Over the weekend, I gave a
private shooting lesson to a young man who’s looking to become a police
officer. This kid is having trouble with the shooting portion of the academy
and came to me because he’s not sure he’s going to be able to qualify.
The truth is, most police
department qualifications are a joke. They don’t raise the bar very high
because they want to be able to get as many officers through as possible (I can
say this because I witnessed it myself when I was a police officer). However,
when you move up to the Federal level, such as FBI, Secret Service, etc., the
qualifications do become more challenging.
So, when I heard this kid
was having trouble qualifying at first I thought he might just be a terrible
shooter. But before I started training him I asked him how he had been taught
to shoot, the grip he was using, and how he drew the gun from the holster, etc.
Well… it didn’t take me long
to quickly realize the (Utah) academy this kid was attending has instructors
who are giving him horrible advice and these instructors have obviously not
been keeping up with modern firearms training.
First, the instructors are
telling this kid that he should barely be holding the gun with his gun hand,
and that the support hand should be providing all the pressure on the gun. They
literally told him that they should be able to walk up to him on the firing
line and be able to slap the gun out of his hand because he should be holding
it with such little force.
Now, it doesn’t take a
genius to see the lack of wisdom in this advice. If you draw your gun and
somebody were to attempt to take it away from you, is it really a good idea to
hold the gun so daintily that they could quickly strip it from your hand?
Unfortunately, it gets even
worse…
These instructors are
teaching the old “cup and saucer” shooting grip. If you’re not familiar with
this “google” it and you’ll see why it’s a bad grip that hasn’t been taught in
decades by reputable agencies.
The grip that I recommend
and that the top shooters in the world use is the Thumbs Forward shooting grip.
This allows you to put a lot of flesh on the gun and when new shooters try this
grip it almost always improves their accuracy.
Of course, I showed the kid
the Thumbs Forward grip and I told him be needed to grip the gun harder and I
better never be able to slap the gun out of his hand. But guess what? The
instructors at this academy will not allow him to use the grip I showed him. They
have told him he has to do it the way they teach shooting and nothing else.
And that’s the real reason I
wrote today’s article because that’s what really annoys me.
Like I just mentioned, I use
the Thumbs Forward grip and so do the majority of good shooters. But the fact
is, the most important thing in the world is if you can hit your target. So if
you come to me and want to try another grip and with this other grip you shoot
better, then by all means, as long as you’re still obeying the 4 safety rules
then use that other grip.
It’s a shame to see law
enforcement agencies who are 1) teaching terrible firearms training and 2) who
are not open minded and not allowing their officers to grip the gun a different
way if it’s what works for them.
Whether you’re in law
enforcement or not, I always recommend keeping an open mind because you never
know when you’re going to discover a new shooting method that works better for
you. But, when you find something that doesn’t, no instructor (police or
civilian) should force you to shoot their way and their way only.
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