KOENIG1

PRO TIPS with DOUG KOENIG - LESSON 1

Holster Set-Up and Getting the Grip for Speedshooting

What I’d like to do today is give shooters some tips on enhancing your speed shooting skills. For anybody who wants to shoot Masters Action Event, Steel Challenge, Bianchi Shootoff, IPSC... any of those things that require speed shooting... you need to get all the basics down before you just throw all your gear on.

You can’t just assemble everything and expect to perform at a high level. You’ve got to start out with the basics. Your stance, your grip, your draw... and part of the draw is the holster position, very key to speed shootings.

One of the great features of the speed holsters today is that they are fully adjustable.

You know, in the old days we didn’t have that much adjustability on the holsters. Now, not only the position where you are going to put the holster on the belt, but the cant inside, outside, front to back; all can be fully adjusted and the height of the gun can be adjusted as well.

When I set up my holster I like to put it on the belt in the position where my hands drop to the gun naturally.

If it’s a surrender start, you drop right to the gun, and if I have to move it a little bit front to back I’ll do that on a daily basis, you know, just minor, little adjustments.

But you also want to make sure that when you’re setting the holster up that you’re getting the grip on the gun correctly because this is the foundation of your grip.

So as you do the draw and you come out, you want to make sure your cant up and down and in and out is correct.

You don’t want the gun, as you draw it, to be pointed in some awkward direction.

So this part of the draw is the basic foundation of getting the proper grip.

Some of the key aspects of the grip are keeping your hand as close to the center line of the bore as you can get it.

What that means is you want to get your hand as high on the grip safety as you can. That will help with the recoil.

You want to use your strong hand as you take the safety off, you want to keep that thumb on top of the safety which creates a pocket for your weak hand.

You insert the heel of your weak hand in the pocket and get your thumbs lined up so they’re basically pointing at the target. It’s a real natural grip, and the grip tension that you want to use is kind of a medium firm grip. There is no reason to choke out the grip on the gun, it’s just going to cause inconsistent recoil.

I’m going to load up and show you how this all comes together. As you can see, the muzzle doesn’t lift very much and that’s due to a proper grip.

And I can even do this with a limited gun. As you can see, even without a compensator, with a proper grip there isn’t very much muzzle flip.

So practice your grip and get your holster set up and we’ll have more tips for you next time.

CLICK HERE FOR PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION