Learning not to "death grip" the hard way...

[beltjones]

For a long time I thought a key to better speed was to eliminate muzzle flip - and of course the key to eliminating muzzle flip (for me) was to lock the gun down with my left hand. Well, back in April I woke up one day and my left wrist was really sore. I drove 60 miles to a match, shot two stages, took off my gear and drove home. My wrist had gone from sore to injured. To make a long story short, several months later, more ice packs than I can count, a shot of cortisone, and two trips to the Orthopedist (with another appt. scheduled this Friday), and I'm kind of back to shooting. However, due to the wrist injury my recoil control is crap, and I know I'm compensating by overgripping with my right hand.

Of course now my accuracy stinks, and my called shots aren't ending up where I called them. I went to the practice range on Saturday just to work on trigger control, and to get back to having my shots end up exactly where I called them.

By the end of the day I had turned in a clean 2.02" Bill Drill (with a 1.18" draw, which I know I can get to 1.05" or so if I can get back to dry firing). My muzzle is flipping more than it used to, but ultimately it doesn't seem to negatively affect my speed all that much.

I think what I learned is that what it all comes down to is good trigger control and calling your shots. Fighting the gun accomplishes neither of those things, though it took a wrist injury to figure that out. I swear, just once I'd like to learn an important lesson the easy way.