Gilbert Huph (The Incredibles)
I injured my left wrist. Dumbbell bench pressing the other day, I felt something weird. In my dry fire, it doesn’t feel great. I incline benched 245×4 on Friday and no issues (stable movement, wraps, straight and strong wrists). Bending is the issue, especially wrist extension. Even keeping my fingers at home row cocks the wrist and doesn’t feel hot.
I am signed up to take Gabe White’s Pistol Shooting Solutions Oct 1-2 at KR Training. I needed to assess my capabilities, primarily interested in validating work I’ve been doing in dry practice, and now also seeing how my wrist would manage.
Not good, Bob. Well, good and bad. First the bad.
Since it’s prep for Gabe, I ran Bill Drills to explore (it served both my goals). I shot 150-ish rounds and had to stop. The way the wrist gets cocked, (esp. at positions 3 and 4) coupled with the percussive nature of recoil just started to hurt in the bad way. I remember when I won my Light Pin in 2019 how beat up and raw my hands were 3/4 way through the class. If that’s the level of abuse my hands can expect, my current situation doesn’t bode well.
I’m not giving up yet. I’m going to see what I can do. If nothing else, now I get to really work on my strong-hand-only shooting. 😂
In other news, I shot Bill Drills because I wanted 1. DTFAH (Draw To First Acceptable Hit), 2. recoil management. In dry practice I noticed I have a tendency to slightly cant the gun, just enough to confound my presentation. When I get the gun vertical, it’s better. I still suck with the dot, but it’s getting better and I think a seed of confidence has been sown. I have also been applying stuff from Mike Seeklander on grip. I saw good results dry. Live I did my best to just watch the sight movie, focus on the grip experiment, and see what happened. Results were… good. I still suck at it, and practicing it will be difficult with my wrist situation, but I’m pleased and feel I’m getting a little further down the road.
I want to take Gabe’s class, not for the trinket but for the learning that will inevitably occur. 2019’s class was transformative, and I have no qualms about being the shittiest shooter in class so long as I’m learning. It’s just gonna come down to the physicality of it all. Gonna work and see what I can do.
Stuff From Hsoi 
Sorry about the wrist, but you got a few weeks to recover. And remember when in doubt, just rub some Tussin on it!
So for being weakest in Gabe’s class…doubtful! Stay strong my friend.
Thank you my friend! I’m going to see how it goes.
Darn, I’m sorry about the wrist. Gabe’s class is amazing, but don’t do yourself a permanent injury just to take it.
Get better soon my friend.
I know it is! When I took it in 2019 it was transformative – not just for shooting, but really helping me better put “process focus” into place. In this red dot journey, I really wanted to take the time to be under Gabe’s watchful eyes – I know it will only make me better!
I’m not going to push it. The class is important, but not as important as keeping my wrist working.