High on Fire with “Hung, Drawn, and Quartered”
Author: hsoi
An observation on my grip
During a recent dry practice session, I noticed something about my grip.
First, I’ve been working hard on ensuring a consistent and crushing grip during my dry work. Since there’s no recoil, it’s really easy to slack off, so I’m working to mitigate that by overly crushing the grip when I do dry work. That will build up my grip muscles/endurance, and when I’m not crushing it’s easier to notice and thus correct myself. Plus anything I can do to make a stronger grip will help with not just recoil control, but it sure does help offset when pressure ramps up and the trigger gets slapped/yanked. It’s not an excuse for poor trigger control, but when you do have a crushing grip it helps mitigate the effects.
During this particular dry session I switched from two-handed to one-handed work. As usual, my weak-hand work needed more work. I strove to really crush things and noticed something I was (and wasn’t) doing in my grip.
I need to back up a bit and explain some things about grip.
Grip the gun in a two-handed grip. Really try to determine the direction of your hand pressure. Sure, there’s a generalized, all-around crushing pressure, but at least in my grip I find that my strong-hand is applying more pressure “front to back”. That is, there’s more pressure coming in on the front-strap and back-strap of the grip than against the sides of the grip. That makes sense given how the hand is working and clamping — the fingers are bringing things together, not your tips and palm into each other. Then there’s the support-hand, which winds up applying more pressure against the sides of the grip (well, your strong-hand since the support-hand is overlapping it) than the front- and back- straps. Again, this is from the same directional clamping force that your fingers are giving (vs. tips and palm into each other).
So when you have both hands gripping, there is 360º of crush force: front-back by the strong-hand, side-side by the support-hand.
As well, because of your hand wrapping/overlapping, with proper technique you wind up with a lot of skin against grip – that contact, that friction plays a big part. Airspace between the grip and your hands gives “wiggle room” and doesn’t lead to the strongest grip. The best grip puts as much possible skin-to-grip contact over as much surface area as possible. That contact, that friction, helps to manage recoil because now there’s more friction (and other resistive forces) that the recoil must overcome.
So understanding that, what did I experience and observe?
While it’s there when I go strong-hand-only, it’s more pronounced in weak-/support-hand-only. That I am only getting 50% of that grip pressure — there’s only the pressure against the front- and back- straps. I’m crushing – or perhaps more descriptively, clamping – my grip against the front and back, but there’s really no pressure against the sides. There’s some light skin contact between sides and palm/tips, but not a lot of pressure into them. But more so, it’s just light contact – I could actually wiggle something (finger) up in there between my palm (specifically, at the metacarpophalangeal joints) and the grip. In light of the prior explanation, can you see how this is not an ideal grip?
So I worked to put more skin in FIRM contact with the grip, and work to try to make a grip that was giving more 360º pressure, than just the front-to-back-pressure, if you will. In a way, it was “collapsing the tent” created by my metacarpophalangeal joints as the hand wraps around the grip. It’s a little awkward, and it does cause some frame rub against my thumb’s metacarpophalangeal joint. I expect there will be some refinement of this, and I’ll have to see how it pans out in live fire. I expect my results will be greatly improved, tho I may wind up with a raw thumb joint.
Take a look at your grip.
Are you maximizing contact? Are you gripping it HARD? How does your grip change when you go 1-handed? Can you adjust your grip (1- or 2- handed) to improve contact and pressure?
Update
I wrote this earlier in the week. I then had a chance to go to the range and try it in live fire.
Results were not good. 🙂
I shot horribly.
Why? I’m not sure. It could be because the technique just sucked, or it could be because it was a change and I need to adapt to the change. There may be other side-effects from it that I have to work through.
Alas, that range session needed to be focused on other issues, so I didn’t investigate this grip work. I just reverted to my old way and everything was peachy. Perhaps something to learn from that as well.
Am I overanalyzing? Perhaps. Again, I went back to my old way and was just fine. But I’d like to think there’s something in this, at least for me. Because for sure as much crush/clamp grip as you can have the better, and for sure when you only have 1 hand you won’t have as strong a grip as 2 hands. So if there’s some way to improve my 1-hand grip through mechanical advantage (vs. just pure strength), why wouldn’t I want to explore that avenue?
Maybe next live-fire session I’ll get a chance to work on it. For sure in my present dry work, I’ll be doing more 1-handed work, and we’ll see where it goes.
2016-08-12 training log
Progress is good. Press is always a tough one for me — especially after last night seeing footage of Andranik Karapetyan at the Rio 2016 Olympics. Horrific, and I hope he’ll be OK. But boy… trying to keep that image out of your mind while you’re Pressing is tough.
The biggest thing for me is continuing to find a way to make my setup work so I don’t pass out. It’s just a weird thing with breath for me. I tried full breath, unrack, exhale a little bit, and in a way it worked but it really didn’t because it was too much loss of tension in the “rack” position thus starting off less than optimally. Today I tried the opposite, about a 90% inhale before unracking, which is enough to get tight, chest upwards, lats out, etc., but still a little room for some from oxygen. Well, while in the rack position, I just couldn’t get that last little inhale. I kept going and it actually seemed to work — I didn’t feel the dizzy. However, my body didn’t like it. It’s natural for the body to want to take a “big breath” before such exertion, and I’m cutting that short. So it felt odd, my body wanted to fight me. But it actually does seem like it could be promising. So I’m just going to have to keep playing with it.
Only other thing of note is on face-pulls, lowering the weight. When I start off with face pulls, I pick a weight that seems about right, but after a couple sessions I adjust. Face pulls aren’t some max-effort movement, but rather I want it to really be about just contracting the muscles of the upper back and shoulder — minimizing involvement of my arms, and that it’s really just my back muscles “reverse flying” my upper arms out. So usually I end up lowering the weight some to help me really get into feeling it and doing that. Always works out for the better.
Next week — 5/3/1 week. Huzzah! And yes, planning on doing 6-week cycle so it’ll be right into the next one.
5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template
- Press
- bar x whatever
- 65 x 5 (warmup sets superset with band pull-aparts)
- 80 x 5
- 95 x 3
- 110 x 3 (work sets superset with pull-ups)
- 125 x 3
- 140 x 10 (10RM PR)
- Close-Grip Bench Press
- 130 x 8 (sets superset with pull-ups)
- 150 x 8
- 170 x 6
- V-Bar Pulldowns
- 110 x 20
- 110 x 16
- 110 x 11
- Face Pulls
- 90 x 20
- 90 x 15
- 90 x 13
- Lying Triceps Extensions (superset with curls)
- 60 x 20
- 60 x 17
- 60 x 12
- Close-grip EZ-bar Curls
- 55 x 20
- 55 x 15
- 55 x 12
2016-08-11 range log
In about a month I’ll be a student in the Rangemaster Advanced Instructor Course.
Time to prepare.
Really, there’s only so much you can to do prepare. I’ve been through many classes with Tom Givens, and the best thing to do is not psyche yourself out. But that said, I know there are some things I want to do to get myself ready.
First, I’ve been working on a lot of things from a competition standpoint. I need to shift to a defensive standpoint. Really in most respects it’s the same stuff, but there are some differences in how you do things, how you approach things. Plus to also remember that this is Tom’s class and to do things Tom’s way. For example, he will want “ready position” to be a low ready (whereas I normally use a high-compressed ready). So it’s just getting into that mindset.
Second, I know there will be some skills that I’ll want to brush up on as much as I can. Only so much can be done in a month, but every bit helps.
What would those be?
15-25 yard shooting.
One-handed shooting, especially weak-hand.
Of course, “everything” matters, but I’m pretty sure in terms of my weak-points, those are what I need to work on (given what I know that’s coming…).
So with that, today was about shooting from a defensive standpoint. For example, using my carry gear (IWB holster) instead of competition gear. Shooting from concealment instead of open carry. And I wanted to run a bunch of drills as diagnostics to see what’s what.
Started with the “3M Test” (my favorite). Ran it in 7.88 seconds clean. Happy with that. I did look at the draw time, splits, reload, etc. and well, for sure I’m running slower, but it was still pretty solid. I know with time and improvement I’ll break the 7-seconds barrier.
Shot “3 Seconds or Less”. While I generally run this fine, I’ve been experimenting with grip changes on my one-handed shooting, but only in dry fire. This showed me that perhaps those changes didn’t work, or will need more work before I can bank on them. I dropped almost all the one-handed shots. For the rest of the session when I had to do one-handed work I reverted back to my old technique and was fine.
Did the “Rangemaster Instructor” qual. Blew a few things from rushing (e.g. got a bad grip), but very happy with my 15 and 25 yard performance
Then came the (new/2013) FBI qual. Did fine on that, and again happy with my 15/25 yard shooting.
Then I shot a couple drills that I wasn’t planning on, but Karl wanted me to shoot because he’s going to bring them into this weekend’s AT-4 class. One was Ken Hackathorn’s “The Wizard”, which is a very simple drill but sufficiently challenging. The other is LAV’s “The Test”, which is another very simple drill but sufficiently challenging. I had no problems with either drill, but I think they will make a good addition to AT-4 this weekend.
Each of these drills I shot 1 time. They were enough to get me into a mindset, and showed me things I needed.
First, I went slower than I had been — at least when shooting. Buzzer hit and I’d still move quickly to get the gun out of the holster and, from concealment, still broke sub-1.5 second draws many times. But I did find that overall my draws were slower, my splits a little increased. Why? Well, in “gaming mode” sometimes a fast-C is better than a slow-A. But here, it’s 5 seconds (or whatever) for the string — no extra points nor penalty points for using the full 5-seconds, but for sure you lose points if you hit outside the A-Zone. So I eased off the gas pedal a bit so I could ensure A-hits.
But I need to still go a little faster. Basically not as fast as competition stuff, but I feel like I’m settling into “my old habits”. I started to speed up on some of the later COFs, and it was like a middle ground: faster than before, slower than the comp stuff. I’m good with that. I’d rather be semi-fast and have consistent A-zone hits.
Second, I still need to work on mechanics, like reloading… and not flubbing that first shot after the reload.
Third, my distance shooting is better but still needs work.
One thing I haven’t documented but that I’ve been doing is ending my sessions with some group shooting. It’s been super helpful. No time limits, just shooting 5-shot groups from whatever distance.
So well, that’s what the rest of today turned into.
I set up an IPSC target. I put a 3″ “shoot-n-see” dot in the head box (which is 6″ x 6″ square). The goal was to put everything inside the 3″ dot (or better), but for sure everything at least had to be within the 6×6 box.
I started at I think 10 or 15 yards and was sucking, so I moved in closer to 7 yards. Drilled that out just fine. So I moved back to 10. Things were a little wide, then I just kept shooting 5 shot groups until things got tight. Then I’d shoot a little more to ensure I wasn’t lucky, then move back. From 10 I went to 12.5 yards. From 12.5 I went to 15. I ended up staying at 15 for some time. I never got all 5 within the 3″ dot, but I’d get close (e.g. drop 1). Even tho it wasn’t meeting the standard, it’s HUGE improvement. I wanted to keep shooting so that I could learn “what to see”. For sure, even slight movements, slight deviations were enough to throw things off. Heck, it’s a little breezy out today, and I’d even find when the breeze picked up, it would be enough to move the gun and throw things off. Had to be patient.
When I moved back to 25 yards, I changed the goal. I put a 3″ dot in the middle of the 8″ IPDA -0 circle. The goal tho was similar: strive to group in the 3″ dot, but at least within the 8″ circle. What got me here? A few times I tried to “snatch” the shot – because you will move, there will be wobble, and trying to “snatch” the shot as the sight picture goes perfect? That’s a great way to wind up in the -3 zone…. :-\ But when I just let things happen, I actually did pretty well. I’d say never smaller than a 5″ group, but that’s a HUGE improvement over how I’ve been before at 25 yards.
And remember, when I was shooting a few of the drills earlier in the day, I’d be getting A-Zone hits at 25 yards. Probably still a “bad group” (couldn’t tell given all the other prior holes in the target), but at least I was getting in the A-Zone. So yeah, this is happy improvement for me.
I called it after this figuring to just end on the good note and the slower “Zen” moments of everything.
So, back to dry fire. What to work on there?
Continue to work on draws at 15 yards, but 1. from concealment, 2. occasionally work draws at closer distances too so I don’t get myself too locked into always needing an “ideal” sight picture.
Continue to work on reload mechanics, but again from concealment.
Focus on something like a 1″ dot but also just “blank wall” and work on trigger press mechanics and other “group shooting” and trigger-control sorts of things. Small targets, trigger presses, etc. And even try using tiny targets like this and doing draws. Sure it might take me 2 seconds to break the shot, but fine. Just make sure it’s doing all the things right.
That should keep me busy enough for the next few weeks.
2016-08-11 training log
Another short day because of other commitments for the day. But at least this time I got up a little earlier and was able to ensure I got in my front squats!
I think the main thing of note is that I keep forgetting to go mixed-grip. I guess that’s not a bad thing tho, because grip is getting stronger for sure.
5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template
- Deadlift
- 135 x 5
- 170 x 5
- 205 x 3
- 235 x 3
- 270 x 3
- 305 x 10
- Front Squat
- 145 x 8
- 170 x 8
- 190 x 6
Stop thinking about doing the thing, just do the thing
We never do anything well until we cease to think about the manner of
doing it.– Hazlitt
That came through the Maku mozo! list a few days ago.
Ever notice how that happens in life? Doesn’t really matter the context, but when you are focused so much on doing the thing that you just can’t do the thing that well? But when you just turn off your brain (so to speak), stop thinking about doing the thing, and just do the thing, that things run really well?
Funny how that is.
Of course, we can’t really turn off our brains. And we don’t just know how to do things. We have to have put in a lot of work, study, practice, failure, effort, time, money, etc. to get to a point of proficiency. And sometimes you have to think about what you’re doing, because that’s precisely part of the work, study, practice, etc. so you can reach that point of “just doing”.
But don’t be afraid of reaching that point. It’s tough – you do have to make a bit of a leap of faith, you do have to trust more than you had before.
But when everything just comes together and you can just perform, it’s such a sweet moment.
2016-08-09 training log
A solid day, but had a precarious moment.
I knew I’d have no problem with the top set this morning, as I’ve moved heavier weight and hit the 10-rep threshold, so I knew today would be no problem. That is… until I unracked the bar.
As soon as I unracked on the last set, the bar started to slip. It was simple: sweat.
I thought my hands were pretty dry, all things considered. I say that because it’s like 110% humidity right now, and at the time I’m at the gym there’s no A/C, no ventilation, no air movement, so it’s pretty stifling in there. Plus, it’s warm, humid, and so I just sweat profusely (everything is drenched by the time I leave). Still, I dry my hands as I can, but I guess the layer of sweat built up on my palms pretty quickly. I unrack, the bar moved, YIKES! I should have racked, dried, and continued. But no… I just kept going. It went alright, got the reps, but for sure I was primarily focused on not dropping the bar so I noticed other technique slipped. Which tells me — my technique is improving, but it’s not “part of me” yet, especially in the leg-drive area. So, in the end I learned something. I’ll take that.
Also, I didn’t wrap my wrists until later on. It started intentionally, then I was in the groove of not wrapping so I forgot. And my wrists felt alright! I’ve been working on improving my posture — especially my typing — because for sure that’s been a contributor to my wrist and hand pain. I’m actually not sure I want to fully drop the wraps, but at least I might defer them to just heavier sets.
Otherwise, things went generally well. Upped the weights on some assistance work, fair progression.
I also weighed in at 230 this morning — dropping carbs is a great way to debloat yourself. 😉 Going to stick with this and see how much more I can shed. I’m still eating carbs, just not being as stupid as I have been.
5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template
- Bench Press
- bar x whatever
- 95 x 5 (warmup sets superset with band pull-aparts)
- 120 x 5
- 145 x 3
- 165 x 3 (work sets superset with neutral-grip pull-ups)
- 190 x 3
- 215 x 10
- Incline Press
- 130 x 8 (sets superset with neutral-grip pull-ups)
- 150 x 8
- 170 x 6
- Cable Rows
- 110 x 20
- 110 x 15
- 110 x 12
- Shrugs
- 215 x 20
- 215 x 16
- 215 x 12
- V-bar pressdowns (superset with curls)
- 45 x 20
- 45 x 20
- 45 x 20
- Hammer Curls (alternate, across body)
- 25e x 20
- 25e x 17
- 25e x 15
Does Sweden have the answer to America’s gun problem?
A friend of mine posted the following article on Facebook: “Sweden may have the answer to America’s gun problem”, from Vox.
As we face a firearm crisis in America today, it’s time for hunters to stop hiding behind the Second Amendment and claim the moral high ground as our nation’s responsible gun owners.
The nation demands some action, and we, more than 13 million gun owners who hunt, are in a unique position to lead the way. Firearm registration as part of our normal licensing process could both strengthen our hunting tradition and at the same time help break the national logjam of inaction.
I started writing a response and it got too big for Facebook. So, blog post it is. 🙂
So… many interesting things about this article.
First, the underlying premise of this article is about hunting. The thing is, the Second Amendment to the US Constitution has NOTHING to go with hunting. And trying to relate Sweden’s hunting culture to the US – where, frankly, hunting culture is fading away – and the article’s premise fails because the author really fails to understand the totality of the circumstance.
It’s speaks about how guns and hunting are a healthy part of Sweden’s culture. Great! But here in the US, hunting is still alive, but today’s social standing frames hunting as evil. I mean, look at how hunters are routinely vilified, doxxed, and generally their lives destroyed by the “social warriors” these days! That’s not a healthy Sweden-like culture. As well, for most people in the US, their ONLY exposure to guns is in the news, in movies, and video games – and those things RARELY present firearms in a healthy manner. So is it any wonder that so many in the US have the viewpoint they do? So how can you really compare this to Sweden? There’s a large cultural rift, and without that underlying cultural foundation, the author’s proposal really can’t work.
As an aside, I’m not sure the author understands his own gun laws. He makes statements saying “in Sweden you can’t own a gun if…” and implies that in the US you can. I wonder if he’s ever looked at a Form 4473 before. I digress.
But really, the key premise of the article is — registration and licensing.
What the author fails to demonstrate is how this will actually solve the problem.
Because we all know that Chicago gang members are into licensing and registration…. right?
And they all use deer hunting rifles and duck hunting shotguns too, after they’ve come back in from the field (I see all sorts of gangbangers wearing blaze orange saggy pants). So the author’s desire to “start with hunters” seems to be… curious. What WILL this accomplish, apart from perhaps someone feeling good like they are “doing something”? and are somehow then morally superior (the author makes it clear that moral superiority is a desired goal), while effecting little true improvement in the problem? I mean, the author spells out that the hunters registering their hunting rifles will be checked by the game wardens, and if it’s not registered they lose their hunting privileges. Gee… that really takes a bite out of that inner-city Chicago crime.
In fact, registration schemes such as this fail to do anything useful (witness Canada’s recently dismantled system). They do waste a lot of time and money tho.
Remember: ultimately we all want the same thing: peace. None of us want innocent people to die. Where we differ is in how to achieve that end. Me? I’d like us to consider solutions that might actually achieve something, instead of trotting out the same failed solutions or solutions that have no demonstrable ability to progress us towards the desired goal. Ideas like “registration” mean nothing because CRIMINALS – you know, the people that are actually doing all this killing – will NOT abide by registration and licensing. So how will such a scheme actually help? I mean, maybe it’s just the engineer in me, but when we have limited time, limited money, limited resources, I want to pursue ideas that actually could solve the problem. To pursue known failed solutions (that will just fail again), or solutions that have no reasonable ability to affect the problem, that’s just irresponsible – because while you chase these useless solutions, people are still dying. Please, stop.
However, one place I strongly agree with the author? that knowledge and demonstrable skill are important. Of course, I’ve spent the past 8 years of my life as a professional firearms instructor. I have hundreds upon hundreds of hours of training, many certifications, thousands of hours of teaching and thousands of students taught – so I deeply understand the value and importance of knowledge and skill. I see LOTS of people whose basic firearms handling skill scares the shit out of me (I’ve had many guns pointed at me, and no it’s never fun), and what’s worse is they all say the same thing “I haven’t shot anyone”… yeah… yet. They all think they are awesome and safe, but you know… Dunning-Kruger.
Name me one place in life where more education is a bad thing, where more knowledge is a bad thing, where more skill is a bad thing! I would LOVE people to get lots of training, demonstrate proficiency, etc. (and not because it would generate revenue for me, but because ignorance kills). And frankly, a lot do that. Here in Texas, to get your hunting license you must pass a hunter education course which covers lots of useful things AND has a shooting test for proficiency demonstration. And of course, here in Texas to get your Handgun License (to allow you to carry a handgun in public, openly or concealed), you must take a class that covers topics like the law, and non-violent dispute resolution, and again you must pass a shooting proficiency test and a background check (complete with much fingerprinting). So hey, these things do exist.
But it walks a tightrope, because self-defense is a human right. And when you start to do things like mandating training, mandating licensing, etc. you create a poll tax, and we determined long ago that’s a bad thing.
I’m all for the increased responsibility the author speaks about. But to do that, we’re going to need to revisit the underlying tone of his article – one of culture. If he thinks Sweden has the answer, then we need to get closer to a Swedish culture in this regard: one where hunting is respected and a part of everyday life. If education is to be so important, then we should do things like bring hunter safety and firearms safety into our K-12 schools. Help people understand how to be safe with firearms. It may not address the criminal aspects (that’s another topic), but if we want to fulfill the author’s premise, I think it’s going to have to start with a change in the US’s cultural outlook on guns, not as bad things, but just as things.
Everyone keeps expecting gun owners to compromise on this issue. Well, compromise involves both sides making concessions.
What are you willing to concede?
2016-08-08 training log
It just keeps going… but I have to admit, it’s playing with my mind.
It’s “3-week” and you generally expect that on the top set you might get 5-8 reps… but I continue to get 10 reps — my semi-self imposed threshold — and I shut it down. Every session it’s like this, which is of course pretty awesome. But it throws me. I mean, last week I did 240 for 10 and that felt like work… so a 15# jump today and I thought “well, I might only hit 8”, but I keep telling myself “1 rep at a time, and just keep reppping until it’s time to stop repping”. And I hit 10 reps pretty nicely.
But it is messing with me because this can’t keep up. I want it to keep up, and I keep thinking “ok, is this the time?”. I really need to just stop it and let be what will be.
I did a little video of my squats. Form is good, depth is good. I’m feeling happier with my setup and general approach, but I do feel at times I’m losing my upper-back tightness — something to work on.
Leg curls, instead of propping up on my elbows I’m laying totally flat and that is making it harder.
Hypers, I think about just contracting the glutes, as if I’m trying to contract them so it pushes my hips forward. Totally different feel to things.
Anyways, it’s good. Continuing to be happy with progress.
Oh… and I’m working on cutting back on my carbs because I’m getting bloated. 🙂 I spent all that time trying to de-fat myself, and while I accept a little fluffy, I need to keep it in check. I’ve even thought about doing 4-6 weeks of “cutting”, which shouldn’t affect my strength work but should helep me keep my fluff in check. TBD.
5/3/1 Simplest Strength Template
- Squats
- bar x whatever
- 115 x 5
- 140 x 5
- 170 x 3
- 200 x 3
- 225 x 3
- 255 x 10
- Straight-leg Deadlift
- 185 x 8
- 215 x 8
- 245 x 6
- Leg Curls
- 30 x 20
- 30 x 13
- 30 x 10
- Hyperextensions (superset with crunches)
- BW x 15
- BW x 15
- BW x11
- Crunches
- BW x 20
- BW x 13
- BW x 11
- Standing Calf Raises
- 50 x 20
- 50 x 15
- 50 x 12
Sunday Metal – Five Horse Johnson
OK, while maybe not strictly metal (e.g. this doesn’t sound like Iron Maiden), I had a “Clutch Radio” going on Music and this band – Five Horse Johnson – came on.
It’s got this blusey, stoner, sludge, southern groove thing going. I dig it.
Here’s “Mississippi King”
Stuff From Hsoi 