Author: hsoi

Grip Adjustment

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

For the past some while, I’ve been working on gripping the pistol; especially weak-hand-only.

Of course, the general rule is to grip the gun as hard as you can, that so-called “crush-grip”. But it really wasn’t enough, and it’s not like I have a problem with grip strength.

It’s more a matter of technique (tho strength matters too).

Of course, when I grip, the harder I grip the better. There’s less disruption of the gun when the trigger is pressed, better recoil management, etc.. But there are some tricks.

One I learned back in my empty-hand martial arts days: engage the pinky. We tend to focus our grip with our thumb, index, and middle fingers. Yes the ring and pinky fingers wrap around things, but many times they aren’t involved in the crush. Try it. Grab something like you normally would and grip it hard. Maintain that grip, then see how much more you can engage your pinky in the grip. Chances are you’ll find you were able to clamp down a little more. Makes a big difference. I know to do this, but it doesn’t mean I always do it.

But the one that finally dawned on me is how and with what I’m crushing.

I am realizing that the primary force of my crushing – with my shooting hand – is against the front and back straps of the grip. There isn’t a lot of crush-force against the sides. This is primarily because of the way my hands are shaped: larger hands, long fingers, thin fingers. So wrapping my hand around the grip basically “tents” my hand (where the phalanges end and the metacarpals begin) and that part of my hand is NOT in contact with the grip. Well, there’s some touching of skin to grip, but again it’s the hinging of the hand right there, why I described it as a “tent”. That when the hand is crushing against the front and back straps, it pushes the metacarpophalangeal joint away from the grip. As a result, there’s not much force in that area involved in gripping, or even just skin in useful friction contact with the grip.

Part of why I didn’t notice it was because in two-handed shooting, the shooting hand can grip the front and back, but then the other hand wrapping around provides that side-pressure. So first you get the all-around clamping pressure, second your shooting-hand comes in full contact with the grip so tactile feedback is your shooting hand is “fully gripping” the pistol – when actually it’s only fully touching. Then when I would go to shoot one-handed, I’d just work to clamp harder, ensure pinky engagement, and the like (and also some “touching” feedback); not necessarily thinking about the all-around grip force.

So I’ve been playing around with this. That when I grip the gun, I work to actually wrap my hand around the grip instead of just “clamping” on it. Get as much skin contact with the grip as possible (for friction and thus aid with recoil management, if nothing else), and then make sure there’s more involvement of the whole hand in the crushing of the grip. It’s hard to explain, but basically ensuring that it’s not just a front-back clamping pressure, but an all-around squeezing pressure.

It’s actually harder for me to do this shooting 2-handed than 1-handed, so it’s resulting in a bit more one-handed practice (which is a good thing). I get better feedback that I’m doing it right or not, if I just practice 1-handed. For sure when I do this, the results in shooting are greatly improved.

The funny thing? The more abrasive grip texture on the M&P9 M2.0 has helped me realize this.

More things to continue working on.

2017-03-21 training log

/ hsoi

Another PR, but I’m going to need to make some adjustments.

Overall, I’m liking this updated approach. I’m getting the strength work, some volume, taking advantage of compound movements for training efficiency.

Benching went well. On the top set, I really should have stopped at 10, but I knew if I wanted to set a rep PR here that I needed 11 so I went for it. I almost missed, but I did get it. The pyramid sets are really where I should go more towards failure, and I did. Good work here.

I’m happy then how the DB pressing went; good weight selection, right where I wanted it.

But all the back work. While I’m happy about doing the rows, I’m not happy about how it went. I went too light on the weight. Problem was I knew I was going to be doing a TON of sets across, so I was trying to pace for that. It wound up not being enough. I went for 10 reps across as well. Next time I’ll bump 5# and go for 12 reps and see how that goes.

But as well, I wasn’t really happy with how things went for the Kroc Rows. It’s just timing of it all.

So I’m also going to change up such that the cable rows are during benching, and Kroc during the DB bench. I think that should actually work out quite well.

On upright rows, I was going to do them with a barbell, but remembered something Mike Israetel posted some time ago about DB upright rows (see his post here). I recall wanting to try them to see what difference it made, so today seemed as good a day as any. Plus, one issue I have with barbell upright rows is the bar promotes a static hand placement/spacing, which can irritate my shoulders if not “just right”; but no such problem would exist with dumbbells. After performing them, I think of it like this: you have bench press and flies, and you have upright rows and lateral raises. But somewhere in between you have power flies, and I’d say these DB upright rows are akin to that — like a power lateral raise. I certainly had less arm recruitment, which I dug. I’m still going to need to find the sweet-spot on them. But I certainly felt more work in the delts than normal. I don’t think I’ll stop doing upright rows with a barebell, but this seems like a nice change. I’ll stick with it and see how it goes.

Overhead triceps extensions were a nice change too. I get more range of motion, and it was tougher than the normal “pushdown” approach.

And BB curls were with an EZ-bar, narrow grip. Just get a little work and finish some pump.

All in all not a bad setup. Again, some adjustment will be needed going forward, but all in all good.

  • Bench Press (superset cable rows)
    • bar x whatever
    • 105 x 5
    • 130 x 5
    • 155 x 3
    • 170 x 5
    • 195 x 5
    • 220 x 11 (11 rep PR)
    • 195 x 8
    • 170 x 10
  • DB Bench Press (superset with cable rows)
    • 75e x 10
    • 75e x 9
    • 75e x 8
  • Cable Rows
    • 90 x 10
    • 100 x 10
    • 110 x 10
    • 120 x 10
    • 120 x 10
    • 120 x 10
    • 120 x 10
    • 120 x 10
    • 120 x 10
    • 120 x 10
    • 120 x 10
  • Kroc Row
    • 50 x 10
    • 50 x 10
    • 50 x 25
  • DB Upright Row
    • 30e x 10
    • 25e x 15
    • 25e x 12
  • Overhead Rope Extensions
    • 50 x 20
    • 60 x 12
    • 60 x 12
  • BB Curl
    • 55 x 15
    • 55 x 13
    • 55 x 9

2017-03-20 training log

/ hsoi

Back to the gym, starting off with a nice PR.

A couple weeks ago I spoke with my doctor about my knee pain. Firste step was to take a steroid anti-inflammatory and rest to see how things went. I took all of last week off — no gym, no nothing — and I must say my knees have never been happier. Thing is, I am not 100% sure what to attribute it to.

First there was the anti-inflammatory, which I’m sure was a huge help. Second, I rested. But it wasn’t just not going to the gym, but continued focus on more sleep at night and naps during the day. Third, I’m drinking a LOT more water than before. I am pretty good about my water consumption, but it was evident I could up it more so I did. Did that help? Sure doesn’t hurt, but I am not sure if it has any correlation here.

The one consideration I had on this new program was going 3x/week instead of 4. Right now, I’ve decided to stick with 4 because I’ve alread changed enough things. Plus I want to see how this new approach will go, because I’m trying to manage volume and workload so that I get the work I need, but not more.

So with that, into today.

The primary change with this new approach is not following a template, but principles of what I need. 5/3/1 remains the base, but I do what I need.

First, squats worked up to a rep-PR. In fact, it was truly a rep PR, setting an 8RM PR. Unexpected, but happy. Crazy thing is that while the week off did not reduce my strength, it sure reduced my work capacity. I was surprised how much I was sucking wind. Not a huge setback, but more than normal. I am always amazed at how long it takes to build work capacity, but how easy it is to lose it.

Pause squats are just what I needed. It allows me to continue to get squat work in, but less intensity. So it beats me up less, but I can still work on technique and volume. I found myself feeling good in my lower half after the pause squats: worked but not killed.

On the technique front, someone mentioned to me that I break with my knees. I played with this some, working to emphasize breaking with my hips first. So at the top, break hips then go down, and in the hole make sure the hips raise first. When I did this I didn’t feel as much stress on my knees; but when I forgot, I did feel more stress on my knees. Interesting. I’m going to break out my copy of Starting Strength again and re-read Rip’s writing on squatting since he’s a “hips” guy. If this helps my knees, great. And this is another good reason for the pause squats, since I can get more technique work.

As for the rest of the work, it was a “depends”. I know that unilateral work is good for my knees, but I’m not sure how much I can take right now — I don’t want to have healed up and then go right back to trashing them. So I opted to try just a couple sets of lunges then a couple sets of leg extensions. The lunges were ok, and I think I will work up to 4 sets of “many reps” at bodyweight before I bother with adding weight. I also think I will continue with leg extensions, but really drop the weight down. My technique here was to purely contract the quads, fast concentric, hold/squeeze for a moment, then slow lowering. Nothing huge (e.g. 10 second eccentric), just a focus like that. I want to lower the weight even more, get a lot more reps in — go for a pump, get a lot of blood in the area.

So I’ll continue to refine, but so far so good. Nice start to the new program.

  • Squats
    • bar x whatever
    • 135 x 5
    • 170 x 5
    • 205 x 3
    • 220 x 5
    • 255 x 5
    • 290 x 8 (8RM PR)
  • Pause Squat
    • 220 x 5
    • 220 x 5
    • 220 x 5
  • Lunges
    • BW x 10e
    • BW x 10e
  • Leg Extensions
    • 60 x 10
    • 50 x 10
  • Twisting Crunches
    • BW x 16
    • BW x 16
    • BW x 12

Choosing to get involved – Do you know the full story?

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

Following up from yesterday’s article, Choosing to Get Involved, here’s a case illustrating why choosing to get involved in someone else’s problem can be problematic.

The gun incident happened last March. [Daniel Ray] Brown and his mother were eating near Hanes Mall in Winston-Salem when he saw a white man, screaming for help, being chased by two black men.

Brown… would later tell authorities that he thought the pursuers were drug dealers, or possibly loan sharks, and that the white man was in trouble.

[…]

According to Winston-Salem police, Brown “attempted to stop the struggle by pointing a handgun.”

One of the black men, Fredrick Morgan, testified that Brown pointed his gun at the group and demanded that the scuffling trio show ID.

When the three men wouldn’t listen, Brown fired a bullet into the ground a few feet in front of Morgan.

Daniel Ray Brown sees someone being chased by two people and screaming for help. Obviously the person being chased is the victim and the two other people are assailants bent on causing harm to the person they are chasing.

Right?

That’s obvious to anyone viewing this.

Right?

It wasn’t until after Brown had made a new hole in the asphalt that he learned the truth. The white man was mentally ill and had fled from two care workers. The chase was their attempt to corral him near Hanes Mall.

Full article (h/t Hank G. Shepherd)

Getting involved in someone else’s problem resulted in Brown being arrested and convicted of assault by pointing a gun and discharging a firearm within city limits. He also lost his carry permit.

And someone could have lost their life, because a gun is deadly force. Warning shots are not sound (and generally not legal) tactics – no matter what former Vice-President Joe Biden says; and they are still considered use of deadly force.

This is one reason it’s difficult to get involved in someone else’s situation. You often will not know what you are seeing unfold in front of you. What you are seeing is likely a mere sliver of the full story, and your decisions may well put you on the wrong side of the facts. Your involvement may make the situation better, or it may make it worse. No matter what the real story is, whatever you then choose to you, you have to live with the consequences of your actions. Mr. Brown now has a lifetime to have to live with his.

I understand a desire to “do something” and to help people. We generally want to right wrongs and see justice served. But in doing so, we have to tread carefully because once we choose to get involved, we’re in it and the consequences of our involvement are ours to live with. I’m not saying to not get involved – we each have to draw our lines as to what we will and won’t do, where we will and won’t get involved. What I am saying is it’s important to understand what you see may not be what you think, so consider that when you do make your decisions.

 

Choosing to get involved

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

Greg Ellifritz posted an article, “Lessons Learned From My Good Samaritan Attempt“. The article is written by a man who witnessed a woman being beaten on the side of the road. He chose to intervene in the situation. While things generally worked out ok (the attacker was arrested and convicted), the whole situation didn’t turn out like so many people’s heroic fantasies.

All my previous firearms training revolved around identifying an imminent threat, shooting to stop the threat if necessary, and then hopefully moving on with my life. It was all a pretty simple equation in my mind. However, the reality of my incident that day after Christmas was far different. It was not a simple equation. It was quite complex and has taken over two years to resolve.

That’s the first thing to note: it’s taken over two years to resolve.

But that’s just the beginning.

He notes the media coverage, and because “The Internet is Forever”, how his story basically has never and likely will never go away. It will always affect his life.

He notes the disruption to his sleep and health. In doing so, one particular comment stood out to me:

Ripple effects of the incident are everywhere, and I never considered that aspect of it in my prior training, because everything focused on surviving the encounter, not the aftermath. Keep in mind, I didn’t even have to fire a shot! I can’t imagine how these problems would manifest themselves if I had been forced to take a human life.

Emphasis added.

Everyone likes to focus on the pew-pew-pew. It’s easy to focus on, it’s something that people can easily understand a need or desire for, and it’s fun. To focus on things like dealing with the aftermath of a self-defense incident is not fun. It’s uncomfortable to face, to think about, to plan for. Often people don’t want to plan for it because denial is easier. Consider: if you’re getting/carrying a gun because you think you might need it, then realize there may come a day when in fact you will. The incident itself will last seconds, but the aftermath will last the rest of your life. Are you set up to deal with that?

Being set up to deal with that can be the legal aspects. One reason I’m thankful I’m a member of the Armed Citizens Legal Defense Network – they were there for me when I needed them. If I didn’t have them, I don’t know how things would have gone but I suspect not as well.

Being set up to deal with the aftermath also involves the mental and emotional realities. Being able to live with yourself, being able to live with how people will perceive you for the rest of your life. How your family will be perceived and how people may interact with them. A book like Alexis Artwohl and Loren Christensen’s Deadly Force Encounters: What Cops Need To Know To Mentally And Physically Prepare For And Survive A Gunfight,while oriented towards law-enforcement, contains an immense amount of useful information for anyone that may find themselves in such a situation. And yes, ideally it’s a book to read before you need it.

And being set up to deal with the aftermath means being honest with yourself and the harsh realities that may come from self-defense. Have you determined where your line is? In reading this article, I was left with the impression the author didn’t have a well-defined line, but does now. Where we draw our lines will differ from person to person, and likely you will and should revise where and how you draw your line over the course of your life (e.g. you may draw it differently when you’re single vs. when you’re married with children). The important part is to figure this out well in advance of having to put it into play.

There’s much to learn from Aaron’s story. Be wise and learn from his experience.

Shooting without my glasses

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

A couple days ago I wrote about Reduced Vision Shooting. I was able to go to the range and try shooting without my glasses. Here’s how it went.

My Vision

I don’t know what my vision is in terms of “20/something”, but I know I’m extremely near-sighted. Around 9″ or so from my eyes is where things start to get blurry. Of course, I can take off my glasses, see, and generally get around, just don’t expect me to read anything; and after a certain level, things just become blurry blobs. I must have glasses in order to drive.

So yes, it’s a legitimate concern for me as to how I can perform without my glasses.

I have to go without my glasses from time to time. For example, most any martial arts training I do is done without my glasses. I do just fine. I can see well enough to punch, kick, grapple, whatever.

But shooting? That tends to require a bit more precision.

Shooting

I set up an IPSC target and decided a fair metric would be the KR Training “3 Seconds or Less” drill. That’s our home-base bottom line drill for measuring “can you do what needs to generally be done in a typical gunfight”.

I started my range session shooting it cold, because that’s a common thing for me to do.

Then I took off my glasses and shot it again. I didn’t do any sort of warm-up or trial shots without my glasses, and while part of me wishes I did, I’m also glad I didn’t because I suspect the learning impact was better this way.

First, I had no problems. Shot the drill fine.

But what got me was what I could see and what I couldn’t see.

First, what I could see? The red dot of my front sight. I have Dawson Precision sights, specifically a red fiber optic front sight. It was a shining beacon to me when I couldn’t see anything else. The sights themselves were a fuzzy blur, but that red dot was bright (tho of course kinda fuzzy) and attracted my eyes – precisely what it’s supposed to do (on this sunny day). No question that helped me.

I found myself a bit thrown off by this. I didn’t expect that to be such a beacon. But what got me? I found myself fiddling with my eyes. I typically have to close my left eye, but now I found myself wanting to keep both eyes open, or switch to my right. I can’t say why I was doing this, but given my vision was looking at novel and unknown things, my brain may have just been trying to make sense of things.

Still, this is where things like good body index come into play. Again, I had no problems putting holes where they needed to be put because 1. I know generally where to point, 2. while you can miss at close distances, one doesn’t have to have that textbook perfect sight picture to get good hits (at close distances).

All in all I’m happy with the performance. It was a little odd for me to experience since I can’t recall the last time I tried shooting without my glasses, thus why part of me wanted to have a little “warm-up”. But again I’m glad I didn’t because I think being forced into it made me have to perform, ignoring any weirdness from the experience.

I do think occasionally dry-firing without my glasses would be useful, and every so often some live fire too.

How about you?

Ah, SXSW – you crime-filled fun-fest

/ hsoi

So SXSW 2017 just started and a top headline?

“Musician mugged, shot walking home from show during SXSW”

Awesome.

What’s better? The article ends with this:

It’s not clear exactly how much crime is directly tied to SXSW, but a KXAN analysis of police records showed in March 2015, violent and property crime shot up nearly 50 percent downtown compared to the monthly average. Violent crime increased 20 percent in March 2016 from the same time the year before.

KXAN links to a slightly more in-depth article exploring the increase in crime:

That includes nearly 290 cases of theft downtown and 19 aggravated assaults.

Bottom line: SXSW comes to town, crime increases. But note, it’s crime generally localized to where SXSW events occur.

What can we learn from this?

Well, if we follow Farnam’s Law, it’s pretty simple to classify SXSW as a “stupid place” full of “stupid people” doing “stupid things”. And much of what happens goes on after 10 PM.

So regarding your own personal safety, take from that what you will.

Reduced vision shooting

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

I wear glasses. Without them, I cannot see very well.

A couple weeks ago I read something from Phil Wong. Phil also wears glasses, and shares similar realities and concerns regarding glasses, vision, and being in a fight.

So Phil shot the MAG-40 qualification course. He did pretty well, tho a bit slower.

In November 2013, I shot the qualification course of fire for the Massad Ayoob Group MAG-40 class with my Glock 19, OEM Meprolight night sights, and non-prescription lenses in my shooting glasses, in front of about 25-30 students, staff instructors, and Massad F. Ayoob himself – just to see how I might be able to shoot under pressure without my corrective lenses. My final score was 297/300, which means that I had zero misses and only 3 shots outside of the A-zone of a standard IPSC cardboard target, over 60 shots fired at distances between 4 yards and 15 yards. I wasn’t nearly as fast as Mas and the other instructors, but I met the allotted time limits and still got the hits on target. Honestly, the hardest thing to do was to make sure I shot the right target – I had to consciously count targets from the end of the line before each string of fire, to distinguish between my target and a couple dozen other identical targets. As long as I don’t get attacked by a bad guy wearing the exact same clothes as an innocent bystander, I should be OK…

Years ago I put some thought and work into this, and tried solutions like XS Big Dot sights. The thinking there that if I lost my glasses in a fight, I could still see the front sight. Nope – still can’t see the big dot without my glasses. So while I did some work here and there, I mostly relegated myself to “just dealing with it”.

But it’s been a while. I’ve improved my skill greatly since those days. And “fighting without my glasses” came back to my mind a few weeks ago during the Cecil Burch classes, since I did most of that weekend without my glasses.

I’m going to give this a try next range trip. Phil’s one of Mas’ guys so shooting the MAG qualifier make sense. I’m one of Karl Rehn’s guys, so I’ll probably shoot “3 Seconds or Less“.

Have you given this much thought or practice?

Don’t have your glasses or contacts, can you perform? What if you don’t have a limb, like say you break your right arm, can you perform with your left? Or what if say you lost vision in one eye, can you perform with the other?

This isn’t to say we need to practice up hard on those skills in the off-chance something happens. But it can’t hurt to spend a practice session to tinker with those things for whatever they might tell you. Maybe you find out some weak-hand-only work would be good for you. Maybe you learn that your eyes have aged more than you thought and a different sight system may be in order.

A quick check now and again can be good for you.

Why are guns a right?

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

The fundamental question is “What is a ‘Right’?”

Several people here state that education is a right, or that healthcare is a right.

No, they’re not.

While I’m not an Objectivist, I think Ayn Rand was correct when she stated:

A ‘right’ is a moral principle defining and sanctioning a man’s freedom of action in a social context. There is only one fundamental right (all others are its consequences or corollaries): a man’s right to his own life.

As others have stated, “guns” aren’t a right, the right to self-defense – protection of one’s own life – is. The right to keep and bear arms is its corollary, for if denied the tools of that defense, the right is essentially stripped.

Education? You have the right to study anything you wish. What you don’t have is the right to make someone teach you. Health care? Same thing. You have the right to take care of yourself, but not force others to care for you.

Because forcing others violates their rights.

So why is the right to arms listed in the Bill of Rights, but education and healthcare are not? Because the Constitution is a legal document that establishes the limits of power of a governing body. If the Constitution were a document that said only what government could not do, it would be infinitely long. Instead, the body of the Constitution itself lists the powers that the Federal government has, and the mechanism under which those powers are established, maintained and exercised. The Bill of Rights is a (limited) list of things that government is warned explicitly not to trifle with, and a warning that there are other such rights not so listed.

The Tenth Amendment, too, is a limit that basically says “Only powers defined here belong to the Federal Government. Everything else is a power reserved to the States or The People. Hands off.”

So of course that’s the first one that got folded, spindled, mutilated and incinerated.

So what do we gather from this? That EDUCATION and HEALTHCARE are not in the purview of the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. It’s not the job of the Federal Government to provide these things, subsidize these things, or regulate these things except as they affect interstate commerce. (A clause that has been stretched to obscene lengths ever since Wickard v. Filburn)

It doesn’t matter if they seem to be good ideas. Those powers were not given to the Federal Government by the Constitution. They’re (as you observed) not mentioned in that document. They’re among the “powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution.” And they’re not rights.

But they are most definitely powers.

By Kevin Baker, posted here.