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There are between three and eight fundamentals of marksmanship depending on which instructor or program you believe. Most say a proper, strong grip on the firearm is the most important of those fundamentals. I agree that grip fixes a lot of other problems.
Rabbit hole alert: I also disagree. I’ve always said trigger control is the most important and here’s why:
- Not everyone has the physical ability to grip the gun well.
- Even those who have that ability will not have that gift as they age or if they incur an injury.
- Arthritis and injuries are real and nearly inevitable.
We should focus on grip and proper trigger control because one of them will fail us at some point. It’s not an either/or — both matter.
The value of grip
A proper, strong grip on a pistol positively affects:
- Confidence
- Gun grabs
- A less-than-perfect trigger press
- A consistent presentation
Confidence
Grip doesn’t just help with trigger problems. A proper, solid grip is contributing factor to a shooter’s confidence via control over the firearm. Control equals confidence all day, every day.
Gun grabs
Firearms retention is imperative. When I first came into law enforcement, a distressing number of officers who were killed in the line of duty died from their own pistol after it was either taken from their sub-par holster or wrestled from their grip. That number went down from a horrific ~ 20% to a horrific ~ 5-10%. Much of that is due to training, but this is an area where grip strength matters.
Trigger manipulation
A strong and solid pistol grip absolutely assists with trigger manipulation. I’ve heard two competing thoughts on this:
- If you grip the pistol properly, you can hammer the trigger all you want.
- If you work the trigger correctly, your grip doesn’t matter as much.
To be clear, most high-level instructors understand that both are important, and again, why not practice both skills and schools of thought?
Presentation
A strong grip starts at the draw stroke. The first thing one must do — after defeating retention devices — is grip the gun properly before the draw. If done incorrectly, accurate first shots on target are rare. Get a solid grip before you draw!
Research
There is a figurative ton of research to back this up. Studies cited in “Applied Ergonomics,” “International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health,” “Journal of Criminalistics and Law,” “Frontiers in Psychology” and “International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health,” plus many others, indicate a strong grip assists in shooting proficiency.
Photo/Warren Wilson
Solutions
For the most part, the solution to this is simple. Work on grip strength. I do not recommend prematurely jumping to a professional-level Captains of Crush routine after reading this. That said, Captains of Crush grippers are excellent, but begin with lighter, inexpensive hand grippers and progress slowly.
Also find exercises that focus on the muscles in the hands, forearms and wrists like wrist curls, reverse wrist curls and farmer’s carries. You’ll have no trouble finding them with a simple search.
I say again, please take it slow. The small muscles, tendons, etc., in your hands and wrists are easily injured with overly aggressive exercise, and injuries further discourage progress. Ask me how I know.
Grip size
No serious discussion on pistol grip would be complete without at least a nod to hand size. In this hiring crisis we have seen — for whatever reason — many applicants of substantially smaller stature than what was typical in the 1900s when I first applied. That’s not a bad thing. These are smart, sharp, competent folks who are just simply smaller. However, the most commonly issued duty pistol just doesn’t fit smaller mitts. Physicalities, simply put, are what they are. I wrote about this topic at length both here and here.
Imagine holding onto a 2×4 in one hand and a 2” dowel rod in the other. Which one is easier to control? The solution here is both grip strength and fitting the equipment to the human. Read the articles linked above for suggestions. I highly recommend the Walther PDP-F pistol for those with small hands. There are other options out there that I’m sure are good as well, but my experience with the PDP-F has been nothing but positive for small-fisted folks.
No downside
Instructors and students: No matter what program of fundamentals to which you ascribe, please give grip its proper consideration. When you see law enforcement shooting videos with officers mag dumping and not hitting anything but pavement, passing cars and who knows what else, that’s mostly because the officer/deputy doesn’t have a proper grip. There is no downside to improving grip strength.
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