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Skill Set: Control
by Rich Grassi
Why do we draw and fire more than one round in training? We fire more than one to reinforce the fact that, in the self-defense context, bullets don't work. Gunfire is rarely effective at quickly stopping fights - or stopping them as quickly as we'd like. That calls for multiple rounds to stop the threat.
In my classes and when I test new guns, there's quite a bit of drawing to a single hit. That's to check draw speed to the first hit, an important data point. Once that objective is reached, we move to control multiple round strings of fire.
The problem with firing quickly is control. The gun doesn't sit still during all this nonsense. There is recoil caused when a projectile is driven away from the shooter and from the gun. The gun pushes back based on the projectile's weight and velocity.
Part of this is taken by a slide and barrel which retract. They retract together a short distance until the barrel unlocks from the slide. The barrel drops and the slide continues to the rear. When it hits the "end of the leash," spring power from the recoil spring drives the slide forward. If you ever felt the push of recoil back and then the snap forward as the slide's driven into battery, now you know why.
Why is keeping the gun still important? Presumably the gun is pointed in at the thing that is trying to extinguish your life. If the muzzle is moved off the threat, rounds fired miss the threat, wasting time that the threat is taking to put bullets into you.
Not good.
Control is a function of grip and stance. Starting with grip - which is the act you commit with your hand, it's not the part of a gun you hold onto - you have to be firm. Hold the gun as you'd hold a hammer when driving nails. A firearms instructor-trainer was asked how hard to hold the gun when shooting.
"Like your life depends on it," he replied.
Hang on tightly. The preponderance of grip is centered in middle and ring fingers of the gun hand pulling the front strap back toward the heel of the palm. The nonfiring hand reinforces that grip by compressing the gun front to back.
The grip is high on the back strap of the pistol. The recoil hump on a DA revolver or tang on the top of the autopistol frame should make an impression on the top of your hand between thumb and forefinger. The higher you are relative to bore axis (without impeding the slide), the better control you have.
When considering stance, think of a pair of grapplers facing each other. When they move in, their shoulders are aggressively forward. Emulate that. We have a number of ways to remind shooters of stance, but simply look like you are fighting.
Don't stand straight up, shoulders back. That gives recoil a running start and by the third round fired, you are stepping back to maintain balance.
Your knees are bent, shoulders ahead of your waist and "nose over the toes." This gives the pistol a lot to push back against.
Observe the picture of our model, Rob Child. That's three empties over his .40 Glock. The front of the slide is barely above his line of sight.
That's control.
To learn more about firearms skills, learning how to teach firearms skills, or to learn how to conduct firearms training on a budget, check out Rich's book, POLICE FIREARMS INSTRUCTION: PROBLEMS AND PRACTICES, available from Amazon and other fine book sellers.