The Proper Way To Hold A Handgun

hey what's up guys today we're talking grip this is a part of the series that I've been doing about gun safety gun handling skills basic loading unloading procedures making safe I want to make sure that I'm doing our due diligence at Phil craft and talking about the basic skills technical skills that are important for new gun owners as well as even old gun owners who might need to rehash or revisit the basic skill sets today we're talking grip one of the things that I don't like about the way people teach grip is they leave it for interpretation they leave it open to interpretation what I mean by that is a lot of people teach 60:40 they teach push-pull they teach these things in which I can't really mechanically diagnose my own failures or my own faults whenever you do something technical you have to be able to identify what you're doing wrong and if the interpretation of that is really vague you don't have a real grasp or understanding of how you're going to get better so I've taken the grip process and how I teach it and I made it very mechanical very diagnostic --all is that even a word I just made that up very diagnostic like so I can revisit it check the block by the numbers go ahead and isolate it as a skill set and then see if I'm failing to do something when applied because a lot of times when people do grip they'll get their grip set on the pistol right so we're set we go we start shooting and then we like to look at the holes on the paper and then analyze whether or not we're holding the gun properly instead of paying attention to our hands inherently grip is one of the most difficult fundamentals to master because when you're holding the gun it feels like it's right except through the shot durations or through a shot string you are not keeping track of your hands because you're worried about other than other things front side focus follow-through trigger control the list goes on so when your grip falls apart you typically blame other things like breathing even stamps I've seen people blame for the reason that they're shooting like crap on targets when a lot of it has to do with your grip so if you're not gripping the gun properly when you set it and then when you shoot subsequently through a shot string it's going to degrade in your accuracy is gonna fall apart and that's what happens it also translates to speed as well because accuracy means efficiency and in that equation it also equals speed if you're more efficient through a saw string your guns muzzle flipping settling in the same position position then that translates to speed and accuracy so I'm gonna walk you through these steps first I want to I want to talk about the try-works systems trial oven that I'm using this pistol it's a single-action pistol we're setting this pistol up for use with this it has a grip safety on the back end of it also it has a stipple grip this is the Tri eleven custom model and this is designed for target shooting as well as everyday carrying whatever you want to use it for so if with this pistol the reason I'm highlighting this pistol is because it's it's inherently different than some other pistols even like a Glock for example I could high rise my support hand on the top of this spring the frame is the bottom portion remember in the top is the slide the slide reciprocate over the frame I can get away with riding my support hand very high on this and I'm not gonna lock the slide caps or slide release which induces essentially a malfunction where it's locking the slide of the rear when you don't want it to so it's more forgiving in that way it's one of the reasons why why I am willing to look at the sig for example this this X carrying configuration or why I even look at the Tri 11 as a carry consideration because my hands right that hand on this gun when it overwhelms it it will pin the slide catch or slide lock in fact I've decided to go to the CAD works slide catch or slide release because it's ray off the gun and out of the way of my support hand but again in this trial loving configuration I could get away with holding a lot of my hand on this gun now remember in the cycle of operation two things happen two major things one muzzle flip which is the rise of the barrel and then recoil the rear of the gun going rearward when a gun combusts in its chamber it explodes in the chamber the projectile goes forward and the slide ghost rearward via the gas and combustion that's lost so goes boom and essentially explodes that explosion is going to cycle this gun eject extract in the chamber a new round in the end to the weapon system well during that whole cycle of operation that muzzle clip is going to be very definitive but the recoil doesn't have to happen that's what I'm controlling I don't want the rear of the gun coming off target in alignment meaning this is acceptable to come down because it goes pop it settles pop it settles and it's falling in the same spot with a good grip if I have a weak grip and that's Sonny didn't say weak let's say wrong grip and the gun muzzle flips and then goes rearward it settles in a different position each time which that translates to in accuracy and also translates to more likely a loss in time or an increase in time and it's not as fast so let's break it down I'm going to break it down by the numbers 1 2 & 3 on my strong hand & 1 2 & 3 on my weekend so the first thing you're gonna do is I want I want to point out that the first thing is the v-notch in my hand mates with the B not in my grip what's important to teach in grip is you're not always going to grip the gun in your hands like this to set it to go to work it might be a draw so when you grab the back of the back strap of the gun that's the first step in the draw but it's also the first step in grip if you grab this the wrong way like this v-notch isn't tucked up in the v-notch of the back of this frame you're going to come out with a wrong grip and then what's gonna happen is the guns gonna muzzle flip it's gonna recoil and then it's gonna settle in a different position each time because there's no consistency between the v-notch in my hand and the v-notched and the gun being mated you want it made it okay so I'm highlighting that because if you're going to grab your gun out of your holster or even out of your nightstand or center console you need to remember whatever configuration it is let's say it's sitting like this that I'm initiating my grip with how I pick up the gun there is no like I pick up the gun haphazardly with a wrong grip and then I try to figure it out as I go more than likely you're not gonna have enough time to figure out as you go you're just gonna have to break that first shot especially when confronted with immediate threat that you're addressing right off the cuff so again v-notch middle finger that's one the v-notch in the back strap that's one middle finger in the trigger guard or underneath the trigger guard is - you see how this is set up on the bottom of this frame there's not a notch here but there's nowhere for my finger to go if my middle finger is low but my right this right hand v-notch is in the back strap when the gun cycles even if I have part of the grip right with the v-notch set it will muzzle flip and then settle in a different position because there's no consistency with two points of contact v-notch middle finger that's two points of contact so that purpose set when I'm teaching this and when you're learning this on a range you want to get used to setting the grip on the range this is called isolating the technical skill set I'm on the range I'm focused on isolating what I see a lot of people do what I see a lot of people do is they they become more efficient because they're human beings right in human beings typically are more efficient in how they do [ __ ] so they'll pick up a gun and they'll go oh my grips set well the whole point of a diagnostic is we're doing it by the numbers so you can isolate isolate those conscious tasks and be cognitive meaning being aware of what you're doing with the gun if it was just a check the block thing and you're like oh yeah it's in my hand so it feels good that must be right that's a whole different scale of understanding and training that's like the progression to get to there but when we're isolating on Phoenix I'm literally going v-notch middle finger and I'd like to take my weekend and set the gun into my hand the reason I do that is because that feeling being set into my hand makes me understand what right feels like right it's one thing to replicate what right looks like but if you feel what right feels like it's gonna set you up for success so pushing down that seam grip feeling that I get from pushing down into my hand is the same feeling I want when I'm drawing my gun out of my Safariland ALS when I'm drawing concealed out of our holster in appendix carry even when I'm picking the gun up from a flat surface let's say my nightstand I'm going to try to replicate that feeling of being set in my hand okay Sophie notch middle finger the next importance of this is that hammer grip I always talk about now the reason I stress hammer grip if you've ever swung a hammer on a nail one you don't want to over grip the hammer because if you do you won't be able to make fine minut adjustments last millisecond before you smash that nail in the head and so if you just lighten your grip a little bit it gives you the flexibility in your dexterity to manipulate the front end of the hammer to smash it at the end so we're not over dripping if you over grip a gun not only will you impede your ability to move the gun and small scales in your hand for like a slide lock reload for example if I slide lock this and then I go to manipulate it if I could shift it in my hand that's better than holding it really tight and then turning it but not only that when you over a group of guns with your dominant hand you impede your ability to work your trigger finger so I grab the gun and I'm squeezing really tight you can't work your trigger finger there's the simple assessment of that if you just taking your grip hand squeezing really tight and then manipulate your trigger finger while you're doing that it's very difficult to do right so just in your hand hold your hand together and manipulate your trigger finger it's a lot faster you give yourself the dexterity there because you're not over gripping your hand together so v-notch gonna finger I also do this right because I'm getting the appropriate grip whether it doesn't fall out of my hand and it's a nut it's it's light enough to recommend it lately trigger fast the last component of this is you notice that when I went like this I should be a dance right when I do this I'm keeping my wrist stiff when I first started teaching grip and I had the whole class do this before I gave the explanation half the class would do this they would they would literally break the wrist it's because here's here's a here's a an observation it's probably because when you get a stiff wrist for example to be able to shoot better or control recoil unless you've done that you have no context of what its difference is for you can go a different directions in the gutter there but what I mean is you wouldn't know how to hold a stiff wrist unless you were taught that if your dad taught you to shake a man's hand and give him a stiff handshake and look him in the eye which I was taught you wouldn't know it in fact those people in the range that we're doing this the first thing I do is come up to uh say hey let me shake your hand and I shake their hand and they would have a very light grip in their hand so they didn't know the muscle tension that was required to keep that wrist if well if you look at it from this angle when a guns recoiling which it will recoil and muzzle flip in your hand when that happens your wrist needs to be stiff but if you didn't have the muscle tension in your wrist it would simply just break your wrists like this that physically break it but it would break the plane of your wrist that's called limp twisting a gun it's comment on gloss like a you limp wrist of that Glock and what happens when you limp wrist a gun as the energy is traveling which it needs the energy or it has the energy because the combustion if your wrist dissipates through the energy the slide will not all the way which will which will induce some malfunction we call this a limp wrist malfunction right the first time somebody has a problem of the gun the first thing I do is assess how they shoot the gun I say okay go ahead and load and make ready and go ahead and shoot it and I'm gonna watch your hands and I'll pay attention to that wrist if their guns breaking outside of aggressive plane like this more likely the the induce malfunction is caused by them listing their gun so when you do this as a diagnostic you are getting the muscle memory that you need and muscle tension to retain that right to not have your of your wrist lint and break that plane so again v-notch middle finger up and down and then I turn the gun sideways the next thing is this thing right see my hand is my support hand my support hand is broken just like this and the plane of it is going from my forearm across my thumb and extending on the end of my finger that plane doesn't change it's flat it's nice and flat that is an indication of a good shooter that has a decent grip not always but for the most part the people who talk like this like one of my instructors Dave Selmon who is my Sephardic instructor and Special Forces training which is a CQB school when shooting school they teach us hostage rescue and stuff when he would talk you but I hate guys follow Vaughn I'm like what's wrong with his wrist and then I realized he's a shooter competitive few so he's planting that gun in a support hand aligning that frame next to his thumb as they drilled here's what I want you to do I want you to take your support hand thumb and on the command of threat I simply want you to point it at me flat okay threat so you should have just did this all right relax threat okay I want you to pick something else in your room like a lamp a child and your old lady whatever you want and I want you to first on the first command of threat you're going to point at me and at the second command of threat you're going to point to that object okay threat threat let's do it again threat threat okay can you set the door Vinny open the door yeah um so more time threat threat all right on the the third drill it doesn't shut all the way together on a third drill I want you to point in that me pointing out the obstacle and then point it back to me I'll each of the command of threat threat threat threat okay so here's what I want you to understand about what I just put you through is we are we grow up with I think coordination as children we start learning how to attach what we see to what we physically connect with and that a hand coordination is what guides us through life it's what it's it's the mechanism that allows us to eat to feed ourselves to be independent to pick up tools to make fire and to pick up guns so that instinct is very natural for us it's primitive and primal what I don't like is this idea that shooting isn't really a primal mechanism for for survival it absolutely is just as a weapon right if you pick up a weapon and it's in your hands and you work with that weapon it's very primitive because you fought with your hands you're just fighting with a tool well the same thing applies to this tool in self-defense so ironically I haven't taught you this three-step process in the Sporn inside but look at the support hand here ironically the barrel is sitting next to my thumb as I'm guiding this barrel around so instead of thinking about driving the gun to the target think about driving your hands to the target so I would drive my thumb where it needs to go and by default and just by benefit of where the gun lands next to your thumb the barrels right there so I think it's very important especially if you look at athletics if you look at performance related industries if you look at I hand coordination moving and altering your physical body and not thinking about the floating optic rages above the barrel is how you'll be fast because you'll drive your thumb and your gun will be there that's a great principle and self-defense so with that being said let's go over to three steps the guns sideways now I have my thumb pointed at Target that's number one - I want you to open your hand keeping your thumb flat most people in my classes when I tell them to do this to go right because they're not used to breaking their wrist like this get used to that feeling of breaking your wrist so thumb flat open hand then I want you to look at the support hand side of this gun see with my hand on here all this real estate between here and here your hand you're gonna watch your hand fill that void which is called by Cena frame meaning I'm at aiming tactile feel on top of the frame which is this top portion right below the slide which is all this right here and I'm ensuring that my grip is adhered to the top of that frame right that's a good grip look I don't look at that all the way around okay so as it's sitting here what the idea is is I'm by seeing the frame but I see what right looks like because if you have to gun here and I said hey put your support hand on it and you went like this which I see a lot of people do they'll do this that's not right but you'll be gets right because it feels right but it's not right I've had guys they're like hey Mike this new grip technique is really good and I'm like well man have you seen your hands you let me go how did that happen what happened because it feels right because it's touching the gun but it's not necessarily right unless you see what right looks like so I'm looking and I'm applying and then I'm up writing the gun here's the next part of this grip not only has to do with your right and left hand touching the gun but it has to do with how your arms and hands manipulate when you're presenting the gun the first thing I'll tell you is when you present a gun never present a gun slowly never rail a gun that's the common term that's used when I learned in special operations how to shoot it was one two three four by the numbers and from three to four our we would practice pushing the gun very slowly and picking up the front sight as we railed the gun except in a self-defense situation where you're confronted with an immediate threat you don't have the time to do that so I recommend if you're practicing pushing even your hands in dry practice you push your hands fast very fast and you get used to when a guns in your hand and you're pushing it to go to work there is no deliberate means of delivering that weapon system it's throwing your hands and I like to use the term throwing your hands because in combatives that's what you're doing when I throw a left jab for example I'm not contracted and tight and then using muscle to throw that arm I'm throwing my hand and then at the last millisecond contracting that of that hand and that muscle in order to make impact that allows me to be quick and fast just like if I'm throwing my hands with my hands with a firearm so throw your hands the next thing is you have to have your elbows up and some guys shoot like this which is really weird to me they flare their elbows the reason you would even lift your hand is because look at your hands how they hold stuff ergonomically you don't typically walk around like this with your your your wrist turned you walk around in your hands or like this so when you're holding a gun let's just say I'm holding a gun this way when I hold a gun and I lift my left elbow in this case support elbow I'm pawn me towards the inside of the frame just by simply lifting my left elbow now your right elbow which is the dominant hand holding the gun if I lifted that look how my wrist would turn so you wouldn't do that with a pistol I mean I can do it slightly and and break my wrist a little bit but it's not economic right it's it's it's adding inputs that don't need to be there that only add in accuracy and and lack of speed on the gun because you're adding these these inputs so economic which is lifting my elbow slightly on the support hand side and slightly on my right arm but look at the difference between those two because I'm palming the gun on this side and I'm running the gun on this side right okay another reason you would do that is if you presented the gun with your elbows low recoil it likes to go up and back because muzzle flip which is which is part of the cycle of operation flips up and the gun wants to move back well if your elbows are locked down you're only creating a path of least resistance by moving this way so when I simply lift up my elbow the gun wants to do this instead of doing this now a national maths competition a tactic is especially for follow-through is brought my elbow because I want the gun to kaboom and then set to go through the process of finding front sight focus and everything else so that's important especially in the grip dynamic the next thing I wanted to talk to you guys is when I have my hands here I'm throwing the gun in practice and applying that grab grip last millisecond so I'm here and I'm throwing it and applying the grip here right my hands are loose might my grip is actually broken on the rear of the gun and then I'm drawing my hands up and applying the grip last millisecond so I'm here loose throwing the hands and then applying the grip when you shoot this gun the gun is going to manipulate in your hands like this it's going to go you're gonna go like this one of the drills that I do is I have them point the gun after doing the diagnostic D notch middle finger left thumb open hand applying wood right looks like up push pull push pull push pull when I'm here I have them present the gun on target and then look at their support hand while they're shooting this this happens all the time with you you'll shoot and you'll think you're doing good because your hands are on the gun but if you don't observe your support hand what what's going to happen is the recoil on cycle around your thumb that tells me that you don't have good tension and grip with your thumb your support hand thumb in this case on the side of the of the frame in this case so I want I want it to look like this pop-pop-pop-pop and you see my thumb how it's adhered there and I have a tight grip I just learned from Raul today about the way that your hands work your grip actually comes from the bottom of your hands and these two fingers and your dexterity which has to do with eye-hand coordination and the way you grip things comes from here so you can manipulate a little bit better with these three fingers and you could grip a lot better with the bottom end so I'm holding this gun firmly again a hammer grip is not a death grip but I'm not holding it loosely I'd like to show people that hey you could take your fingers off the gun because most of your grip comes from the top of the frame but I don't want you to shoot like that because I want you to have a tight set grip on the bottom portion of your hand as well as the top of the frame with your thumbs so again watching this way this is what wrong looks like and this is what right looks like as it's shooting and that's that's indicated as shooting flat that's what we call it hey that guy's shooting that gun really flat also remember right here as I bind my thumb in this position when I fill up this void it's only seating the rear of my hand and creating a bind in the back of my hands to keep that gun in a good set position now what is the practical application or exercise that you could do to ensure or diagnose that you're holding a good grip I believe it's a five shot string five shots on-target from three yards away or three we do three meters about ten feet away it's a good indication in proximity between rounds if you're holding the grip correctly you don't have to over assess or analyze front sight focus control aim fire it's it's literally one two three four five one two three four five so I go through the diagnostic and I don't check the block if I'm isolating this I focus on this v-notch middle finger up and down hammer grip turn it sideways left finger point out target open hand looking at what right looks like up writing the gun push pull push pull push pull sure is ready standby 1 2 3 4 5 she ready standby 1 2 3 4 5 she's ready standby 1 2 3 4 5 index put the gun away go look at your target and look at the discrepancy or proximity between each individual shot remember if I shots here and a shots here that's not only in accuracy but that's lack of efficiency in time because more than likely somewhere in there you are manipulating the gun and it's slowed you down versus the proximity I'm more impressed by a shot string that's this tight not because of accuracy but because of speed I know that gun cycling in its operation going pop pop pop and Leigh Leigh in the same spot each and every time that's a good indication if you're holding the grip correctly is how close those rounds are in a five round shot string I use five bronze draw strings because 15 pound bags get three sets of that and five rounds is a good way to think about self-defense I'm not going to shoot one two rounds and just call it good my sequence is going to be set up for the one two three four five and if I have to continue that duration because the person that I adore the or the threat that I've engaged is no it is still a threat I can give him three sets of five but I'm not gonna wall my shots to pop pop up pop up it's 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 3 sets of 5 oz I give it so again last thing V not middle finger setting the grip in my hand up and down hammer grip stiff wrist not manipulating the the barrel turning the gun sideways thumb pointed out target without flagging your hand open hand keeping your thumb flat applying what right looks like up right in the gun push-pull I'm breaking the grip on the rear on the push I'm planting my hands flat on the gun I have raised left for support hand elbow to apply more pressure to the inwards of that frame and I'm keeping the other side slightly up just so I could work that trigger reset hopefully that helped you guys that's a very detailed snapshot of grip and I want you guys to understand how we teach it at folk crafts survival when we shoot this I teach this exactly just how I taught you guys do this video on the range and then we practically apply it most people who go to our pistol courses beginner to intermediate come away from the day going man I didn't realize that I was holding the gun the wrong way the entire time the most important aspect for me for this it's not just giving you a tactic that makes you feel good on the range but giving you a tactic via a diagnosable tactic that you could walk away and apply in your everyday life so you can go to the range teach your family teach your friends teach your spouse work through the steps one by one teach each other and then do it again and again that's the only way that you're going to get good at this is by mastering the basics and grip is a basic fundamental so hopefully that helped guys I appreciate you guys listen to the podcast check out our youtube video if you have it subscribe to our YouTube channel please do so if you haven't left feedback on the podcast especially if it's provided you by you then make sure you go and leave this feedback if you don't like it just move on you don't know nobody delete feedback thanks guys until next time

Channel: Mike Glover

Views: 158,514

Rating: 4.9688559 out of 5

Keywords: mike glover, sf, green beret, ranger, special forces, tactics, tactical, army, pistol, self defense

Id: Ez54buSBAZc

Length: 30min 14sec (1814 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 03 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/platinumibex]

Only two minutes in so far but I absolutely love his line of thinking already. Looking forward to the rest of the vid, thanks for sharing!