"Press Forward Pull Back"

[GorillaTactical]

Heard this from an awesome shooter but wanted to get further explanation. I've always been told to present the sidearm with a strong press forward (while also maintaining some bend at the elbows to absorb recoil)...is the proper technique to be pushing forward with the strong hand and pulling back with the support hand, similarly to how I might pull back with my support hand on my rifle (with force that creates neutral tension so you aren't moving the pistol forward or backward)? Is that what is meant by "Press Forward Pull Back"?

Kurt Miller Discussing it

[waktasz]

Why would you want to pull back at all? The gun wants to come toward you during recoil, no point in helping it.

My support hand grips the side panels of the gun and pushes forward.

[twodownzero]

Not a neutral grip. See Brian's book.

[Carmoney]

What you're describing is the push/pull isometric tension that is the essence of the Weaver Stance. While not in vogue today with competitive shooters, a properly-performed Weaver Stance is still a legitimate technique that is viable for some people in some circumstances--particular when using heavy-recoiling loads. It takes decent upper-body strength to do effectively.

While Brian's book is a great resource, don't forget Brian's final admonition that "everything in this book may be wrong."

My advice is to avoid listening to someone who tells you there is only one "correct" way to shoot.

[bdpaz]

I actually watched the video and I think what he is describing is a gentle pull back to seat the gun into the strong hand. I have heard this from others when a shooter was having trouble with the gun moving in his hands, even though he was pressing as hard as he could side to side.

[Matt Griffin]

The right way to do it, by me: Strong hand exerts pressure directly backwards into the palm of the hand primarily using the pinkie and ring fingers of the strong hand. Attention on the "directly backwards" you don't want any push/pull to the side based on strength. Support hand comes in and squeezes the hell out of the strong hand directly side-to-side and, depending on the grip structure and your hand size, front-to-back if possible.

Short form: all energies should be spent in perfect opposition of each other in each hand.

Anything else will lend itself to steering the gun in recoil and during transitions. Recoil control comes mainly from wrist and arm muscles, not hand muscles, which are there to keep your grip from shifting. Where strength plays a role is to compress your flesh to the point where the gun is more firmly in contact with the hands' bone structure and thus passing recoil into the platform rather than the grip. 60% tension in the platform should return the gun, but less than a certain amount (with my hands it feels like around 70%) of strength in the hands will let the gun shift. The perfect balance is exactly enough grip to keep the gun still in the hands while allowing the trigger finger maximum speed and smoothness of movement.

Matt

[AlamoShooter]

just to get very plain/simple, in order for both hands to weld as one the outer hand will have -some- rear pull at the same time the inner hand has -some- forward push. Some as in I push and pull on the steering wheel when I drive

But none of us are saying to push with one hand and pull with the other

[mike cyrwus]

Kurt is talking about sight alignment during the draw, ie hitting the brakes on the draw stroke, not isometric tension.

[kurtm]

Push, pull, shove, smash, grip, push forward, push in on grip panels...all these are external forces of some kind, so don't be picking on me for a quicky 1 minute lecture when you don't know the context of what I was saying.... sniff sniff

Remeber neural doesn't mean no force at all, it just means evenly ballanced so as not to impart any UNEQUAL force upon the object. If you think there is no tention look at Daniel Horner and Dave S. fore-arms when they shoot and tell me they are relaxed with no tension.

BTW Cyrwus is right to a degree, I also say it this way so folks know to do most of their gripping with the support hand to allow fast fine finger motion of the trigger finger, and I, Like our Forum Leader might be all wrong. KurtM