I'll share my thoughts on this, though I doubt I'll get much agreement:
The SWAT training mentality is great for cops, but the over-reliance on two handed techniques for civilian SD is misplaced.
Any technique that requires two hands to be preformed safely is inappropriate for use by people like us. The real world has doors to open, family members guide, dogs to restrain, lights to flip on, muzzles to push away and people to push aside. If your training is to do everything with both hands you are going to risk trying to do off hand things with your gun because your brain isn’t going to want to give up that hold. If you treat your off hand as an assist in shooting accurately but not a necessity to correctly maneuver the gun I think you’ll be better off when you’re already fighting for your life.
The worst problem I can see with Sul is that the muzzle direction is affected by the presence of the off hand, since you only have three primary hand fingers on the gun and the off hand props the muzzle away from the body. If you suddenly bring the off hand up to do something necessary, you’ve lost muzzle control. That doesn’t seem like a great ready position. It is also far from discreet: Human females have breasts (no other mammal does) because humans naturally look at chests. We wear ties, necklaces, funny t-shirts on our chests and we expect them to be noticed.
I use neutral ready or some variation when the gun is immediately needed. I use a variation on close-quarter hold the rest of the time – I index my forearm on top of my hip bone and point the gun away from people with my wrist. In terms of speed, I can shoot from this position as fast as any other – just not as accurately (but it is for defense at close ranges, not a tactical assault and room clearing). It is also fairly discreet since the gun is tucked into my side.
While no one is ever going to call me a shooting expert, I do think that the training schools are teaching to a very, very specific type of police oriented scenario. As demonstrated by the whole “slide release” controversy, trainers have ideas that they’ve developed over time that don’t necessarily reflect reality – Army SD teaches using the slide release for consistency in total opposition to many trainers.
I’m not saying that the trainers are teaching badly, I’m saying that a civilian fighting for his life with a pistol ought to have their positions reflect a broader range of possibilities, and I advocate more emphasis on getting things done with just the shooting hand since WE do not have a team, a vest or a realistic expectation of the type of threat we may face. Training like a cop only sets false expectations and muscle memory conflicts, IMHO.
The SWAT training mentality is great for cops, but the over-reliance on two handed techniques for civilian SD is misplaced.
Any technique that requires two hands to be preformed safely is inappropriate for use by people like us. The real world has doors to open, family members guide, dogs to restrain, lights to flip on, muzzles to push away and people to push aside. If your training is to do everything with both hands you are going to risk trying to do off hand things with your gun because your brain isn’t going to want to give up that hold. If you treat your off hand as an assist in shooting accurately but not a necessity to correctly maneuver the gun I think you’ll be better off when you’re already fighting for your life.
The worst problem I can see with Sul is that the muzzle direction is affected by the presence of the off hand, since you only have three primary hand fingers on the gun and the off hand props the muzzle away from the body. If you suddenly bring the off hand up to do something necessary, you’ve lost muzzle control. That doesn’t seem like a great ready position. It is also far from discreet: Human females have breasts (no other mammal does) because humans naturally look at chests. We wear ties, necklaces, funny t-shirts on our chests and we expect them to be noticed.
I use neutral ready or some variation when the gun is immediately needed. I use a variation on close-quarter hold the rest of the time – I index my forearm on top of my hip bone and point the gun away from people with my wrist. In terms of speed, I can shoot from this position as fast as any other – just not as accurately (but it is for defense at close ranges, not a tactical assault and room clearing). It is also fairly discreet since the gun is tucked into my side.
While no one is ever going to call me a shooting expert, I do think that the training schools are teaching to a very, very specific type of police oriented scenario. As demonstrated by the whole “slide release” controversy, trainers have ideas that they’ve developed over time that don’t necessarily reflect reality – Army SD teaches using the slide release for consistency in total opposition to many trainers.
I’m not saying that the trainers are teaching badly, I’m saying that a civilian fighting for his life with a pistol ought to have their positions reflect a broader range of possibilities, and I advocate more emphasis on getting things done with just the shooting hand since WE do not have a team, a vest or a realistic expectation of the type of threat we may face. Training like a cop only sets false expectations and muscle memory conflicts, IMHO.