Weak Hand Draw

Guns & Gear Guns
#1

@Enzo_T shamed me into trying this a while back. Pretend your dominant hand is injured and you need to draw with your weak hand. I found out real quick it is a lot harder than I expected. I have been practicing this for what seems like a month now and am finally beginning to get a little more comfortable with it. This is definitely a Crap Has Hit the Fan exercise, but I’d rather have a skill and never need it than need it and never tried it before.

Anyway, Massad Ayoob gives his take on it here: Could You Weak-Hand Draw If You Had To? | The Armory Life

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Weekend training: Non-dominant hand training
#2

There are a great amount of peoples on here that is great at helping you with this one brother, hopefully soon some will see this and can add you in this drill and many others

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#3

Yes I know, @Enzo_T suggested I try reducing the cant on my holster, but unfortunately it is not adjustable :frowning:

I have too much $ invested in this Galco V-Hawk holster to toss it, and it is so comfortable, so I have worked out ways to reach and flip the firearm reaching from both in front and behind the back:V-Hawk IWB Holster (galcogunleather.com)

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#4

Great holster

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#5

Interesting use of the word “shamed” :rofl: Glad you’re working hard at acquiring a new useful skill! One of my mentors, a guy who’s been in the thick of things a bunch of times in his career and PREVAILED, summed it up by telling me, “Everything you teach your strong hand you have to teach your weak one too.”. Carry on learning and challenging yourself like your life might depend on it someday!

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#6

I usually alternate between hands. I think it’s fun to shoot with my non-dominant hand.

Some years back, my whole unit qualified but we still had a ton of ammo to burn. So we all switched hands and shot again. Would you believe our scores went up? I think switching hands forced us to focus on the fundamentals. That’s my theory, anyway.

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#7

I think 5 o’clock carry is easiest for this. Seems 5 o’clock is a more natural way to rotate the hand. 3:00 is screwed though. AIWB is a weird arm twist and you wouldn’t want to flag yourself…

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#8

That was one of the reasons I moved to appendix. Drawing with weak hand is so easy now.
As @Scoutbob mentioned… it is weird, but practice will eliminate flagging yourself.

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#9

IMHO I would probably think that the easiest way to accomplish a weak hand draw would be from the AIWB position. At least for me because that’s where I conceal carry and I can get to my firearm quickly. As a right handed shooter I’m thinking if you carry OWB at 4 or 5 o’clock you can reach around your back left handed and grab the grip. It’s more difficult if you have a holster with a thumb break/snap. It would be better and easier with a Kydex holster, no thumb break/snap. But with practice anything is possible. As Massad Ayoob mentioned in the article you should practice with unloaded weapons or plastic guns.

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#10

Drawing with the weaker hand would be hard from the stronger side at 4-5 o’clock but what if you have rotator cuff tear in both shoulders?

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#11

That definitely would put a damper on things but you would be surprised how much pain you would take if your life depended on it.

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#12

I have been told most people’s dominant hand is the stronger, and the non-dominant hand is more coordinated.

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#13

That’s interesting. I hadn’t heard that before. I wonder if it has something to do with the non-dominant hand always holding and supporting?

Think about guitar, though. I’ve always found it interesting that a guitar player’s non-dominant hand is the one responsible for contorting to get the correct notes and chords. The dominant hand arguably has the easier job, it just has to find the right string(s) to play. I’ve never understood why this is, but it supports what you’re saying.

Makes me wonder about our two-hand grips. On a rifle, my non-dominant “support” hand is more responsible for aiming than my dominant hand, which is mostly responsible for smoothly squeezing the trigger. Should this also be true when I’m using both hands to fire a pistol? Maybe I should allow my non-dominant hand to play a larger role. I never thought about it that much, but it’s a good excuse to go to the range and experiment.

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#14

yeah, I’ve heard it too. But I have also seen opposite → non-dominant hand stronger and dominant more coordinated, which seems to have more sense for me, since we use dominant hand for more precise work.

We have been seeing a lot of posts, where Instructors are asking to train weak hand shooting. That’s a reason for it. Both hands should be strong enough and precise to avoid mistakes when the “other” hand is needed.

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#15

Interesting thread. I use my non-dominant hand (my left) to shoot as my dominant hand has a cane in it. Switching hands with the cane is pretty much a non-starter for me, as that makes walking far more painful, and reduces my balance quite a bit.
It wasn’t as hard for me to retrain as I expected it to be, and I attribute that to the fact I’m a musician, piano and guitar, as well as formerly being able to type at 60+ wpm as my average speed. As my left eye is far, far better than my right, that actually plays into things pretty well also.
Really though, it comes down the the same three words that helped me to become a decent musician and typist: Practice, practice practice. To apply a bit of anthropomorphism, once your muscles know what you want them to do, the rest is just reinforcing that with practice.

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#16

Perfectly will be if you can do this:

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But I think it would be enough if you can do this:

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Otherwise - train, then practice. :+1:

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#17

I agree with all said except the plastic gun…you need the weight of a real gun…,!!!

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#18

Nope… definitely wrong thinking.

Some beginners feel fear practicing with real firearm. I know it from personal experience. :shushing_face:
As Instructor I would never force anyone to train or practice with real, unloaded firearm if he / she doesn’t comfortable with.

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#19

Continually train and always carry your firearm :wink:

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#20

Cowboy up and start carrying two guns :wink:

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