Switching hands in a defensive situation

[MikeBjerum]

I had the opportunity to see Personal Defense TV today.  Was at a funeral home and the director had Sportsman's Channel on in the prep room.  Needless to say we watched more than talked ... about funeral stuff.

Rob, I would like you input on this!

Masad was showing transferring a handgun from one hand to another during a defensive situation.  I have no problem with this or with the way he was advising it to a point.  He said don't do the "hand clap."  The motion where you basically end up with your gun squeezed between two open hands as you release with one hand and grip with the other.  He showed sliding your weak hand thumb along the "life line" of your strong hand as you loosened the strong grip and slowly took over with the weak grip.  This method made sense to me, and I tried it in the funeral home (where better to play with a 1911 than while a friend is embalming), and it worked real well for me.

My issue is that right after telling us to maintain control and not slap the gun from hand to hand, he told us to practice going faster and faster.  They used a camera directly in front of him, and it started to look more and more like he was "clapping" the gun.  Wouldn't this have been a great time to say "slow is smooth, and smooth is fast?"  I'm sure that at his level, and with his practice, he was doing it correctly, but it really looked sloppy on TV!

What do you suggest for swapping the gun from one hand to another as you are trying to keep your body behind cover as much as possible (the purpose of most of the demos in this episode)?

[m25operator]

Big M, I' m not Rob Pincus, nor do I play him on TV, but you knew that, the sliding hand technique is not new, nor is it wrong, it should be like rubbing your hands together to get them warm, sort of scooping your pistol from 1 hand to the next, I did not see the show, so cannot speak as to what you saw, it is a natural motion and so I would agree with it, and it is what I do.

May the Real Rob speak up.

[GrantCunningham]

I've found that it is always helpful, when evaluating a new technique, to step back and ask "what am I trying to accomplish?" or "why am I even doing this?" Doing the wrong thing "better" won't magically make it the right thing; if that's the case, who cares if one  technique is better or worse than another?

Is this technique designed so that you can shoot one-handed, or two? Is the gun being switched because you're shooting from cover, or because of some injury?

If shooting with two hands, there's really no need to switch a handgun back and forth. Because the handgun is always centered on your face, which hand is on top has very little bearing on how far you protrude from cover. (This is not the case with a long gun, which would be anchored on the far side of the body. The handgun isn't anchored in any such way.)

If the transfer is being done because of an injury to the strong hand, you have to ask yourself how plausible it is that the strong hand is sufficiently damaged to disallow it to be used shooting, but is still strong enough to hold the gun AND coordinated enough to actually make such a handoff. I think it's far more likely that the gun will be on the ground somewhere, and that you'll have to pick it up with the weak hand. The greater the likelihood, the more training time you should allot to the technique; if the situation isn't plausible, then very little to no time should be spent on it.

If it's to shoot one handed and there is no injury necessitating the transfer, why are you choosing to degrade your shooting ability by electing to use one hand, and then electing to use only the weak hand?

[m25operator]

Grant, good thoughtful answer, M58's question was simple, transition technique, your answer go's much further, and theres nothing wrong with that. Welcome aboard.

[Rob Pincus]

Sorry I'm late... I think Grant played the role of ME pretty well.

THERE IS NO REASON to switch hands in regard to cover. This is an outdated tactic that I've always found to be significantly flawed.

You really don't gain much in regard to what stays behind cover (honestly, if you are using cover properly, the difference is immeasurable ) and everyone does give up something in terms of their ability to shoot with their weak hand... so it is a net-negative. Don't do it.

If you're injured... just get it done, trying to choreograph ahead of time around an unknown injury that somehow makes it better to use your strong hand doesn't seem like time well spent. Practice picking your gun up off the ground safely with your weak hand only.

-RJP

[Sponsor]

[ericire12]

Sorry I'm late... I think Grant played the role of ME pretty well.

-RJP

+1

Hell of a first post!

[Michael Bane]

The only thing I would add to Grant's and Rob's excellent replies is that in the rare occasion where you might actually pass a gun to another hand — for instance, if you suddenly have to use a hand to restrain or "fix" the location of a family member — the pass will generally begin with a 2-hand grip and transition to a strong or weak-hand grip. This is a natural movement for us primates, and I suspect the more you try to apply a complex technique to it the more likely it is to fail under stress.

Michael B