I’m wondering what many of ya’ll do to keep your support hand planted on the grip of your pistol under recoil.
I’m using a thumbs foreward grip with the isosceles stance. I don’t currently pull back with my support hand, as doing so seems to throw my shots off a bit. However I find my support hand sliding foreward a bit while firing. Glocks tend really highlight this for me with their flat sides on the grip.
So what do I need to change on my grip to counteract this problem, from applying counter pressure, or maybe even looser elbows, just not sure?
Apply lateral pressure by using your pec muscles to “pinch” the gun between your hands. Its kinda like doing dumbell flys or a pec decs, just really light.
counter-rotate the gun in your hands. Try to twist the gun apart, like wringing out a wet tower.
It doesn’t take much of either technique for me.
Another thing to watch is how high your elbows get. The higher the better…except that if they get too exaggerated, the hands can start to break apart low on the grip (pinkies come apart in recoil). This probably varies by individual, how flexible your wrists are, etc.
If your still having problems, maybe just a touch of push pull, but don’t go full weaver.
You never go full weaver.
I had the same issue switching from a Sig to an M&P. My support hand grip on the Sig was FAR more stable for some reason. The two methods above worked great for me for awhile.
I was taught to do it by “rolling the elbows up”, which pretty much describes #1 above. The only problem is I ended up with a foul case of tennis elbow from it. No kidding.
Now I stick with method #2, and I like the results.
As one that shot for years with thumbs down and has converted, you are on the right track. For some of us anyways it’s a constant battle to keep that left palm from moving on the left grip panel. Try a rubber sleeve or better yet have Bowie or someone put a rough texture on the grips. Thats the biggest help IMO.
While most of us are moving away from 1911’s, the ledge at the back of the left grip really helps. It still works with flat grip guns but you can’t use a relaxed grip. Your grip has to be full clamp down all the time. Pisses me off personally. Relaxing the grip a bit WAS a good thing, no more with these "modern’ guns. Of course the sucky triggers need a full clamp down anyway.
Being an old guy starting with weaver, there are many times when using a weaver (without much push pull as correctly mentioned) is necessary unless you want your elbows shot off.
And you can’t go thumbs forward on many of the small pistols. You have to do it all. Shooters starting out today can only do full on isosolys (sp). Being able to keep your lock down thumbs forward grip while going weaver with the arms is a good skill. Sometimes you can’t help but to crowd a barricade. JMO.
maybe try to get your support hand rolled clockwise slightly around the grip, basically getting more of your support fingers around your strong hand if that makes sense. I have kind of huge hands for a guy who’s only 5’9… so this really hasn’t been an issue for me with glocks. it is something i frequently see people struggle with though.
that should hopefully give you a bit more clamping force with your support hand…
I also would say try a grip sleeve, grip tape or stippling. I have a grip sleeve on my Glock. It works great. I like rubber grips or grip sleeves, but that’s a personal choice. The other systems work as well.
If that doesn’t help, then you need to tighten your grip as suggested by the others. Though you shouldn’t need to have a death grip a pistol to shoot it. I don’t know how tightly you grip a pistol now, so it’s hard for me to say. Have you had any training? If yes, what did your trainer say about your grip?
While I appreciate the comments about griptape,stippling, rubber sleaves etc. I am of the opinion it’s a software error and not a hardware error. My support hand is already cocked down and locked with my trigger hand thumb resting on the meat of the support thumb. I’ll try changing how I apply pressure to the grip and see what happens.
I appreciate the suggestions, and please keep em coming as I’m sure they’ll help others on here too.
Do you have small or unusually sweaty hands? I know that when I get sweaty, my support hand can’t do nearly as much. I tend to think that the answer is developing stronger hands and the bandaid is to dry them off before each stage or string of fire.
If you spread your hand out wide, what is the distance from pinkie tip to thumb tip? This is how they measure QB’s hands at the combine. In my limited sampling, my sons and a couple of other inexperienced shooters with a shorter span than mine (9") experience the thumbs forward grip much differently than I. Eldest son with freakish strong forearms and grip has no problem. Others more normal cannot push the thumbs forward as far as most “ideal” photos depict it and keep the support hand solidly anchored.
Ken Hackathorn briefly addressed this to our class last weekend. While he likes thumbs forward, he felt you needed to modify it to suit your hands and not force it beyond what your anatomy can actually manage.
9 3/8s" My hands are big enough, just the heel of the support hand slips foreward. I don’t believe my hands are unusually sweaty, and as for strength I wrench on cars for a living and mountain bike regularly. I think I just need to change how I apply pressure.
Happened to me building an extension on a carport with a air nailer. I was rolling my elbow up to get a little farther out off the ladder to make the safety nose tip work and it liked to have never gotten better.
IMO the biggest thing that made a difference was stippling the grip on my Glock. It lets me get a SOLID grip CONSISTENTLY with my primary hand so that is one less thing to worry about.
I don’t know what pistol you’re shooting and I’m not really sure I understand what you’re asking, but I like to talk about pistol shooting. Just my opinions and YMMV… I shoot 1911’s and use VZ G-10 diamondbacks (or similar) grips for range pistols. I carry smooth grips and prefer front strap and MSH checkering. From my perspective there’s three factors or components in grip mechanics. One is the grip of pistol in the hands, another is the suspension of the arms during recoil and still another is the body reacting to the recoil. Sort of a one, two, three thing. The resistance to the rotational forces of the pistol in the hand is the first thing to get a handle on, a “grip on” if you will. You may want to experiment with different levels of tension, hand position, etc… and see what the pistol will do. The pistol will most certainly move in the hand, if nothing more that the flesh giving under recoil. Gripping tighter than necessary is of little help and may in fact induce jerking or other unwanted motions. Of course gripping too lightly and/or not having a solid foundation of grip technique will result in excessive movement of the pistol in the hand with the associated loss of control and poor follow through/second shot. Work on your grip mechanics and try to increase/decrease the tension without changing your grip. Shoot a lot of rounds…
Once you get comfortable with the grip thing, pay close attention to the angles of your arms and how they absorb the recoil. Vary the degree of the triangle by bringing the pistol in closer to the body and try to find that “best distance/angle”. Next concentrate on where the recoil is resisted/absorbed and try to feel the recoil pulse moving from wrist to shoulder. You should be able to isolate the majority of the recoil on the wrist, elbow or shoulder. Like a body builder isolating muscle groups. Try and find the most comfortable and workable dampening. Shoot a lot.
When you get all that working for you, the last part of the formula is what the body does with the recoil pulse from the shoulders to the feet. You can lean in and take it all in the upper body or you can use the entire body to absorb the pulse. In theory you should use every part of the stance to spread out the recoil. Try hips forward, weak hip forward, leaning in more and leaning in less. shoot a lot.
IMO… This will help you locate any issues with grip as well as learning how your body responds to recoil dynamics. Cheers… Ron
I had my own problems in this area and did the following, which is helping so far:
First, I figured I needed to increase the surface area of my left hand that engaged the grips. Analyzing my grip, the lower part of my left palm was not engaging the grip enough, and I made the conscious effort to have as much of my left palm engaging the grip panel as possible.
Second, I worked to increase my left hand grip strength. Just left a grip exerciser in the car and worked out my left hand on the drive to and from work everyday.
Third, I tried to “shrink wrap” my left hand over my right hand. For me, less space between gun and hands equal less gaps for shifting to occur.
You are 100% correct in your approach. Work on software instead of hardware first. That’s not to say that using RTF Glock frames etc,etc won’t help with a more positive purchase but that is only part of the solution. To often we get wrapped up in trying to take short cuts or finding some easy way out. The bottom line is that it takes work and a lot of it on solid fundamentals.
Work to try and have an even grip surrounding the pistol. With even pressure on all four corners.
Here are a couple pics of my grip from both sides that illustrate how I do it. This grip allows me to run the gun hard and fast.
Notice the cant on my support hand which helps manage recoil and where my fingers fall on my strong hand. You can also see that I use the ledge on the Glock to create downward pressure to manage recoil.
