Proper Grip:
Over the Memorial Day weekend I had the pleasure of taking my third class with Ben Stoeger. For those of you who are not familiar with Ben, he is a World Champion shooter with the United States Practical Shooting Association (USPSA) and the International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC). Ben has taught me a lot over the years I have known him. One major area I have struggled with over the years has been my grip on the gun. I am constantly shooting low left as a right-handed shooter and when I was shooting left-handed, I would shoot low right. I tried all sorts of things to correct the issue to include changing hands as I had previously had a left wrist injury that I thought was causing my issue. I happen to be right-handed, however I am left eye dominant, so I have always shot left-handed. My issue did not have anything to do with my injury, my eye sight or any issue I had, other than I was not gripping the firearm correctly.
To best explain the proper grip we will start with your strong hand. When you grip the gun you want this hand to be as high as you can get it on the backstrap but want to grip the gun very lightly. A great example is you should be holding the gun so it will not fall but if someone would try to pull it from your hand they could do so with minimal effort. This grip leaves your hand relaxed and keeps your trigger finger free to move effectively. If you grip very tightly your trigger finger movement will be more difficult to move rapidly. Try this using only your strong hand. If you use a very tight grip with your strong hand generally you will also shoot low and in the opposite direction of your strong hand.
Your support hand or weak hand should wrap around your strong hand. There are various positions your pointer finger will be placed in. My comfortable position is pressed up onto the trigger guard. The ball or meaty part below your thumb must come in contact with the exposed part of the grip. To control recoil you should squeeze your strong hand as tight as possible. A good example is the beds of your finger nails will turn white under the pressure and you may even get some marks from your grips on your strong hand.
It is important to work on establishing the proper grip when you draw your pistol. This is best accomplished while doing dry fire. You will develop muscle memory as you bring the gun to your sight picture.
