Here we are for Part II: Grip. This series is in no particular order of importance, but I think it makes sense to start with how to hold the gun and go from there. Let’s get started! (reference photos will be added later, my internet connection is limited to say the least, so you’ll have to make do with shitty memes)
Remember the two examples of taking a shot under different circumstances in Part I? Grip is a great way to show the trade-offs based on the conditions of each target. Shooting NRA slow-fire bullseye at 50 yards doesn’t require a great deal from your grip. Aim the gun properly and break the shot clean and you will likely hang a solid score. However, pushing the limits of your speed in a practical shooting match demands a little more of your grip to repeatedly deliver shots right where you need them and may let you get away with some other things on close hoser targets. Not saying one is more difficult (to be honest, the good bullseye shooters are truly impressive), but there is a trade-off here. We will touch on that again another time. Enough of that for now.
First, let’s establish what a grip is doing for us. Your grip is primarily what controls recoil. Leaning in, rolling your shoulders forward, or locking your elbows are unnecessary, and often a detriment, for good recoil control of a pistol. It’s all in your hands.
Properly gripping the gun will gain you repeatable and predictable behavior from your pistol under recoil. Sights will track better and return to your point of aim quicker and more consistently. A repeatable grip will also help with your index and picking up your sights or red dot more easily.
You may see this a lot through these posts, but there are many different techniques to all of these fundamental elements. I don’t want to focus on a specific technique, rather the concepts behind them, how we achieve those concepts or goals, and some helpful cues to pay attention to. Let’s go over a few key elements to a proper grip.
Use as much of the grip area as possible
It should be self-evident that gripping the gun requires maximal contact with the grip surfaces. Contact equals friction. This starts with the firing hand attaining a full grip out of the holster. The area between the thumb and index finger is high into the backstrap with the middle finger up against the bottom of the trigger guard, all others wrapped firmly around the grip, and the firing hand thumb up and out of the way for the support hand.
A common problem is with the support hand. The meat of the support hand thumb should be filling the gap left by the firing hand and actually contacting the grip panel. Maximize the surface area and pressure on the grip/frame of the gun. Pay special attention to how the gun fits your hand. This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to go buy a new gun or grips, but you should be aware of where to place your hand and where to apply pressure (front to back, side to side, or all-around pressures, etc.). Take care not to interfere with the controls of your particular pistol. Ask me how I know… The exact height and placement of the support hand is hotly debated.
My opinion is to place the meat of the thumb in the largest exposed area of the grip and tend towards a neutral wrist angle rather than the extreme forward lockout of support wrist. While I get the idea that extreme lockout should help lock the wrist in place, it often takes pressure off the frame of the gun or interferes with other controls on the gun. You may have noticed on the range or watching a video a pistol recoiling independently of the support hand. You have a problem if anything besides the slide is moving independently of either hand. It is not always because they’re not maintaining their wrist. The problem is something is taking their support hand out of contact with the grip of the gun and the support hand is now a showpiece. There are other ways to ensure your wrist maintains its position without missing the entire point of the grip.
*This isn’t to say this technique is all around bad, its an example of a technique being often misused. It can also be used to great effect, see Robert Vogel shoot to understand what I mean.
Grip the gun as high as you can
If you look at your pistol in your hand from the side, this element is also pretty self-explanatory. You can clearly see the centerline of the barrel rides above your grip. The source of recoil is in line with the barrel. This is the reason for the debate on high vs low bore axis handguns. It is important and does make a difference, but all we can do about it (all things being equal) is grip high.
Keeping some previously mentioned cues in mind, don’t grip so high that you’re interfering with the controls or the slide. If your Glock is biting the web of your thumb, stop being dumb and put a beavertail on it or stop wasting tenths on your draw trying to smash your hand through the back of the gun.
Make your grip the exact same every time
A repeatable grip is necessary for developing a good index, or reference point. Index is your ability to look to a spot on your target and align the sights exactly where you are looking on demand. Consistent gripping of the gun and a well-developed index will get you to those lightning-fast draw times and precise target transitions. Inconsistency will result in your sights not being aligned from the draw and presentation, poor transitions, or in you loosing your sights after movement (and remounting the gun) or wide transitions.
This is a common problem that can be fixed with deliberate and consistent dry fire. If you’ve ever picked up a red dot equipped pistol you may have noticed this problem. It’s not because of the dot but because your index is not properly developed, and your grip is likely inconsistent. The dot just gives more visual feedback than irons. I won’t go too deep into index or dry fire development here. The key take away is to grip the gun the same way every single time as you get your grip sorted out.
One way to do this is to find reference points on your gun or your grip. Any part of your hand or gun may be used as a tactile reference point. Magwells, the trigger guard, thumb rests, thumb safeties, and other points on the gun are used by shooters as reference points. Those places are their aim when acquiring the gun with each hand. They provide quick feedback that can tell you a lot about your grip on the fly.
Be careful not to develop bad habits that may compromise your grip. For example, I once adopted the technique of pinning the tips of my support hand fingers to my firing hand first and building a clamping pressure as the gun drove out to full presentation. You can probably imagine where this could preclude that element of gripping every available surface of the gun. What would happen is my support hand would wrap and grip firmly, but the meat of the thumb did not actually contact the grip panel. This is not to say this is always a bad idea, but I executed it poorly and my grip suffered because of it. Specifically, the gun would move excessively in relation to my support hand and my firing hand was carrying the load of recoil management. This lead to a lot of unnecessary pressure from my firing hand. From there we could easily go into a discussion of firing hand tension, my absolute nemesis for some time, but let’s save that for another day.
Grip the gun hard
Gone, hopefully for good, are the days of telling shooters to grip with some arbitrary percentage of strength in each hand. Yes, each hand does have a different job to do and we will get to that. The short answer is to grip the gun nearly as hard as you can. I say nearly because you can grip too hard and introduce some issues.
The support hand’s job is pretty simple, help get the gun to where it needs to be in your vision and control recoil. This doesn’t require an awful lot of dexterity or precision and you can get away with a lot of pressure here. My advice is to grip as hard as you can without developing a lot of tension in your upper body or shoulders.
*I’ve mentioned excess tension twice, I promise it’s important.
The firing hand needs a little more attention as a loss of dexterity here is an issue. A key element of marksmanship is to pull the trigger without disturbing the sights. This requires you to be able to move only your trigger finger, and therefore the trigger, with each shot. Find a level of pressure that still allows you to rapidly and smoothly work the trigger. A firm “handshake” grip may be a good starting point.
There is something, well actually a lot, to be said about wrist position and tension. If you want a really good explanation look up Hwansik Kim and his thoughts on recoil management, specifically about the wrists. I can’t explain it better than him, but I may try and tackle it here another time.
Conclusion
Ok, we’ve about beat this topic to death for a simple blog post. Grip the gun high, grip the gun hard, grip all of the gun hard, and do it consistently and you should have a good time.
Understand that each marksmanship fundamental plays off one another. A discussion on fundamentals can be very complicated very quickly. As always, feel free to comment below or contact me directly if you have questions, comments, or see something I may have missed.