'm not judging in any way, but someone may need a cold shower....

[Clusterfrack]

...Unfortunately the tiger shirt is too tight and clingy to use as a proper match shirt for me, but it is good for sirt practice.

[NickS]

Huh, I have always thought I am pretty average in reacting to the beep. I don't think I've actually measured my pure reaction time though. Where I think I profit on the draw, timewise, is in getting master grip without delay, and aiming and firing the shot while the gun is stopping at the end.



That oscillation from tension to fluidity and back definitely is challenging,

Would you please write in English? Thanks.

[Peally]

Would you please write in English? Thanks.

He grip gun gud an quik. Save time wit gud index, no waste time wit not lined up sites

[NickS]

He grip gun gud an quik. Save time wit gud index, no waste time wit not lined up sites

Thanks, perfectly clear now. Thanks.

[ER_STL]

I'd say that Gabe's draw - and his shooting ability in general - is the result of a tireless study of the art of pistol-shooting combined with efficiency of movement and perhaps some super-human vision and reflexes. It's an example of the abilities of someone who is considered a professional within their dedicated sport or activity.

I've been working on how to do this to shortcut the learning curve but have so far been unsuccessful...