Likes pretty much everything in every caliber.
I find these discussions very subjective. As other's have eluded to in this thread the individual's experience, grip strength, gun type/weight, and ammunition will all play a role in the physics. For every platform and ammunition combination there is probably some ideal torque weight that will keep the gun as flat as necessary while allowing optimal trigger control. So shooter X, a beginner, has to grip the gun to the point of shaking to achieve this optimal pressure shooting a polymer gun at 130PF - lets say 150 lbs of torque for argument sake. Over a year, he/she develops increased grip strength (applied in the correct locations) by shooting thousands of live rounds and working up to a 300 lb CoC. Now, in order to apply that same amount of torque it requires half of the perceived grip compared to 1 year ago. Anecdotally, this results in the perception of less applied grip force with the advantage of increased trigger control. Furthermore, I find it very hard to discern grip pressure amounts applied during a stage versus practice. Grip pressures will fluctuate over a stage depending on type/size/distance of targets, strong hand/weak hand, shooting while moving, leaning, etc. I would like to hear if anyone could report how they perceived grip strength and recoil control under stress and at different targets (match, real world scenario, ect). This would make for some interesting conversation. For me, I subconsciously grip way harder during stages than practice (not necessarily a good thing - just how it goes).
I would generally agree with much of this. However, previously I accepted it as gospel, to grip as hard as possible, and for me gripping less hard or differently is yielding better results. Just like trying more or less finger, I think it is worthwhile to experiment with how hard to grip and see how that works.
Likes pretty much everything in every caliber.
One barometer if you will of grip pressure is enough to be able to train everyday for a couple hours without injuring yourself as in tennis/shooters elbow. So the amount of grip pressure/force or strength applied should be comfortable/relaxed enough to sustain for a few hours of training while still producing the speed/accuracy standard.
I've strongly considered testing this out given some of what I've recently heard from interviews/videos from the likes of Eric Grauffel, Rob Leatham and Hwansik. That isn't to say that crush gripping won't have good results, but it did make me wonder if there were benefits to trying it more along the lines of how you've described gripping the gun.
@scw2, has Rob Leatham made recent comments concerning his grip?
Sometimes when we try new things they work better because we are focusing on being fundamentally sound in order to validate the technique. When we've done the same thing hundreds of thousands of times it's hard to stay focused and not run on autopilot, even when we think we are being focused and not running on auto pilot. At the end of the day, better results are better results no matter why it's happening.
As far grip, the harder we squeeze something relative to our maximum strength, the stronger the sympathetic response from the rest of our muscles in our bodies. When we squeeze a pistol we generate isometric tension throughout the body. The harder we squeeze, the more isometric tension we generate. That’s a good thing, especially if we’re squared up to a single target. Too much can be a bad thing too. Shooters with a weak grip relative to upper body strength will experience the support hand moving away from the pistol under recoil (it’s really the opposite). Shooters with good core strength may have difficulty rotating their torsos. None of us actually stand still, and shooting at distance, the less balanced among us are going to have exaggerated compensatory postural adjustments if we get really tight.
Last edited by txdpd; 01-23-2019 at 04:26 PM.
Whether you think you can or you can't, you're probably right.